Coinbase CEO Fires Developers Refusing to Embrace Neural Tools

The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, revealed that he dismissed several members of the development team who were unwilling to adopt AI tools. The exact number of affected employees has not been disclosed.

Coinbase’s management aims for half of the code produced by the company to be generated by artificial intelligence. They do not plan to reduce their development team but rather to enhance the productivity of their workforce.

Initially, the company intended to train developers on how to use AI tools over the course of a quarter. However, Armstrong later decided this timeline was too lengthy. He communicated via Slack that developers had a week to complete their onboarding. For those who could not meet the deadline, he offered to schedule one-on-one meetings.

Some employees indeed failed to complete the training. Consequently, the company retained only those with valid reasons for missing the onboarding, while others were let go.

Armstrong stated that being proficient with AI tools is a crucial skill in today’s job market. Nevertheless, Coinbase continues to conduct numerous financial operations, and strong developers are still essential for the team. However, they are expected to work alongside AI agents.

The company has begun hosting monthly training intensives to move closer to the goal of having AI generate half of all coding tasks.