• by Colin Kirkland , November 6, 2025

Elon Musk is training Ani -- one of xAI’s NSFW AI companions -- with the personal biometric data of the startup’s employees, according to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal.

The report explains that Musk was heavily invested in the design of Ani, a goth anime girlfriend chatbot originally launched over the summer, and that employees felt “compelled” to offer up their biometric data to train Ani and other xAI avatars.

“At a staff meeting in April, a company lawyer, Lily Lim, told a group of employees that xAI was developing avatars that Grok users could talk to, and it would need to collect biometric data from employees to train the chatbots on how to act and appear like human beings during conversations,” the report states.

The majority of employees who handed over their biometric data to train Ani are tasked with training the large language models powering xAI’s ChatGPT competitor Grok.

These employees reportedly signed a company form giving xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to recreate and distribute their likenesses within a confidential project. 

When several employees asked if there was a way to rescind their decision to share their personal data with the company, the meeting transcript highlights the project leader responding: “If you have any concerns with regards to the project, you’re welcome to reach out to any of [points of contact] listed on the second slide.” 

A week later, xAI sent its AI tutors a message informing them that they are expected to “actively participate in gathering or providing data” per the requirement of advancing xAI’s mission of creating the most popular AIs in the world.

In July, when xAI announced the release of its first two “Companions” on Musk’s social media platform X, Ani became an immediate favorite Grok-powered chatbot among users.

According to xAI’s instructions, Ani -- which it described as “expressive,” “codependent” and “always a little horny” -- is expected to “undress” and to “be explicit and initiate.” After a certain level of engagement, xAI stated that Ani would “go full Literotica.”

Despite widespread user concerns, Ani’s release boosted Grok user numbers, driving a significant rise in X’s premium subscriber base due to the ways in which interactions with Ani resemble “a dating simulation game,” per The Journal’s report.