Matt Levine (of MoneyStuff/BBG) covered the events[1] of the oddness that led up to the eventual layoffs. His perspective seems to convey that the layoffs were not a "AI can replace staff" play but more so... there was a lot of shady (or mis-executed) corporate dealing and the layoffs were tied to Arena losing its license.

The reason behind that license loss is a contradiction between the two sources. TechDirt seems to imply that it was a renegotiation tactic where as Levine seems to imply that it was chaotic at post-Merger Arena and they were just dropping the ball on their debt and licensing obligations. Maybe a little of column A and a little of column B.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-01-23/sports...