Coinbase CEO Revealed He Fired Engineers Who Didn't Use AI Tools

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

nnx

48 points

25 comments

finalroundai.comTechstory

heatednegative

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AI AdoptionCoinbaseTech Management

Key topics

AI Adoption

Coinbase

Tech Management

Coinbase CEO fired engineers for not using AI tools, sparking criticism and concerns about the company's management and security.

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01Story posted
Sep 3, 2025 at 10:37 PM EDT
4 months ago
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Sep 3, 2025 at 11:20 PM EDT
43m after posting
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Sep 7, 2025 at 12:24 AM EDT
4 months ago
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Discussion (25 comments)

Showing 25 comments

hinkley

4 months ago

1 reply

You got crypto on my AI!

You got AI on my crypto!

The worst Reece's Peanut Butter Cup ripoff.

tanseydavid

4 months ago

1 reply

Two great wastes, that waste great together. (could not resist)

burnt-resistor

4 months ago

How many licks..?

(Sorry, wrong commercial.)

pmarreck

4 months ago

1 reply

I should have fired someone who refused to use Nix

burnt-resistor

4 months ago

1 reply

Except that would impose SystemD on people who prefer UNIX principles rather than unnecessary complexity and obscurant, user-, and configuration-hostile "new" ways that aren't better than GNU Guix or GNU Stow.

pmarreck

4 months ago

I'm feeling a Poe's Law tickle here.

I've never understood the anger about systemd. Is it over-engineered? Probably. Have I ever had to worry about it not working? No.

wmf

4 months ago

1 reply

"Truly great tools don't usually require threats to drive adoption."

A lot of programmers (even young ones) are really set in their ways so I'm going to disagree with that. However there are ways to encourage people to try new things without ultimatums.

ido

4 months ago

1 reply

Ive multiple times had to force programmers to use a debugger at least once (instead of only printing/logging). If they wouldn’t do it on their own whenever a bug stumped them where they needed my help I stepped into the debugger with them to demonstrate how easy to use it is & how much more info/control you get vs printing.

mrbombastic

4 months ago

1 reply

As someone who likes his debugger, I am not sure this debate is cut and dried. I still use printing fairly often, printing predictably works every time and is built in to every language. It also typically has much less of an observer effect than attaching a debugger.

ido

4 months ago

I’m not forcing them to stop printing, I’m introducing an additional tool to their toolbox. For some reason ive offen seen resistance to even try learning how to use a debugger.

gle

4 months ago

3 replies

"Armstrong revealed that 33% of code written by AI now at Coinbase, with an ambitious target: We have a goal to get to 50% by the end of the quarter."

Ok, I strongly advise you don't leave any crypto at Coinbase, it's a matter of weeks before they get p0wned.

pera

4 months ago

I friend of mine works for a company that forces engineers to use LLMs for everything: what you can do is to use the LLM to transcribe code just to reach certain level of API usage so to keep the CEO happy.

By using this method you can achieve 100% of code "written by AI", although they won't see an increase in productivity.

xeonmc

4 months ago

The CEO probably wouldn't entrust his own Horcruxes to their systems.

sschueller

4 months ago

Great, I can't wait for the AI to accidentally open a back door and someone drains all of Coinbase coins.

If the people at the top think like that your coins aren't safe even without AI.

diamond559

4 months ago

1 reply

Classic crypto tactic, doesn't matter if it's useless, shove it everywhere it doesn't belong anyway!

JumpCrisscross

4 months ago

It's free marketing for Coinbase.

bluesounddirect

4 months ago

1 reply

Coinbase has employees in NY and CA i could be wrong but his admission of a reason for termination now allows employees terminated to sue them for wrongful termination with cause .

voxic11

4 months ago

1 reply

Not using AI isn't a protected class in either state.

bluesounddirect

4 months ago

true but terminating a employee for any given reason is grounds for a challenge. also one could argue that ai in this form is anti employee, us it or we will find someone who is willing to, is still considered duress. its the same argument of sign this non compete or we will fire you ( no lawyer or notary present) .

nope1000

4 months ago

Sometimes I envy the salary of US programmers but then I read news like these and I'm happy that in my country you can't be fired for stupid reasons like these.

bravetraveler

4 months ago

Yes, they do have clowns at the circus. Good reason for any experiment: control group.

Garden variety narcissist and boundary bouncing. Some of those engineers might be upset. They shouldn't; good riddance to that environment.

halfmatthalfcat

4 months ago

Narcissistic, megalomaniac CEO strikes again - news at 11.

rurban

4 months ago

Who would jump into a Saturday meeting with his CEO? The insanity starts at the top of the story already.

ahaferburg

4 months ago

How dare these employees refuse a request from their better, for an entire week.

Ultimately this is a hiring problem though. They should have tested more thoroughly for prompt obedience.

OhMeadhbh

4 months ago

Coinbase is still in business?

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