Elon Musk is “actively” working to make xAI’s Grok chatbot “more free,” according to a former employee who spoke to The Verge about Musk’s recent departure from the AI company.
This week, following the announcement that Musk’s SpaceX would acquire xAI (which previously acquired Musk’s social media company X), at least 11 engineers and two co-founders announced they were leaving the company. Some said he was leaving to start something new, but Musk himself suggested this was part of an effort to organize xAI more effectively.
But two people who left the company (at least one before the latest wave) told The Verge that employees have become increasingly disillusioned with the company’s disregard for safety, which led to Grok being used to create more than 1 million sexual images, including deepfakes of real women and minors, leading to intense global scrutiny.
“Safety is dead tissue at xAI,” said one official, while another said, “For Mr. Musk, safety means censorship in a sense, so he is actively working to make the model more liberal.”
They also complained about a lack of direction, with one reportedly saying they felt xAI was “stuck in a catch-up phase” compared to its competitors.
