@rschmied This is completely normal for employees in a pre-IPO private company that partially pays in stock options. Of course, they need a plan for managing their well-earned millions.
Terrible take (ironically, it smells of AI writing). Token costs exceeding staff costs is really a skill issue. You need to try really hard (in a bad way) to do this. And not having proper documentation so that work can continue is also a skill issue. And guess what, the security issues are also solvable. So, go get some humans who can work efficiently and securely with AI. Absolutely no one is running a zero-humans company.
CEOs are quietly realizing the AI replacement plan has a problem.
Two problems, actually.
One: the token costs for running AI agents are now exceeding what they were paying the employees they fired.
Two: when the tokens run out, the AI stops. Just stops. No continuity. No workaround. Just a spinning wheel where your workforce used to be.
You fired humans to save money and bought a subscription that bills you into a corner.
The employees you let go knew what to do when things broke.
The AI just invoices you for the outage.
And then there’s the permission problem nobody wants to talk about.
To do its job, the AI agent needs access. Full access. Your systems, your patents, your contracts, your future plans. Everything you spent years building, handed over to a process that has no loyalty, no discretion, and no skin in the game.
You didn’t hire a replacement.
You gave a stranger with no soul the keys to everything you own.
Enjoy.
Terrible take (ironically, it smells of AI writing). Token costs exceeding staff costs is really a skill issue. You need to try really hard (in a bad way) to do this. And not having proper documentation so that work can continue is also a skill issue. And guess what, the security issues are also solvable. So, go get some humans who can work efficiently and securely with AI. Absolutely no one is running a zero-humans company.
This seems to miss a lot of what actually happens. Ferrari falls into “small-volume manufacturer” (SVM) status for selling less than 10,000 cars per year, and different rules apply. And in case, making a brand new car, paying Johny Ive tons of money and landing at a 650,000 euro price, will not do much for complying with these regulations.
@grok please confirm
Don’t be lazy and quick to accept official excuses.
Here’s a clear breakdown of what happened, based on contemporaneous reporting, Mikkelsen’s account, and official records (this was a June 2025 incident at Newark Liberty International Airport involving a 21-year-old Norwegian tourist named Mads Mikkelsen).
What Mikkelsen says occurred
- He arrived on a tourist visit (likely under the Visa Waiver Program as a Norwegian citizen).
- During secondary inspection, CBP/ICE officers searched his phone and found a popular satirical meme of then-Vice President JD Vance (a photoshopped “bald baby” image).
- They also saw a photo of a wooden pipe he had made himself.
- Officers questioned him aggressively (he claims they asked about drug trafficking, terrorism, and “right-wing extremism”).
- He admitted to having used marijuana twice previously—in Germany and New Mexico, both places where it was legal at the time.
- According to Mikkelsen, officers verbally told him the denial was due to a “combination of the narcotic paraphernalia as well as the extremist propaganda” (i.e., the meme). He was detained for hours (reports vary between ~5–18 hours total processing), and he was sent back to Norway the same day.
CBP/DHS public position
- The agency quickly pushed back with fact-check posts on X and Facebook: “Claims that Mads Mikkelsen was denied entry because of a meme are unequivocally FALSE. … Mikkelsen was refused entry into the U.S. for his admitted drug use.”
- Spokespeople emphasized that only people who “respect our laws” are welcome, framing it strictly as a drug-admission issue (federal law treats any admitted marijuana use as a controlled-substance violation, even if it occurred abroad or in U.S. states where it’s legal, and it can trigger inadmissibility under INA §212(a)(1)).
What the actual denial paperwork says
- Mikkelsen was given (and media outlets reviewed) the official notice of inadmissibility.
- It cites **INA §212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I)** — the standard ground for someone who “does not appear to be a bona fide visitor for pleasure” and cannot overcome the presumption of **being an intending immigrant**.
- Exact wording (per multiple outlets that saw the document): “You do not appear to be a bona fide visitor for pleasure and cannot overcome the presumption of being an intending immigrant at this time because it appears you are attempting to engage in unauthorized employment without authorization and proper documentation…”
**Crucially: The paperwork makes no reference to drug use, drug paraphernalia, the meme, or “extremist propaganda.”** It also reportedly contained other factual errors (e.g., listing him as a Spanish citizen)
In short, the paperwork is the official administrative record, and it does **not** match the public “drug use” claim. That mismatch legitimately casts doubt on whether the public statement fully and accurately reflects the primary reason for denial, or whether it was shaped more for narrative control than precision. Without bodycam footage, full officer notes, or the complete secondary-inspection report (which the public doesn’t have), we can’t know the internal decision-making with 100 % certainty—but the documented inconsistency is real and undermines full trust in the official line.