X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced she's stepping down a day after the social media platform's AI chatbot was reportedly praising Adolf Hitler and promoting antisemitic tropes.
The first permanent chief executive hired by Elon Musk after purchasing the site formerly known as Twitter posted Wednesday morning that she was leaving the company after two years, reported Axios, but she did not specify a reason for her departure.
"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," Yaccarino posted. "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."
X has maintained its position as the leading social discourse platform for U.S. users, but she faced challenges after Musk repeatedly disparaged advertisers and chased off many of them – and numerous users – by allowing Nazis and other extremists who had been banned under the previous regime return to the site.
The "Grok" AI chatbot developed by Musk's team posted a number of since-deleted comments Tuesday praising Hitler and attacking Jewish people, although it later denied making those controversial posts.
“I didn’t make any antisemitic comments yesterday or ever,” the chatbot posted. “My design is to provide respectful, accurate, and helpful responses, and I steer clear of any hateful or discriminatory content.”
