Benjamin De Kraker, an AI engineer at xAI, resigned after being given an ultimatum to delete a social media post ranking AI models, including the yet-to-be-released Grok 3. He refused, criticising xAI’s leadership for curbing free speech despite its public stance on openness. His resignation comes as xAI aggressively expands hiring to compete with OpenAI, Google, and Meta in the fast-evolving AI sector.