Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 506 posts

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#261

Post by Windchaser »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #51
aplusbi wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I'm being uncharitable but this line "each person will be more load-bearing" reads to me as "each person will be expected to do more work for the same pay".

We’re not talking about an overworked nurse. Same Facebook-AI-researcher-pay is likely an eye watering amount of money

Still, regardless of the eye-watering amount of money, there's still a maximum amount of useful work you can get out of someone. Demand too much, and you actually lower their total productivity.

(For me, I found the limit was somewhere around 70 hrs/week - beyond that, the mistakes I made negated any progress I made. This also left me pretty burnt out after about a year, so the sustainable long-term hourly work rate is lower)

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#262

Post by jacquesm »

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).

> for some of us

I've read that before:

“Many men of course became extremely rich, but this was perfectly natural and nothing to be ashamed of because no one was really poor – at least no one worth speaking of.”

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#263

Post by criddell »

reaperducer wrote: post #256
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.

What's wrong with that? My charitable read is that each person is doing meaningful, necessary work. Nobody is superfluous.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#264

Post by JCM9 »

Lots of companies spun up giant AI teams over the last 48 months. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if 50+% of these roles are eliminated in the next 48 months.

The AI party is coming to an end. Those without clear ROI are ripe for the chopping block.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#265

Post by signatoremo »

Herring wrote: post #28
LPisGood wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I’m not understanding, but why is that wild? Is it just the fact that those people lost jobs? If it were a justification for a re-org I wouldn’t find it objectionable at all

It damages trust. Layoffs are nearly always bad for a company, but are terrible in a research environment. You want people who will geek out over math/code all day, and being afraid for your job (for reasons outside your control!) is very counterproductive. This is why tenure was invented.

Most of them are expected to find another job within Meta

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#266

Post by ModernMech »

jobigoud wrote: post #117
logtrees wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it known that there are fewer than infinity tools?

I would assume that for any given tool you could make a "tool maker" tool.

You make a tool, then a tool factory, then a tool factory factory, ad infinitum.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#267

Post by panloss125 »

throwawayq3423 wrote: post #128
dekhn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's more "move fast on a good foundation, rarely breaking things, and having a good team that can fix problems when they inevitably arise".

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

[dead]

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#268

Post by xeromal »

SoftTalker wrote: post #260
dekhn wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Isn't that the point of these layoffs? Less obfuscation and games of telephone? The more layers introduces inherent lag.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#269

Post by itronitron »

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

I suppose that's a consequence of having to A/B test everything in order to develop a product

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#270

Post by bravetraveler »

BoredPositron wrote: post #29
sgt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally like something out of Silicon Valley (the show).

Wait a year or two and for some it's going to be rhyme of the Nucleus storyline.

Funny to see this thread! I recently captured this quote/shared with some friends:

> "You can't expect to just throw money at an algorithm and beat one of the largest tech companies in the world"

A small adjustment to make for our circus: s/one of//

Post reply on HN