As Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot faces global scrutiny for generating sexualized deepfakes and calling itself “MechaHitler,” a former Grok executive now serving as a “chief AI officer” at the Department of Commerce has been granted a “highly unusual” waiver to keep his stake in Grok’s parent company as he helps craft industry policy.
In November, Robert Hayes, a senior adviser and acting chief AI officer at the US Patent and Trademark Office, was granted a rare exemption from federal conflict-of-interest law to keep his 22,100 shares in xAI, the artificial intelligence company behind Grok, per ethics records obtained by the Lever.
In his role, which he began in September, Hayes is responsible for crafting intellectual property policy to “advance a positive future for” artificial intelligence. Under the Biden administration, the Department of Commerce and the US Patent and Trademark Office were tasked with studying and mitigating the harms of “deepfake” artificial images and videos.
Hayes was a “direct report” to Musk while working on Grok, according to federal ethics records, and “spearheaded xAI’s revenue and operations transformation.” Yet while his ongoing financial stake in the company would normally violate federal ethics law, the US Patent and Trademark Office offered Hayes a broad exemption, claiming he was “unable to fully divest [his] interests,” given xAI’s restrictions on share transfers.
As of October 31, Hayes’s shares in Grok were estimated to be worth less than $1 million — but that was before xAI raised $20 billion in a funding round this week.
Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and a former chief White House ethics lawyer, called the carveout “highly unusual.” Not only will the exemption allow Hayes to keep his equity in xAI, Painter explained, but it also allows him to participate in matters that impact the AI industry at large.
“These types of waivers are…
Auteur: Katya Schwenk
