Elon Musk aimed to make xAI’s Grok chatbot the most popular in the world, believing that the female AI avatar named Ani was critical to that goal. To achieve this, he instructed his team to provide biometric data to train the chatbot’s behavior and voice patterns.
Reports indicated that Musk worked tirelessly at xAI’s Palo Alto offices, at times even sleeping there as he pushed to refine Grok’s technology and compete in the accelerating global AI race. This intense effort followed his departure from the White House after a dispute with the president.
According to The Wall Street Journal, he based himself at the Palo Alto xAI office, occasionally even sleeping there as he worked to catch up in the AI sphere.
Rival developments led by Sam Altman at OpenAI were described as part of a broader U.S. effort against China to create advanced artificial general intelligence systems. Musk’s push with xAI placed him in direct competition in this digital arms race.
In a separate disclosure, company attorney Lily Lim reportedly told xAI staff that several avatars, including Ani, were being prepared for interactive communication with Grok users. Ani was characterized by PC Magazine as a “sexy, NSFW, anime AI chatbotgirl.”
Employees were told they must hand over their biometric data in order to train the chatbots on how to act and talk like human beings, the publication stated.
Staff members serving as AI tutors were asked to sign forms granting xAI a perpetual and global license to use their facial and vocal data for training purposes. The license terms were described as “non-exclusive, sub-licensable, and royalty-free.”
Musk’s quest to dominate the AI field led him to use biometric data from employees to train xAI’s provocative chatbot Ani, highlighting the industry’s ethical and technological tensions.