Coinbase CEO on Firing Engineers Who Refused AI

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently explained why engineers who refused to adopt AI tools were fired. He discussed this decision on John Collison's podcast 'Cheeky Pint.'

Coinbase purchased enterprise licenses for GitHub Copilot and Cursor for all engineers. However, some warned that AI adoption would be slow, which shocked Armstrong.

Armstrong posted a mandate in the company's main engineering Slack channel, urging engineers to onboard AI tools by the week's end.

At a Saturday meeting, some had valid reasons for not setting up AI tools, but those without were fired. Armstrong admitted this approach was heavy-handed.

Since then, Coinbase has been hosting monthly meetings to enhance AI use, and discussions about reliance on AI-generated code continue.