Elon Musk’s startup, xAI, simply reduce down its largest crew by a 3rd.
The AI startup laid off at the very least 500 staff on its 1,500-person information annotation crew on Friday night time, reviews Enterprise Insider. The transfer means the crew, which leads AI coaching, is all the way down to about 1,000 staff. The group is tasked with refining xAI’s chatbot, Grok, by educating it methods to contextualize information.
Associated: Elon Musk’s Corporations, X and xAI, Sue Apple and OpenAI for ‘Anticompetitive Scheme’
The corporate requested the crew’s staff to finish a collection of exams on Thursday night time that will assist classify them based mostly on their strengths and pursuits. The exams lined areas like coding, finance, and medication. Greater than 200 staff accomplished the exams, which had a Friday morning deadline, per BI.
On Friday night time, xAI notified some staff on the crew that they had been being laid off through e mail that mentioned the corporate was on the lookout for extra “specialist AI tutors,” with deep information of disciplines like science, expertise, and finance, and slicing again its employment of “basic AI tutor roles” with out that specialised information. Generalist AI tutors tackle a spread of broader duties, like annotating movies and writing assignments.
Associated: Elon Musk’s xAI Is Reportedly Set to Rent Hundreds of ‘AI Tutors’ With Pay As much as $65 an Hour
“This strategic pivot will take impact instantly,” the e-mail, which was obtained by BI, learn. “As a part of this shift in focus, we now not want most generalist AI tutor positions, and your employment with xAI will conclude.”
xAI CEO Elon Musk. Picture by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures
Employees had been instructed that they might lose entry to firm programs instantly, however that they might nonetheless be paid their salaries by way of both the tip of their contract or Nov. 30.
Amidst the layoffs, xAI continues to be hiring: The startup just lately marketed for open positions for specialist AI tutors. In a put up on X final week, xAI wrote that it was planning to “instantly” develop its specialist crew tenfold and was “hiring throughout domains” like medication and finance.
Specialist AI tutors at xAI are including enormous worth. We are going to instantly surge our Specialist AI tutor crew by 10x!
We’re hiring throughout domains like STEM, finance, medication, security, and plenty of extra. Come be part of us to assist construct truth-seeking AGI!https://t.co/htpc2RijLG
— xAI (@xai) September 13, 2025
xAI has been quickly rising its information annotation crew. Since February, the startup has added about 700 staff to the group. In keeping with xAI’s web site, compensation for AI tutor roles can vary from $45 to $100 per hour. The corporate had listed 13 open AI tutor positions on the time of writing.
The xAI layoffs observe a number of senior-level departures from the startup, together with the corporate’s former Chief Monetary Officer Mike Liberatore, who left on the finish of July. That very same month, xAI launched Grok 4, its most superior mannequin but, calling it the “most clever mannequin on the earth” with excessive efficiency on benchmark exams.
Elon Musk’s startup, xAI, simply reduce down its largest crew by a 3rd.
The AI startup laid off at the very least 500 staff on its 1,500-person information annotation crew on Friday night time, reviews Enterprise Insider. The transfer means the crew, which leads AI coaching, is all the way down to about 1,000 staff. The group is tasked with refining xAI’s chatbot, Grok, by educating it methods to contextualize information.
Associated: Elon Musk’s Corporations, X and xAI, Sue Apple and OpenAI for ‘Anticompetitive Scheme’
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