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Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

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Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#251

Post by yodsanklai »

ironman1478 wrote: post #249
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Because the AI works so well, or because it doesn't? > ”By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Wang writes in a memo seen by Axios. That's kinda wild. I'm kinda shocked they put it in writing.

Having worked at Meta, I wish they did this when I was there. Way too many people not agreeing on anything and having wildly different visions for the same thing. As an IC below L6 it became really impossible to know what to do in the org I was in. I had to leave.

They could do like in the Manhattan project: have different team competing on similar products. Apparently Meta is willing to throw away money, could be better than giving the talents to their competitors.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#254

Post by myko »

deanc wrote: post #107

Meta is fumbling hard. Winning the AI race is about marketing at this point - the difference between the models is negligible. Chat GPT is the one on everyone's lips outside of technology, and in the media. They have a platform by which to push some kind of assistant but where is it? I log into facebook and it's buried in the sidebar as Meta AI. Why aren't they shoving it down my throat? They have a huge platform of…

> the difference between the models is negligible

I mostly agree with this but make an exception for MetaAI which seems egregiously bad compared to the others I use regularly (Anthropic's, Google's, OpenAI's)

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#255

Post by distances »

deanc wrote: post #107

Meta is fumbling hard. Winning the AI race is about marketing at this point - the difference between the models is negligible. Chat GPT is the one on everyone's lips outside of technology, and in the media. They have a platform by which to push some kind of assistant but where is it? I log into facebook and it's buried in the sidebar as Meta AI. Why aren't they shoving it down my throat? They have a huge platform of…

They are shoving it down, WhatsApp has two entry points on the main view. I've received multiple requests for tips on how to hide them, I don't think people are interested. And I'd hide them too if I just could.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#256

Post by reaperducer »

ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Because the AI works so well, or because it doesn't? > ”By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Wang writes in a memo seen by Axios. That's kinda wild. I'm kinda shocked they put it in writing.

each person will be more load-bearing

On what planet is it OK to describe your employees as "load bearing?"

It's a good way to get your SLK keyed.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#257

Post by joshl32532 »

svara wrote: post #241
gloomyday wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These "missions" cannot coexist with the single mission of every publicly traded company, which is to maximize shareholder value. It is really depressing how corporations don't look like they are run by humans.

This is too reductionist. When you go to work, do you go maximize shareholder value? Were you ever part of a team and felt good about the work you were doing together? Was it because you were maximizing shareholder value?

> When you go to work, do you go maximize shareholder value?

Yes. The further up the ladder you go, the more this is pounded into your head. I was in a few Big Tech and this is how you write your self-assessment. "Increased $$$ revenue due to higher user engagement, shipped xxx product that generated xxx sales etc".

If you're level 1/2 engineer, sure. You get sold on the company mission. But once you're in senior level, you are exposed to how the product/features will maximize the company's financial and market position. How each engineer's hours are directly benefiting the company.

> Were you ever part of a team and felt good about the work you were doing together? Maybe some startups or non-profits can have this (like Wikipedia or Craigslist), but definitely not OpenAI, Google and Meta.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#258

Post by monkeynotes »

jpadkins wrote: post #247
monkeynotes wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly, they are burning money with TikSlop, they don't even know how to monetize it, just YOLO'd the product to keep investors interested. Even the porn industry can't seem to monetize AI, so I doubt OpenAI who knows jack shit about this space will be able to. Fact is generative AI is stupidly expensive to run, and I can't see mass adoption at subscription prices that actually allow them to break even. I'm sure folk…

> If consumers are out of work, who the hell is going to keep the economy going? There is a whole field of research called post scarcity economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-scarcity tldr; it's not as bad as you think, but the transition is going to be bad (for some of us).

The planet has finite resources, least alone land. And then there is human psychology for hoarding resources.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#259

Post by mgiampapa »

JTbane wrote: post #96
dekhn wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm seeing a lot of frustration at the leadership level about product velocity- and much of the frustration is pointed at internal gatekeepers who mainly seem to say no to product releases. My leadership is currently promoting "better to ask forgiveness", or put another way: "a bias towards action". There are definitely limits on this, but it's been helpful when dealing with various internal negotiations. I don't spe…

> My leadership is currently promoting "better to ask forgiveness", or put another way: "a bias towards action" lol, that works well until a big issue occurs in production

Have we learned nothing from Cambridge Analytica?

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#260

Post by SoftTalker »

dekhn wrote: post #248
throwawayq3423 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what move fast in a large org looks like in practice.

Sometimes moving fast in a large org boils down to finding a succinct way to tell the lawyer "I understand what you're saying, but that's not consistent with my understanding of the legality of the issue, so I will proceed with my work. If you want to block my process, the escalation path is through my manager." (I have more than once had to explain to a lawyer that their understanding was wrong, and they were imposi…

Raises the question though, why is the lawyer talking to you in the first place, and not your manager?
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