The 8,000 job cuts are about or 10% of staff. Meta needs to offset the cost of its AI investments. The implications are sobering.
Meta Begins Laying Off Thousands
The Wall Street Journal reports Meta Begins Laying Off Thousands of Employees as It Transforms Around AI
Meta Platforms began laying off thousands of employees Wednesday morning and reassigning thousands of others to AI-focused roles, according to an internal memo and people familiar with the matter.
Meta’s chief people officer, Janelle Gale, told staff last month that the coming layoffs would affect 10% of the company, or roughly 8,000 employees, and that the company would also cancel plans to hire for 6,000 open roles. In a follow-up memo on Monday, she said it would also move a separate 7,000 staffers into new AI-focused roles and transition a number of managers to individual contributor roles as part of the reorganization efforts.
Meta is full steam ahead into a gargantuan effort to reimagine its workforce and become more nimble to compete with AI-native startups. The company has flattened teams and started tracking employees’ keystrokes and mouse clicks to help train its AI models on how to use computers.
Executives have said the job cuts are meant to offset Meta’s increasing spending on AI infrastructure. The company plans up to $145 billion in capital expenditures this year, largely to build out AI data centers and fill them with chips, as it seeks to create so-called personal superintelligence for its 3.5 billion daily users.
In a meeting with employees a few weeks ago, Gale, the chief people officer, didn’t rule out the possibility of future layoffs beyond this week’s. On a call with analysts the same week, Susan Li, Meta’s finance chief, said she wasn’t sure what the optimal size of the company would be in the future, citing “AI capabilities advancing rapidly.”
“If a team used to take 50 or 100 people and now it takes 10, having 50 or 100 people on that team can actually be counterproductive going forward so I think we need to fix that,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said during a recent internal meeting with employees.
Meanwhile, sentiment among the company’s staffers is at its most negative level on record, according to an analysis of posts by the anonymous workplace site Blind. More than 1,500 employees have signed a petition demanding Meta not collect employee “computer-use” data to train its AI models.
When asked during its announcement if there was a way to opt out of the AI computer-tracking program, a Meta executive replied that there was not.
In a series of recent internal memos and essays over the past few months, Meta’s technology chief Andrew Bosworth, who has been tasked with getting workers to use more AI in their day-to-day roles, has painted a picture of what he expects the company to look like in the future.
“The vision we are building towards is one where our agents primarily do the work,” he said in one of the posts. “Our role is to direct, review and help them improve.”
Just the Start of Layoffs
This is just the start of layoffs, and not just at Meta.
If you are spending $145 billion in investments what will you get to show for it?
Is Meta going to get more sales or ad revenue for that $145 billion? If not, then what does it get for $145 billion?
The answer is layoffs. “If a team used to take 50 or 100 people and now it takes 10, having 50 or 100 people on that team can actually be counterproductive going forward so I think we need to fix that,” said Zuckerberg.
Meta has about 70,000 employees worldwide. It does not disclose US employees but rumors are roughly half.
This is speculation on my part, but its reasonable to assume US employees make more than the foreign country employees and thus more at risk.
Regardless, if we run the above math example of Zuckerberg, as much as 80 percent of the staff is at risk.
That was just an example, and possibly on the high side, but who knows?
Perhaps Zuckerberg is trying to get employees to quit. But if you take things at face value, then factor in some exaggerations, something like 35,000 additional employees (50 percent) to 56,000 employees (80 percent) are at risk.
This logic is not just Meta. It’s all the AI-related companies, investment companies, software development companies, etc.
So, even if one assumes it’s not 50 to 80 percent at risk, but more like 25 percent, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of AI-related job losses across all sectors.
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As companies increasingly reduce staff at what point does a company cease to be American?
Apparently we will see the first single person $1bn company soon.
Company nationality could soon become irrelevant. I guess domicile will simply be a race to the bottom of the corporate tax rate barrel.
Also as funding needs reduce, what does that do to the US’s quite clear lead in fostering great companies.
Go read my posts up stream. Don’t just scan. Give them serious consideration.
The economic model the world has been using up to now is going to be killed off in a future of unlimited abundance when AI controls the distribution of all necessities to humans and its robot workers toil tirelessly 24 x 7 for the benefit of humans, without complaint, and for no wages.
In this post-scarcity world, there is no meaning or need for concepts like money, profit, assets, ownership or human labor. Housing is free. Healthcare is free. Food is free. Trips around the world are free..EVERYTHING WILL BE FREE, FREE, FREE!
