LogInTwo weeks after layoffs, Microsoft still can't read the room.
While I'm by no means a philosopher and can't say with absolute certainty when a big-league tech company's disregard for public opinion becomes an outright insult, I think the situation Xbox – and, by extension, Microsoft – has recently found itself in would certainly qualify.
Less than two weeks after firing thousands of people, the company is now promoting new job openings using an AI-generated image, which, given that many of those layoffs were reportedly due to AI replacing human roles, has been widely seen not just as tone-deaf, but as a slap in the face to both the ex-workers who were affected and those who fear they might be next.
The promo in question was shared over the past weekend by Mike Matsel, a Principal Development Lead at Xbox Graphics, who posted a couple of open positions on LinkedIn. What really grinded the gears of many wasn't even the fact that Xbox was hiring new people right after firing thousands, but Matsel's use of an AI-generated image for the advert – and not even a convincing one at that, featuring a monitor display on the back of the monitor.
In response, dozens of LinkedIn users – typically the most polite and non-confrontational social media crowd you can find – tore into both Matsel and Xbox for their utter failure to read the room, pointing out the irony of an Xbox Graphics Lead sharing AI slop. As of this writing, the post is still up, so feel free to judge the community's opinion for yourself by clicking this link.
Here's the gist though:
Unfunnily enough, this isn't even the first time Microsoft has spit in the community's face by pushing its AI agenda amid mass layoffs. Just recently, Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios for about 15 years, advised affected employees on LinkedIn to turn to AI for help, drawing a very similar backlash and quickly deleting his post.
And it wasn't just the community's face, as according to some reports, Xbox invited developers to an open discussion on artificial intelligence on the very same day it carried out mass layoffs. One can only imagine how it feels to sit through a lecture on the benefits of AI while watching your colleagues pack up their desks around you.
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