Live data from Hacker News

Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

nytimes.com

41–50 of 73 posts

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#41
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with you about ethics but it was a master stroke for him to buy both Instagram and WhatsApp.

He was just buying users of popular products in lieu of attracting new ones to his own. Meta has subsequently ruined IG and seems busy working up new ways to ruin WhatsApp.

Sure but seeing where his users were going and buying those companies at what are now very low prices (especially instagram) were a big deal.

Not so much with Oculus though. The whole metaverse thing ended up being very cringe.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#42
post #8

I really wonder how Zuckerberg will be looked back on. It's seemed obvious that he's an incredible CEO given the growth we saw with Facebook, but maybe he was just in the right place at the right time and had a cash cow that was difficult to mess up? Because when I look at the Metaverse and I look at this AI stuff... I dunno. Feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall.

I think he’ll be looked back as one hit wonder, lacking any ethics to grow his company. He pumped a whole bunch of money in VR that didn’t seem to go anywhere and now AI seems like a fine direction to go in, copying the herd, with dangerous disregard to ethics.

[deleted]

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#43
post #8

I really wonder how Zuckerberg will be looked back on. It's seemed obvious that he's an incredible CEO given the growth we saw with Facebook, but maybe he was just in the right place at the right time and had a cash cow that was difficult to mess up? Because when I look at the Metaverse and I look at this AI stuff... I dunno. Feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall.

I think he’ll be looked back as one hit wonder, lacking any ethics to grow his company. He pumped a whole bunch of money in VR that didn’t seem to go anywhere and now AI seems like a fine direction to go in, copying the herd, with dangerous disregard to ethics.

Let's not forget the crypto currency project he floated around.

And all the copycat divisions that melted away once the "template" companies he was copying, were bought out.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#44

$72 billion per year to create yet another chatbot. Imagine if this were spent on useful research or housing.

I don't think that's fair. It's R&D for a potential infinite money/effort hack. Unless you're in the camp that thinks only meat can be intelligent, depending on your perspective, it can be considered somewhere between useful research and critical research, including for the pursuit of things like "housing".

Maybe all the learnings of the specific architectures/implementations will be thrown out in the end, but that's not some rare occurrence with R&D/progression.

If you think their goal is to make chatbots, then maybe this won't make sense to you.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#45
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't think there is a single founder/CEO in the 21st century that is performing better than Zuckerberg. I understand he's not a likable guy, and neither are are his products." Spot on.

The best performing founder / ceo in the 21st century is someone who is unlikable and promotes / develops unlikable products. That seems impossible. What does that say about us? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that most of the products being promoted are actually highly treasured by a large number of people.

Were highly treasured. Were.

Zuck is the poster boy for enshittification [0]. The dark pattern business model involves companies making money long after their users stop loving their offerings.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#46
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has performed an order of magnitude better IMO. Started 7 billion dollar companies, all of which are an order of magnitude harder to manage than Facebook which is a cash cow. Especially Space X which is incredible in what it's been able to do and actually has a positive impact on humanity

Which are those 7 companies?

What companies did Elon Musk start? [0]

[0] https://kagi.com/search?q=What+companies+did+Elon+Musk+start...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#47
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think no matter what Mark does to shake things up. ~Facebook~ Meta will always be out-innovated by a startup This happens to all companies that end up with - pardon my French - a shithole culture.

They "trust me"...Dumb f*ks

I would disagree if this were a spurious quote that wasn't highly indicative of the preponderance of his record.

All the ethical quandaries where Facebook has been caught red handed. Over and over. Habitual denial of obvious problems.

The gross ineptitude and irresponsibility that facilitated actual genocidal coordination, in languages with no Facebook monitors. The consistently slippery talk we get from him via PR and Senate interviews.

And the deeply ethically challenged core business model of surveillance by any means not deemed illegal, and then some, as a means of individualizing the gaming of people's psychology - without transparent disclosure or a required opt-in.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#48
post #17
post #8

I really wonder how Zuckerberg will be looked back on. It's seemed obvious that he's an incredible CEO given the growth we saw with Facebook, but maybe he was just in the right place at the right time and had a cash cow that was difficult to mess up? Because when I look at the Metaverse and I look at this AI stuff... I dunno. Feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall.

He got on top because he has no ethics as evidenced by his actions from the start. He stayed on top by having the foresight to buy up anyone he could that even smelled like a competitor and had the luxury of still being under the radar at that time. I’m not sure either one makes him a great CEO but it did make him rich.

"He stayed on top by having the foresight to buy up anyone he could that even smelled like a competitor and had the luxury of still being under the radar at that time."

While it's easy to shit on such a strategy, that does in-fact make him a great CEO.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#49
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They "trust me"...Dumb f*ks

I would disagree if this were a spurious quote that wasn't highly indicative of the preponderance of his record. All the ethical quandaries where Facebook has been caught red handed. Over and over. Habitual denial of obvious problems. The gross ineptitude and irresponsibility that facilitated actual genocidal coordination, in languages with no Facebook monitors. The consistently slippery talk we get from him via PR a…

Agreed. They were also happy to give up a US citizens to the CCP in the hope of gaining marketshare in China. There was a senior whistleblower in Facebook that revealed this a little while ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3DAnORfgB8

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Shakes Up Meta's A.I. Efforts, Again

#50
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has performed an order of magnitude better IMO. Started 7 billion dollar companies, all of which are an order of magnitude harder to manage than Facebook which is a cash cow. Especially Space X which is incredible in what it's been able to do and actually has a positive impact on humanity

Which are those 7 companies?

Tesla, Space X, Boring Company, XAI, Neuralink, Paypal, SolarCity. Also funded and did recruiting for OpenAI.
Post reply on HN