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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

#271
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.

[deleted]

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#272
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.

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

If they want to innovate then they need to have small teams of people focused on the same problem space, and very rarely talking to each other.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#274
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…

... until reality catches up with a software engineer's inability to see outside of the narrow engineering field of view, neglecting most things that the end-users will care about, millions if not billions are wasted and leadership sees that checks and balances for the engineering team might be warranted after all because while velocity was there, you now have an overengineered product nobody wants to pay for.

You’re on the mark - this is the real challenge in software development. Not building software, but building software that actually accomplished the business objective. Unless of course you’re just coding for other reasons besides profit.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#275
post #87
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.

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…

Big tech is suffering from the incumbents disease.

What worked well for extracting profits from stable cash cows doesn't work in fields that are moving rapidly.

Google et al. were at one point pinnacle technologies too, but this was 20 years ago. Everyone who knew how to work in that environment has moved on or moved up.

Were I the CEO of a company like that I'd reduce headcount in the legacy orgs, transition them to maintenance mode, and start new orgs within the company that are as insulated from legacy as possible. This will not be an easy transition, and will probably fail. The alternative however is to definitely fail.

For example Google is in the amazing position that it's search can become a commodity that prints a modest amount of money forever as the default search engine for LLM queries, while at the same time their flagship product can be a search AI that uses those queries as citations for answers people look for.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#276
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's coming any day now! I'm loving this juxtaposition of companies hyping up imminent epoch-defining AGI, while simultaneously dedicating resources to building TikTok But Worse or adding erotica support to ChatGPT. Interesting priorities.

> ... adding erotica support to ChatGPT. Well, all the people with no jobs are going to need something to fill their time.

The bastards are playing both sides! Employees are expected to be So Enamored that we act like we have an ownership stake. Imagine the type of relationships that working ~18 hour days 6 times a week might offer! Generative Porn would be a welcome escape, probably.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#277
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

We learned not to publish as much information about contracts and to have huge networks of third party data sharing so that any actually concerning ones get buried in noise.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#278
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?

Well, let's give a concrete example. I want to use an SaaS as part of my job. My manager knows this and supports it. In the process of me trying to sign up for the SaaS, I have to contact various groups in the company- the cost center folks to get an approval for spending the money to get the SaaS, the security folk to ensure we're not accidentally leaking IP to the outside world, the legal folks to make sure the contract negotiations go smoothly.

Why would the lawyer need to talk to my manager? I'm the person getting the job done, my manager is there to support me and to resolve conflicts in case of escalations. In the meantime, I'm going to explain patiently to the lawyer that the terms they are insisting on aren't necessary (I always listen carefully to what the lawyer says).

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#279

You can think of Metabook like a chemical spill If you're not swimming in their river, or you weren't responsible for their spill, who cares? But it spreads into other rivers and suddenly you have a mess In this analogy the chemical spill - for those who don't have Meta accounts, or sorry, guess you do, we've made one for you, so sorry - is valuation https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7211388

This very quickly got 2 upvotes followed by immediately 2 downvotes

I see you, FAANG employees.

Re: Meta is axing 600 roles across its AI division

#280
post #264

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.

wishful thinking
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