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A leadership shakeup is brewing within xAI’s data annotation team.
At least nine high-level employees appear to no longer be with the team. Their Slack accounts were deactivated over the weekend, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider.
The employees worked on the human data management team, which oversees the AI tutors who train Grok. Previously, the managerial ranks included around a dozen people, according to a review of LinkedIn profiles and workers with knowledge of the team. Several of the managers had posted Slack messages as recently as September 5.
One of the deactivated accounts was a member of the technical staff who oversaw the team’s managers, according to a screenshot seen by Business Insider. The employee had previously worked on Tesla’s Autopilot data annotation team.
A representative for xAI did not respond to a request for comment.
The data annotation team consists of more than 1,500 contract and full-time staff, a large portion of whom are AI tutors, according to a tally of the company’s internal Slack.
The company has also been scheduling one-on-one meetings with some employees, four workers said. In the meetings, workers have been asked to present their work and how they’ve added value to the company, the people said.
One worker told Business Insider that the meetings have created a “sense of panic.”
Unlike most AI companies, which often use third-party employment agencies, xAI hires many of its US tutors directly. This can provide the company with more control and privacy; it can also be more expensive.
XAI briefly outsourced some of its work to Scale AI, but ended the partnership earlier this year, Business Insider previously reported. XAI is also working with Mercor, a recruiting and data annotation services company. Mercor confirmed the arrangement but declined to comment.
The AI tutors play a crucial role in developing the company’s chatbot. They label, categorize, and contextualize raw data to teach Grok how to better understand the world. Though the team works in tandem with engineers, it uses a separate Slack, called TeachX, and has different email domains. Within TeachX, AI tutors are broken into specialized groups, including science, coding, and translation.
Earlier this year, the company planned to hire thousands of AI tutors, Business Insider previously reported. Since February, xAI has added around 700 workers to the data annotation team, according to a tally in the company’s Slack.
Musk’s AI company has nine roles listed for the data annotation team, including six AI tutor roles, with pay ranges between $35 and $80 per hour.
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