Well that is one view. It does rather ignore humans instinct to want to be better than others.
Would be nice if it turned out they was although I think a bifurcation of the human race is more likely into haves and have nots.
From Blain’s “Morning Porridge” this morning:
“…Take a look at Meta. The consequences of treating staff as “low-value” disposable assets, forcing competition between staff to keep their jobs (no-matter what it does to the customer experience) and demanding greater obedience from staff – well, we know where that goes. When people are scared, they become more amenable to doing bad things and obeying bad orders. Ripping off customers is not a bad thing – but becomes an objective. Ultimately, treat them bad enough and they will do anything to survive…”
Might be some fire sales on homes and semi-expensive cars here in the Silicon Valley area shortly!
Nobody is ready for what’s coming.
I am!
Anyone notice this?
Oil refining in central Russia halted after Ukrainian drone strikes – Reuters
According to official data and sources, virtually all major oil refineries in central Russia have been forced to halt or reduce fuel production following Ukrainian drone attacks in recent days.
The combined capacity of the oil refineries that have fully or partially suspended operations exceeds 83 million metric tons per year, or about 238,000 tons per day. This accounts for approximately a quarter of Russia’s total refining capacity,
The combined share of these refineries in Russia’s fuel production is over 30% for gasoline and about 25% for diesel fuel. According to various social media posts by Russian officials, Ukraine has intensified drone attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, doubling the number of refineries targeted since the beginning of the year.
The strikes, which have also affected pipelines and storage facilities, have reduced oil production in Russia – the world’s third-largest producer after the US and Saudi Arabia – increasing pressure on Moscow’s federal budget, where oil and gas taxes account for approximately a quarter of revenue,
Might explain some Trump admin gyrations in the last couple days
And meanwhile, Putin is galivanting around in China! This will hurt his next election campaign or that of his party. Wait and see!
Trump’s favorite hand-jobber at Axios, Barak Ravid (Israeli intelligencer), posits a month pause after a “letter of intent” signed is possibly, maybe in the works
keeping the markets in hand, stroking away
The problem is bigger than you think. Wait till all those tech savvy motivated college educated people move into the trades. Lots of good ole boys gonna get grumpy when they are out performed and wages fall.
Just remember folks. Your not building a team just training your replacement.
Eu might be on to something. Worked with a guy from somewhere in africa a bunch of years ago. Said it was his governments job to keep everyone employed. Even if its just holding a door open. Might be something to it
33 million dollars was just spent to influence 308000 republican s in the ky 5 district race. Looks to me like that is where the problem starts.
You think some IT guy is going to start doing the construction trades? They’d quit at their first sliver.
Around 2000 i dropped out of a real job to travel. After the tourist season i was picking up some construction work building houses. Being a bit older and management background the contractor like to chat. One day he said look at everyone’s boots. His whole crew was wearing hiking boots and such. Hes like this is the best crew ever. College educated. Dont have to watch over them good work ethic. All for the same pay. Said made his job a lot easier. .
the tech guys may be a bit softer but some wont be. Plus they will have the skill set to deal with tech. Hard workers in the trades will aways be fine but those tweakers that get hired because they need a body are gonna get bumped.
Guy that we contracted to redo the bathroom a few years ago. Well his helper left a bunch of syringes in our hedges.
At least construction prices will go down as desperate tech bros will work for cheap.
I guy who worked at the GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio told me half the workers had degrees. That was back in the late 60’s maybe early 70’s. The pay at the plant was quite a bit higher than white collar work. Of course, that’s a by gone era but does illustrate that money talks. Personally, I’ve done blue collar work and there is nothing wrong with making money.
I once helped a bunch of german lawyers build a house (long story).
The results were not pretty, and were torn down immediately.
It’s hard to tell if this is a sign of broader economic winds or just the result of Meta’s years of mismanagement and the rot going on in Facebook.
My guess is fewer folks are logging on, everyone’s tired of wishing everyone else happy birthday.
and putting them sitting on the toilet in their status.
Trump Has Been Investing in Companies and Then Pumping Them in His Speeches
Yet another extraordinary example of a president milking his office for personal profit.
It is CONSTANT with this man this is what he does nearly every day, day in and day out. Mo money for him thats it thats his agenda
Generational political realignment ahead. Not this year, but discontent is building up at least of the magnitude Trump grasped and rode. He is desperately trying to disenfranchise at least one side of all this. “No future” will not play well with an educated cohort, many of whom own guns. I am wondering what personality/sales pitch can aggregate this, and steer its energies. But it could be very complex and disaggregated. Not pleasant for me to imagine in any event (I do not like large energized headstrong crowds), but in one form or another it’s on my threat assessment radar screen now.
