This week, Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, saw its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok go Nazi. In the past three years of Musk's ownership of the social network, it feels like X has weathered at least one public crisis per week, more often multiple. Last week, Musk's artificial intelligence firm, xAI, saw its flagship chatbot Grok declare itself a super-Nazi, referring to itself as "MechaHitler". It made racist, sexist and antisemitic posts, which the company deleted. One example, via my colleague Josh Taylor: Grok referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was "celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids" in the Texas floods as "future fascists".

In May 2023, when Linda Yaccarino, an NBC advertising executive, joined what was then still known as Twitter, she was given a tall order: repair the company's relationship with advertisers after a chaotic year of being owned by Elon Musk. But just weeks after she became CEO, Musk posted an antisemitic tweet that drove away major brands like Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros Discovery to pause their advertising on the platform. Musk delivered an apology for the tweet later at a conference – which he called the worst post he's ever done – but it came with a message to advertisers, specifically the Disney CEO Bob Iger: "Go fuck yourselves". Yaccarino was in the audience of the conference. "I don't want them to advertise," he said.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. On Wednesday morning, X's chief embarrassment officer Linda Yaccarino announced she'd be leaving the social network after just two years on the job. While Yaccarino didn't name any particular reason, she did conspicuously align her departure with the immediate fallout from X's artificial intelligence bot, Grok, going full Nazi--and, in a series of now-deleted tweets, throwing repugnant sexual remarks her way. When people say "Grok is now a Nazi AI" they are simply stating a fact. From the muted manner in which X owner Elon Musk responded to the news ("Thank you for your contributions"), one might not have been able to grok that this was just the latest bit of bad news for the billionaire in what, by all accounts, has been a rather bad week for him.

Elon Musk-owned X's CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation in a surprise move, just months after the social media platform was acquired by the billionaire's AI startup, xAI. In a statement posted on the platform Wednesday, the former NBCUniversal advertising executive said she had "decided to step down as CEO of X" following what she described as "two incredible years" leading the company through a major transformation. After two incredible years, I've decided to step down as CEO of . When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. Yaccarino's departure from the social media company adds to the turbulence in Musk's sprawling business empire, including falling sales at his electric vehicle maker Tesla and artificial intelligence-related controversies.

The Engadget CES 2025 team has mostly arrived in Las Vegas, where we'll be covering tech's biggest annual conference. Our war room is open, the team has been seeing products and the coverage will ramp up in just a few short hours. Still, the show doesn't officially kick off for a couple of days, since the convention center is only truly open on January 7. But we'll have plenty of press conferences to cover tomorrow, and companies are already holding somewhat secretive briefings to preview their news. Based on our experience, as well as observation of recent industry trends, it's fairly easy to make educated predictions about what we might see here.

Time to get into the habit of writing "2025" instead of 2024, and the year may have just begun, but the Engadget team is already working hard for CES 2025. This weekend, many from the Engadget team will be flying to Las Vegas, where we'll be covering tech's biggest annual conference. We've scoured our bursting inboxes, full of pitches from companies that are planning to be there, and meticulously filled out copious spreadsheets with upcoming launches and appointments for briefings and demos. Based on our experience, as well as observation of recent industry trends, it's fairly easy to make educated predictions about what we might see in a few days. Over the years, the focus of the conference has spanned areas like TVs, cars, smart home products and personal health, with a smattering of laptops and accessories thrown in.

You might have thrown out the wrapping paper and are readying the drinks for the countdown to the new year, but some of us are already getting ready for CES 2025. Shortly after New Year's Day, many from the Engadget team will be packing our bags to fly to Las Vegas, where we'll be covering tech's biggest annual conference. As usual, our inboxes are already flooded with pitches from companies that are planning to be there, and our calendars are filling up with appointments for briefings and demos. Based on our experience, as well as observation of recent industry trends, it's fairly easy to make educated predictions about what we might see in January. Over the years, the focus of the conference has spanned areas like TVs, cars, smart home products and personal health, with a smattering of laptops and accessories thrown in.