Tutors at Musk startup xAI had to give up rights to faces, voices to train sexy AI bots: report | Latest Tech News
Employees at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI reportedly had to signal away the rights to their own faces and voices to help train the company’s next era of chatbots — including a inappropriately suggestive digital companion named “Ani.”
The demand, half of a confidential initiative called “Project Skippy,” required employees to grant xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to use, reproduce and distribute their biometric data, according to inside paperwork reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
Ani is an AI chat avatar created by Elon Musk’s company xAI.
Most of the affected staff have been so-called “AI tutors,” employees who work on the large language fashions that energy xAI’s flagship chatbot, Grok.
At an April assembly led by company lawyer Lily Lim, staff have been told xAI needed genuine human photographs and audio to make its digital avatars “act and appear like human beings,” The Journal reported.
XAI reportedly compelled staff to signal away the rights to their own faces and voices to help train its next era of chatbots. xAI
On a recording of the session reviewed by the newspaper, one employee requested whether or not xAI might later promote their likeness to others.
Another worker pressed Lim to affirm if there was any option to decline participation.
“Could you just explicitly, for the record, let us know if there’s some option to opt out?” the individual requested.
The project chief supplied no such assurance, The Journal reported.
“If you have any concerns with regards to the project,” the chief was quoted as saying, “you’re welcome to reach out to any of the points of contact listed on the second slide.”
Every week later, tutors obtained a discover titled “AI Tutor’s Role in Advancing xAI’s Mission,” informing them that recording audio or video classes was “a job requirement.”
Some staff whose likenesses have been used to train the avatars told The Journal they have been disturbed by how inappropriateized “Ani’s” responses grew to become.
Others apprehensive their faces could possibly be repurposed in deepfake videos or used without consent in other merchandise.
Musk has been keen to catch up to AI rivals such as OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. REUTERS
Musk, who personally directed the creation of “Ani,” has defended the chatbots as instruments for emotional connection.
“I predict — counter-intuitively — that it will increase the birth rate! Mark my words,” he wrote in August on X, the social platform he owns.
A New York Times report last month said “Ani” and her male counterpart, “Valentine,” have been marketed as “sexy AI companions” and that Musk has been urging customers to attempt them, even posting clips of the feminine bot dancing in lingerie.
Regulators are taking discover.
In August, 44 state attorneys common despatched letters to xAI, Meta and other companies warning them to shield minors from express AI content. Meta reportedly modified instructions to its AI bot after leaked paperwork confirmed they have been allowing so-called “sensual” chats.
Inside xAI, however, the main target remained on getting outcomes fast, The Journal reported.
Former executives told the publication that Musk scrapped all-hands conferences and started personally overseeing Grok’s code, often holding classes late into the evening.
Some staff whose likenesses have been used to train the avatars told The Wall Street Journal they have been disturbed by how inappropriateized Ani’s responses grew to become. xAI
He needed Grok — which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT — to grow to be the world’s most well-liked chatbot.
That push got here as Tesla, where Musk is CEO, has been dealing with new challenges.
Vehicle gross sales plunged 13.5% last quarter, marking the company’s second consecutive decline. Several major shareholders have questioned how a lot of his time he truly spends on the electric-car business.
Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm, who has advocated for an estimated $1 trillion pay package deal for Musk, has dismissed considerations, saying, “Other CEOs might like to play golf. He doesn’t play golf. So he likes to create companies, and they’re not necessarily Tesla companies.”
Tesla’s proxy filings seem to show Musk’s shifting priorities.
The company’s September report talked about xAI 47 occasions, and shareholders are set to vote this week on whether or not Tesla ought to invest instantly in Musk’s AI firm. Musk has supported the transfer.
The Post has sought remark from Musk, Denholm, Tesla and xAI.
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