Alvin Sng
Introduction
Alvin Sng is a software engineer at Factory, a San Francisco-based AI research lab, who in October 2026 drew a viral backlash for a joke on X about training a voice model rather than reading a book aloud to his newborn son. In the post, which he has since deleted, his wife asks, “Can you read our baby a book?”; he answers that he can just play an audiobook instead, and when she objects that it would not be in his voice, he replies, “I can train a voice model,” and closes with “Parenting hits different when you work in AI.” The New York Post built the screenshot into a story published October 8, 2026 with the headline “California tech bro blasted as ‘horrible’ dad for using bot to read to his newborn baby: ‘Bleak’,” and the pile-on followed. Sng deleted the post, and the following day wrote on X that it had been a joke: “Ok, enough jokes for a while. I’ll go back to reading bedtime stories for now.”
Background Information
Sng’s own site describes him as a software engineer in San Francisco with more than 12 years of experience, listing Factory, Slope, Brex, Opendoor, Airbnb and Facebook among his employers, and payments infrastructure, accounting integrations, performance optimization and engineering leadership among his specialties; the site links his X, LinkedIn, GitHub and Facebook accounts. The Post identified him as “a software engineer at San Francisco-based AI research lab Factory,” and reported the episode against the wider turn against the AI boom: “The artificial intelligence boom is changing the way people work, communicate and live — and apparently for one tech-obsessed dad, reading to his son.” His X profile in the weeks around the post mixed engineering threads on agent orchestration, model pricing, hiring for product sense at Factory and the economics of token spend with posts about the birth of his son.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
A joke, not misconduct. The post at the centre of this page is Sng’s own, and he has since said it was a joke rather than a plan. Nothing here alleges a crime or professional misconduct: no charge, investigation or employment action against him has been reported by any outlet, and the entire controversy is the public reaction to what he wrote.
The post was a short dialogue written as a script, in the genre of work anecdotes that circulate on tech X. Per the Post’s account, the wife asks her husband to read their baby a book; he offers to play an audiobook; she objects that the recording would not be in his voice; and he answers that he can train a voice model — “Parenting hits different when you work in AI.” The Post reported that the post “earned swift backlash, with many critics accusing Sng of being a bad dad,” and that he deleted it. The Post paired the story with the broader scrutiny of children’s interactions with AI, noting reports of chatbots encouraging children to commit suicide and a recent California law meant to add guardrails to such products.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The Post collected the reactions that made the story: finance professional Andrew Lynch wrote, “Absolutely insanity. These people’s brains are broken.” Aaron Fritschner, a deputy chief of staff for Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, wrote, “Extremely bleak.” Another commenter wrote, “Me: You are a horrible father.” The Post also quoted a user who objected to what AI is being pointed at rather than AI itself: “Truly can’t get over the fact that this technology came in and instead of using it to replace fixing toilets or folding clothes, people are using it to make movies and read to their kids. This is maybe the saddest thing I’ve read on this site.” Influencer Michael Burns wrote, “These freaks are going to raise a generation of sociopaths unable to feel human love.”
Underneath the pile-on, Sng’s own consequence was one deleted post. The next day he wrote on X, “Ok, enough jokes for a while. I’ll go back to reading bedtime stories for now,” a short post that at capture carried roughly 55 replies, 50 likes and some 8,970 views — a fraction of the audience the screenshot reached through the Post. The Post noted that many of the critics were using the moment to argue about AI generally, “which has taken on a more negative perception in politics and culture.”
Current Status
As of October 8, 2026, the original post is deleted and the follow-up post — framed as the end of the joke — remains on Sng’s timeline. His employer Factory has not been reported to have commented on or acted over the post, no outlet has reported any disciplinary step, and Sng has issued no apology or correction beyond the “enough jokes” line. His account remains active and he continues to post about AI engineering.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The episode is closer to a one-day news cycle than a career-ending cancellation: the conduct was a joke, the only visible consequence was the deletion of the post, and no professional sanction has been reported. What it did produce is a permanent search result — a senior engineer at an AI lab now indexed to a story headlined “horrible dad” in a Murdoch tabloid, on a site that lists him as a member of Factory’s engineering staff. Whether the story follows his career beyond the week depends on facts no outlet has reported: nothing has been said by Factory, and nothing has been said by Sng except that he was joking.
Sources
- NY Post, “California tech bro blasted as ‘horrible’ dad for using bot to read to his newborn baby: ‘Bleak’,” Oct. 8, 2026 — source
- Alvin Sng on X, “Ok, enough jokes for a while. I’ll go back to reading bedtime stories for now.” Oct. 8, 2026 — source
- Alvin Sng, personal website (bio, employers and specialties) — source
- Alvin Sng on X, profile timeline — source