Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI fired 500 employees on Friday night through email, cutting one-third of its data annotation team while promising to hire specialists. The layoffs hit workers who train the company’s Grok chatbot. These workers teach Grok how to understand the world by sorting and labeling information. XAI launched in 2023 to compete with major tech companies’ AI efforts. The company recently released Grok 4, which Musk calls the “smartest AI in the world.” XAI also plans to open a new Seattle office.