Work-life imbalance: After buying remnants of Windsurf, Cognition lays off 30, tells rest to work long hours

Employees of artificial intelligence (AI) coding startup Windsurf have endured a chaotic few months. The company almost got acquired by OpenAI, which fell through when Google hired the chief executive and key talent from the company. Ultimately, another coding startup, Cognition, acquired the company, assuring the staff that it valued their top-level talent.

However, three weeks after the deal, Cognition laid off 30 employees and gave the rest a tough choice. Either take a buyout, where employees would take 9 months’ salary and exit the company, or…