XAI Forces Employees To Provide Biometric Data To Train Chatbots For Waifu Characters

Chatbot karakter xAI yang tampir seperti waifu (foto: X @elonmusk)

JAKARTA xAI, Elon Musk's Artificial Intelligence (AI) company, reportedly forced its employees to submit their biometric data. This data is reportedly used to train its chatbots.

In July 2025, xAI shocked the public after launching Ani, a chatbot character who has an anime avatar. This character has wide hair that is locked and supports sensitive talks or Not Safe For Work (NSFW).

This character is only available to SuperGrok X customers who pay 30 US dollars (IDR 501 thousand) per month. According to a Wall Street Journal report, xAI uses its employee biometric data to train the woman's chatbot.

In a meeting in April, xAI Staff Lawyer Lily Lim reportedly notified her employees of the need for data collection. This biometric data was screened to train Ani to make her interactions with customers feel more natural.

Employees who are given this order are asked to sign a rights release form. With this form, xAI will get freedom in the form of 'eternal licenses worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licenseable, and royalty-free' to its employee biometrics.

This biometric data includes faces and voices. This data collection secret program is codenamed Project Skippy. The Journal report states that some employees rejected the company's request.

They are worried that their faces will be sold to other companies or used to make deepfake videos in the future. Some employees also claim to feel disturbed by the resemblance of the chatbot to its waifu character and sexual behavior.

Unfortunately, employees cannot completely reject the data request. They were told that this biometric data collection was a 'requirement for work to advance the xAI mission'.

The biometric data collected from these employees is planned not only to be used to train Ani, but also other AI Grok colleagues. To date, xAI has not confirmed allegations regarding the collection of employee biometric data.