Top lawyer for Elon Musk's xAI resigns, says: The job was a ...

Robert Keele, the top lawyer at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, has resigned from this position. Keele stepped down after just over a year in the role, citing personal reasons and philosophical differences with Musk. Keele announced his decision to resign from xAI by sharing a post social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) and professional networking platform LinkedIn. “I love my two toddlers and I don’t get to see them enough. The job was a dream, the team, incredible. Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime,” wrote Keele.In a post on X, Keele described his tenure at xAI as "incredible" and working with Musk as "the adventure of a lifetime. Sharing a post on X and LinkedIn, Keele wrote, “I'm leaving xAI. (More below...apologies, looks weird on mobile.) I love my two toddlers and I don't get to see them enough.The job was a dream, the team, incredible. Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime. Although there's daylight between our worldviews, his vision, commitment, and smarts blew me away on the daily. But I couldn't keep riding two horses at once--the family and the job. Time to pick one.Don't know what's next, just grateful. And way more capable than I was just 16 months ago. (I one-shotted Grok Imagine, asking "what's it like to lead legal at xAI"? I may have also mentioned shoveling coal. Lulz.).”Keele’s resignation comes at a time when xAI is witnessing growth and also recently secured $6 billion funding. Despite the company’s momentum, Keele believes that he cannot keep “riding two horses at once — the family and the job.”Keele’s exit adds another name to the list of top executives resigning from Elon Musk-lead companies. Recently, X CEO Linda Yaccarino also resigned from her position and multiple senior level executives also stepped down from their roles at Tesla. Some analysts believe that it is Musk’s demanding leadership style and intense work expectations are the reasons behind this executive turnover. Robert Keele will be replaced by Lily Lim who is a former NASA engineer and has worked on spacecraft navigation for Venus mapping missions. Lim joined xAI in late 2024 as a privacy and IP specialist.