I think it was rather a poor try in "knowledge exchange" but it is not sustainable in the long run.

Pure propaganda. The people who were laid off were in the US, Canada, and Western Europe. The people who were "rehired" were in India. AI had a minimal role, primarily as a cover story.

Curious if they really believed the hype or just fired all those people to play with the stock price

Sounds like they replaced HR people with engineers and designers? AI helped them do it.