Elon Musk announces xAI rebuild, contacts top talent

SpaceX and xAI CEO Elon Musk announced on Friday that his artificial intelligence startup xAI “was not built right the first time around” and is being rebuilt from the scratch.

The decision was announced as several co-founders of xAI, including Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang, have recently left the firm. Musk announced his plans for rebuilding the firm on his social media platform, X.

Elon Musk addresses xAI challenges

xAI has experienced a series of exits from key early team members in recent months. Last month, AI researcher Jimmy Ba announced his exit, thanking Elon for the chance to co-found the firm. Tony Wu and Toby Pohlen had also announced their exit earlier.

The departures have left Musk with only two original co-founders from 2023. Experts have pointed out that this talent gap is at a critical moment as SpaceX is preparing for a record-breaking IPO this year.

Musk and xAI Head of Engineering Talent Baris Akis has begun looking at previous interview records and getting in touch with promising candidates. Musk publicly apologised to applicants, tweeting: “Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies.”

The outreach drew strong reactions from X users. One user said: “I wasn’t declined; I was ghosted twice. Interviewers no-showed both times, over an hour each. If xAI wants top talent, it needs to treat candidates like their time matters.” Musk responded directly, saying, “Sorry, candidates should always be treated with great respect,” signalling a more hands-on approach to recruitment.

In previous controversies, xAI has also faced an issue with its chatbot and image generator, known as Grok, which has been under government scrutiny. However, Tesla continues to back xAI with financial and infrastructural support, incorporating its AI technology into vehicles and humanoid robots.