No More ‘Researchers’ at xAI: Elon Musk Unifies Roles as Engineers
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and CEO of xAI, has announced a significant shift in how his artificial intelligence start-up classifies its staff roles. According to Musk, xAI will no longer have separate “researcher” positions—everyone will be called “engineers” from now on.
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Responding to a social media job posting that mentioned both “researchers and engineers,” Musk criticized the division as outdated and unnecessary.
“This false nomenclature of ‘researcher’ and ‘engineer,’ which is a thinly-masked way of describing a two-tier engineering system, is being deleted from xAI today,” he stated. “There are only engineers. Researcher is a relic term from academia.”
Elon Musk emphasized that using the term “researcher” creates a “pretentious, low-accountability” label. He also pointed out that his other company, SpaceX, conducts more impactful research on rocket and satellite technology than all university labs combined, underlining his belief that real innovation happens within engineering teams rather than separate research silos.
This move reflects Musk’s focus on cutting through academic jargon and streamlining roles at xAI to foster accountability and hands-on problem-solving in the fast-paced AI industry.
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