Elon Musk’s xAI lays off 500 employees: report

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has laid off at least 500 employees from its data annotation team, according to a recent report by Business Insider. The workers, who help train the company's Grok chatbot, were notified of the decision by email on Friday.

The data annotation team is xAI's largest workforce and is responsible for teaching Grok to interpret and categorise raw data. As per the report, affected employees were told they would be paid until the end of their contract or November 30, but their access to company systems was revoked immediately.

In response to the report, xAI posted on X that it is still actively hiring across multiple domains and plans to expand its specialist AI tutor team by "10X". This suggests a strategic shift from generalist roles toward more specialised positions.

The layoffs follow the recent departure of xAI's chief financial officer, Mike Liberatore, who left the company in July after only a few months in the role.

Musk founded xAI in 2023 to compete with established AI companies, promising fewer restrictions and stronger safety standards.