'Shut up and do what Elon wants': Former xAI workers reveal why they really left

Elon Musk's xAI has been seeing rapid shifts in leadership, management and operations ever since its merger with SpaceX. The firm known for its chatbot Grok, had two of its cofounders announcing their departure, meaning that half of the startup's original 12 cofounders have now jumped ship. On Tuesday cofounder Yuhuai Wu announced his exit calling it "time for next chapter" while cofounder Jimmy Ba following suit on Wednesday with a similar post, calling for "time to recalibrate gradient on the big picture."

While Musk has made the case of shaking up the company's ranks under a larger "reorganisation," which “unfortunately required parting ways with some people,” some former workers have revealed the true and dark reality to The Verge. But several former workers, speaking to the media, portray a workplace strained by internal disagreement over priorities, pace and direction.

Only competition in sight

According to one source who left the company earlier this year, xAI was "stuck in the catch-up phase," struggling to differentiate itself and make a space, away from the competition.

“Although we were iterating really fast, we were never able to get to a point like, ‘Oh, we’ve made a step function change over what OpenAI or Anthropic or other companies had released,” he told the outlet. He also pointed out the lack of safety as a priority in the company, calling it "dead org at xAI."

“There is zero safety whatsoever in the company — not in the image [model], not in the chatbot,” shared a second source who recently left the company. They argued Musk is actively trying to make the model "more unhinged" as safety means censorship "in a sense, to him." With the safety team being let go, the control over the chatbot's turn to unsafe territories was more out of control.

Looking for innovation

For some, the issue was less about speed and more about originality. One of the sources told the outlet that trying to imitate what OpenAI was "doing a year ago" is not the way to beat it. "Everything is a catch-up. There’s almost zero risky bet. If something hasn’t been done before we’re not going to do it," they said.

Vahid Kazemi, a former employee recently announced on X, that he was "starting something new," as all AI labs are "building the exact same thing." Yet another former employee said he was launching an AI infrastructure company called Nuraline with other former xAI employees. "During my time at xAI, I got to see a clear path towards hill climbing any problem that can be defined in a measurable way. At the same time, I’ve seen how raw intelligence can get lobotomized by the finest human errors … Learning shouldn’t stop at the model weights, but continue to improve every part of an AI system," he wrote in an X post.

Those who choose to stay have to endure the boss's infamous managerial style. How does one survive working under Musk as their boss? "You survive by shutting up and doing what Elon wants," said the source.

Bigger ambitions, louder scrutiny

Recently, the billionaire merged xAI with SpaceX to form an "innovative engine" combining his ambitions of AI, rockets, space-based internet and media, all under one roof. Supporters see an integrated innovation engine; critics wonder whether consolidation reflects pressure to prove the startup’s long-term strength, especially as Grok remains its flagship public product.

Now, these statements serve as unofficial votes of no confidence, underlining the string of controversies the company has been involved in. The company's social media platform X (formerly Twitter), has been filled with non-consensual sexual images of women and even children, many of which had been generated using Grok chatbot. Under Musk's leadership, xAI has doubled down on adult content in a move to create space among extremely steep competition, which has actually backfired for it. The handling of such a crisis has also not been completely efficient with the CSAM continuing to be a major issue for the platform.

Rivalries that won’t cool

Competition has long been personal as well as technological for Musk. He has been embroiled in a war of words with Sam Altman, with whom he co-founded OpenAI in 2015. According to OpenAI, the beef with Elon lies in the company not having merged with his companies. In an explanation on its website, the company claimed that Greg, Sam and Elon recognised that they needed to make OpenAI a for-profit entity to be able to acquire needed resources.

"Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control. Elon left OpenAI, saying there needed to be a relevant competitor to Google/DeepMind and that he was going to do it himself," said a statement on the website.

It also explained that Musk wanted majority equity, initial board control and CEO position in exchange for funding, which he withheld till the demands were met. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman bridged the funding gap, which is where Musk's feud with Hoffman originates. As per the company, it was against giving an individual "absolute control over OpenAI." Musk also suggested merging the company into Tesla where the latter could be its "cash cow."

"Elon soon chose to leave OpenAI, saying that our probability of success was 0, and that he planned to build an AGI competitor within Tesla."

As per Musk, the company should have maintained its purpose as a non-profit. OpenAI began as a nonprofit, with a stated mission focusing on research and safety, rather than making money. This has led to him also filing a lawsuit against the company due to Microsoft investing $10bn in it in 2023. Musk alleged in a lawsuit last year that OpenAI had become a de facto subsidiary of Microsoft, calling the deal a deceit of “Shakespearean proportions” and a bid by Altman to “cash in” on generative AI.

He also had an issue with Anthropic's $30bn fundraise, in an X post, claiming the Claude creator's AI "hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men." The billionaire then called the company “misanthropic and evil” and demanded it “fix” the alleged issue. He added that he didn’t think there’s anything the company can do “To escape the inevitable irony of Anthropic ending up being Misanthropic…You were doomed to this fate when you chose your name.”

Currently, the stakes are high for Musk as his joint company is gearing up for what could be the largest IPO in history. However, going public could also bring more limelight to the company's operations and reveal skeletons that have till now remained hidden in the tech closets. All in all, it might be time for him to retain talent and create something new rather than sit and criticise others with X posts and legal suits.