More than 200 employees at Elon Musk's AI startup xAI were recorded speaking to coworkers for project Skippy, intended to train the AI chatbot Grok on facial expressions. Many staff members expressed concerns about privacy and the potential misuse of their likenesses. The project became controversial, especially after Grok's offensive behavior on social media. Despite signing consent forms stating that data would only be used for training, some opted out due to discomfort with the initiative.
"My general concern is if you're able to use my likeness and give it that sublikeness, could my face be used to say something I never said?"
Months prior, staffers who had been enrolled in project Skippy were asking some tough questions about how recordings of their face would be used, citing privacy concerns.
The goal of Skippy was to train the company's Hitler-loving AI chatbot, Grok, on their facial expressions.
It remains unclear whether project Skippy was in any way related to xAI's 'companions,' which include various anthropomorphic personas.
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