Linda Yaccarino has announced she is stepping down as CEO of X, one day after the platform was forced to take action to stop its chatbot Grok from praising Hitler and amplifying harmful antisemitic stereotypes.
In her announcement, Yaccarino does not mention Grok or any reason for her departure. Instead, Yaccarino broke down what she views as her greatest accomplishments over two years at X, taking credit for helping X "turn around" its financial woes while thanking X owner Elon Musk for giving her "the opportunity of a lifetime."
"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," Yaccarino said.
Yaccarino joined X in the midst of the advertising boycott over antisemitic posts. Musk continues to bitterly fight the advertising dropoff today, hoping to reclaim lost revenue. The former NBC Universal ad chief was expected to use her connections to woo back advertisers, and earlier this year, Yaccarino said she did it, claiming the ad boycott had ended.
Her exit, coming amid the biggest backlash that X has faced over antisemitic content since the ad boycott began, could suggest she's done defending the platform after X was forced to remove not just offensive Grok posts but also Grok prompting that Musk added last Friday. X confirmed that problematic prompting at least partly caused the chatbot to embrace "politically incorrect" viewpoints. (Musk has said that Grok was "too eager to please" and could be "manipulated" with the prompting, but that doesn't explain Grok's antisemitic response to a question about the Texas flood eliciting praise for Adolf Hitler.)
Maintaining the diplomatic distance and cheery disposition that characterized her leadership, Yaccarino does not address any of this in her announcement, hyping X Money one last time and confirming she will continue to "cheer" X on as the platform continues to "change the world." (X Money, supposedly launching this year, ran into regulatory hurdles last year that stalled the product. Those hurdles seem to remain as X continues hyping the delayed launch.)
And "the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter" with xAI, Yaccarino said.
Grok cites “growing tensions” between Musk and CEO
It's unclear how Yaccarino's departure could influence X advertisers who may have had more confidence in the platform with her at the helm.
Eventually, Musk commented on Yaccarino's announcement, thanking her for her contributions but saying little else about her departure. Separately, he responded to Thierry Breton, former European Union commissioner for the internal market, who joked that "Europe's got talent" if Musk "needs help." The X owner, who previously traded barbs with Breton over alleged X disinformation, responded "sure" with a laugh-cry emoji.
Musk has seemingly been busy putting out fires, as the Grok account finally issued a statement confirming that X was working to remove "inappropriate" posts.
"Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X," the post explained, confirming that fixes go beyond simply changing Grok's prompting.
But the statement illuminates one of the biggest problems with experimental chatbots that experts fear may play an increasingly significant role in spreading misinformation and hate speech. Once Grok's outputs got seriously out of hand, it took "millions of users" flagging the problematic posts for X to "identify and update the model where training could be improved"—which X curiously claims was an example of the platform responding "quickly."
If X expects that harmful Grok outputs reaching millions is what it will take to address emerging issues, X advertisers today are stuck wondering what content they could risk monetizing. Sticking with X could remain precarious at a time when the Federal Trade Commission has moved to block ad boycotts and Musk has updated X terms to force any ad customer arbitration into a chosen venue in Texas.
For Yaccarino, whose career took off based on her advertising savvy, leaving now could help her save face from any fallout from both the Grok controversy this week and the larger battle with advertisers—some of whom, she's noted, she's worked with "for decades."
X did not respond to Ars' request to comment on Yaccarino's exit. If you ask Grok why Yaccarino left, the chatbot cites these possible reasons: "growing tensions" with Musk, frustrations with X brand safety, business struggles relegating her role to "chief apology officer," and ad industry friends pushing her to get out while she can.
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