According to Business Insider, Xai has fired at least 500 workers from the company’s largest data annotation team. The annotation team is responsible for classifying and contextualizing the raw data used to train GROKs, ensuring a better understanding of the world. Layoff employees will be notified via email on the evening of September 12th Friday, Business Insider said they will be reducing their team of general AI tutors. They were told they would be paid until their contract ended on November 30th, but access to Xai’s system was cut off after receiving notification.
When Reuters asked the company for comment, it mentioned X’s post and instead posted a call to a professional AI tutor. Xai said “the team of (ITS) specialist AI tutors will soon be surged by 10 times,” and that it is hiring across the STEM field. As professional tutors, new recruits “enhance (the company) AI technology through high-quality input, labels and annotations using specialized software.” It collects data and provides its own uniqueness, not just through text formats, but also through audio recordings and video sessions.
As Reuters pointed out, the layoffs come after a prominent departure from Xai, including the company’s chief financial officer, Mike Riveratore. The company launched Grok 4 in July and calls it “the smartest AI in the world.” Elon Musk in the model claimed that taking Grok 4 to SAT and GRES approaches perfect results every time and answers questions you’ve never seen before. He also declared that Grok will invent new technology later this year.
