xAI: 500 jobs cut across 1 verified AI-attributed event, 7 AI milestones. Verified from company statements and primary sources.
AI-attributed job cuts
Sep 13, 2025: 500 jobs. xAI laid off at least 500 workers from its data annotation team -- about one-third of its 1,500-person annotation division. Internal email: 'After a thorough review of our Human Data efforts, we've decided to accelerate the expansion and prioritization of our specialist AI tutors, while scaling back our focus on general AI tutor roles. This strategic pivot will take effect immediately.' Workers lost system access same day. xAI said it plans to 'surge our Specialist AI tutor team by 10x.' The data annotation team was xAI's largest division, responsible for training Grok chatbot.