'I got the news last week': Video game studio executives fired after laying off workers for refusing to implement AI initiatives using their own time and money

If you've been living under a non-computer-generated rock for the last six months… AI is everywhere, and the implications of it being trained to plagiarize creative work and regurgitate something slightly different are reshaping workplaces. It's like we're living in a fever dream based on a "Can I copy your homework" meme. If you aren't up to speed, anyone who wasn't a straight-A student has probably done what an AI is doing at some point, bumming answers off our more organized and motivated friends who would promise to let us copy them as long as we changed the answer a little bit "so the teacher doesn't notice." Queue you coming up with a long list of creative synonyms for words and phrases to what your friend used to write their answer, thinly veiling your duplication duplicity.

That's pretty much all an AI is doing—that's it—"learning" off existing examples within the medium it is being trained to copy, with the source and inspiration being sometimes more or less obvious. But, as always, ethics be damned when it comes to the pursuit of greater profit, and—since the effective implementation of AI stands to reduce baseline costs in any industry that you can name— it's not surprising that many companies are exploring their options and looking to incentivize AI initiatives.

While many companies are exploring this, their methods and initiatives vary, with one end of the spectrum devoting company time and resources to explore and develop AI initiatives—and the other doing things—well, like the company from this story.

This unnamed video game studio reportedly required staff to use their own money and time in order to devise initiatives that the company could implement to effectively use AI-generated work, thus reducing the time required to perform certain tasks. Anyone who refused to do as they were asked found themselves on the chopping block, but it was the CEOs of the studio themselves who would soon find themselves under the axe.

Read on for this account of events, originally shared with Reddit's r/antiwork subreddit community. Next, see this worker who tried to destroy their project in order to get fired… It didn't work.

Like what you see? Follow our WhatsApp channel for more.

Advertisement

Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!

Tags

getting fired fired ceo ai workplace artificial intelligence business employment

Scroll Down For The Next Article

Also From FAIL Blog

'Today is your last day': Employee gets kicked off their own layoff call after company revokes their access too quickly

'Today is your last day': Employee gets kicked off their own layoff call after company revokes their access too quickly

Trending Now

18-year-old café employee told by her new shift lead to stop talking, stops talking entirely, forcing the lead to backtrack: 'You’re not paid to talk, you’re paid to work'

18-year-old café employee told by her new shift lead to stop talking, stops talking entirely, forcing the lead to backtrack: 'You’re not paid to talk, you’re paid to work'

17-year-old tells mother that he doesn't like his 17-year-old stepsister or consider her to be family, parents retaliate: 'I accept her presence, but never felt close to her and never bonded with her'

17-year-old tells mother that he doesn't like his 17-year-old stepsister or consider her to be family, parents retaliate: 'I accept her presence, but never felt close to her and never bonded with her'

New stepmother demands 17-year-old babysit her children because his father said he would if they married: 'My relationship with his wife and her kids doesn't exist really, and I know that [makes her mad] but she was his choice, not mine'

New stepmother demands 17-year-old babysit her children because his father said he would if they married: 'My relationship with his wife and her kids doesn't exist really, and I know that [makes her mad] but she was his choice, not mine'

23-year-old small business owner gets swindled out of being paid, goes to the customer's place and removes his front door: ‘Store wide open in the middle of a busy street.’

23-year-old small business owner gets swindled out of being paid, goes to the customer's place and removes his front door: ‘Store wide open in the middle of a busy street.’

Update: Parents ask 30-year-old to donate $15,000 that she didn't know she had to her 22-year-old brother for his schooling: 'I’d turned down opportunities because no help was available. I just wish I’d known'

Update: Parents ask 30-year-old to donate $15,000 that she didn't know she had to her 22-year-old brother for his schooling: 'I’d turned down opportunities because no help was available. I just wish I’d known'

Entitled landlady treats her 6 tenants as if they’re living in her private daycare, invading privacy, eating their groceries, and prioritizing Airbnb guests, pushing everyone to escape together: ‘we deserve a standing ovation for lasting this long’

Entitled landlady treats her 6 tenants as if they’re living in her private daycare, invading privacy, eating their groceries, and prioritizing Airbnb guests, pushing everyone to escape together: ‘we deserve a standing ovation for lasting this long’

Advertisement