In another sign that AI skeptics’ warnings about massive job cuts and the devaluation of human expertise are fast becoming reality, Elon Musk‘s xAI has slashed 500 people from its data-annotation team and placed a 2023 high-school graduate who got his job by winning a hackathon in charge, Business Insider reported.
Diego Pasini, who only joined xAI in January 2025, was promoted to lead the important AI-training team as its size has been cut by 40%, according to BI.
In a process reminiscent of other Musk-led ventures, such as the Department of Government Efficiency and his takeover of what was then known as Twitter, Pasini reportedly has engaged in fast-paced one-on-one interviews that require workers to quickly justify their worth to the organization, per BI.
After the xAI data-annotation team cut 500 out of 1,500 roles, Pasini said that no more staff reductions would take place. Afterward, a further 100 people were let go, Business Insider reported.
While relatively little has been known about Pasini given his youth and lack of experience, a profile from a 2024 fellowship at the Contrary, an investment firm, said that Pasini was “excited about the future of robotics and hard tech startups,” per BI.
Like so many Musk acolytes, Pasini appeared to have captured the billionaire’s attention with a Sept. 2, 2025 post that both boasted of Musk’s purported greatness while also lambasting his critics.
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“Anyone with half a brain knows that all of Elon’s companies are in their infancy,” Pasini posted to X.
After Pasini’s praising post, Musk began following his account, according to Business Insider. Within weeks, Pasini had been put in charge of the hugely influential data-annotation team.
In addition to fears of massive job losses, AI critics also have pointed to increased wealth inequality, devalued human expertise, and environmental costs as problems presented by the rapidly expanding technology.
The company’s AI data center in Memphis has been the focus of particularly sharp criticism in this regard, with area residents complaining of increased asthma reports amid the center’s lack of emissions controls on its methane gas turbines. That air pollution also continues into the upper atmosphere and contributes to the trapping of planetary heat, like an invisible blanket of gas that slows Earth’s normal heat dissipation rates.
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While xAI may have intentions to address its pollution in time, with Musk more supportive of renewable energy than most tech CEOs, the race to the top has led most companies in the industry to take aggressive and somewhat ruthless operational postures. Relatedly, when two xAI workers questioned Pasini’s lacking management credentials on the company’s Slack channel, they were apparently dismissed within hours, BI reported.
“The AI dream is that someday, no human skill will be necessary,” Katrina Ingram, a data ethicist, wrote in a 2024 piece for Dataversity. “It will all be automated.”
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