Defections, secret conversations, deal talks that fizzled and a battle for control: The turmoil at Thinking Machines Lab is the artificial intelligence industry’s latest drama.

Over nine days, Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot generated and posted 4.4 million images, of which at least 41 percent were sexualized images of women.

“I was so angry because he framed it in this way of doing something good, but I don’t want to be part of boosting men’s confidence for the sake of secretly being filmed.” After the incident she looked ...