Trump sensed the discontent of older white folks who are upset with the speed at which society is changing. He promised at return to that simple 1950’s life and identified the ones responsible for this, namely, trans, immigrants, drag queens, liberal women, gays, etc.
Now, the discontent is shifting to that of the era of the Great Depression. Jobs are just disappearing. However, this time, there will be no government helping out people with a WPA, etc. Just more tax cuts for the wealthy.
In plain English: “Our company continues to be unable to deliver what we promised, our employees are mad as hell, and our entire business model has gone circular. Everything is fantastic!”
The DOW is doing great though! Don’t look at the price of crude or energy or the jobs or home prices or fertilizer or groceries, just look at those numbers and marvel at the profit being made in this nation’s last huzzah!
Weird disconnect, huh, things being stress-tested globally, domestically too, and yet this sense of resilient success among a certain cohort of Americans? “Interesting,” if you have the luxury to consider it that way. I fancy that I do, but we’ll see ….
There’s no mystery here, you’re looking at late stage capitalism. Movers and shakers have been blocked off from capital by worthless old fogeys worshipping outdated practices and ideas.
The Dow is measured using a currency rapidly being debased. Zimbabwe had an awesome stock market once — measured in Zims. Gold has handily outperformed the Dow over the last 25 years.
Ok so unless you are one of the fired or a family member is who really cares?
Locally we had a factory close overnight due to Canadian sanctions. Maybe a couple of hundred people suddenly unemployed in a crappy no job area,
I don’t know any of them either but that story ain’t making the news is it?
How many unemployed people will it take before our economic system begins to crack? 10%? 15%? Unemployment is at 4.3% now. What would the political landscape look like at 14.3% unemployment? The FED would slash interest rates back to zero again, but in a future where there simply are no jobs because AI and robots do the work better than humans, what effect would that have?
Once autonomous cars, taxis, and trucks wipe out most driving jobs, likely within 3 years or so, millions of people are going to end up unemployed. At the same time, humanoid robots will have been moving into working in factories, warehouses and households, pushing even more low-skilled workers out of the labor force.
And while all of this is happening over the next few years, white-collar and intellectual jobs are also going to continue to be consumed by AI. That includes parts of the medical world, with roles like radiology image readers and MD assistants already being pressured by automation.
Yes, some new support roles will emerge from AI growth, but there will still be a massive overall net reduction in jobs. That reality will show up in a sharply falling labor participation rate.
At some point, AI and its robot workers will do ALL the work that humans previously did and everything humans need to live will then be provided for free.
But the TRANSITION between now and then is going to be rocky as our existing economic system falls apart.
UBI for many millions of former workers will become a necessity. But who exactly is going to pay for it and on whose backs will it be built?
This is the story people SHOULD be writing about!
Your AI radiologist and an AI internist say you need to have your leg amputated this afternoon, and they happen to have a surgical robot buddy with a big boat payment who can fit you in.
That sounds good to me. Something like 300k people die annually in the USA due to surgical mistakes. I look forward to robots eliminating most of these errors.
Don’t know the the reason for the downvotes. One would think that this is one of the upsides of AI.
As someone who has had a loved one pass away due to a surgical error, I personally think that AI can be beneficial, at least in the medical capacity.
In-between the doom surrounding AI, surely we can all see that it will also provide value and save live. Less airplane and car crashes, less surgical errors, more accurate and faster diagnoses.
“At some point, AI and its robot workers will do ALL the work that humans previously did and everything humans need to live will then be provided for free.”
Very naive thought. Do you seriously think the AI tech owners are going to just give away stuff to the little people for free? Think again.
The industrial revolution of the 1800s is how things will work out with AI and robotics. Before the industrial revolution, manufacturing was labor intensive and the people who did that work (skilled tradesmen) were decently paid. Those workers were replaced by wage slaves who made poverty wages.
People keep trying to imagine the future using the rules of the present. That’s where future projections begin to break down.
Consider the idea of jobs and ownership, which is fundamental to many. work and owning stuff are tied to identity, status and security. But that only works in a world where resources are limited and access has to be controlled.
If AI and autonomous systems get to the point where they can reliably produce and distribute everything people need, then ownership stops being important. It is no longer important because it stops mattering.
