Elon Musk’s startup, xAI, simply minimize down its greatest workforce by a 3rd.
The AI startup laid off no less than 500 employees on its 1,500-person knowledge annotation workforce on Friday evening, stories Enterprise Insider. The transfer means the workforce, which leads AI coaching, is right down to about 1,000 employees. The group is tasked with refining xAI’s chatbot, Grok, by instructing it learn how to contextualize knowledge.
Associated: Elon Musk’s Firms, X and xAI, Sue Apple and OpenAI for ‘Anticompetitive Scheme’
The corporate requested the workforce’s staff to finish a sequence of assessments on Thursday evening that may assist classify them primarily based on their strengths and pursuits. The assessments coated areas like coding, finance, and medication. Greater than 200 staff accomplished the assessments, which had a Friday morning deadline, per BI.
On Friday evening, xAI notified some staff on the workforce that they had been being laid off by way of e-mail that mentioned the corporate was in search of extra “specialist AI tutors,” with deep information of disciplines like science, know-how, and finance, and reducing again its employment of “common 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 1000’s 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 Photographs
Employees had been advised that they’d lose entry to firm programs instantly, however that they’d nonetheless be paid their salaries via both the tip of their contract or Nov. 30.
Amidst the layoffs, xAI remains 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 workforce tenfold and was “hiring throughout domains” like medication and finance.
Specialist AI tutors at xAI are including large worth. We are going to instantly surge our Specialist AI tutor workforce by 10x!
We’re hiring throughout domains like STEM, finance, medication, security, and lots of extra. Come be a part of us to assist construct truth-seeking AGI!https://t.co/htpc2RijLG
— xAI (@xai) September 13, 2025
xAI has been quickly rising its knowledge annotation workforce. Since February, the startup has added about 700 staff to the group. In accordance 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 this planet” with excessive efficiency on benchmark assessments.
Elon Musk’s startup, xAI, simply minimize down its greatest workforce by a 3rd.
The AI startup laid off no less than 500 employees on its 1,500-person knowledge annotation workforce on Friday evening, stories Enterprise Insider. The transfer means the workforce, which leads AI coaching, is right down to about 1,000 employees. The group is tasked with refining xAI’s chatbot, Grok, by instructing it learn how to contextualize knowledge.
Associated: Elon Musk’s Firms, X and xAI, Sue Apple and OpenAI for ‘Anticompetitive Scheme’
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