A product-based startup reportedly forced its software developers or software- development engineers (SDE) to purchase a two-month subscription to an AI tool. The SDEs were apparently told that they would be reimbursed the cost of $20 per month, but the company did not keep the promise. When the SDEs demanded the reimbursement, the company denied their requests and even asked them for proof of how well they had used the tool.
An employee (SDE) of the company posted on Reddit expressing frustration at how the employees had been compelled to spend out of their own pockets on a tool to be used for company work, and how they had had to literally beg for the cost to be reimbursed and turned down, much to their disappointment.
The company it seems demanded that each SDE submit a report on how they had used the tool (Cursor) to write test cases, and the exact number of unit tests written and how much they had contributed to the coverage number.
The message was that if they failed to submit the report, they would not be reimbursed the subscription amount. This case of what appears to be exploitation of employees has gone viral as one of the after-effects of AI.
While some social-media users empathised with the employee and wondered how they could stay on at such a firm, others suggested taking advantage of the free quota of Gemini CLI’s agentic AI tool instead and get their work done.