500 xAI Employees Let Go as Elon Musk’s Startup Shifts Focus to Specialist AI Tutors

In a surprising development, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, announced job cuts affecting approximately 500 employees on Friday evening. According to internal communications obtained by various media outlets, these layoffs are due to a strategic reorientation within the company.

The emails reportedly state that xAI aims to expedite the expansion and heighten the emphasis on specialized AI tutors while concurrently reducing focus on general AI tutor roles. The rationale for this shift is to bolster the team in specific domains such as STEM, finance, medicine, safety, and many more.

xAI reportedly communicated that, due to this strategic realignment, most generalist AI tutor positions are no longer required, thereby resulting in job terminations for these employees. It’s important to note that these layoffs represent approximately one-third of xAI’s 1,500-person data annotation team – the workforce responsible for labeling and preparing data utilized in training xAI’s chatbot, Grok.

When reached out for confirmation, xAI referred to a statement on X (the social network acquired by Musk earlier this year), stating that the company intends to expand its Specialist AI tutor team by tenfold. This strategic move is aimed at bolstering its capabilities across various domains and hiring new talent accordingly.