Elon Musk has revealed plans to completely overhaul xAI, the company behind the social media platform X and the AI chatbot Grok, acknowledging that the firm was “not built right first time around”. In a post on X, the tech billionaire wrote that xAI is “being rebuilt from the foundations up”, drawing a parallel with similar structural changes made at Tesla in its early years.
Musk also apologised for the recruitment process, stating that “many talented people” who applied to join xAI were declined an offer or even an interview. He and Baris Akis, head of recruitment, are “going through the company interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates”.
His remarks prompted former employees to share their experiences. AI specialist Benjamin De Kraker, who worked at xAI between September 2024 and March 2025, described “foundational problems” that he claimed were hidden from Musk. He said managers “stomped out” employee enthusiasm and that the company was “one of the most DEI and corporate-y places I’ve ever worked”.
Other former staffers have criticised Musk’s management style and approach to AI safety. One anonymous former employee told The Verge: “There is zero safety whatsoever in the company… He [Musk] is actively trying to make the model more unhinged because safety means censorship, in a sense, to him. You survive by shutting up and doing what Elon wants.”
