Employees at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI reportedly needed to sign away the rights to their very own faces and voices to assist train the corporate’s next generation of chatbots — including a sexually suggestive virtual companion named “Ani.”
The demand, a part of a confidential initiative called “Project Skippy,” required staff to grant xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to make use of, reproduce and distribute their biometric data, based on internal documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
Many of the affected employees were so-called “AI tutors,” staff who work on the big language models that power xAI’s flagship chatbot, Grok.
At an April meeting led by company lawyer Lily Lim, employees were told xAI needed authentic human images and audio to make its digital avatars “act and appear as if human beings,” The Journal reported.
On a recording of the session reviewed by the newspaper, one employee asked whether xAI could later sell their likeness to others.
One other worker pressed Lim to verify if there was any option to say no participation.
“Could you simply explicitly, for the record, tell us if there’s some choice to opt out?” the person asked.
The project leader offered no such assurance, The Journal reported.
“If you’ve any concerns with reference to the project,” the leader was quoted as saying, “you’re welcome to achieve out to any of the points of contact listed on the second slide.”
Per week later, tutors received a notice titled “AI Tutor’s Role in Advancing xAI’s Mission,” informing them that recording audio or video sessions was “a job requirement.”
Some employees whose likenesses were used to coach the avatars told The Journal they were disturbed by how sexualized “Ani’s” responses became.
Others frightened their faces could possibly be repurposed in deepfake videos or used without consent in other products.
Musk, who personally directed the creation of “Ani,” has defended the chatbots as tools for emotional connection.
“I predict — counter-intuitively — that it should increase the birth rate! Mark my words,” he wrote in August on X, the social platform he owns.
A Recent York Times report last month said “Ani” and her male counterpart, “Valentine,” were marketed as “sexy AI companions” and that Musk has been urging users to try them, even posting clips of the feminine bot dancing in lingerie.
Regulators are taking notice.
In August, 44 state attorneys general sent letters to xAI, Meta and other firms warning them to guard minors from explicit AI content. Meta reportedly modified instructions to its AI bot after leaked documents showed they were permitting so-called “sensual” chats.
Inside xAI, nevertheless, the main target remained on getting results fast, The Journal reported.
Former executives told the publication that Musk scrapped all-hands meetings and started personally overseeing Grok’s code, often holding sessions late into the night.
He wanted Grok — which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT — to grow to be the world’s hottest chatbot.
That push got here as Tesla, where Musk is CEO, has been facing latest challenges.
Vehicle sales plunged 13.5% last quarter, marking the corporate’s second consecutive decline. Several major shareholders have questioned how much of his time he actually spends on the electric-car business.
Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm, who has advocated for an estimated $1 trillion pay package for Musk, has brushed off concerns, saying, “Other CEOs might prefer to play golf. He doesn’t play golf. So he likes to create corporations, they usually’re not necessarily Tesla corporations.”
Tesla’s proxy filings appear to point out Musk’s shifting priorities.
The corporate’s September report mentioned xAI 47 times, and shareholders are set to vote this week on whether Tesla should invest directly in Musk’s AI firm. Musk has supported the move.
The Post has sought comment from Musk, Denholm, Tesla and xAI.
Employees at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI reportedly needed to sign away the rights to their very own faces and voices to assist train the corporate’s next generation of chatbots — including a sexually suggestive virtual companion named “Ani.”
The demand, a part of a confidential initiative called “Project Skippy,” required staff to grant xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to make use of, reproduce and distribute their biometric data, based on internal documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
Many of the affected employees were so-called “AI tutors,” staff who work on the big language models that power xAI’s flagship chatbot, Grok.
At an April meeting led by company lawyer Lily Lim, employees were told xAI needed authentic human images and audio to make its digital avatars “act and appear as if human beings,” The Journal reported.
On a recording of the session reviewed by the newspaper, one employee asked whether xAI could later sell their likeness to others.
One other worker pressed Lim to verify if there was any option to say no participation.
“Could you simply explicitly, for the record, tell us if there’s some choice to opt out?” the person asked.
The project leader offered no such assurance, The Journal reported.
“If you’ve any concerns with reference to the project,” the leader was quoted as saying, “you’re welcome to achieve out to any of the points of contact listed on the second slide.”
Per week later, tutors received a notice titled “AI Tutor’s Role in Advancing xAI’s Mission,” informing them that recording audio or video sessions was “a job requirement.”
Some employees whose likenesses were used to coach the avatars told The Journal they were disturbed by how sexualized “Ani’s” responses became.
Others frightened their faces could possibly be repurposed in deepfake videos or used without consent in other products.
Musk, who personally directed the creation of “Ani,” has defended the chatbots as tools for emotional connection.
“I predict — counter-intuitively — that it should increase the birth rate! Mark my words,” he wrote in August on X, the social platform he owns.
A Recent York Times report last month said “Ani” and her male counterpart, “Valentine,” were marketed as “sexy AI companions” and that Musk has been urging users to try them, even posting clips of the feminine bot dancing in lingerie.
Regulators are taking notice.
In August, 44 state attorneys general sent letters to xAI, Meta and other firms warning them to guard minors from explicit AI content. Meta reportedly modified instructions to its AI bot after leaked documents showed they were permitting so-called “sensual” chats.
Inside xAI, nevertheless, the main target remained on getting results fast, The Journal reported.
Former executives told the publication that Musk scrapped all-hands meetings and started personally overseeing Grok’s code, often holding sessions late into the night.
He wanted Grok — which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT — to grow to be the world’s hottest chatbot.
That push got here as Tesla, where Musk is CEO, has been facing latest challenges.
Vehicle sales plunged 13.5% last quarter, marking the corporate’s second consecutive decline. Several major shareholders have questioned how much of his time he actually spends on the electric-car business.
Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm, who has advocated for an estimated $1 trillion pay package for Musk, has brushed off concerns, saying, “Other CEOs might prefer to play golf. He doesn’t play golf. So he likes to create corporations, they usually’re not necessarily Tesla corporations.”
Tesla’s proxy filings appear to point out Musk’s shifting priorities.
The corporate’s September report mentioned xAI 47 times, and shareholders are set to vote this week on whether Tesla should invest directly in Musk’s AI firm. Musk has supported the move.
The Post has sought comment from Musk, Denholm, Tesla and xAI.
