Block Lays Off Nearly Half It's Staff Because of AI
Its CEO said most companies will do the same
Menu
Front Page Breaking News Comments Flagged Comments Recently Flagged User Blogs Write a Blog Entry Create a Poll Edit Account Weekly Digest Stats Page RSS Feed Back Page
Subscriptions
Read the Retort using RSS.
RSS Feed
Author Info
Corky
Joined 2005/05/24Visited 2026/02/27
Status: user
MORE STORIES
Block Lays Off Nearly Half It's Staff Because of AI (13 comments) ...
Trump: US Could Carry Out ‘Friendly Takeover’ of Cuba (14 comments) ...
Nate Silver Issues Warning to Texas Republicans (2 comments) ...
Fed Judge Threatens to Haul in DOJ Officials Under Oath (2 comments) ...
10 FBI Staff from Mar-a-Lago Documents Case are Fired (3 comments) ...
Alternate links: Google News | Twitter
Shares in the financial technology company Block have soared more than 20% in after-hours trading after its CEO announced it was laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000-some employees due to efficiency gains from artificial intelligence.[image or embed] -- The Associated Press (@apnews.com) Feb 27, 2026 at 1:30 AM
Shares in the financial technology company Block have soared more than 20% in after-hours trading after its CEO announced it was laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000-some employees due to efficiency gains from artificial intelligence.[image or embed]
Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.
"Investors have reacted well to the gutting of jobs. Block's shares soared up to 24% after the announcement.
The cuts come amid rising concerns about how AI will impact the workforce as AI giants like Anthropic and OpenAI continue to push out new enterprise tools. Just this week, Anthropic updated its popular Claude model to perform better at office jobs in human resource, design and wealth management.
Software stocks cratered earlier this month after Anthropic launched updates to its Claude Cowork tool.
Dorsey's decision also reflects a growing sentiment among tech leaders to operate more leanly as AI evolves.
Amazon said it needed "fewer layers" to "operate as quickly as possible," calling AI is the "most transformative technology we've seen since the internet" in a memo from October announcing layoffs."
;;
The Tribulation, the Great Tribulation.
#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-26 10:17 PM | Reply
Has nothing to do with AI, Jack over built Twitter, he over built Block, he might be a good innovator but a terrible CEO. Block went from 3,700 employees in Dec. 2019 to 12,200 employees in Dec. 2022.
#2 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-02-26 10:23 PM | Reply
- nothing to do with AI
You are a walking, talking joke... you realize that, don't you?
#3 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-26 10:30 PM | Reply
"AI-related job cuts are accelerating in 2026, with Reuters reporting that AI accounted for 7% of total planned layoffs in January.
Over 7,600 jobs were directly attributed to AI in January 2026 alone, as companies like Block Inc. and others restructure to prioritize automation."
www.google.com
#4 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-26 10:35 PM | Reply
You are a walking, talking joke... you realize that, don't you? #3 | Posted by Corky
In this case, he's not wrong.
I've read more than a few analyses that the AI firing waves are just AI as an excuse to fire people without cause.
Why else would company after company fire large swaths of workers for systems/tools that nearly every other company that has already implemented them regret implementing them?
#5 | Posted by jpw at 2026-02-27 09:36 AM | Reply
#5 | Posted by jpw
solid post !!
but be careful not agreeing with corky...
she can get irritated easily.
--it's a senior citizen female hormone thing..
#6 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-02-27 11:37 AM | Reply
^She plonked me. Over and over. Now I got ptsd and am scared of ------s.
#7 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-02-27 06:53 PM | Reply
There is no "cure" for capitalism, it lies through its teeth so that it can turn Americans into frightened indentured servants to be fired at will when a robot or piece of software can do their jobs. If you trust Musk or Trump or any of the MAGA billionaires, and you are poor...you are a fool. Soon America will be too bankrupt to fund fully social security or Medicare, that is the absolute truth.
#8 | Posted by Hughmass at 2026-02-28 07:13 AM | Reply
"I've read more than a few analyses that the AI firing waves are just AI as an excuse to fire people without cause."
Seems like a pretty good excuse if you are a bean counter.
If you can now do the work of 10,000 with only 3000 (and the help of AI) then why wouldn't you use that as an excuse!?
Now is the time to fire them so that you don't have to pay to the costs to retrain them. As I suspect laws will be passed at some point sooner or later to force companies to help the humans whose jobs are being permanently eliminated by AI.
#9 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-02-28 09:43 AM | Reply
AI is designed to replace people, especially software people. AI industry lays off software people. How could this happen?!
#10 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-02-28 01:33 PM | Reply
#8 | POSTED BY HUGHMASS AT 2026-02-28 07:13 AM | REPLY:
Really? Now how about you tell us just what socialism does for the 'masses/Hoi Polloi'.
#11 | Posted by MSgt at 2026-02-28 01:51 PM | Reply
#12 | Posted by MSgt at 2026-02-28 01:51 PM | Reply
Education Social Safety Net Infrastructure Police Fire Departments
I can go on, but I suspect you won't get it
#13 | Posted by truthhurts at 2026-02-28 02:01 PM | Reply
Post a comment The following HTML tags are allowed in comments: a href, b, i, p, br, ul, ol, li and blockquote. Others will be stripped out. Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed. Anyone can join this site and make comments. To post this comment, you must sign it with your Drudge Retort username. If you can't remember your username or password, use the lost password form to request it. Username: Password: Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy
The following HTML tags are allowed in comments: a href, b, i, p, br, ul, ol, li and blockquote. Others will be stripped out. Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.
Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy