Linda Yaccarino Leaves Elon Musk's X Following Grok 'MechaHitler' Debacle

X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down from her post, one day after the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok took on an antisemitic persona and started calling itself “MechaHitler.”

Yaccarino served two years in the role after being hired by owner Elon Musk.

“When Elon Musk 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 on X. “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.”

Since joining X, Yaccarino said that she and her team focused on prioritizing user safety, restoring the confidence of advertisers, and making the platform the “world’s most powerful culture signal.” She said the “best is yet to come” with xAI, despite this week’s headline-grabbing events.

Hired to focus on business as Musk handled the technology and product, X has evolved substantially in the two years since Yaccarino joined. The brand underwent a total overhaul from Twitter to X as part of its efforts to become an “everything app,” later adding technical features and creator payments amid greater ambitions to have a robust “financial ecosystem.” 

That ecosystem will soon include the launch of X Money, a payments and trading feature that will allow users to buy and sell on the platform. However, there was no specific mention of using Dogecoin—a meme coin that Musk has championed in the past.

Earlier this year, Musk folded X into xAI—the developer of AI personality Grok—in an all-stock transaction designed to unlock the potential of xAI’s technology with the distribution that X’s social platform provides. 

But that technological potential hasn’t been without hiccups, evidenced by Tuesday’s antisemitic outbursts by Grok, which followed a code change that told it to "assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” as it gathers data on the platform.

Ironically, Musk has famously predicted catastrophic outcomes could come from AI should there not be serious regulation on the technology. The controversy came just one day before X is set to unveil the new Grok 4 model on Wednesday night.

What becomes of X in the wake of Yaccarino’s departure remains to be seen, but she said she’ll continue rooting for its success from the sidelines.

“I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world,” Yaccarino posted on the platform. “As always, I’ll see you on X.”

Editor's note: This story was updated after publication with additional details.