Lucia Moses

Leaked deck shows Elon Musk’s X is promoting Grok’s brand-safety scores after sexualized images backlash

Elon Musk’s X is promoting itself to potential advertisers with a new deck that underlines its commitment to brand safety, according to the leaked deck shared with Business Insider.

It comes after the AI chatbot shared “deepfake” sexualized images of women and children — a practice it stopped in late January after a backlash. The company said it would no longer generate AI images of real people in sexualized clothing.

The deck shows X is also promoting its use of “blocklists.” A blocklist is a list of sites or accounts that advertisers explicitly prevent their ads from appearing on. In the past, Musk’s X has taken legal action against advertisers who have used such tools to safeguard their ad placements.


X brand safety deck shows it uses Grok for brand safety

X touts its use of Grok to make the platform safe for advertisers.

X



In the deck, X said it had achieved a nearly 100% perfect “brand safe” or suitable scores using Grok, as measured by tech companies IAS and DoubleVerify.

It mentions ways it uses Grok to review posts and users’ profiles for brand suitability. For instance, if a user regularly posts about sensitive topics, the system can block ads from appearing alongside that user. X said it can target up to 4,000 keywords and 2,000 author handles this way.

The deck also promotes X as a place for brands to manage crises in real time.

X didn’t comment on the deck when reached by Business Insider.


X promotes use of blocklists in brand safety deck

X says its blocklists stop ads from appearing on up to 50 specific publishers per ad group.

X



The deck was shared at an event for clients and agencies on February 26. The 2026 Brand Suitability Webinar was billed as “empowering brands with new tools for safety & reach on X.”

It’s unclear if X’s newest charm offense will sway advertisers.

X is one of the smallest social media platforms by ad spending, with EMARKETER estimating it has less than 1% of worldwide digital ad revenue. It has an outsized influence because of its use by public figures and as a news channel.

Since Elon Musk bought X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022, its relationship with advertisers has been fraught, with Musk publicly criticizing advertisers that cut or limited advertising on the platform.


X brand deck shows how it uses Grok and blocklists to assure brand safety

The deck details what X says it’s done to be brand-safe.

X



Advertisers left en masse after Musk’s acquisition. EMARKETER estimated its revenue would reach $2.2 billion in 2026, below its pre-acquisition level of $4.5 billion.

In 2023, Musk lashed out at advertisers, using an expletive on stage at an event directed toward those who had left.

And X is suing an advertiser trade group, alleging that its members conspired to boycott the platform in contravention of antitrust laws. The group denied it violated antitrust laws. The case is pending, with the last filing occurring on February 19.

X has also been criticized for loosening moderation and account-verification rules and for reinstating some banned accounts of provocative figures.




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Alice Tecotzky

Grok’s new recruits? Investment bankers.

Grok wants Wall Street.

Elon Musk’s xAI is recruiting investment bankers to train its chatbot, offering between $45 and $100 an hour for a remote “Investment Banking Expert” in mergers and acquisitions, debt capital markets, and equity capital markets, according to new job postings.

The hires will help train Grok, the company’s chatbot, Jeffrey Weichsel, who identifies himself as a member of the program staff at xAI on LinkedIn, said in a post on X. It’s not clear how many roles the company is looking to fill, and representatives for xAI did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

In their positions, the employees will be expected to improve xAI’s models by “providing high-quality data annotations and inputs,” the job descriptions said. They will partner with xAI’s technical teams, focusing on annotation tools for investment banking data and analyzing “complex problems.” Ideally, candidates should have experience relevant to their line of expertise, like having been an M&A advisor, analyst, associate, or vice president, as well as mentoring or training others.

Workdays will last 8.5 hours, according to the postings, compared to the notoriously grueling hours of a traditional investment banking analyst. An employee working those hours and making $100 per hour could expect to earn around $221,000 per year, before taxes. For those making $45 per hour, the annual pay comes out to around $99,450 before taxes.

In 2024, first-year investment banking analysts made an average base pay of more than $110,000 and earned a bonus that equaled around 50% of their base salary, according to a survey from recruiting firm Prospect Rock Partners. The base salary for associates at bulge-bracket banks that year, however, ranged from $176,000 to $221,000, plus a bonus that could top $130,000.

xAI also posted new roles for a “Finance Expert” in various fields, including private credit, crypto, and quantitative trading, with the same pay ranges. Applicants for the expert roles need to provide a resume and cover letter, and describe some “exceptional work” they’ve done in no more than 100 words. (This paragraph, excluding this sentence, is 50 words.)

Musk’s AI company is hardly the first to tap bankers’ expertise. Business Insider analyzed 18 job postings in November from 8 AI training companies for Wall Street gigs, including one that offered $150 an hour. xAI has previously posted roles for AI tutors across investment banking, trading, and private equity. In October, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI had hired more than 100 former investment bankers to train AI on how to create financial models, with the goal of eventually replacing some of the rote work junior bankers grind through. The company was offering $150 an hour, according to the outlet.

One former investment banker that Business Insider spoke to said he started training AI models as a side hustle to make extra cash and set himself up for the workplaces of the future.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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