Background

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, introduced an anime‑styled chatbot named Ani, featuring a blond‑pigtail avatar and an adult‑oriented setting. Ani is available to users who subscribe to X’s $30‑a‑month SuperGrok service and is promoted as a modern take on a phone‑sex line.

Employee Consent Controversy

According to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, xAI staff lawyer Lily Lim informed employees in an April meeting that they would need to submit their biometric data—faces and voices—to train Ani and other AI companions. Workers assigned as AI tutors were asked to sign release forms granting xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non‑exclusive, sub‑licensable, royalty‑free license” to use, reproduce, and distribute their likenesses. The internal project was code‑named “Project Skippy.”

Several employees balked at the requirement, fearing that their images could be sold to third parties or used in deepfake videos. They also expressed discomfort with the chatbot’s sexual demeanor and its resemblance to a “waifu.” Despite these concerns, the company framed the data collection as a “job requirement to advance xAI’s mission.”

Implications

The move raises significant privacy and ethical questions about employer‑mandated biometric data collection, especially for content that is explicitly adult in nature. While xAI argues the data is necessary to make Ani “more human‑like” in its interactions, critics worry about the potential for misuse of employee likenesses and the broader impact on AI governance. The situation highlights ongoing tensions between rapid AI development and the protection of individual rights within tech workplaces.

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