India, April 21 -- A Bengaluru-based founder is facing backlash online for firing an engineer and using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to replace the workload. Taking to LinkedIn, Jeevanth Ramamurthy, founder of AI startup Pitchline, shared that he let go of a developer just four weeks after hiring him. He said that the developer, who had two years of experience, was brought on full-time and paid directly by him.

"I fired a developer after 4 weeks. I should've done it sooner," Ramamurthy wrote in the LinkedIn post, before detailing the incident. He said he initially trusted the developer's claim that the codebase was "messy" and slowing progress. However, he grew concerned about the pace of work.

So, to test things himself, Ramamurt...