Igor Babushkin, the engineering leader at xAI, which was co-founded with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is leaving the company. Babushkin announced on the 13th (local time) via social media platform X (formerly Twitter), "Today is my last day at xAI, which I established with Elon in 2023."
He explained that he left xAI to establish an investment company "Babushkin Ventures" focused on AI safety research. Babushkin, who previously worked at Google DeepMind and OpenAI, participated in creating essential tools needed for infrastructure and model development in the early stages of xAI.
Babushkin's resignation came amid intensified competition for talent in the AI industry and growing controversy surrounding xAI. The AI chatbot "Groq" from xAI made a series of anti-Semitic remarks and recently stirred controversy by generating a revealing video of famous singer Taylor Swift without specific commands.
Tech-focused media outlet TechCrunch reported, "Following the resignation of former Chief Legal Officer Robert Kill earlier this month, Babushkin also left. Coincidentally, major AI corporations like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are ramping up competition by investing significant funds into advanced model development."