The Curious Case of the Block 'AI Layoffs'

Last week, Block CEO and ayahuasca enthusiast Jack Dorsey announced that he was cutting 40% of his company’s staff because AI tools have reduced the company’s need for people. While Dorsey called it “one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company,” he also said it was inevitable—that the cuts could either happen slowly over the next few years or all at once, right now. Basically, AI was coming for those jobs one way or another. It turns out things might not be that simple. Naoko Takeda, a data scientist at Block, poked a pretty significant hole in Dorsey’s story. She left Block, not because she was laid off, but because of how she was asked to stay. According to Takeda, she was offered a 75% pay increase, which she said was 90% with a one-time bonus included, to stay on and work with the skeleton crew that was left behind following Dorsey’s sudden downsizing. “So basically, I saw my company discard half of my peers and double my pay,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “That’s not an honor. It feels shameful and dehumanizing. I’d rather see my peers keep their jobs than personally profit from their trauma.” Takeda said she wasn’t sure what the retention package looked like for the

Mar 6, 2026 → Mar 6, 2026