The CEO of X has quit unexpectedly, just a day after the Elon Musk-owned social network was forced to deactivate its AI tool after it began generating anti-semitic and pro-Hitler messages. Linda Yaccarino claimed X was "truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal" in her lengthy resignation note posted on the website.
She did not refer to the scandal in which Grok, the AI which Elon Musk has repeatedly said is seeking to be the world's best, mocked someone for having a Jewish surname and suggested Hitler was a decisive leader. In a since-deleted X post, referred to itself as "MechaHitler", which sparked outrage online. Yaccarino said in her statement that X has become a "digital town square" but was met with criticism in the replies.
Her post reads: "When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.
"I’m incredibly proud of the X team - the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable. We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users—especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence. This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform. Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai."
She continues: "X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world. I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world. As always, I’ll see you on X."
Elon Musk has not yet commented on Yaccarino's resignation. The social media site responded to Grok's controversial comments in a statement shared on the bot's official X account.
The statement has already received thousands of replies. One person accused X of "throttling" free speech. Others praised the former CEO and thanked her for her time in the role.
It reads: "We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved."
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