xAI Reportedly Laid Off at Least 500 AI Tutors Working on Grok

xAI reportedly laid off at least 500 AI tutors working on Grok

Elon Musk’s xAI, the company behind the Grok AI, has reportedly laid off at least 500 workers from its data annotation team. This team, said to be xAI’s largest, was responsible for the vital task of categorizing and contextualizing the raw data used to train Grok, helping it better understand the world.

According to Business Insider, the affected employees, often referred to as general AI tutors, were informed via email on the evening of September 12th that their team was being downsized. While they were told their salaries would continue until their contracts ended on November 30th, their access to xAI’s systems was cut off immediately after they received the notification.

When Reuters sought a comment from the company, xAI referred them to a post on X. In this post, xAI announced a shift in strategy, stating it would “immediately surge [its] Specialist AI tutor team by 10x” and actively hire across various STEM fields. These new specialist tutors will focus on “enhancing [the company’s] AI technologies through high-quality inputs, labels and annotations using specialized software.” Their work will involve gathering and providing data, not only in text but also through audio recordings and video sessions.

As Reuters highlighted, these layoffs come on the heels of several high-profile departures from xAI, including that of the company’s chief financial officer, Mike Liberatore. The news also follows the July launch of Grok 4, which Elon Musk confidently declared to be the “smartest AI in the world.” During the model’s unveiling, Musk claimed Grok 4 could achieve near-perfect results on tests like the SATs and GREs, even answering questions it had never seen before. He also proclaimed that Grok was poised to invent new technology potentially later this year, and expressed he would be “shocked” if it didn’t happen by next year.