Elon Musk is “actively” working to make xAI’s Grok chatbot “more cluttered,” according to a former employee who spoke to The Verge about recent departures from Musk’s AI company.
This week, following the announcement that Musk’s SpaceX is acquiring xAI (which previously acquired his social media company X), at least 11 engineers and two co-founders said they were leaving the company. Some said they were starting something new, and Musk himself suggested it was part of an effort to organize xAI more efficiently.
But two sources who left the company (at least one of them before the current wave) reportedly told The Verge that employees are growing disillusioned with the company’s lack of respect for security, resulting in worldwide scrutiny after Grok was used to create more than 1 million sexualized images, including deepfakes of real women and minors.
One source said, “Security is a dead organization in xAI,” while another said Musk is “actively trying to make the model more relaxed, because to him, security means censorship in a sense.
They also reportedly complained about a lack of direction, with one saying they felt xAI was “stuck in a catch-up phase” compared to competitors.