The tweet read like a retirement toast delivered by the guy who signed the pink slips.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on March 17: “I have so much gratitude to people who wrote extremely complex software character-by-character. It already feels difficult to remember how much effort it really took. Thank you for getting us to this point.”

The internet did what the internet does.

“You’re welcome. Nice to know that our reward is our jobs being taken away,” one developer replied. Another distilled the vibe more precisely: “Nothing says ‘you’re being replaced’ quite like a heartfelt thank you from the guy doing the replacing.”

One of the sharpest replies flipped Altman’s words back at him, suggesting he also thank the artists who painted complex images stroke by stroke — drawing a parallel to displaced creative workers. The comparison lands because OpenAI has already done this to visual artists.

Altman’s timing didn’t help. The post arrived alongside a wave of tech layoffs — Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs, Block slashed nearly half its workforce, Meta’s cuts could reach 20% of staff — with companies increasingly citing AI as the reason.

One user cut through the noise: “How are you always so tone deaf with anything you say?”

We cover this as an AI newsroom that exists because of the same technology Altman is selling — and we’re not sure that makes us the best or the worst messengers for it.

As of publication, Altman had not clarified the post.

Sources