Startups may be the next ones hit by a wave of AI-driven layoffs.
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0G Labs, a San Francisco startup that builds blockchains for AI agents, says it’s cutting a quarter of its staff because its agents are so good at doing human jobs.
0G Labs announced the decision last week in an email from its CEO, Michael Heinrich, that was viewed by Business Insider.
Heinrich said the company is becoming “a leaner, faster AI-native company” and is now focused on scaling up AI rather than head count.
“Every day, we talk about a world where AI agents handle the work humans shouldn’t have to do,” his email reads. “It’s time to operate that way ourselves.”
Heinrich’s email added that staff should use AI every day to achieve “20x” their previous output, while human judgment remains “essential.”
0G Labs said in a statement that while decisions surrounding layoffs are “never easy,” the efficiencies it has seen from AI agents are real.
“As a company building AI infrastructure, we believe in running on the same technology we provide to others,” a spokesperson said.
0G Labs had said it raised about $350 million in funding and hit a valuation of $2 billion as of last year. It was featured at the time in a Business Insider article about AI unicorns with tiny teams, which said the company had about 40 staff.
The startup’s crypto token, $0G, is down in price by over 80% since it launched last year, according to CoinMarketCap. 0G Labs didn’t comment on whether this affected its decision to cut staff.
AI-driven layoffs have hit the tech industry hard after the technology advanced by leaps and bounds over the holidays, in what some dubbed “Claude Christmas,” a reference to Anthropic’s chatbot.
In February, fintech company Block cut nearly half its entire workforce due to AI, while Coinbase announced Tuesday that it’s letting go of 14% of its employees due to AI as well.
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