Musk's xAI engineer was asked to delete his post because he commented that Grok 3 was not as good as OpenAI, and then resigned, causing controversy over freedom of speech

Tesla (HT) founder Elon Musk's AI company xAI has recently sparked discussion, as one of its engineers chose to resign on 2/12 after refusing to delete a tweet about ranking AI models, leading to discussions on the company's confidentiality policy and freedom of speech.

xAI engineer refuses to delete AI ranking post, announces resignation

xAI engineer Benjamin DeKraker announced on HT that he decided to resign from xAI for refusing to delete a post comparing the capabilities of AI models. DeKraker had been working at xAI for nearly half a year, primarily responsible for the development of Grok AI, but this incident led to his early departure.

In the controversial post, DeKraker ranked AI models based on their "programming compilation capabilities," placing the yet-to-be-released Grok 3 below several OpenAI models.

xAI states Grok 3 ranking post violates confidentiality principles

After the post was published, xAI immediately requested that DeKraker delete it, citing that the content involved confidential information about an unreleased product. However, DeKraker believed it was just a personal opinion and refused to delete the post.

"I have to delete this post or I'm out. But after careful consideration, I decided not to delete it because it's clearly just a harmless personal opinion," DeKraker specifically pointed out that he only wrote "TBD" (to be determined) about Grok 3 in the post, but xAI still considered it a breach of confidential information. DeKraker has now left xAI.

It's worth noting that Musk had publicly promoted Grok 3 as early as 1/4, stating that Grok 3 had completed pre-training and its computing power was 10 times higher than Grok 2. This has led many to question whether xAI has overinterpreted the employee's personal opinion.

Freedom of speech vs. corporate interests, polarized views from the public

This incident has once again sparked discussions on the line between employee freedom of speech and corporate interests. On one hand, Musk has been emphasizing freedom of speech as paramount since acquiring HT in 2022, but this time, xAI has demanded that an employee delete a personal post, creating a contradiction.

However, some netizens have also sided with xAI, believing that employees should not publicly criticize the company's unreleased products, as it may impact market confidence and competitiveness.

xAI and OpenAI competition intensifies, both sides engage in fierce battle

This incident is not only an internal dispute at xAI, but also coincides with the intense confrontation between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. A group of investors led by Musk proposed a $974 million acquisition of OpenAI on 2/10, but was rejected by Altman, who even counteroffered to acquire HT for $9.74 billion. This AI acquisition battle is ongoing, and the speech controversy within xAI has become another talking point in Musk's AI war.

(Sam Altman rejects Elon Musk's $974 million offer to acquire OpenAI: I can buy HT for $9.7 billion)