The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has dismissed programmers who refused to incorporate artificial intelligence into their work. This was stated by the firm’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, during a podcast with John Collison, co-founder and president of the payment company Stripe.
The company acquired corporate licenses for GitHub Copilot and Cursor to integrate artificial intelligence into its workflows. Some employees warned Armstrong that the implementation would be slow, requiring months for at least half of the staff to master AI.
This prospect came as a surprise to him.
“I bypassed the rules and posted an announcement in the main engineering channel on Slack. I wrote: ‘AI is important. We need you all to master it and at least connect. You don’t need to use the technology every day until we conduct training, but connect by the end of the week. On Saturday, I will meet with everyone who hasn’t. I want to understand the motives,’” he said.
At the meeting, some employees explained their refusal to embrace AI due to being on leave. Others did not provide valid reasons and were dismissed.
Armstrong acknowledged that this approach was “tough.” Some employees were dissatisfied with the decision.
The CEO of Coinbase mentioned that since then, the company holds monthly meetings to share experiences in applying artificial intelligence.
Earlier, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that 20-30% of the company’s code is written by artificial intelligence.
Back in August, Coinbase developers Kevin Leffew and Lincoln Murr stated that autonomous agents will become the largest active users of the Ethereum network.