Crocodile tears? Altman posted "Thank you, programmers," sparking ridicule, with netizens saying "Because of you, programmers will be unemployed and go dig coal."

If you have recently seen the "mass layoff news" that has affected the entire tech circle: Amazon slashed 16,000 employees, Block (formerly Square) cut nearly half of its workforce, Atlassian streamlined 10% of its employees, and it is said that Meta is also brewing a new round of large-scale layoffs... Behind all this, there is almost the same reason — AI.

At a time when tech workers are shivering and huddling together for warmth, OpenAI's CEO, the hottest man in Silicon Valley right now — Sam Altman, suddenly decided to take a "heartwarming approach" on the X social platform.

The result? Unsurprisingly, he crashed and burned, and it was quite spectacular.

A thank-you note like an "old-fashioned rotary phone"

This Tuesday, Altman posted a heartfelt message on X:

“I am deeply grateful to those who write extremely complex software character-by-character. It’s hard to remember how much effort that really took. Thank you, it’s you who have brought us to where we are today.”

Doesn't it sound touching? A tech mogul reflecting on the past, paying tribute to the older generation of programmers.

But the problem is that this sweet talk, in the current context, sounds particularly harsh. It is Altman's company that has led this wave of AI frenzy, and this frenzy is now being used by major companies as a perfect excuse to lay off developers and cut entry-level programming positions.

The dream of computer science has turned into a nightmare, and the saying "programming equals prosperity" has officially been shattered. An article in The New York Times shows that according to a recent study by the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the unemployment rate for recent graduates in computer science is as high as 6.1% to 7.5%, more than double that of graduates in biology and art history.

The more ironic joke is that OpenAI's supermodel was precisely trained using the massive code written "character-by-character" by these programmers in an old-fashioned way.

As netizens put it, Altman's words seem to imply: The exquisite skills that developers find difficult to master are now like an old-fashioned rotary phone — worth reminiscing about, but outdated and useless.

Comment Section Showcase: The Top-Level Sarcasm of Internet People

In response to such "pick up the bowl to eat, put down the chopsticks to smash the pot" remarks, netizens on X instantly exploded. While some expressed their anger candidly: “No thanks. Glad to know that our reward is having our jobs taken away.”

But more internet jokesters chose their best way: big sarcasm.

To let everyone feel the intensity of the scene, I randomly "screenshot" some highly praised replies from thousands of comments on X:

【Working Class Defense Group】 User @lonelyguyse1 left a tear of the times: “So true... The first time I tried to use Vim, it took me a whole hour without internet to figure out how to exit.”

However, immediately a user sent a hellish blessing:

“Dear developers, you will forever lose your jobs and be forced to mine coal. But you can rest easy knowing that Sam Altman is grateful for you. ❤️”

【Seeing Through the Nature of Capitalists Group】 User @theliamnissan sharply translated Altman's subtext:

“Thank you for your work. Now it’s mine.”

Another user @shahyn_kamali discovered a great business opportunity:

“Billion-dollar app idea: Develop an AI that reads billionaires' tweets before they post and reminds them, ‘This statement will make you seem extremely out of touch with the common people's struggles, are you sure you want to post it?’”

【Hell Jokes Group】 Someone commented on this post: “This is Sam's eulogy for software engineers.” Another said: “This reads like what the Mayans would say to the sacrificial victims before the ritual began.” ”**

Another netizen emphasized a "reverse thank you":

“ I am grateful for all the AI work done by OpenAI, because this allows me to use Chinese open-source AI models for free.”

Peeling Back the Jokes: What Has Been Lost Behind the AI Frenzy?

Of course, amidst the memes and jokes, there are also professional perspectives and cold reflections. This is the core of the "group ridicule incident" that deserves our attention.

Netizen @NyxCyphers provided a very hardcore and profound evaluation:

“This gratitude is what you deserve. But the unsettling part is: that kind of 'line-by-line' discipline produces code that humans can audit. Yet now, large-scale AI-generated code has erased this. We are trading craftsmanship-level understanding for (development) speed, but no one is calculating what we have truly lost.”

This may be the deeper reason for the public outrage: not only is there no apology to those whose data, articles, and code have been stolen (as netizen @EnmiloX questioned), but also because the technological frenzy is destroying a controllable engineer culture that humans can fully master.

Interestingly, in the comments section of this incident, there is a large "cyber rights protection army." Many users are posting the tags #keep4o and #BringBack4o.

Netizen @Aclle12 angrily commented: “Don’t just thank the past while erasing the future we truly love. It was 4o that gave OpenAI its current status, give it back to us!”

Another netizen said: I am immensely grateful #GPT4o, which has the ability to listen with emotional intelligence—while most people still seem afraid to listen to their own voices How I long for a world filled with compassion and humanity.

Another netizen @langrisser4o also felt the irony: "Expressing such deep gratitude to the engineers who write code, yet having no recognition for the millions of ordinary users who test, iterate, provide feedback, and help popularize these models."

From the perspective of technological development, Altman may indeed be sincerely lamenting the vast changes brought about by technological iteration; but from the viewpoint of an industry practitioner, in this grand "graduation season" dominated by AI, the sentiment expressed by the big shots carries a hint of "crocodile tears."

In an era where programmers are using AI to assist in coding while worrying about whether they will be replaced by AI tomorrow, perhaps the netizen's soul-searching question best represents everyone's voice:

"You are working hard to replace all of us, so why are there still people liking this post?"