Comment by vdnkh

1 day ago

This email was 100% AI generated. I just edited a similar sentence from a claude code doc I'm writing - "we're not just X, we're fundamentally Y" is an obvious tell. I guess he's putting his money where his mouth is

Who cares? If you're getting laid off, the only thing that really matters is the severance package.

Its all lip service - either AI generated or hand written.

  • > If you're getting laid off, the only thing that really matters is the severance package.

    I don't think this is true. Humans typically prefer "thanks for the hard work, here's your severance" to "you suck, here's your severance, loser."

    Humans like being treated with respect, and words are a big part of that. Money is nice, but it's not the only thing we care about.

    • The difference between the "thanks" email and the "loser" email is that the second one is intentionally disrespectful.

      I'm not convinced a polite but AI-written email hits the same note. At the very least it's unintentionally disrespectful, which isn't a direct challenge. Your boss doesn't care enough to write an email by hand, but also doesn't care enough to burn bridges and insult you.

      6 replies →

    • But what if was "Thanks for the hard work, here's your legal minimum severance" vs "You suck, here's a lavish severance so you don't ever come back"?

  • There are other audiences, too.

    One group are the ones who are staying. They lose teammates, they have to restructure work and fear whether there will be another round soon, which may hit them.

    And then there are customers, investors, ... who need to be assured they are not dealing with a failing company.

  • If the main guy's email is written by AI, at this point we're actually in an invasion of the body snatchers scenario.

    Who actually is required?

    .. fundamentally, it's only the person collecting payment.

> To get there, we are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs, we’re fundamentally changing how we operate: rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it.

For sure this part screams LLM

  • > rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it

    Wow. That’s my cue to never use Coinbase again.

  • Reminds me grok

    "We’re not building Skynet, we’re cutting costs and putting the survivors on prompt duty"

    Anything in that format gives that AI feel

  • +1 and the irony of this CEO-Idiot calling LLMs "intelligence" and putting people, the stupidest of which are 1000x orders of magnitude more intelligent than an LLM, in the second spot "aligning it", i.e. fixing the AI slop.

I think a lot of LLMs are trained on corporate communications, and since companies have been copying each other for years, it’s hard to tell them apart.