Elon Musk’s xAI laid off at least 500 workers on its data annotation team on Friday night.
Related stories Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know The layoff notices were sent out only a few days after several senior-level employees, including the team’s former head, recently had their Slack accounts deactivated, Business Insider reported earlier this week.
In the days that followed, workers were pulled into one-on-ones to review their responsibilities, projects, and achievements, nine workers told Business Insider.
XAI told workers on Thursday night to prepare for a reorganization of the data annotation team.
One worker expressed frustration with the short time span that was given for the tests, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.
At least 500 employees of Elon Musk’s xAI’s data annotation team were let go on Friday night.
According to multiple emails seen by Business Insider, the company informed staff members that it intended to reduce the number of generalist AI tutors on staff.
Following a careful analysis of our Human Data initiatives, we have made the decision to reduce our emphasis on general AI tutor positions while increasing the number and priority of our specialized AI tutors. This strategic change will be implemented right away,” the email stated. We no longer need the majority of generalist AI tutor positions as a result of this change in emphasis, and your employment with xAI will end. “.
An associated video.
The impact AI has on independent contractors who develop, test, and improve it.
Workers were informed that their access to company systems would be terminated on the day of the layoff notice, but that they would still receive payment until the end of their contract or November 30.
xAI’s biggest team is the data annotation team. In order to teach the chatbot how to comprehend the world by contextualizing and classifying raw data, the employees are crucial to the development of Grok.
Data annotators’ primary Slack room had over 1,500 members on Friday afternoon; screenshots Business Insider saw Friday night revealed that number had dropped to just over 1,000, and it continued to drop as the story was being reported.
A representative for xAI pointed Business Insider to a post on X stating that the company intends to “surge our Specialist AI tutor team by 10x,” and provided a link to available positions on its careers page.
Associated narratives.
You can learn about the cutting-edge stories you’re interested in from Business Insider.
The cutting-edge stories you’re interested in are covered by Business Insider.
Just a few days after Business Insider revealed earlier this week that a number of senior-level staff members, including the team’s former leader, had their Slack accounts deactivated, the layoff notices were distributed.
Employees were gathered in one-on-one meetings to discuss their tasks, projects, and accomplishments in the days that followed, nine employees told Business Insider. When asked if they had any colleagues they would like to recognize for their diligence, the employees responded.
Workers were informed by XAI on Thursday evening to get ready for a data annotation team reorganization.
The company asked some employees to put everything on hold and concentrate on a set of tests that would determine their future roles at the company. The employees were asked to finish the tests by Friday morning West Coast time, the company announced in a team-wide announcement on Thursday night. A screenshot seen by Business Insider shows that the tests would be used to rank annotators and their supervisors according to their interests and strengths.
Diego Pasini posted the notice asking tutors to get ready for the test; according to ten employees, he recently took over as team leader. Pasini requested that employees complete a minimum of one test by the next day. Along with more unusual specialties like Grok’s “personality and model behavior” and “shitposters and doomscrollers,” the tests also covered more conventional fields like STEM, coding, finance, and medicine. “..”.
The business also provided tests for audio and video content, as well as tests for employees looking to enhance the chatbot’s security, such as by “red teaming” the bot.
Pasini’s LinkedIn profile states that he joined xAI in January. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is “on leave” from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where he is an undergraduate.
A request for comment from Pasini and a xAI representative was not immediately answered.
According to the announcement, supervisors and generalist tutors were the target audience for the tests. XAI splits its teams into STEM, coding, finance, legal, and media specialties. It also has a sizable pool of generalist tutors who are given a variety of tasks, such as writing and annotating audio and video.
The STEM and coding tests were administered via CodeSignal, a platform for skills assessments, according to two employees, while other tests were administered via Google Forms.
According to a screenshot seen by Business Insider, more than 100 employees left comments and questions on the post, and more than 200 employees replied to Pasini’s message with a green checkmark emoji.
A screenshot that Business Insider saw shows that one employee was upset about the limited amount of time allotted for the tests.
The worker wrote, “It’s a little shady to do this after people have gone home for the day.”. According to several employees, the worker’s Slack account was deactivated soon after.
Update: September 13, 2025 — A statement from xAI has been added to this article.
