Coinbase CEO on Firing Engineers for Delaying AI Adoption

Nowadays, it’s rare to find programmers who aren’t utilizing AI coding assistants to handle repetitive tasks.

Yet, those who opted out of using the tools after Coinbase acquired enterprise licenses for GitHub Copilot and Cursor faced termination, according to CEO Brian Armstrong on John Collison’s podcast “Cheeky Pint.” (Collison is the co-founder and president of Stripe.)

With licenses for each engineer, resistance and slow adoption were expected, with predictions of months for AI usage to reach half.

Armstrong found this unacceptable and took a direct approach, posting in the company’s main engineering Slack channel. He emphasized AI’s importance, asking everyone to onboard by the week’s end, offering a meeting for those who didn’t comply to understand their reasons.

During the meeting, some had valid reasons for delays, such as being on vacation, Armstrong noted.

“On Saturday, I joined the call and found a few who hadn’t complied. Some had legitimate reasons, but those without were fired.”

Armstrong recognized the method as “heavy-handed,” acknowledging opposition within the company.

Though few were terminated, it underscored AI’s non-negotiable presence. The surprising elements were engineers ignoring AI’s significance and Armstrong’s readiness to act decisively.

Coinbase did not offer a comment.

Since the incident, Armstrong increased training efforts, hosting monthly sessions where teams share innovative AI applications.

Notably, Collison, a long-time programmer, questioned the extent of reliance on AI-generated code.

“AI aids coding, but managing an AI-produced codebase remains unclear,” he remarked, with Armstrong agreeing.

As previously noted by TechCrunch, a former OpenAI engineer stated that its central code repository had issues, prompting resource allocation for improvements.

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