Elon Musk puts xAI employees under pressure: 48-hour ultimatum causes outcry!

Image: JRdes / shutterstock.com

"Due by noon on Thursday!" - Musk demands accountability at the push of a button

Elon Musk, tech billionaire, rocket builder, Twitter rebrander - and now chief prosecutor in his own company? At the AI start-up xAI, which is competing against ChatGPT and Google Gemini with the chatbot Grok, Musk has now put his employees under massive pressure with an internal circular:

All employees must submit a one-page overview of their performance over the last four weeks within 48 hours - including an outlook for the next four weeks.

One sentence from the email in particular made the rounds:
"This is due by noon on Thursday."

Anyone who knows Musk knows that such statements are no exception. He had already made similar announcements on Twitter (now X). Back then, the rule was: if you don't answer, you risk losing your job.

"AI that understands the universe" - but without regard for employees?

xAI was founded in 2023 and pursues the ambitious goal of developing an artificial intelligence that understands the universe - or at least impresses humans. At its heart is the chatbot Grok, which is particularly notable for its less censored language - and has been repeatedly criticized for precisely this.

From anti-Semitic slips to racist language, Grok has already made several missteps. And, according to Business Insider, several hundred so-called "AI tutors", i.e. people who were supposed to train Grok, were recently dismissed. These include employees in sensitive areas such as data annotation.

Sounds like chaos. And now Musk's 48-hour order bursts into the middle of it.

Control mania or systematic leadership?

For Musk, these methods are probably part of his management style. Accountability, speed, efficiency - whatever the cost. But for many observers, this seems more like an old-fashioned control mania. Particularly piquant: Musk is also said to have sent similar emails to US officials when he was a government advisor.

At the time, however, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) made it clear that the response was voluntary. In the end, the entire procedure was even officially discontinued.

And at xAI? The pressure is likely to remain high there. If you don't deliver, you're out - at least that's the message that keeps coming through in Musk's corporate culture.

When efficiency is more important than ethics

In an industry in which ethical issues surrounding AI and its use are already controversial, Musk is making it clear that he sets the direction - personally. The fact that Grok's answers are problematic? This is ignored. That employees are under high pressure? Is expected.

While other AI companies are trying to build in transparency, inclusion and security, Musk seems to be going for the opposite: Speed instead of consideration, pressure instead of trust.

Is that what modern leadership is supposed to be?

What Musk is pulling off at xAI is like the Silicon Valley of the 2010s in hardcore mode - only without responsibility. A 48-hour deadline for performance reports sounds more like a drill than modern leadership. Sure, Musk wants speed. But if you want to force innovation at the push of a button, you risk the exact opposite: burnout, fluctuation, chaos. If even AI ends up spitting out racist garbage, perhaps the boardroom should not be asking for more reports, but for better values.