Layoffs due to artificial intelligence

Microsoft has decided to drastically reduce the number of employees in the field of games and replace them with artificial intelligence tools. One of the first departments affected by such a decision is King, the creator of the game Candy Crush. The saddest thing about all of this is that employees will be replaced by the artificial intelligence tools they worked on.

Several anonymous sources told MobileGamer.biz that several story writers, designers, user experience (UX) specialists, level designers and user experience researchers at King have been helping to develop and train AI models that can do their jobs faster for several years. These same employees are now being told that their jobs are becoming redundant. The same is apparently waiting for other departments, as the London group working on the Farm Heroes Saga game is said to have already split in half. “The fact that artificial intelligence tools are replacing humans is absolutely disgusting. It's all about efficiency and profit, even though the company is doing great overall," a source told the mobile gaming-focused outlet. The same source estimated that company-wide layoffs could exceed 200 employees, which is also the number cited by Bloomberg when it first broke the news of the broader layoffs.

The impact of the recent personnel shake-up is being felt throughout Microsoft's gaming division. Engadget's Jessica Conditt recently spoke with employees at Halo Studios, where one developer told her they were "extremely furious" about the layoffs. At least five people inside Halo Studios have been told they are out of a job shortly after receiving an email from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who allegedly celebrated Xbox's current profits. The same developer said that Microsoft is trying to "replace as many jobs as possible with artificial intelligence agents" as it increasingly enforces the use of Copilot among its employees.

Source: Mobilegamer.biz

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