Coinbase Says It’ll Replace Employees With Ai
Coinbase is following the biggest Silicon Valley trend since microdosing: announcing it's automating away jobs with AI. The crypto exchange Coinbase said yesterday that it is cutting 14% of its staff—equivalent to about 700 people—in part due to efficiency gains from AI.
While Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, said the company’s layoffs are a way to manage costs amid a crypto winter, he claimed AI will allow it to make due with fewer human workers:
- Armstrong said the company will rely on employees managing fleets of AI agents, and that it’s experimenting with one-person teams in which a single employee armed with AI performs the functions of engineers, designers, and product managers.
- He shared plans to reduce management layers to no more than five corporate rungs under the CEO.
Innovation or desperation?
Several tech companies, including Snap, Block, and Salesforce, recently said they’re reducing headcount due to AI automation. But some skeptics—including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—argue that many companies are “AI washing” layoffs, aka blaming cuts that would have happened anyway on AI. Critics say that spinning staff cuts as part of innovation or efficiency gains (rather than, you know, business problems) is meant to appeal to investors.
Big picture: Coinbase has had a rough go recently, as slumping crypto prices have reduced trading revenues.—SK
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