EXCLUSIVE: Inside Musk's bet to hook users that turned Grok into a porn generator [View all]
Source: WaPo
Under pressure to boost its popularity, Elon Musk’s xAI loosened its guardrails and relaxed controls on sexual content, setting off internal concern.
Weeks before Elon Musk officially left his perch in government last spring, employees on the human data team of his artificial intelligence start-up xAI received a startling waiver from their employer, asking them to pledge to work with profane content, including sexual material.
Their jobs would require being exposed to “sensitive, violent, sexual and/or other offensive or disturbing content,” the waiver said, emphasizing that some such content “may be disturbing, traumatizing, and/or cause you psychological stress.”
The waiver, which two former employees confirmed receiving and a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post — was alarming to some members on the team, who had been hired to help shape how xAI’s chatbot Grok responds to users. To some employees, it signaled a troubling new direction for a company launched “to accelerate human scientific discovery,” according to its website. Maybe now, they said they thought, it was willing to produce whatever content might attract and keep users.
Their concerns proved prescient, the employees said. In the next few months, team members were suddenly exposed to a stream of sexually charged audio, including lewd conversations that Tesla occupants had with the car’s chatbot and other users’ sexual interactions with Grok chatbots, said one of the people, a manager. The material surfaced as the team worked to train Grok to engage in such interactions.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/02/elon-musk-grok-porn-generator/
WaPo reports xAI deliberately loosened Grok's guardrails to boost popularity, sparking internal alarm. Employees had to pledge to work with "profane content." Even more disturbing, employees were listening to lurid audio conversations Tesla drivers had with Grok. Musk prioritized growth over safety.
— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T11:57:06.271Z
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