{
  "type": "tweet",
  "id": "2032252408214994988",
  "url": "https://x.com/BenjaminDEKR/status/2032252408214994988",
  "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/BenjaminDEKR/status/2032252408214994988",
  "text": "Here is an xAI story.\n\nWhen I was first hired (low level) by xAI, I was extremely excited. I greatly admired Elon and what Grok could be.\n\nI have a pretty cool AI following here on X. Some big names see my stuff, including Elon himself (at the time).\n\nLex, Beff, Andreessen, Aravind, many others.\n\nDuring the interview and onboarding for xAI, they made a *big deal* about wanting people who \"take initiative\" and think outside the box. Ok...\n\nSo, some of the biggest names in tech follow me on X. I decided to ask for ideas and feedback on how Grok (then still early at version 2) could be improved.\n\nI asked my followers on X for the best \"how can we make Grok awesome?\" ideas, and was going to collect them (organized by Grok himself) into a big report for my boss(es) and ultimately, Elon.\n\n(xAI makes a big deal about how it's a \"flat structure\" also. You're supposed to be empowered to act on good ideas.)\n\nWell, my post got way more attention than I expected - great! Ideas to improve Grok poured in! I built a script to collect and sort all these great ideas to make xAI's core product better.\n\nJohn Carmack (personal friend of Elon, creator of Doom, id software, legend) retweeted it. Carmack has 1M followers. \n\nThere were so many great ideas on how to improve Grok! I was collecting them and excited. Until.......\n\nI woke up the next day to a threatening email from my main supervisor* at xAI, telling me I had messed up, that I was NEVER to ask for ideas to improve Grok ever again, that it wasn't my job (I thought our job was to improve Grok.)\n\nThey suspended my account on X. They never explained why. It was obviously related to my post about improving Grok.\n\nI was told to delete those posts which had gone viral. I had to delete all the hundreds (thousands?) of genuinely good ideas for improving Grok that had poured in by users on X, because it stepped on someone's toes.\n\nIt made me confused and sad. Incidents like this happened often, where xAI employees would come in full of excitement and enthusiasm, and would have it stomped out by managers who hated ideas.\n\nThey filled xAI with middle managers and busybodies. It was one of the most DEI and corporate-y places I've ever worked. I came in wanting Elon and xAI to win and left just sad.\n\n*That manager is gone, for what it's worth. \nEveryone I knew at xAI is gone.",
  "source": "Twitter for iPhone",
  "retweetCount": 35,
  "replyCount": 62,
  "likeCount": 554,
  "quoteCount": 12,
  "viewCount": 31112,
  "createdAt": "Fri Mar 13 00:28:26 +0000 2026",
  "lang": "en",
  "bookmarkCount": 97,
  "isReply": false,
  "inReplyToId": null,
  "conversationId": "2032252408214994988",
  "displayTextRange": [
    0,
    274
  ],
  "inReplyToUserId": null,
  "inReplyToUsername": null,
  "author": {
    "type": "user",
    "userName": "BenjaminDEKR",
    "url": "https://x.com/BenjaminDEKR",
    "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/BenjaminDEKR",
    "id": "1594119001684299781",
    "name": "Benjamin De Kraker",
    "isVerified": false,
    "isBlueVerified": true,
    "verifiedType": null,
    "profilePicture": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2006784699251748864/fZ1xQPWe_normal.jpg",
    "coverPicture": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/1594119001684299781/1767291778",
    "description": "",
    "location": "Virginia, United States",
    "followers": 40491,
    "following": 8226,
    "status": "",
    "canDm": true,
    "canMediaTag": true,
    "createdAt": "Sun Nov 20 00:03:30 +0000 2022",
    "entities": {
      "description": {
        "urls": []
      },
      "url": {}
    },
    "fastFollowersCount": 0,
    "favouritesCount": 124487,
    "hasCustomTimelines": true,
    "isTranslator": false,
    "mediaCount": 7232,
    "statusesCount": 53124,
    "withheldInCountries": [],
    "affiliatesHighlightedLabel": {},
    "possiblySensitive": false,
    "pinnedTweetIds": [],
    "profile_bio": {
      "description": "AI + tech.\n\nDayjob: Nuclear power\nPrev: Grok / xAI",
      "entities": {
        "description": {
          "hashtags": [],
          "symbols": [],
          "urls": [],
          "user_mentions": []
        },
        "url": {
          "urls": [
            {
              "display_url": "youtube.com/@BenjaminDEKR",
              "expanded_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminDEKR",
              "indices": [
                0,
                23
              ],
              "url": "https://t.co/XfkwcQW96S"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    },
    "isAutomated": false,
    "automatedBy": null
  },
  "extendedEntities": {},
  "card": null,
  "place": {},
  "entities": {
    "hashtags": [],
    "symbols": [],
    "urls": [],
    "user_mentions": []
  },
  "quoted_tweet": {
    "type": "tweet",
    "id": "2032201568335044978",
    "url": "https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2032201568335044978",
    "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2032201568335044978",
    "text": "@beffjezos xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up. \n\nSame thing happened with Tesla.",
    "source": "Twitter for iPhone",
    "retweetCount": 556,
    "replyCount": 544,
    "likeCount": 8698,
    "quoteCount": 118,
    "viewCount": 515153,
    "createdAt": "Thu Mar 12 21:06:25 +0000 2026",
    "lang": "en",
    "bookmarkCount": 549,
    "isReply": true,
    "inReplyToId": "2032190059282383136",
    "conversationId": "2032190059282383136",
    "displayTextRange": [
      11,
      132
    ],
    "inReplyToUserId": null,
    "inReplyToUsername": null,
    "author": {
      "type": "user",
      "userName": "elonmusk",
      "url": "https://x.com/elonmusk",
      "twitterUrl": "https://twitter.com/elonmusk",
      "id": "44196397",
      "name": "Elon Musk",
      "isVerified": false,
      "isBlueVerified": true,
      "verifiedType": null,
      "profilePicture": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2008546467615580160/57KcqsTA_normal.jpg",
      "coverPicture": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/44196397/1739948056",
      "description": "",
      "location": "",
      "followers": 236419723,
      "following": 1292,
      "status": "",
      "canDm": false,
      "canMediaTag": false,
      "createdAt": "Tue Jun 02 20:12:29 +0000 2009",
      "entities": {
        "description": {
          "urls": []
        },
        "url": {}
      },
      "fastFollowersCount": 0,
      "favouritesCount": 215929,
      "hasCustomTimelines": true,
      "isTranslator": false,
      "mediaCount": 4389,
      "statusesCount": 98999,
      "withheldInCountries": [],
      "affiliatesHighlightedLabel": {},
      "possiblySensitive": false,
      "pinnedTweetIds": [
        "2031751255060885911"
      ],
      "profile_bio": {
        "description": "",
        "entities": {
          "description": {
            "hashtags": [],
            "symbols": [],
            "urls": [],
            "user_mentions": []
          }
        }
      },
      "isAutomated": false,
      "automatedBy": null
    },
    "extendedEntities": {},
    "card": null,
    "place": {},
    "entities": {
      "hashtags": [],
      "symbols": [],
      "timestamps": [],
      "urls": [],
      "user_mentions": [
        {
          "id_str": "1556550048862928898",
          "indices": [
            0,
            10
          ],
          "name": "Beff (e/acc)",
          "screen_name": "beffjezos"
        }
      ]
    },
    "quoted_tweet": null,
    "retweeted_tweet": null,
    "isLimitedReply": false,
    "article": null
  },
  "retweeted_tweet": null,
  "isLimitedReply": false,
  "article": null
}