A federal government employee has reportedly leaked a sensitive API key linked to Elon Musk’s xAI platform — and it could have serious implications for both national security and the future of AI development.

AI released two AI "companions" on its Grok platform, a Japanese anime girl named "Ani" and an animated red panda called "Rudi."

AI safety researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and nonprofit organizations are speaking out publicly against the “reckless” and “completely irresponsible” safety culture at xAI, the billion-dollar AI startup owned by Elon Musk. The criticisms follow weeks of scandals at xAI that have overshadowed the company’s technological advances.

Elon Musk's xAI startup is swimming in controversy after launching Grok 4, the latest version of its snarky AI chatbot. Last week, the company boasted that Grok 4 achieved higher scores than quite a few other large language models (LLMs) on various industry benchmarks.

The company told workers to download employee tracking software on their personal computers, prompting privacy concerns from some staff.

Elon Musk's new AI chatbot, Grok 4, is raising eyebrows for its unusual behavior. Released by Musk's company xAI on Wednesday, the chatbot sometimes searches Musk's opinions on his platform, X, before answering controversial questions.