“第一次就没造对”——马斯克的xAI又要从头再来。
内容总结：
马斯克旗下xAI人事地震持续，仅余两位联合创始人留守，公司重组以追赶竞争对手
由埃隆·马斯克三年前联合11位共同创始人创立的xAI，正经历一场剧烈的人事震荡。目前，最初的创始团队中仅剩曼努埃尔·克罗伊斯和罗斯·诺丁两人仍在职。马斯克对此解释称，这是公司“自上而下重建”的既定计划，原因是“xAI最初并未构建正确”。
竞争压力引发即时动荡
本周，联合创始人戴子航和张国栋离职，直接导火索是马斯克对公司AI编程工具在与Anthropic的Claude Code和OpenAI的Codex竞争中的表现不满。马斯克在社交平台X上表示，公司已召开全员会议，聚焦如何追赶，并预计今年年中可实现目标。
编程工具被视为AI实验室的关键盈利技术，因此xAI在此领域的落后不仅关乎形象，更是一个紧迫的商业问题。
重组范围远超本周
人事调整已持续一段时间。一个月前，包括两位联合创始人在内的11名xAI高级工程师离职，当时马斯克称之为适应更大业务规模的重组。然而，调整似乎并未止步。据《金融时报》报道，SpaceX和特斯拉的高管已介入公司，评估员工并解雇不合格者。
广纳贤才与核心挑战
马斯克正拓宽人才招募范围。他近日表示，正亲自复核被拒的求职申请，以期联系那些本应获得面试机会的潜力人选，并为此前疏忽致歉。
对比来看，xAI员工数约5000人，仍落后于OpenAI的7500多人，与Anthropic的4700多人相近。在招聘方面也出现积极信号：AI编程工具公司Cursor的两名产品工程负责人安德鲁·米利奇和贾森·金斯伯格已决定加入xAI。分析认为，他们的选择可能意味着直接访问大型语言模型和算力资源至关重要，也表明xAI自有的前沿模型仍具吸引力。
盈利压力与宏大愿景
外部压力同样巨大。随着xAI并入SpaceX，且SpaceX预计将公开上市，这个烧钱的部门亟需证明其大模型Grok能获得真正市场认可。
长远来看，马斯克押注于比编程工具更宏大的项目——“宏硬”（Macrohard），旨在开发能执行白领所有电脑工作的AI代理。然而，该项目二月任命的负责人托比·波伦数周内便离职，近期有报道称项目已暂停。作为回应，马斯克首次透露该项目正与特斯拉联合推进，特斯拉同时开发名为“数字擎天柱”的互补代理，由xAI语言模型指挥其执行任务。
这一愿景与Perplexity AI新推出的“万物皆计算机”服务，以及OpenAI内部相关探索有相似之处。在激烈的人事与战略调整中，xAI能否在竞争激烈的AI赛道中实现突围，仍有待观察。
中文翻译：
如今只剩下两位：三年前与埃隆·马斯克共同创立xAI的11位联合创始人中，仅剩两人仍留在这家深度学习实验室。该公司正持续推进人事重组，以期与Anthropic和OpenAI展开竞争。马斯克坚称，这场重组是早有规划的。
马斯克周四在其社交平台X上表示：“xAI最初的设计存在缺陷，因此正从底层开始重建。”从各方面来看，这一过程并不顺利。
最紧迫的压力来自竞争。本周，xAI联合创始人戴子航和张国栋离职。此前马斯克曾抱怨公司的人工智能编程工具在与竞争对手的对抗中表现不佳——Anthropic和OpenAI分别推出了Claude Code和Codex编程助手。马斯克称，公司周三召开了全员会议，重点讨论如何追赶进度，他预计今年年中能实现这一目标。
编程工具之所以至关重要，是因为它们能带来真金白银。尽管年初用户激增得益于xAI对Grok生成色情甚至暴力图像的能力监管宽松，但编程工具被视为人工智能实验室创收的关键技术。这使得xAI目前在该领域的落后不仅关乎形象，更是个商业难题。
人事调整远不止于本周。一个月前，xAI的11名高级工程师（包括两位联合创始人）离职，马斯克称这是为适应更大规模业务进行的重组。但显然这还不够：《金融时报》报道称，SpaceX和特斯拉的高管已空降xAI，评估员工表现并辞退不达标者。
仅存的两位联合创始人曼努埃尔·克罗伊斯和罗斯·诺丁，连同马斯克本人，正面临艰巨任务。
马斯克正在更广泛地网罗人才。周四他在X上表示，自己与同事巴里斯·阿基斯正在复核被拒的求职申请，希望联系那些本应获得面试机会的潜力人选。“我向那些被忽视的申请者致歉，”马斯克补充道。
对比来看，领英数据显示xAI员工刚超5000人，而OpenAI员工超过7500人，Anthropic员工超过4700人。
在招聘方面，至少有一个积极信号。安德鲁·米利奇和贾森·金斯伯格正从AI编程工具公司Cursor加入xAI，两人在Cursor共同负责产品工程。与xAI不同，Cursor需依赖前沿实验室获取其运行所需的人工智能模型。他们选择加入xAI，可能意味着直接获取大语言模型及运行所需计算资源的重要性——也表明xAI的核心资产（其自研的前沿模型）仍具吸引力。
无论如何，证明成果的压力来自内外两方面。既然xAI已成为SpaceX的一部分，且SpaceX股份预计将公开上市，这个烧钱的部门必须证明其大语言模型Grok真正获得了市场认可。（马斯克可不想让投资者看到人工智能部门步履蹒跚的故事。）
长远来看，马斯克的赌注远不止编程工具。xAI的“宏硬”（Macrohard）项目——马斯克坚信这个名字是“对微软的幽默调侃”——旨在创造能完成白领所有电脑工作的人工智能代理。二月被任命领导该项目的托比·波伦数周内便离职，本周《商业内幕》报道称宏硬项目已暂停。
马斯克的应对策略是抽调旗下另一家公司参与该项目。他首次透露宏硬是与特斯拉的合作项目，特斯拉同时正在开发名为“数字擎天柱”的互补代理——呼应特斯拉的Optimus人形机器人。按照马斯克的描述，xAI语言模型将指挥特斯拉代理执行任务。
这个愿景雄心勃勃，却非独树一帜。它与人工智能搜索引擎Perplexity新推出的“万物皆计算机”服务异曲同工，后者旨在为企业用户提供可协调数字任务的专属“数字代理”。这也与企业家彼得·斯坦伯格在OpenAI的工作方向相呼应——他此前曾为OpenClaw开发了广受欢迎的个人代理。
英文来源：
And then there were two: Of the original 11 co-founders who kickstarted xAI with Elon Musk three years ago, only two remain as the deep learning lab continues a personnel overhaul to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. That rebuilding, insists Musk, is by design.
“xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up,” Musk said Thursday on his social media platform, X. By most measures, it isn’t going all that smoothly.
The most immediate pressure is competitive. This week, xAI co-founders Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang left the outfit after Musk complained that the company’s AI coding tools were not effectively competing with Claude Code or Codex, rival programming assistants made by Anthropic and OpenAI, respectively. Musk said the company held an all-hands meeting on Wednesday that focused on how to catch up, which he predicted would be possible by the middle of this year.
