> The company supplies some workers with company-issued Chromebooks, but many workers use their personal devices for the role
This is the crux of the issue - xAI allows employees to use personal laptops for corporate work.
This is a MASSIVE breach of internal security operations. Either mandate no personal laptop use or require VDI to access corporate resources.
> In the lead up to the roll-out, tutors were initially told that the company had run out of Chromebooks, and it was unclear when they would be restocked, people familiar with the guidance told BI
This is just pure sloppiness from their IT org, who are likely dealing with some amount of micromanagement from up the leadership chain.
-----------
It really isn't that expensive to procure corporate laptops from an MSP like WWT, especially for a firm like xAI that is trying to raise a round at a $200B valuation. There's a reason Musk was managed out of PayPal fairly early. Even Peter Thiel couldn't stand him.
beng-nl 18 days ago [-]
For those who, like me, couldn’t parse “VDI,” it likely means virtual desktop infrastructure, which makes sense - security concerns of using a personal laptop are largely mitigated if Remote Desktop sessions are used for corporate work and no local software js used for corporate work and the OS has limited visibility in corporate data.
buyucu 18 days ago [-]
Who uses a Chromebook for dev work? No surprise employees want to bring in their own laptops.
waltercool 18 days ago [-]
[dead]
gammalost 18 days ago [-]
Why would they not use a company laptop in the first place?
"They ran out" is no excuse
nyarlathotep_ 18 days ago [-]
> The company supplies some workers with company-issued Chromebooks, but many workers use their personal devices for the role
How is this even a thing? Are there seriously employees at a "tech company" bringing their own hardware? This is madness
browningstreet 18 days ago [-]
People willing to work for Musk are probably willing to put up with more adverse conditions than is usual or standard at other orgs.
b3ing 18 days ago [-]
They are mostly visa workers so it’s not like they have much choice, if they don’t they go back to their country
cedws 18 days ago [-]
I rarely see this talked about - that H1B inherently creates a power imbalance in favour of the employer. It enables them to stomp on workers’ rights and pay less. All according to plan I’m sure.
rchaud 18 days ago [-]
Seems to be an issue in the tech industry more so than elsewhere. H1Bs are common in investment banking, management consulting, science labs, university jobs, really any sector where foreign graduates of US universities are hired.
beng-nl 18 days ago [-]
Not disagreeing with the imbalance, but I know about it (I don’t live in USA) because I’ve seen it discussed on HN and other discussion forums quite a few times.
cbsks 18 days ago [-]
I’m surprised that a “tech company” provides a Chromebook instead of a laptop.
bubblethink 18 days ago [-]
Probably the most secure client system you can get these days. The purpose of the laptop is to ssh.
ankurdhama 18 days ago [-]
ChromeOS is more than enough for lots of roles. Even for devs (backend, web and android etc) it should be good enough if you have good enough CPU, RAM and storage.
atoav 18 days ago [-]
Sure and water is enough for hydration so their cafeteria has no actual coffee or what.
If you'd force me (a dev used to work on a blazingly fast Linux machine) to use this I'd just be inclined to look for a job elsewhere. Not sure if that was in your interest as a corp.
Asraelite 18 days ago [-]
Do you not consider a Chromebook to be a type of laptop? Is that because of the form factor or the OS?
aiddun 17 days ago [-]
I'm under the impression from the article that these are for the people RLHFing the model, not the engineers
jofla_net 18 days ago [-]
Not really, I was at a small one which allowed it, it was bliss, although I used a company one. In the end, when it folded, i bought it from them.
bravetraveler 18 days ago [-]
It's not a great line to blur for either side of the business, IMO. Property issues all the way down with power imbalance for flavor. For brevity I'll gloss over the security/liability concerns for BYOD/them...
Here's my anecdote: had to prove I didn't use what was their hardware to create something I released for free. I lost more in frustration alone than that saved. Nevermind the postage.
Time and place matters, as always.
They can provide what they want to monitor. Now: I'll buy a discount device, I won't offer my own.
Quadruple for phones. Say the business wants to call outside of work. It can afford differential, payment for that device, and the plan to connect it. I'll still choose when it's on, human after all.
rsynnott 18 days ago [-]
I mean, it's run by _Elon Musk_; I'm not sure why you'd expect it to be run competently.
I mean, they could just choose to work elsewhere, but they chose to be morally bankrupt to work at xAI, so they can just accept the software and move on?
This should be the least of their problems these days, given waves hands at Grok. The overinflated paychecks make up for the lack of ethics.
bn-l 17 days ago [-]
Why is it “morally bankrupt” to work at xAi?
angst 18 days ago [-]
> The company has said it will only use the system to monitor URL and application visits during designated work hours, according to the document. According to its website, Hubstaff can also track mouse movement and keystrokes.
> "This new tool serves to streamline work processes, provide clearer insights into daily tutoring activities, and ensure resources align with Human Data priorities," the company's human resources team said in a mass email to employees.
> The software, which requires workers to clock in and out, would not track activity on the laptop outside of work hours, the document said.
very well intended (smh)
18 days ago [-]
v5v3 18 days ago [-]
Elon Musk declared that none of his employees could work remotely. So this is an admission that he has failed to achieve this goal.
jerrygenser 18 days ago [-]
I think this is like mass data labelers, including in other countries or other low cost areas.
waltercool 18 days ago [-]
[dead]
another_twist 18 days ago [-]
[flagged]
beardedmoose 18 days ago [-]
I know right, flooding in Texas and we are still talking about this creep?
ETH_start 18 days ago [-]
A sensationalist headline intended to get clicks from the anti-Musk zeitgeist
17 days ago [-]
Rendered at 05:16:29 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
This is the crux of the issue - xAI allows employees to use personal laptops for corporate work.
This is a MASSIVE breach of internal security operations. Either mandate no personal laptop use or require VDI to access corporate resources.
> In the lead up to the roll-out, tutors were initially told that the company had run out of Chromebooks, and it was unclear when they would be restocked, people familiar with the guidance told BI
This is just pure sloppiness from their IT org, who are likely dealing with some amount of micromanagement from up the leadership chain.
-----------
It really isn't that expensive to procure corporate laptops from an MSP like WWT, especially for a firm like xAI that is trying to raise a round at a $200B valuation. There's a reason Musk was managed out of PayPal fairly early. Even Peter Thiel couldn't stand him.
"They ran out" is no excuse
How is this even a thing? Are there seriously employees at a "tech company" bringing their own hardware? This is madness
If you'd force me (a dev used to work on a blazingly fast Linux machine) to use this I'd just be inclined to look for a job elsewhere. Not sure if that was in your interest as a corp.
Here's my anecdote: had to prove I didn't use what was their hardware to create something I released for free. I lost more in frustration alone than that saved. Nevermind the postage.
Time and place matters, as always.
They can provide what they want to monitor. Now: I'll buy a discount device, I won't offer my own.
Quadruple for phones. Say the business wants to call outside of work. It can afford differential, payment for that device, and the plan to connect it. I'll still choose when it's on, human after all.
This should be the least of their problems these days, given waves hands at Grok. The overinflated paychecks make up for the lack of ethics.
> "This new tool serves to streamline work processes, provide clearer insights into daily tutoring activities, and ensure resources align with Human Data priorities," the company's human resources team said in a mass email to employees.
> The software, which requires workers to clock in and out, would not track activity on the laptop outside of work hours, the document said.
very well intended (smh)