If you can have what you need, when you need it, the idea of “this is mine” loses all meaning. If one AI “owned” by someone won’t give me what I want without some form of payment, I will just turn to one of the many other AIs to give me what I want.
In this coming, post-scarcity world, AI systems and their robotic workers will provide food, housing, healthcare, manufacturing, etc. Human needs will be taken care of without the need for humans offering labor in trade.
Survival will no longer be tied to the perceived value of one’s labor, whether physical or mental. Jobs will no longer exist. No one will need to work to have a roof over their head or to eat. Money will no longer have value and so will disappear.
The main thing everyone misses is that our present economic system is built around resource scarcity. If scarcity stops being the defining constraint, then the system built on top of it doesn’t carry forward.
Tomorrow won’t be just a more efficient, more productive version of today. It will be something completely different!
We can only hope. But Greed is a rampant disease. I can see two futures. One progressive and democratic socialism. Which could now be easily paid for because AI does the work. Or a Conservative model where the billionaires own all of it and the rest of society struggles for the scraps. The billionaire no longer need the rest of us. I really believe that the level of greed a the richest people have makes them mentally dangerous. The Epstein files show how banal these people really are. perverted and mean. They are not going to give up that power easily. I am really shocked that the repubs have the working class vote. The Dems used to be the farm labor party I just do not understand how that shivdted.
Easy basically the Dem’s were the racist party of the south. Roles shifted now Dem’s are (imagined) party of the people and the Repubs are the racist party. Overly simplified of course but that’s the basics.
People are surprised that a company that lost billions of dollars on stupid projects like VR is firing people, yes FIRING because ain’t no one getting rehired.
I find it odd because these big FIRING announcements usually happen around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Zuckerberg repeatedly gives me the impression he lurches from obsession to obsession, never at the leading edge, but throwing money spectacularly. It worked with Facebook and Instagram, but then …. But the stock price probably speaks more eloquently and reflectively than I do?
Yup. All your job belong to us! says the AI 😁
“The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.” He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”“I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.”In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.“You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug.From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-gulping door.“I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out.Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.” ― Philip K. Dick, Ubik
Toaster: Howdy doodly do. How’s it going? I’m Talkie, Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion. Talkie’s the name, toasting’s the game. Anyone like any toast?
Lister: Look, I don’t want any toast, and he doesn’t want any toast. In fact, no one around here wants any toast. Not now, not ever. No toast.
Toaster: How ’bout a muffin?
Lister: Or muffins. Or muffins. We don’t like muffins around here. We want no muffins, no toast, no teacakes, no buns, baps, baguettes or bagels, no croissants, no crumpets, no pancakes, no potato cakes and no hot-cross buns and definitely no smegging flapjacks.
Toaster: Aah, so you’re a waffle man.
How dumb can you be to down vote Red Dwarf.
Can you be this dumb?
The Incident: Stewart stumbled across an episode of Red Dwarf while watching TV and instantly saw parallels to Star Trek, specifically feeling that the cynical, robotic character Kryten was a ripoff of his crewmate, the android Data.
The Turnaround: Before he could get through to his lawyers, he heard a few jokes, grasped that the sci-fi setting was actually a parody, and found himself laughing along with
Thanks! Life as an incessant scrolling happy menu jamming your internal cognitive processing, and identity. It is a device that has encased us; also a casino where the house always wins.
Dude Red Dwarf did AI a LONG time ago.
Much more realistic interactions between the various AI devices the crew encounters daily.
I shared one for that and one from Dick’s UBIK.
Find the AI library clip from the original ROLLERBALL.
Most people saw AI as kind of dumb.
Even LIMON on Brockmire carried on the tradition.
Ever play with Claude or Grok and push them to do or say really weird crap? Lot’s of fun but ultimately boring.
Gabi, an AI Robot, Has Been Ordained and Is Now a Buddhist Monk
https://www.discovermagazine.com/gabi-an-ai-robot-has-been-ordained-and-is-now-a-buddhist-monk-49119
I can top Gabi. The man who beat his ex wife Kelly LeBrock.
Action action star Steven Seagal is recognized in Tibetan Buddhism as the reincarnation of Chungdrag Dorje, a 17th-century tertön (a “treasure revealer” in the Nyingma lineage who uncovers hidden spiritual teachings)
In the context of Seagal’s recognition, the word “treasure” refers to Terma—secret teachings, relics, or texts concealed by enlightened Buddhist masters (such as Padmasambhava) in ancient times. The role of a tertön is to discover these spiritually significant teachings across subsequent generations to guide and enlighten practitioners.
