Whereas a number of folks within the gaming trade have been providing phrases of help and encouragement to their friends which were affected by varied mission cancellations and lay-offs at Microsoft, an govt producer for Xbox Recreation Studios Publishing, Matt Turnbull, has caught some flak. In a since-deleted put up on LinkedIn, Turnbull instructed 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 put up, which you’ll see archived under due to Necrosoft Video games director Brandon Sheffield, Turnbull provided 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 instances, and for those who’re navigating a layoff and even quietly making ready for one, you’re not a lone and also you don’t need to go it alone,” wrote Turnbull. “I do know a lot of these instruments engender robust emotions in folks, however I’d be remiss in not attempting to supply one of the best recommendation I can beneath 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 instructed could possibly be used embody asking an LLM to behave as a profession coach and ask it what sorts of jobs one may pivot to, asking it to reformat a resume to be appropriate for various fields within the gaming trade, and even asking the LLM to behave as emotional help.
“I’m fighting imposter syndrome after being laid off,” reads the emotional help immediate instructed by Turnbull. “Are you able to assist me reframe this expertise in a approach that jogs my memory what I’m good at?”
As Sheffield himself additionally factors out in a later put up, Turnbull mentioning that these being hit by lay-offs ought to use the identical sorts of AI instruments that firms try to switch their staff with comes off as a bit tone deaf. That is doubtless a giant purpose why Turnbull obtained a good bit of backlash, leading to him taking down his put up.
“One thing I’ve realised over time is folks on the whole lack the power to suppose in a broader scope and embody context and eventualities,” posted the Necrosoft director. “However after hundreds of individuals get laid off out of your firm perhaps don’t recommend they flip to the factor you’re attempting to switch them with for solace.”
Experiences 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 anticipated to lose 200 staff. 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 be aware, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wrote about how the lay-offs had been being carried out “to place Gaming for enduring success and permit us to give attention to strategic progress areas.”
Matt Turnbull, Govt Producer at Xbox Recreation Studios Publishing – after the Microsoft layoffs – suggesting on Linkedin that will perhaps individuals who have been let go ought to flip to AI for assist. He severely thought posting this may be a good suggestion.
— Brandon Sheffield (@brandon.insertcredit.com) 2025-07-04T03:48:10.841Z