昔日开源明星被AI逼落斩杀线！收入暴跌80%，75%工程师被裁

Core Viewpoint - The article discusses the severe impact of AI on Tailwind CSS, a once-thriving startup, leading to significant layoffs and a drastic decline in revenue due to changes in user behavior and reliance on AI-generated content [2][12][50]. Group 1: Company Situation - Tailwind CSS, founded in 2017, is an open-source framework that has gained popularity for its utility-first approach, allowing developers to design UI directly in HTML [9][10][11]. - The company has faced a crisis, with 75% of its engineering team laid off, leaving only three founders, one engineer, and one part-time employee [5][21][22]. - The revenue from Tailwind's paid services, such as Tailwind UI and Catalyst, has plummeted by 80% due to reduced traffic to its documentation as users increasingly rely on AI for code generation [8][24][25]. Group 2: AI's Impact - AI has drastically changed user engagement, causing a 40% drop in traffic to Tailwind's CSS documentation since early 2023, which has directly affected the company's profitability [25][30]. - The CEO, Adam Wathan, acknowledged that the revenue decline had been ongoing for years, but the severity of the situation only became clear after analyzing the data [29][30]. - Wathan expressed that if the trend continues, the company's cash flow could run out within six months, indicating a critical financial situation [30][31]. Group 3: Community Response and Future Outlook - Following the announcement of layoffs, 90% of the community users calmed down, but some long-time users felt betrayed by the company's shift towards profitability at the expense of its open-source roots [42][43]. - Google announced sponsorship for Tailwind shortly after the layoffs, which could help stabilize the company and potentially rehire laid-off engineers [56][59]. - The article emphasizes the need for a sustainable payment mechanism for open-source contributors, as the current reliance on traffic-driven revenue models is becoming increasingly untenable in the AI era [66].