Whereas a number of individuals within the gaming business have been providing phrases of help and encouragement to their friends which were affected by varied venture cancellations and lay-offs at Microsoft, an govt producer for Xbox Sport Studios Publishing, Matt Turnbull, has caught some flak. In a since-deleted submit 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 submit, which you’ll be able to see archived under because of 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 occasions, and in the event you’re navigating a layoff and even quietly making ready for one, you’re not a lone and also you don’t should go it alone,” wrote Turnbull. “I do know all these instruments engender robust emotions in individuals, however I’d be remiss in not making an attempt to supply the most effective recommendation I can underneath 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 may very well be used embrace 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 manner that jogs my memory what I’m good at?”
As Sheffield himself additionally factors out in a later submit, Turnbull mentioning that these being hit by lay-offs ought to use the identical sorts of AI instruments that firms are attempting to switch their staff with comes off as a bit tone deaf. That is possible a giant motive why Turnbull acquired a good bit of backlash, leading to him taking down his submit.
“One thing I’ve realised over time is individuals usually lack the power to assume in a broader scope and embrace context and eventualities,” posted the Necrosoft director. “However after hundreds of individuals get laid off out of your firm possibly don’t recommend they flip to the factor you’re making an attempt to switch them with for solace.”
Reviews 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 acknowledged to be the toughest hit studio, having misplaced nearly 50 % of its workforce.
In an inside notice, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wrote about how the lay-offs had been being finished “to place Gaming for enduring success and permit us to give attention to strategic development areas.”
Matt Turnbull, Govt Producer at Xbox Sport Studios Publishing – after the Microsoft layoffs – suggesting on Linkedin which will possibly individuals who have been let go ought to flip to AI for assist. He severely thought posting this might be a good suggestion.
— Brandon Sheffield (@brandon.insertcredit.com) 2025-07-04T03:48:10.841Z
