so externalizing environmental and social costs is fine, as long as the numbers are big enough?
I am not sure how any of this follows.
They became big enough because they were free and had massive cash behind them to destroy all competition (Mapquest, Garmin and others)
Now they are this big, they have become quasi public record for many other organizations who rely on this data.
Since they want to keep costs low, if their data is wrong, it can have significant impacts on your life and getting someone to correct it is almost impossible.
There's an aspect to this which feels like part of it is that Zuckerberg himself is sliding into middle age. Facebook has been around for 20+ years now. The youthful exuberance of Web 2.0 has given way to the exuberance of an even greater more disruptive AI era. The problem is, it leads to blind imitation. And it's obvious who he's imitating. It's Elon Musk. From Zuck's perspective, all he ever did was figure out how…
What's wrong with Ketamine? Everybody (or at least population majority I'd bet) have consumed hardcore drugs like Alcohol, Cocaine, Ketamine and so-on, what does it have to do with anything? Haven't you tried?
My partner works there as an engineer. The org they work in had loads of people transferred to the "AAI" org doing data labelling. I find it almost unbelievable as well, but it is true.
It's 100% unbelievable and hysterical that its true. Have they done the simple math on how much labeled data they need to make a model of value?
Computer Science is the science of solving (hard) problems in general. If you automate CS, you trivially automate most of other professions. The only ones that won't budge are the regulated ones like lawyers, MDs and similar that have ways to prevent AI from wrecking their fields. Product/Project PMs are easy pickings. We'll also see wreckage coming to highly paid actors in the near future.
Explain to me how automating CS automates waiters and chefs.
Zuck has read one too many sci-fi novels. He is afraid. Afraid that he will be left behind by the AI oligopoly. Afraid that he won’t get to live in Elysium.
in a way, arent we all?
No. Not everyone. And even those who are thankfully don’t have the wealth and resources to upheave thousands of lives in pursuit of a mirage.
I think the gloating in this thread is very misguided. Meta is evil, sure, but that's not the point. The point is that this kind of AI psychosis might be the new normal for our industry, or at least one of the new normals. My last workplace absolutely did a jump in toxicity when the CEO got obsessed with AI, instituted token leaderboards, told us all to drop all non-AI work for a time, etc. We were no Meta.
So I worked for a year and a half at an AI startup that was way ahead of the curve on leveraging LLM's and other generative models. Like way ahead. I lost my job there months ago, but I can tell you that the AI psychosis is real and I watched it before a lot of the rest of the world. Maybe the CEO was always like this, but he went from being a likable, and liked person, to a fucking maniac. Multiple people who had wo…
I have had the chance recently to meet my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss at my current job and it is amazing how in this era of robber-baron capitalism we seem to be promoting exclusively the most unserious, irresponsible, and magical-thinking among us. The fish does seem to be rotting from the head. And it's not just some companies or institutions, it seems to be all of them. At least during the gilded age, the robber barons were serious people. I'd rather have Vanderbilt or Carnegie as my economic royalty than Mark Zuckerberg or Peter Thiel. Vanderbilt and Carnegie may have been evil, but at least they had their heads on straight.
You'd say that Google Maps hasn't improved much in the last 20 years?
Maps peaked after Google acquired Waze in 2013 and integrated the data. Since then they've added worthless annoying social features and more advertising.
I feel like every other time I open maps I get some "look at what's new" pop-up, which derails my thought process and muscle memory.
My anecdote is worth just as much as yours. I moved cross-country in early 2016 (for work at Google) and noticed when we closed on our house that the next street over was mis-pronounced by Google Maps. I reported it and it was fixed within a week.
you moved there --to work at google; you reported it --while you worked at google. What is different hmmmm
Nothing -- I reported it via the consumer Google Maps function. In fact, I've reported several Maps errors over the years and all have been addressed fairly promptly. This includes before I worked at Google, during my time there, and after leaving.
I wonder if the booklet mentioned in the article was also inspired by the Scott McNealy booklet [1]. It would not be so surprising given the history of the Menlo Park campus.
(2026 Googler, struggling to answer an interview question)
Ha. But I guess I was too subtle. Google is likely to care more about addresses in the Bay Area, because if they're wrong, their Tesla or Waymo could drive them into a ditch.