A project called Colleague Skill has gone viral in China, training AI agents in the skills and knowledge of employees before they are laid off.
On the social network RedNote (known as Xiaohongshu in the country), the open-source development of Colleague Skill is actively discussed. It has garnered over 8,000 stars on GitHub. The developer markets the tool as a way to more effectively "say goodbye" to colleagues.
The service allows for the "transfer" of an employee's professional knowledge, information handling skills, and communication style during chats and calls to an AI assistant. To train the AI, users must upload messages from work chats, documents, spreadsheets, emails, audio recordings, and screenshots.
Colleague Skill can write code based on technical specifications, answer questions, and even shift blame onto others.
The project emerged amid reports that more employers were requiring employees to systematically document their work processes and decision-making logic before laying them off. Management referred to this procedure as "process optimization," but in reality, the data was used to train AI systems.
Users reacted negatively to the situation, labeling the process as "distilling the worker." A project called Anti Distillation Skill has surfaced, aimed at helping individuals protect against the copying of their knowledge.
Recently, a project called "Colleague Skill" became popular on GitHub.
— 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) April 3, 2026
On April 3, a blogger stated that she developed the "Anti Distillation Skill" project.
She expressed that everyone is just trying to make a living, and no one wants to be turned into a skill and lose their job, so she invented the "Anti Distillation Skill." She hopes everyone can survive a little longer in this AI wave. pic.twitter.com/53OJZLSc7A
This tool allows users to rewrite archived documents to make them less useful for AI agents.
Other users have started sharing repositories that aim to digitize a former girlfriend, a boss, or even themselves for business correspondence.
It’s worth noting that citizens in the U.S. are deeply concerned about the advancements in artificial intelligence and its implications for unemployment.