Elon Musk's xAI has paused hiring of "AI tutors" used to train its Grok chatbot, people familiar with the matter said. Since early this year xAI had been recruiting accountants, finance specialists, scientists and comedians to teach Grok skills from tax knowledge to humor to broaden the bot's appeal, an approach that differs from rivals that mainly rely on large contractor pools. Sources said the pause — roles internally labeled "AI tutors" — is at least partly due to concerns HR could not handl

2026-06-03

Elon Musk's xAI has paused hiring of "AI tutors" used to train its Grok chatbot, people familiar with the matter said. Since early this year xAI had been recruiting accountants, finance specialists, scientists and comedians to teach Grok skills from tax knowledge to humor to broaden the bot's appeal, an approach that differs from rivals that mainly rely on large contractor pools. Sources said the pause — roles internally labeled "AI tutors" — is at least partly due to concerns HR could not handle the hiring volume. The company cut multiple AI tutors last autumn, shifted to hiring data‑labeling staff, and carried out another round of layoffs in early March, with additional team reductions reported.