Elon Musk’s AI company xAI has recently laid off nearly 500 employees, but at the same time, it has assigned an important role to 20-year-old student Diego Pasini. Pasini, who graduated from high school in 2023, is currently studying Computer Science and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, though he is presently on leave. Just eight months after finishing high school, he joined xAI and now leads the team training the AI chatbot ‘Grok’.

According to media reports, only last week nine senior executives were let go from the company. xAI’s data annotation team initially had 1,500 members, but after multiple rounds of layoffs in September, the workforce has shrunk to about 900. Pasini was officially given leadership responsibilities in early September, and during a meeting with all employees on September 15, it was clarified that no further layoffs would take place. He also held one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss his role in the company.

Pasini’s entry into xAI came after he won a hackathon in San Francisco. He had previously held a fellowship at the investment firm Contreras and studied at the prestigious Pingry School. A few days ago, Elon Musk began following Pasini on social media. However, according to reports, when two employees questioned Pasini’s qualifications, their accounts were suspended within hours.