Xbox exec suffers bout of terminal LinkedIn brain, suggests folks laid off by Microsoft use AI to 'reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss'
History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes—every so often, in times of deep economic equality, someone with a thick paycheck or accumulated wealth will waltz up and say something so mind-bogglingly disconnected from good sense and empathy that it becomes enshrined as an example of what not to say.
The latest entrant to the "Let them eat cake" hall of fame comes courtesy of Matt Turnbull, Executive Producer at Xbox Games Studio Publishing who, in a since-deleted LinkedIn post (shared here by Necrosoft's Brandon Sheffield), suggested that anyone facing anxiety about their livelihoods crumbling under them use AI to help.
He writes: "These are really challenging times, and if you're navigating a layoff or just preparing for one"—like the layoffs your company literally just pushed forward, Turnbull?—"You're not alone and you don't have to go it alone."
In a textbook use of passive voice, he then goes on to suggest people "use LLM AI tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss", talking about layoffs as though it's an inevitable medical condition. He follows this up with a series of 'helpful' prompts for folks struggling after being laid off in random, often capricious ways.
These include everything from asking a LLM to rewrite your resume, to networking and outreach, to emotional support. Turnbull suggests anyone feeling down in the dumps prompt a language model with the following: "I'm struggling with impostor syndrome after being laid off. Can you help me reframe this experience in a way that reminds me what I'm good at?" Yikes.
Here is where I'd usually point out that telling the recently-jobless they're "not alone", then encouraging them to use an unthinking, unfeeling machine to output general positive platitudes is incredibly ghoulish. Unfortunately, I've hit my monthly limit for nonsense four days into July, so I'm going to go scream into a pillow for a couple of minutes.
Phew, all better.
Alright, let's attempt a charitable read. It's entirely possible that Turnbull's had his head in the sand, does genuinely feel for those facing job insecurity, and simply got it wrong. He at least had enough self-awareness to delete his post. Points for basic self-improvement.
On the other hand, given Microsoft's been pushing AI like it's the second coming of techno-Christ, and that the industry at-large has been struggling with haphazardly-applied AI tech booting people out of their positions and work to make the line go up (ever up, the line must never stop going), Turnbull might've self-reflected a little harder before he posted this rot.
Anyway, given how quickly the pipeline goes from proselytizing about AI to finding out AI can't actually do the thing that's promised (around 4 months, for Netflix's former VP for GenAI games), I can't wait for this new, dark dimension of LinkedIn culture to peter out. If Turnbull's sudden 180 is any indication, we won't be waiting long. Probably. Hopefully. Please?
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