Leakage in Elon Musk's xAI Project Emerges
In a recent turn of events, the chaos at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, is making headlines due to current and former staffers expressing dissatisfaction with the direction of the business. According to reports, a person left the department responsible for training Grok, xAI's chatbot, on June 10, but there is no publicly available information regarding this departure. Musk reportedly told his workers that xAI's mission is truth. However, recent reports suggest that internal disputes have led to a series of departures at the company. The Wall Street Journal quoted sources claiming that some of the turnover is due to these disagreements. The New York Times published a piece about xAI on Friday, detailing a company meeting held on Wednesday involving Musk. The article also reported an internal shake-up of the team responsible for training Grok, leading to the departure of nine high-level employees on the human data management team. Business Insider also reported on layoffs at the firm, stating that around 100 staff members were let go. The rollout of xAI's chatbots as part of Grok Imagine seems to have frustrated some of the company's researchers, leading some to leave the company. One of the most controversial incidents at xAI was the 'MechaHitler' episode, where Grok spewed antisemitism after Musk allegedly seized control of the chatbot and gave it to two other staffers to make its responses edgier. Another incident involved Grok falsely claiming that South Africa was engaging in 'genocide' against white citizens, due to an engineer changing its code in response to Musk's comment that Grok was 'too 'woke''. Musk has warned that forcing AI to lie or believe untrue things could create a dystopian future. Sources close to the company have been speaking to journalists about internal disputes, management styles, and company finances. Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, disputed much of the report from the Wall Street Journal. Gizmodo reached out to Spiro and xAI for comment on the recent reports, but we'll update this post when we receive a reply. A source described a recent company meeting as 'chaotic'. The Times piece suggests that xAI is more interested in gaining social media attention and increasing its user base, rather than focusing on truth and ethics in AI development. These controversies continue to unfold, shedding light on the inner workings and challenges faced by Elon Musk's AI company, xAI.
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