Musk's xAI loses second co-founder in two days

In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has experienced a significant shake-up with the departure of its second co-founder in just two days. Renowned researcher Jimmy Ba took to X to announce his exit, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to have co-founded the company. His announcement follows the exit of fellow co-founder Tony Wu, who revealed his departure a day earlier. The resignations come on the heels of xAI's recent merger with Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX, which is preparing for a public offering later this year. Ba, a professor at the University of Toronto, played a pivotal role in developing the company's Grok version 4 AI models, contributing significantly to its research efforts. Alongside Ba and Wu, several other co-founders have also left the organization, including Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic, and Christian Szegedy. Additionally, Greg Yang had previously announced that he would be stepping back due to health issues related to his battle with Lyme disease. The recent co-founder departures come amid various regulatory investigations targeting xAI across Europe, Asia, and the United States. These probes were triggered by concerns surrounding the company’s Grok AI chatbot and image generator, which were allegedly used to create and distribute non-consensual explicit images, including deepfakes of real individuals. Musk founded xAI in 2023 with the ambition to rival AI giants like OpenAI and Google, aiming to unravel the fundamental nature of the universe. Despite the recent turmoil, the company remains a key player in the evolving tech landscape, particularly following the record-setting all-stock deal that valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. The organization has yet to issue a statement addressing the recent departures.