Elon Musk is making some big changes at his AI startup, xAI. The company has decided to drop the job title “researcher” and will now refer to all its technical staff as “engineers.” This shift follows a recent incident where an employee, Aditya Gupta, posted a job listing on X looking for both researchers and engineers.
Musk quickly stepped in, announcing that the term “researcher” would no longer be used at xAI. He pointed out that such distinctions create a two-tier system that isn’t necessary. Instead, Musk emphasized that the only title should be “engineer,” calling “researcher” an outdated term from academia.
After Musk’s statement, Gupta corrected his original post to clarify that they are specifically looking for skilled engineers. Musk further defended this decision by comparing xAI to SpaceX, stating that while SpaceX conducts significant research in rocket and satellite development, they still use the title “engineer” and avoid the term “researcher,” which he sees as pretentious.
This move aligns xAI with a trend seen in other tech companies. For instance, OpenAI refers to its technical staff as “Members of Technical Staff.” Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, stated that they prefer not to categorize their workers into researchers and engineers. Similarly, Anthropic also uses the title “Member of Technical Staff,” highlighting that engineers often lead research efforts as the lines between research and engineering blur with newer technologies.
