xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, reportedly laid off 500 employees Friday night, a move impacting roughly one-third of its 1,500-person data annotation team, according to internal messages viewed by Business Insider.
The cuts come as xAI undergoes a “strategic pivot” to prioritize the progress of specialized AI tutors, shifting away from general AI tutor roles. “As part of this shift in focus, we no longer need most generalist AI tutor positions and your employment with xAI will conclude,” the company reportedly communicated to affected employees.
Data annotators are crucial to training AI models like xAI’s chatbot, Grok, by labeling and preparing the data used in its development. xAI confirmed the changes, stating via a post on X (formerly Twitter, a platform xAI acquired earlier this year) that it plans to “immediately surge our Specialist AI tutor team by 10x.”
The company indicated it is indeed actively hiring specialists in fields including STEM, finance, medicine, and safety.
