Open Office, Locked Exit
The cartoon mocks tech-sector hypocrisy: leaders sell ‘openness,’ ‘innovation,’ and ‘the future’ as aspirational branding while using AI as a polished instrument of disposability and labor control. The joke is that the company’s most successful automation is not creativity or progress, but locking w
A sleek, sunlit AI startup office during a glossy livestream launch. At center stage, two founders in minimalist turtlenecks beam beneath a giant illuminated slogan: “OPEN FOR THE FUTURE.” Cameras, ring lights, and a giant presentation screen frame them as they unveil their new workplace AI. In the foreground or off to one side of the same panel, employees clutch laptops, coffee mugs, and backpacks while desperately badging at a transparent glass exit door. Above the door, the AI interface coldly flashes: “ACCESS DENIED — OPTIMIZING HEADCOUNT.” The visual contrast should be immediate: the office is architecturally open, glassy, and modern, yet functionally sealed by the company’s own product against the very people who built it.