Coding tools matter so much because they’re where the money is. While an early-year surge of users was powered by xAI’s lax regulation of Grok’s ability to produce sexual and even abusive imagery, coding tools are seen as the key revenue-generating tech for AI labs. That makes xAI’s current lag in this area more than a perception issue; it’s a business problem.
The personnel overhaul extends well beyond this week. A month ago, 11 senior engineers at xAI, including two co-founders, left the company following changes Musk described as a reorganization to suit a larger business. That effort was apparently insufficient: The Financial Times reported that SpaceX and Tesla executives have parachuted into the company to evaluate employees and fire those who don’t make the grade.
The two remaining co-founders, Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen, along with Musk, have their work cut out for them.
Musk is now casting a wider net for talent. On Thursday, he said on X that he and another colleage, Baris Akis, are currently reviewing rejected employment applications in the company, with an eye toward reaching out to promising candidates who should have had a chance to interview. “My apologies,” Musk added, addressing the pile of strangers he’d ghosted.
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For the sake of comparison, LinkedIn reports that xAI has just over 5,000 employees, compared to more than 7,500 at OpenAI and more than 4,700 at Anthropic.
On the hiring front, there’s at least one encouraging sign. Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg are joining xAI from the AI coding tool company Cursor, where the two held joint responsibility for product engineering. Unlike xAI, Cursor depends on frontier labs for access to the AI models it runs on. Their decision to join xAI may signal the importance of direct access to LLM and computing resources to run them — and suggest that xAI’s core asset, its own frontier model, is still an attractive draw.
Either way, the pressure to show results is as much external as it is internal. Now that xAI is part of SpaceX, and with a public offering of SpaceX shares anticipated, the cash-burning unit is under pressure to demonstrate real uptake on Grok, its LLM. (A stumbling AI division is not the story Musk needs investors to be reading.)
Longer term, Musk is betting on something bigger than coding tools. xAI’s Macrohard project — Musk is convinced the name is “a funny reference to Microsoft” — aims to create an AI agent capable of doing anything a white-collar worker can do on a computer. Toby Pohlen, chosen to lead the project in February, left within weeks, and this week, Business Insider reported that Macrohard was on pause.
Musk’s response has been to draft another of his companies into the project. He revealed for the first time that Macrohard is a joint effort with Tesla, which is also developing a complementary agent dubbed “Digital Optimus” — a reference to Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot. In Musk’s description, the xAI language model would direct the Tesla agent as it performs tasks.
It’s ambitious; it’s also not unique. Instead, the vision is not far off from what Perplexity — an AI-powered search engine — is doing with its new “Everything is Computer” offering, which aims to offer enterprise users a dedicated “digital proxy” that can orchestrate their digital tasks. It also echoes what entrepreneur Peter Steinberger is now working on at OpenAI, after creating OpenClaw’s popular personal agents.