Jack Dorsey laid off 40% of Block’s staff — 4,000 people — and told the world it was because of AI. Said the business was strong, profits were up, growth was good. Just… didn’t need those people anymore. Specifically didn’t need the policy team. Specifically didn’t need DEI. Fascinating which roles the machines replaced first.
Here’s the part that should make you furious: he then went on record saying most companies are “late” and will make similar cuts within the year. He turned a mass firing into an industry announcement. A roadmap. Every CEO in America now has their script — blame AI, collect the stock bump, wave goodbye to 40% of your people. Bloomberg called it “AI-washing.” Sam Altman — Sam Altman — admitted there’s “some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs they would otherwise do.” When Sam Altman is the voice of restraint on AI hype, something has gone deeply wrong.
The business is growing. Gross profit up. Dorsey said so himself. They didn’t fire 4,000 people because they had to. They fired them because they could, because the PR cover was right there, because there’s no union, because “AI transformation” sounds better than “restructuring for shareholder value.” The workers aren’t being replaced by machines. They’re being replaced by a CEO who decided the math works out better this way. That’s the whole innovation.