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- "I love my two toddlers and I don't get to see them enough," xAI's Robert Keele posted.
- The former general counsel wrote that working for Elon Musk was "the adventure of a lifetime."
- Lily Lim is now leading legal at the Musk-led startup.
Robert Keele, who headed legal at Elon Musk's xAI, has left the startup, crediting a desire to spend more time with his family.
"I love my two toddlers and I don't get to see them enough," he posted on Tuesday.
Keele described his experience at xAI as "incredible" and said working with Musk was the "adventure of a lifetime."
That wasn't enough, though, to keep him at xAI, with Keele saying he felt he couldn't keep "riding two horses at once — the family and the job."
"Time to pick one," he wrote.
Keele was brought on by xAI back in May 2024 after a career in law at Airbus and other companies, Bloomberg reported at the time, noting he had also worked as a plumber, musician, and insurance agent.
Lily Lim, who previously headed privacy, IP protection, and other legal affairs at xAI, posted that she is now heading legal at xAI.
Lim and xAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Keele declined to comment.
Working for Elon Musk isn't for everyone. The CEO is well-known for expecting employees to work long hours and for sleeping inside his own offices.
Keele is one of the top employees at Musk's companies to depart in recent months. X CEO Linda Yaccarino left the social media company last month. Musk has lost at least four of his direct reports at Tesla since June.
Keele oversaw xAI's legal affairs during a busy time for the startup, which merged in April with the social network X — formerly known as Twitter — in a deal valuing the combined entity at $113 billion.
xAI is also being countersued by OpenAI after Elon Musk sued the rival AI startup to block its attempted non-profit conversion, plans it has adjusted.
In the post announcing his departure, Keele included an AI-generated video of a man in a business suit shoveling coal into a furnace labeled "xAI."
He said he'd asked xAI's chatbot, Grok, "what's it like to lead legal at xAI," and may have also mentioned shoveling coal. He ended his announcement with the word, "lulz."
