Sam Altman Thanks Programmers for Their Work. Critics Call It Tone-Deaf Amid AI Layoffs
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thanked programmers for their work in a Tuesday tweet that critics called tone-deaf amid ongoing tech layoffs driven by AI automation.
"I have so much gratitude to people who wrote extremely complex software character-by-character," Altman wrote. "It already feels difficult to remember how much effort it really took. Thank you for getting us to this point."
The tweet drew swift backlash. "You re welcome," one user responded. "Nice to know that our reward is our jobs being taken away." Others called Altman a "f*ing psychopath" and "scum."
"Nothing says you re being replaced quite like a heartfelt thank you from the guy doing the replacing," another user wrote.
The remarks land as major tech companies continue AI-driven workforce reductions. Atlassican recently slashed 1,600 jobs, Block fired nearly half its workforce, and Meta latest round is rumored to affect 20% or more of staff.
OpenAI has faced criticism for training its models on data scraped from the web without compensation to creators, a practice that has triggered multiple copyright lawsuits.
The tweet comes as OpenAI races to compete in the enterprise and coding AI market. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI executives are pushing to double down on coding and business productivity features, with CEO of applications Fidji Simo telling employees: "We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests."