xAI engineer quits days after tell-all interview about work culture
What's the story
Sulaiman Khan Ghori, an engineer at Elon Musk's AI start-up xAI, has announced his departure from the company. The announcement comes just days after he shared insights about the work culture at xAI during an appearance on the YouTube podcast Relentless on January 16. In his post on X, Khan said, "I have left xAI. Nothing but love to my former team and coworkers!" He didn't provide any specific reason for his exit.
Revelations
Insights on xAI's work culture
In his podcast, which runs over an hour and 11 minutes long, Ghori shared his experiences at xAI. He talked about Musk's management style and how he interacts with his employees. One notable instance was a bet for a Tesla Cybertruck where Musk promised one xAI employee a free Cybertruck if they completed a task in 24 hours.
Work culture
Musk encourages his employees to disagree with him
Ghori also revealed that Musk encourages his employees to disagree with him when necessary. He said, "He [Elon Musk] throws in usually um an incorrect requirement or question or an impossible like line... and he expects people to come back and say like hey this is wrong this is not possible... and if he doesn't then uh he doesn't hire them."
Departure speculation
Speculations about Ghori's departure
While Ghori has not commented on the reason behind his exit, many are speculating whether the podcast was the reason behind it. xAI has not publicly addressed Ghori's departure too, but it's possible he may have violated company policy with his podcast appearance. He did share a lot about his time at xAI but could have possibly crossed some boundaries.
Tech insights
Insights on digital Tesla Optimus robot
Ghori shared some information about a digital version of the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot. He said, "With Optimus, you're taking any physical task a human can do and allowing a robot to do it automatically... We're doing the same with anything that a human does digitally." He hinted that xAI might use Tesla's existing infrastructure and vehicles for this digital Optimus rollout.