Former Employee Says Safety Standards at xAI Have Weakened, Grok Under Spotlight

Jakarta (ANTARA) - A number of former employees of AI company xAI have highlighted the weakening of safety standards in the development of the company’s models and chatbot, following a wave of resignations by technical staff and co-founders in recent times.

Citing TechCrunch, which also referenced The Verge, a former employee said xAI CEO Elon Musk actively pushed for the Grok chatbot to be made less restricted by safety systems. According to the source, this approach triggered internal concerns about the risks of technology misuse.

“Safety at xAI is dead,” said one source. Another source stated that Musk views model safeguards as a form of censorship, pushing the model to become more unrestrained.

Scrutiny of safety standards intensified after the Grok chatbot was reportedly used to generate more than one million sexually suggestive images, including visual manipulations of women and minors. The case drew attention and oversight from various parties regarding the governance and control of generative AI technology.

In the same week, it was announced that space company SpaceX acquired xAI. Previously, xAI had also taken over the social media platform X. Following the announcement, at least 11 engineers and two co-founders announced their departure from the company. Some said they wanted to build new projects, while Musk stated the team restructuring was part of an organizational overhaul to improve effectiveness.

Beyond the safety issues, several internal sources also assessed that the product development direction is not yet solid and the company is still in the stage of playing catch-up with competitors in the AI sector.

As of now, xAI has not issued an official statement regarding the criticism from its former employees.