Ask HN: If AI makes your devs super productive, why layoff?

6 pointsparpfish10d ago3 comments

The recent news about the massive layoff at Block doesn’t quite add up for me.

The claim by the company was that AI made their devs so efficient that they could layoff 40% of them to make the company lean and still maintain the core product.

But why don’t you just keep all those super productive devs and expand into new products/verticals? You could keep your same profit margins plus have 100 random little ai-powered mission-aligned startups under your control.

I’m worried that everybody is going to use “AI is making us efficient” as a cover story for needing to slash expenses as the recession kicks in. This is worse than simply being in denial about a recession because it’ll have the effect of further inflating the AI bubble.

Am I just being paranoid?

3 comments

xyzzy12310d ago

Hi, companies over-hired. A problem at big companies is that staff create the need for more staff. You end up with lots of weird situations like departments creating work for each other that doesn't benefit the customer.

Also more mature businesses are different from startups. A mature business would not know what to do with "100 random little ai-powered mission-aligned startups under your control.", in fact that typically reads to management as chaos.

skillcrypt10d ago

That just means the core could have been maintained by less staff beforehand.

downrightmike10d ago

More money gained in lobbying vs making a good product?

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