xAI, the company founded by Elon Musk, has laid off around 500 workers from its data annotation team, representing roughly one-third of the division.
According to Business Insider, the move is part of a strategic shift to prioritize specialized AI tutors over generalist roles. In an internal email, the company stated that the pivot “takes effect immediately.”
Employees were informed they would continue to be paid until November 30, but their access to company systems was cut off on the day of the notice.
The data annotation team was the company’s largest, responsible for training the Grok chatbot. In the days leading up to the layoffs, workers were subjected to tests in areas such as STEM, programming, and finance to assess strengths and determine future roles.
Despite the cuts, xAI posted on X that it plans to “increase our specialized AI tutor team by 10 times” and has opened new positions on its careers page.
Source: Business Insider
