--- title: "Elon Musk Appears to Now Be Firing the People Behind Grok" description: "It appears that Elon Musk is firing the people tasked with training Grok, his \"maximum truth-seeking\" chatbot." date: "2025-09-12" modified: "2025-09-12" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-firing-grok-team" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" - "xAI" tags: - "elon musk" - "grok" - "twitter" - "xai" --- # Elon Musk Appears to Now Be Firing the People Behind Grok ![It appears that Elon Musk is firing the people tasked with training Grok, his "maximum truth-seeking" chatbot.]() *\Image: Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic for HBO / Getty / Futurism\* After vowing to create a "[maximum truth-seeking]()" AI, Elon Musk appears to now be sacking the people who built it for him. Slack screenshots [leaked to *Business Insider*]() show that the accounts of at least nine high-level employees with the data annotation team at xAI, Musk's OpenAI competitor, were deactivated over the weekend, in what seems like a major culling at the lab that built the social network's infamous chatbot, Grok. Those people, who weren't named by *BI*, previously worked on the human data management team that oversaw the 1,500 or so workers and contractors that made up xAI's "AI tutor" team, which is essentially tasked with training Grok how to be more intelligent for anywhere from $35 to $65 per hour,[ per the company's career page]() . As [*BI* reported earlier this year](), those tutors have, to their chagrin, occasionally been asked to scan their faces for AI training purposes. Sifting through LinkedIn profiles associated with the names of the employees whose profiles had been deactivated, the website identified roughly a dozen people who had worked on Grok's human data managerial team. Many of them had posted on Slack as recently as September 5, the article notes. Among those whose Slacks were deactivated was a supervisor who oversaw the rest of the managers, *BI* continued — and they worked on data annotation at Tesla's Autopilot division prior to joining xAI. Along with those Slack deactivations, multiple employees told the website that workers have been individually called in for meetings with supervisors. In those one-on-ones, the workers have been asked — much like when Musk was [working in Donald Trump's presidential administration]() earlier this year — what they've been working on and how they add value to xAI. Those meetings, one worker old *BI*, have caused a "sense of panic" among the tutors. xAI didn't respond to *BI*'s request for comment, a [common practice](). Grok has been the subject of numerous scandals in recent months, including the "MechaHitler" debacle [earlier this summer]() when the chatbot started targeting people deemed to have Jewish-sounding names, using racial slurs, and calling for a second Holocaust. Were those managers fired for letting Grok go off the rails so badly? Or is Musk scaling down for some other reason? We'll have to wait and see — but we'll be watching. More on Grok: [*Elon Musk's Grok AI Spread Ludicrous Misinformation After Charlie Kirk's Shooting, Saying Kirk Survived and Video Was Fake*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()