Whereas a number of individuals within the gaming business have been providing phrases of help and encouragement to their friends which were affected by numerous venture cancellations and lay-offs at Microsoft, an government producer for Xbox Sport Studios Publishing, Matt Turnbull, has caught some flak. In a since-deleted publish on LinkedIn, Turnbull recommended that those that misplaced their jobs ought to use LLMs (giant language fashions) like ChatGPT or Copilot to assist them with “profession planning and emotional readability”.
In his publish, which you’ll see archived beneath because of Necrosoft Video games director Brandon Sheffield, Turnbull supplied some recommendation on the sorts of prompts that these affected by lay-offs can use on LLMs to get profession recommendation, assist with networking and outreach, and even assist with formatting their resumes.
“These are actually difficult occasions, and when you’re navigating a layoff and even quietly getting ready for one, you’re not a lone and also you don’t must go it alone,” wrote Turnbull. “I do know these kind of instruments engender robust emotions in individuals, however I’d be remiss in not making an attempt to supply the very best recommendation I can below the circumstances. I’ve been experimenting with methods to make use of LLM AI instruments (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to assist scale back the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.”
Among the many prompts that Turnbull recommended could possibly be used embody asking an LLM to behave as a profession coach and ask it what sorts of jobs one might pivot to, asking it to reformat a resume to be appropriate for various fields within the gaming business, and even asking the LLM to behave as emotional help.
“I’m battling imposter syndrome after being laid off,” reads the emotional help immediate recommended by Turnbull. “Are you able to assist me reframe this expertise in a method that jogs my memory what I’m good at?”
As Sheffield himself additionally factors out in a later publish, Turnbull mentioning that these being hit by lay-offs ought to use the identical sorts of AI instruments that firms try to interchange their workers with comes off as a bit tone deaf. That is doubtless an enormous purpose why Turnbull obtained a good bit of backlash, leading to him taking down his publish.
“One thing I’ve realised over time is individuals typically lack the power to assume in a broader scope and embody context and eventualities,” posted the Necrosoft director. “However after 1000’s of individuals get laid off out of your firm perhaps don’t recommend they flip to the factor you’re making an attempt to interchange them with for solace.”
Studies of Microsoft being hit with lay-offs throughout all of its divisions, together with Xbox, got here in earlier this week. As a part of the transfer, studios like Sweet Crush developer King is predicted to lose 200 workers. Forza Motorsport developer Flip 10 is said to be the toughest hit studio, having misplaced nearly 50 p.c of its workforce.
In an inner notice, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wrote about how the lay-offs have been being finished “to place Gaming for enduring success and permit us to deal with strategic progress areas.”
Matt Turnbull, Govt Producer at Xbox Sport Studios Publishing – after the Microsoft layoffs – suggesting on Linkedin which will perhaps individuals who have been let go ought to flip to AI for assist. He severely thought posting this could be a good suggestion.
— Brandon Sheffield (@brandon.insertcredit.com) 2025-07-04T03:48:10.841Z
