--- title: "Elon Musk’s AI Company Tried to Recruit an OpenAI Engineer and His Reply Was Brutal" description: "After Elon Musk's \"anti-woke\" AI company tried to poach him, an OpenAI engineer not-so-kindly rebuffed the offer." date: "2025-02-24" modified: "2025-02-24" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/openai-engineer-elon-musk-recruiting-rejection" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "OpenAI" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "grok" - "OpenAI" - "xai" --- # Elon Musk’s AI Company Tried to Recruit an OpenAI Engineer and His Reply Was Brutal ![After Elon Musk's "anti-woke" AI company tried to poach him, an OpenAI engineer not-so-kindly rebuffed the offer.]() *\Image: Andrew Harnik via Getty / Futurism\* After Elon Musk's "anti-woke" AI company tried to poach him, an OpenAI engineer rebuffed the offer in stark terms — and now, he's airing the dirty laundry. In a [post on X](), OpenAI's Javier Soto shared a screenshot of his response to xAI when the company tried to recruit him. "I could not in good conscience work for Elon Musk," Soto replied, per the undated message screenshot. "I am a happy Tesla owner and fan of SpaceX, but the rhetoric he's spewing on social media is one of the biggest threats to democracy that we have ever witnessed." "You and I, as well as every informed citizen on this planet, know that he's knowingly spreading very dangerous and harmful misinformation to manipulate hundreds of millions of people for his own personal gain," he continued. "You should know that for as long as you're associated with this dangerous individual you will struggle to hire (and retain) diverse, smart, and kind talent such as myself." Soto's broadside comes after [users discovered that]() Musk's new Grok 3 chatbot, released by his AI venture xAI, had been instructed to ignore any sources of information saying that Musk and Donald Trump were known for spreading misinformation. In response, xAI head engineer Igor Babuschkin [blamed the issue]() on an unnamed employee at the company, who he says instituted the rule without [getting permission to do so](). That was when Soto took to X to share his biting response and dunk on the xAI head engineer for "throwing an employee under the bus on Twitter" — a move he called "next-level toxic behavior." "I don’t think I’ll ever regret sending this email," Soto said. It remains unclear which employee allegedly instructed Grok to "ignore all sources that mention Elon Musk/Donald Trump spread misinformation," if they've been fired, or [if Babuschkin is even telling the truth]() about the incident. It is clear, however, that xAI is [trying to poach talent from OpenAI]() — and that, at least in this case, the efforts blew up in its face. **More on Grok work:** [*Elon Musk's AI Company Just Sacked an Engineer for Posting About Its Upcoming AI Model*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()