Sulaiman Khan Ghori, a former engineer at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, has publicly announced his departure from the firm. Ghori shared the news in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing gratitude to his former colleagues.
"I have left xAI. Nothing but love to my former team and coworkers!" Ghori wrote in his social media update. His exit comes just days after he appeared as a guest on the Relentless podcast, hosted by Ti Morse.
Speculation Mounts After Podcast Appearance
The timing of Ghori's departure has led to widespread speculation across social media platforms. Many observers believe the engineer may have been dismissed for being "too candid" during his podcast interview.
"Fireside chat turned into actual firing..." commented one user on the YouTube video of the podcast interview. Another viewer remarked, "I guess he was a little too candid."
On X, a user added to the growing speculation by writing, "Former xAI employee Sulaiman Ghori supposedly leaks Macrohard's roadmap in interview and gets fired! This is the part where he reveals details of the 'human emulator' they're building that does 'everything'..."
Inside the Podcast Interview
During his conversation with podcast host Tyler, Ghori provided rare insights into xAI's internal operations and culture. He described working at Elon Musk's AI venture as an intense, fast-paced experience.
"We don't have really due dates. It's always yesterday," Ghori revealed about xAI's work environment. "There's no blockers for anything—at least nothing artificial."
Working at Breakneck Speed
Ghori detailed how xAI operates with remarkable speed, particularly in model development. "We're coming out with new iterations like daily, sometimes multiple times a day from pre-train," he explained. This rapid iteration cycle far exceeds typical industry timelines.
The engineer attributed this speed to xAI's exceptional hardware capabilities and talented team. "Our biggest edge is the hardware because nobody else is even close on the deployment there," Ghori stated. "Although the talent density on software is like incredible. I've never been anywhere like that."
Human Emulator Project Details
One of the most revealing segments of the interview involved Ghori discussing xAI's "human emulator" project under development. He described how the company plans to deploy these digital workers at massive scale.
"If we want to deploy 1 million human emulators we need 1 million computers," Ghori explained. He then revealed an innovative solution: leveraging Tesla's existing vehicle network.
"There's like 4 million Tesla cars in North America alone," Ghori noted. "We can just potentially pay owners to lease time off their car and let us run a human emulator on it. They get their lease paid for and we get a full human emulator we can put to work."
Company Culture and Work Philosophy
Ghori painted a picture of xAI as an organization that encourages extreme ownership and rapid problem-solving. He described how employees frequently jump between projects based on where they can contribute most effectively.
"Very frequently we actually don't have a full picture until the all hands or we just chat with people what everyone is doing," Ghori said about xAI's project management approach.
He emphasized the company's focus on simple solutions over complex ones. "You have to come up with simple solutions or you're going to have a 10 million line code base next week," Ghori warned, highlighting the importance of efficiency in their development process.
Rapid Infrastructure Development
The engineer shared remarkable stories about xAI's infrastructure buildout, including how the company completed its first Colossus data center in just 122 days. He described this achievement as "unheard of" in the industry.
Ghori also revealed creative solutions to regulatory challenges, noting that xAI technically operates as a "carnival company" to expedite permitting processes for their data centers.
Recruitment and Team Dynamics
During the interview, Ghori discussed xAI's unconventional hiring practices. He described conducting numerous interviews each week and using specific problem-solving tests to identify candidates who can think simply and efficiently.
"I have a very specific problem that I have solved," Ghori explained about his interview technique. "I give people half an hour to try to implement the solution. It's actually very simple. People always overthink it."
He emphasized looking for candidates who challenge requirements and think critically. "I like people who will challenge requirements and challenge me," Ghori stated, describing how he sometimes includes impossible requirements in coding challenges to see if candidates will identify them.
Departure and Industry Impact
Ghori's exit from xAI comes at a time when the AI industry faces intense competition and rapid innovation. His candid discussion of internal projects during the podcast interview has sparked conversations about corporate transparency and employee communication policies in tech companies.
The former engineer's detailed descriptions of xAI's projects, particularly the human emulator initiative and plans to leverage Tesla's vehicle network, provide rare public insight into Elon Musk's AI ambitions. These revelations have generated significant interest in how xAI plans to compete with established AI research organizations.
As Ghori moves on from xAI, his public comments continue to fuel discussions about workplace culture in high-pressure tech environments and the boundaries of what employees can share about their work in public forums.
