Investing.com -- Elon Musk's xAI has stopped hiring professionals to train its Grok chatbot, according to a Wednesday report by Bloomberg. The pause marks a change in how the artificial intelligence company develops its technology.

Since January, xAI has worked to recruit accountants, finance experts, scientists and comedians to teach Grok specialized skills ranging from taxes to humor. The company aimed to expand the chatbot's capabilities. This approach differs from competitors who typically use large numbers of contractors from third-party firms for training and improving their AI models.

The company's decision to stop hiring for these positions, called AI tutors internally, stems partly from concerns that its human resources department cannot handle the volume of new candidates, the report said.

The hiring freeze is temporary and the company may resume recruitment later, according to the report. The pause follows recent changes on xAI's human data team, which includes hundreds of AI tutors in the United States and other markets who work on improving Grok's responses across different topics.

The company laid off several AI tutors in the fall, many of whom were generalists. XAI then shifted focus toward hiring specialists for data-labeling work. Another round of layoffs occurred in early March, which also affected other teams at the company.