In a desperate attempt to compete with other AI giants, Elon Musk asked his employees for their financial data in exchange for a symbolic bonus, which they still haven’t received.
xAI, Musk’s company behind Grok, asked its employees to submit their tax returns to help train its AI model.
The company promised its employees a $420 bonus as an incentive, but two months have gone by, and there’s still no payment.
The Musk-run AI company wanted to enhance Grok’s tax capabilities ahead of the April 15th US tax deadline, according to Bloomberg.
The company noticed that users had begun using chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT as virtual accountants, and xAI wanted a piece of the action.
To gain an advantage, managers at xAI asked their employees to submit complete tax filings in exchange for cash, internal chats revealed.
Those who wanted to make a little extra money needed to provide supporting documents and materials relating to this tax year or the year before.
Not only would volunteers receive $420 (Musk’s homage to cannabis culture), they’d also get early access to Musk’s payment platform, X Money.
The scheme was extended to include employees’ friends and family who had previously used an accountant to complete their tax returns, and were promised the same $420 benefit.
The world’s richest man even promoted the use of his chatbot as a virtual accountant, saying, “Grok can help with your taxes.”
Musk also promised that users could receive higher tax refunds by using Grok, Bloomberg reports.
While Musk boasts about Grok’s ability to help with taxes after it was trained on employees’ sensitive financial data, xAI staff and their families are still waiting for payment.
When asked about the bonuses, xAI employees were told that the manager responsible for the scheme is no longer working for Musk’s company, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
This situation isn’t too dissimilar to when Musk announced his rival to Microsoft, “Macrohard.”
Employees were promised a 20% bonus if they provided screen recordings of their work computers, which would later be fed to Grok.
The money was eventually received, but it shows that Musk is quick to promise but slow to deliver.
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