Elon Musk Responds To xAI Retention Criticism, Says Company's 'Regretted Departures' Are Minimal: 'We Are Accelerating Faster Than...'

Billionaire Elon Musk has responded to criticism of his artificial intelligence company xAI's poor talent retention, defending the company's operations.

50% Attrition Rate At xAI

On Saturday, user Varunram Ganesh took to the social media platform X, sharing a post with a screenshot of an employee announcing their departure from xAI after six months of working with the AI company. "Attrition at xAI within the year seems to be at least 50%," Ganesh said.

For reference, the attrition rate refers to the number of employees departing from an organization within a pre-determined time period. This includes layoffs as well as employees voluntarily leaving an organization.

Quoting Ganesh's post, user @satyanutella_ shared screenshots of Musk's advice and hiring practices in the past. "Everyone should learn recruiting from "young" Elon," the user said, calling the Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO "the best tech recruiter ever."

The user then shared that Musk had since "fell off" in the 2020s. "xAI talent and retention is way worse than all his previous projects," the user said. 

Very Few Regretted Departures, Says Musk

Responding to the post, Musk shared that xAI has had "very few regretted departures" from the company. Musk also added that xAI was expanding at a rapid pace despite its relatively small workforce. "We are accelerating faster than any other AI organization on Earth, despite being a much smaller team," Musk said.

xAI's Massive Spending, Losses

xAI is reportedly spending close to $1 billion every month to expand its AI capabilities, with the company spending over $7.8 billion during the first nine months of last year on various investments. It's worth noting that xAI generated $107 million in revenue. xAI reportedly recorded a loss of $1.46 billion in the September quarter.

xAI's Departures

The claims about xAI’s poor attrition rate could hold some water, as last year, the Musk-backed company reportedly laid off over 500 workers from its data annotation team in a rejig of its workforce, as well as a pivot towards specialist tutors for the company's AI model Grok. Another high-profile exit from the company was xAI's CFO, Mike Liberatore, who left his role at the startup after spending just three months on the job.

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