xAI Offered $420 For Tax Data To Train Grok AI, Employees Still Waiting (Image credit: AI-generated) Elon Musk’s xAI is making headlines again as the company asked its employees to share sensitive personal tax information to help train its Grok AI. The tech firm promised $420 payment as an incentive, but two months later, several employees are still waiting for the money, as per Bloomberg. This shows how AI companies are collecting real-world financial data to improve their AI tools, raising concerns about how personal data can be accessed to stay ahead in the AI race. The company reportedly asked the workforce to submit their completed tax filings along with supporting documents. Its goal was to improve Grok’s ability to handle tax-related tasks and accounting capabilities ahead of the US tax deadline. This move comes as AI users are flocking to rival chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude for financial assistance. In March, the xAI managers offered employees $420 in exchange for their tax data. This payment also came with early access to X Money, a payments system being developed within the X platform. Reportedly, despite giving their personal data, the promised payments have still not been delivered to employees. The data collected by Musk’s company shows how strongly xAI wants to position itself in the competitive market. However, the legal troubles for Musk have seemed to slow down xAI’s growth. This incident adds to the broader debate linked to how organisations are collecting and using personal data of the workforce to train AI, even including sensitive information like their taxes. As big tech turns to large human-generated datasets to improve the AI, the questions around compensation, consent and data protection become central to public trust. The case notes how the future of AI training may rely on sensitive data and how companies could responsibly manage it to protect the identities of the users online. Get Latest News live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Technology Science and around the world. Govind Choudhary is the Chief Copy Editor for Tech at Times Now with over five years of experience in the media industry. He covers consumer technolog... View More