xAI used employee biometric data to train Elon Musk’s AI girlfriend

Elon Musk’s AI company compelled its employees submit their own biometric data to train its “Ani” female chatbot, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ani, an anime avatar with blond pigtails and an NSFW setting, was released over the summer for users who subscribe to X’s $30-a-month SuperGrok service. After testing it, The Verge’s Victoria Song described it as “a modern take on a phone sex line.”

And like a phone sex line, there appears to be real people behind the avatar. At a meeting in April, xAI staff lawyer Lily Lim told employees that they would need to submit their biometric data to train the AI companion to be more human-like in its interactions with customers, according to a recording of the meeting review by the Journal.

Employees that were assigned as AI tutors were instructed to sign release forms granting xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to use, reproduce, and distribute their faces and voices, as part of a confidential program code-named “Project Skippy.” The data would be used to train Ani, as well as Grok’s other AI companions.

According to the Journal, some employees balked at the demand, concerned that their faces or likeness could be sold to other companies or used in deepfake videos. The employees were put off by the chatbot’s sexual demeanor and its likeness to a waifu. But they were told that the collection of their data was “a job requirement to advance xAI’s mission.”