Elon Musk’s xAI safety whisperer just became an advisor to Scale AI

He’s now an advisor to the company, according to his LinkedIn profile. Scale AI, which labels data for corporate customers to train their AI models, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hendrycks shared a statement about his new role: “We’ve been collaborating on research and evaluating the safety and capabilities of models over the past year,” he said. “As with other advisory roles, I don’t have any equity. This advisory role pays me 12x my xAI role—namely $12 a year instead of $1.”

Adding Hendrycks as an advisor gives Scale AI someone with connections throughout the AI industry. It also may help the company augment its ties to the Trump administration.

Scale AI already has a link through Michael Kratsios, the former chief technology officer in Trump’s first administration who later became the company’s managing director. Kratsios recently announced his departure from Scale AI to join Trump’s presidential transition team.

Meanwhile, Hendrycks is close to Musk, who supported Trump during his campaign and has since been appointed to head up a new Department of Government Efficiency. Hendrycks started advising Musk about AI safety when he founded xAI in 2023.

As founder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, Hendrycks is a leading advocate about the potential dangers of AI. Those risks include malicious actors developing bioweapons, more dangerous cyberattacks, and autonomous AI agents going rogue. 

Hendrycks made headlines this summer by playing a big role in drafting California’s SB-1047. The bill was meant to establish safety and regulatory standards for the development and deployment of advanced AI.

But the proposed legislation sparked fierce pushback from by the tech industry, including by billionaire investor Marc Andreessen and AI pioneer Fei Fei Li, over its potential to stifle innovation. California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who sponsored the bill, likened the debate to a “Jets vs. Sharks” feud.

The bill, which passed California’s state assembly and senate, was ultimately vetoed in September by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

During the negotiations related to SB-1047, Hendrycks was criticized for being an investor in Gray Swan AI, a company focused on developing tools to audit risks associated with AI models. Those critics alleged he had a conflict of interest because the bill would require impacted companies use auditing tools. In response, Hendrycks posted on X that he would divest from Gray Swan and continue his work as an unpaid advisor.