Elon Musk’s startup, xAI, simply reduce down its greatest staff by a 3rd.
The AI startup laid off a minimum of 500 staff on its 1,500-person knowledge annotation staff on Friday evening, reviews Enterprise Insider. The transfer means the staff, 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 instructing it how one can contextualize knowledge.
Associated: Elon Musk’s Firms, X and xAI, Sue Apple and OpenAI for ‘Anticompetitive Scheme’
The corporate requested the staff’s workers to finish a collection of exams on Thursday evening that may assist classify them primarily based on their strengths and pursuits. The exams coated areas like coding, finance, and drugs. Greater than 200 workers accomplished the exams, which had a Friday morning deadline, per BI.
On Friday evening, xAI notified some workers on the staff that they had been being laid off through e mail that stated the corporate was in search of extra “specialist AI tutors,” with deep information of disciplines like science, expertise, and finance, and chopping again its employment of “normal 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 Photos
Staff had been advised that they’d lose entry to firm programs instantly, however that they’d 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 submit on X final week, xAI wrote that it was planning to “instantly” develop its specialist staff tenfold and was “hiring throughout domains” like drugs and finance.
Specialist AI tutors at xAI are including enormous worth. We are going to instantly surge our Specialist AI tutor staff by 10x!
We’re hiring throughout domains like STEM, finance, drugs, security, and lots 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 knowledge annotation staff. Since February, the startup has added about 700 workers to the group. In response to 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 comply with 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 greatest staff by a 3rd.
The AI startup laid off a minimum of 500 staff on its 1,500-person knowledge annotation staff on Friday evening, reviews Enterprise Insider. The transfer means the staff, 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 instructing it how one can contextualize knowledge.
Associated: Elon Musk’s Firms, X and xAI, Sue Apple and OpenAI for ‘Anticompetitive Scheme’
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