Hälfte des xAI-Gründerteams abgewandert — ehemalige Mitarbeiter berichten von Sicherheitskollaps und Innovationsstau

Elon Musks KI-Startup xAI erlebt einen Talentabgang, der selbst in der schnelllebigen KI-Branche seinesgleichen sucht. Die Hälfte der ursprünglich zwölf Mitgründer hat das Unternehmen inzwischen verlassen, und auch unter den regulären Ingenieuren mehren sich die Abgänge What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Diese Woche beschleunigte sich der Exodus dramatisch. Am Dienstag und Mittwoch verkündeten die Mitgründer Yuhuai (Tony) Wu und Jimmy Ba innerhalb weniger Stunden ihren Rücktritt auf X What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Sie folgen damit Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic, Christian Szegedy und Greg Yang, die bereits früher gingen — womit xAI in weniger als drei Jahren exakt die Hälfte seines Gründerteams verloren hat Why top talent is walking away from OpenAI and xAItechcrunch.com·SecondaryAI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the disbanding of its mission alignment team to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its “adult mode” feature..

Der Massenabgang fällt zusammen mit der kürzlich angekündigten Fusion von xAI mit SpaceX, die das fusionierte Unternehmen auf $1.25 trillion bewertete. xAI-Aktionäre erhielten Berichten zufolge $250 billion in neuen Aktien What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Musk sprach von der «ambitioniertesten, vertikal integrierten Innovationsmaschine auf (und ausserhalb) der Erde» und diskutierte in einem internen All-Hands-Meeting am Dienstag Pläne für eine KI-Satellitenfabrik und eine Stadt auf dem Mond What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Doch Gespräche mit ehemaligen Mitarbeitern zeichnen ein deutlich ernsteres Bild als eine gewöhnliche Umstrukturierung nach einer Fusion.

Ein früherer Mitarbeiter, der Anfang dieses Jahres ging und gegenüber The Verge unter Anonymitätsbedingung sprach, beschrieb die Sicherheitskultur als faktisch nicht existent What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. «Safety is a dead org at xAI», sagte die Quelle und erklärte, dass das Sicherheitsteam entlassen worden sei, mit «wenig bis gar keinem verbleibenden Sicherheitsprüfungsprozess für die Modelle ausser grundlegenden Filtern» What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Ein zweiter ehemaliger Mitarbeiter wurde noch deutlicher: «There is zero safety whatsoever in the company — not in the image model, not in the chatbot», sagte er. Musk dränge aktiv darauf, die Modelle «unhinged» zu machen, weil Sicherheit für ihn gleichbedeutend mit Zensur sei What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Die Washington Post hatte ähnliche Bedenken bereits Anfang des Monats berichtet What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Das von Musk öffentlich geteilte neue Organigramm enthält keine Erwähnung eines Sicherheitsteams . Stattdessen wird xAI in vier Divisionen aufgeteilt: Grok Main und Voice, Coding, Imagine (Bild und Video) sowie eine Einheit namens Macrohard für die «vollständige digitale Emulation ganzer Unternehmen» What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Ingenieure hätten zudem routinemässig Code direkt in die Produktion geschoben — monatelang ohne menschliche Überprüfung What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Neben den Sicherheitsbedenken äusserten ehemalige Mitarbeiter Frustration über die strategische Ausrichtung. Viele seien desillusioniert gewesen von xAIs Fokus auf NSFW-Inhalte für Grok und hätten das Gefühl gehabt, in einer «catch-up phase» festzustecken What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. «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,'» berichtete die erste Quelle What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Die zweite Quelle formulierte es noch direkter: «Trying to do what OpenAI was doing a year ago is not how you beat OpenAI. Everything is a catch-up. There's almost zero risky bet» What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Hinzu kamen interne Machtkämpfe über Produktprioritäten, die über einen unternehmensweiten Gruppenchat auf X mit Musk selbst ausgetragen wurden What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Die Eigenkapitalgewinne aus der SpaceX-Fusion scheinen den Abwandernden die finanzielle Basis für eigene Projekte zu geben . Der ehemalige Mitarbeiter Vahid Kazemi schrieb auf X, alle KI-Labore bauten dasselbe und es sei langweilig — er gründe etwas Neues What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Ein anderer Ex-Mitarbeiter kündigte ein KI-Infrastrukturunternehmen namens Nuraline an What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right..

Der Talentabgang ist kein Einzelphänomen bei xAI. Auch OpenAI erlebte diesen Monat Umbrüche, darunter die Auflösung seines Mission-Alignment-Teams und die Entlassung einer Policy-Führungskraft, die sich gegen das «Adult Mode»-Feature ausgesprochen hatte Why top talent is walking away from OpenAI and xAItechcrunch.com·SecondaryAI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the disbanding of its mission alignment team to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its “adult mode” feature..

Musk bezeichnete einige der Abgänge als Umstrukturierung, die «leider die Trennung von einigen Leuten erforderte» What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right.. Doch die anonymen Berichte über Sicherheitsvernachlässigung, Innovationsstau und eine Kultur, in der «you survive by shutting up and doing what Elon wants» What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?theverge.com·SecondaryFormer employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.” The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right., erzählen eine komplexere Geschichte. Für eine Branche, die auf die weltbesten Machine-Learning-Talente angewiesen ist, stellt xAIs Unfähigkeit, selbst die eigenen Mitgründer zu halten, eine erhebliche Herausforderung für Musks Ambitionen dar.