Is safety ‘dead’ at xAI?

Elon Musk is “actively” working to make xAI’s Grok chatbot “more unhinged,” according to a former employee who spoke to The Verge about Musk’s recent departure from AI company.

This week, following the announcement that Musk’s SpaceX is acquiring xAI (which previously acquired his social media company X), at least eleven engineers and two co-founders said they are leaving the company. Some said they are leaving to start something new, and Musk himself suggested this is part of an effort to organize xAI more effectively.

But two sources who left the company (at least one before the current wave) reportedly told The Verge that employees have become increasingly disillusioned with the company’s disregard for safety, resulting in global scrutiny after Grok used to create over 1 million sexualized imagesincluding deepfakes of real women and minors.

One source said, “Security is a dead organization at xAI,” while the other said Musk is “actively trying to abandon the model, because security for him means censorship in a sense.”

They also reportedly complained about a lack of direction, with one saying they felt xAI was “stuck in the catch-up phase” compared to competitors.