Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence Venture, XAI, allegedly placed at least 500 employees from its data anotation team, which is a group responsible for teaching their headline chatbot, groc. The widespread total report reported by Business Insider first, the AI ​​race marks the latest twist in the high-day of Musk to challenge the dominance of Big Tech.

According to the report, the employees were informed late on Friday evening via email that the company was reducing its team of the so -called “Generalist AI Tutors”. These tutors make the spinal cord of growth of groukes, relevant and classified raw data efficiently and classify the chatbot in ways that feel intelligent, relevant and, significantly, entertaining.

XAI itself refused to offer a direct comment, but instead pointed to a post on X. In this, the company insisted that he was hiring in the domain and was intended to develop its expert AI tutor team by “10X”.

For those people, the news came with a sting. Workers were told that they would be paid till the end of their contracts or by 30 November, but the access to internal systems was immediately cut. Slack messages viewed by Business Insider showed that accounts related to at least nine senior employees were neutralized over the weekend.

This was not just a case of rank-end-filing job loss: some of the affected people were part of the human data management team, there was a 1,500-fabric network of employees and contractors, which effectively creating AI tuitioning division of XAI. According to the company’s own career page, their work, usually pays $ 35 to $ 65 per hour.

One of the managers whose account had disappeared, one of the first anotation units looked at other leaders – and even brought experience from Tesla Autopylot Division of Musk.

What does a data anotator really do? In short, they help the grouke understand the nuances. Tutor systems feed examples, evaluate reactions, and classify information so that AI can improve over time. But the job did not remain without controversy. Earlier this year, Business Insider revealed that some tutors were asked to scan their faces for AI training purposes, a request that made many people feel uncomfortable.

Now, with hundreds, reports suggest that the process is being restructured. Many employees told the publication that they were called for one meetings with observers. During those sit-down, they were quizzed on what they are “working and how they are adding value to XAI.”

The approach echoes the reputation of the musc for hard internal reviews. As a source took a pinch, it had the same grilling style shades, which he deployed earlier this year, serving Donald Trump’s Presidential Administration.

Executive exit and corporate flow

Time is striking. Only weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Mike Libertor, Zai’s finance head, went quietly in the post after a few months in the post. His departure followed a pattern familiar in Musk’s companies, where the leadership turnover is often accompanied by dramatic strategic changes.

Musk launched XAI in 2023, put it in position as a rival to Openai, Google, and Ethropic, and prepared it as a bulk against what he has seen as twin sins of Silicon Valley: “Excessive censorship and Lux ​​security standards.” Its major composition, grouke, is infamous on social media for its irreversible, sometimes abrasive personality.

While the sorting has shocked the employees, Musk’s camp is eager to present the move not as a retreat but in the form of recurrence. By reducing the dependence on generalists and having on the ramp for domain experts, the company hopes to refine the grouke rapidly and more effectively.

Nevertheless, optics are Starc. In less than two years, XAI has moved from the scrippi upstart to the heavyweight rival – but its heart raises questions about churning stability.