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

xAI, the company behind the AI model Grok, has reportedly laid off at least 500 workers from its data annotation team, which is responsible for categorizing and contextualizing raw data used to train Grok. The layoffs were announced via email on September 12th, and the affected employees were informed that their access to xAI's systems had been cut off, despite being paid until the end of their contracts on November 30th. In response, xAI has posted a call for specialist AI tutors, stating that it will "immediately surge [its] Specialist AI tutor team by 10x" and that it's hiring across STEM fields. These new hires will be tasked with enhancing the company's AI technologies through high-quality inputs, labels, and annotations using specialized software, including audio recordings and video sessions. The layoffs come amid several high-profile departures from xAI, including the company's chief financial officer. Elon Musk, the co-founder of xAI, has claimed that Grok 4, the latest version of the AI model, would perform exceptionally well on standardized tests and could potentially invent new technologies by the end of this year or next.