Elon Musk's xAI lays off workers tasked with training Grok
4 hours ago
- #layoffs
- #AI development
- #xAI
- XAI laid off about 500 workers from its data annotation team, reducing staff by a third.
- The layoffs are part of a strategic shift to prioritize specialist AI tutors over generalist roles.
- Workers were notified via email, with their employment ending immediately but paid through their contract or November 30.
- The data annotation team is crucial for developing Grok, teaching the chatbot to contextualize and categorize raw data.
- XAI plans to increase its specialist AI tutor team by 10x, hiring across domains like STEM, finance, and medicine.
- Workers were given short notice to complete tests to determine their future roles, covering various specialties and safety improvements.
- Diego Pasini, the new team leader, oversaw the reorganization and testing process.
- Some workers expressed frustration with the short notice for tests, and one worker's Slack account was deactivated after complaining.
- The layoffs followed the deactivation of several senior-level employees' Slack accounts earlier in the week.