Facepalm: If there's one thing you can say about Microsoft, it's that the company's executives can show a stunning lack of self-awareness. The latest comedically inappropriate LinkedIn post from one of these employees was for positions at Xbox graphics -- featuring a very bad AI-generated image.
Principal Development Lead for Xbox Graphics, Mike Matsel, shared the "Xbox Graphics Is Hiring" post on the professional social networking platform. It appears to be a generic cartoon-style image complete with the Xbox logo, but the woman seems to be using one of those fancy monitors that have their display on the rear instead of (or as well as?) the front. She also appears to be paying more attention to the floating logo than anything else.
The image is, of course, AI-generated. There are plenty of other tell-tale signs, like the unnatural shading on her top, weird keyboard, and the headphones she's using look an awful lot like they're from Apple (and very few people still use wired ones).
The majority of the posts are criticisms of the ad itself. "They didn't even review the AI image, while Microsoft says AI is the future it creates slop like this," wrote one person. "You're the lead of the Xbox GRAPHICS team and didn't notice you posted an image where almost everything is wrong (including, ethically speaking, the use of AI) ? Why would anyone apply to be on your team?" wrote another.
People haven't failed to highlight the fact that Microsoft has just laid off 9,000 employees – its fourth round of layoffs in 18 months – including many from the Xbox division. This brings Microsoft's total layoffs since 2023 to over 20,000, yet it is investing $80 billion into AI infrastructure over the next fiscal year. It's been reported that staff at Candy Crush-maker King, part of Microsoft's gaming division, were replaced by the AI tools they helped build.
This isn't the first time a Microsoft employee has been slammed for an AI-related LinkedIn post. Matt Turnbull, Executive Producer at Xbox Games Studio Publishing, wrote a post that advised anyone who had lost or was losing their job to use AI tools, including Microsoft's own Copilot, for emotional support, career planning, and resume help. The message was met with even more vitriol than Matsel's, which is why Turnbull quickly deleted it.
Many consumers continue to push back hard against the use of AI in any form, no matter how much companies try to ram it down the public's throats. The mission to spread the "it's a benefit to humanity" narrative isn't helping when the technology is making so many people jobless. The latest example is at Glassdoor and Indeed, where 1,300 workers are being laid off as a direct result of AI.