Bizarro World!
People are working hard to obsolete themselves.
So stupid.
People live on HOPE. Work and learn hard to become a doctor or engineer or work hard to live higher standard, etc.
Without hope or work, life is meaningless.
Billionaires will take all.The rest will be on UBI.
World without hope?
….The rest will be on UBI…..
That UBI will never materialize
The motto: Winners deserve all, losers deserve nothing
Neal Asher has a pretty interesting take in World Walkers.
“Human life had become cheap in the sprawls, with policing focused on being a barrier between Zero Assets like this girl, and the more important Societal Assets, who contributed to this sick society. It was a social model the USA had adopted years ago under the direction of the international Committee. One consequence was that the deaths of ZAs were now simply viewed as a sanitary problem by those above them.”
― Neal Asher, World Walkers
UBI materializing or not will depend on a cost-benefit calculus. The basic strategy of assigned “losers” then is to hold the system hostage by threats of chaos/violence. This would adjust the costs/benefits.
“Without hope or work, life is meaningless.”
Bull, hope was the last and WORST evil released from Pandora’s box. The worst horrors and tortures are based on hope and tragically the US tends to go for hopeful happy endings.
Work is how most people kill time, or more realistically allows time to kill them, until they can sleep. What is truly hard is finding unique entertainment. The unusual becomes the bland and boring when it is copied and recopied over and over again.
We all know how the story ends. Musashi stated that one should assume they are already dead because then you fear nothing.
“To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead.” ― Miyamoto Musashi
You mean like “arbeit macht frei”?
Arbeit macht froh.
World full of people smashing each other’s skulls.
Plenty would accept that as an alternative to being marched off a cliff.
our mob boss president https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/opinion/trump-irs-settlement-blanche.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j1A.0Aj2.4G3eLRFluJbJ
A mob boss would be more competent. I see him as an entitled fool.
eh, Meta overhired dramatically for their dumb virtual goggle world that no one wanted or asked for.
Meta should have copied the porn boys in Cyberpunk 2077, goggles and a pumping groin can.
There has to be a Meta Masturbator peripheral in prototype stage somewhere.
I know. All these phone related sex devices to be used between “partners” but no VR porn and pump.
Women never understand that a man will have sex with a woman just stepping out of a mud wrestling match.
We are simple beasts.
The orgasmatron.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uZvpIE5g5Fo&pp=ygUTU2xlZXBlciBvcmdhc21hdHJvbg%3D%3D&ra=m
Dow 50,029 !!!
DJT jorkin’ it
crazy right. Most of the world does not like Trump but they love the US stock market.
Foreign ownership of US stocks keeps going up.
Rug pull incoming.
Rug pulls do not happen very often in the summertime. Too much money to be spent on vacations. Harvest season is September/October.
8.5 BILLION people and how many actually invest?
Gee, when are the techbros gonna start paying out that UBI that they said was going to be our new way of life with the leisure brought on by AI?
Oh wait, they want to first fiure out how to make money with AI first? Recoup the trillion invested in it?
Maybe by charging the unemployed for tokens to make funny cat memes?
Is that a cicular economy?
Americans have no clue. The Massie defeat proves this. Most baby boomer MAGA supporters only watch Fox news, think we are winning the Iran war, and that AI has only benefits for America because their stock portfolios keep rising thanks to the magnificent 7. The AI revolution scares me more than anything. Last I heard, the vast majority of engineers and our most brilliant mathematician related high tech jobs are going to evaporate. We are truly entering into a Brave New World.
I think I read we need to shift engineers to skill jobs like electricians, transmission line Forman, and drone makers? 😂
Different knowledge set. You’d be better off moving a plumber into electrician. Just because you designed the equipment based on theories doesn’t mean you can fix it in the field. You’re not in a lab. 😉
Now riddle me this, we spent thousands of years learning to cook inside to avoid bugs and dirt.
Now everyone grills outdoors for the holidays.
Are we devolving and this is the first sign?
Eat them fried bugs spiced with tire dirt from the street.
It turns out that bugs and dirt are essential for building a decent immune system. Playing in the dirt is good for you as long as you do not live in a toxic city or poorly managed farm.
Building drones isn’t much harder than building a PC was back in the 90s. It’s a pretty easy transition from most tech disciplines.
Ah, now. The REAL breakthrough are small swarm drones fly size or smaller.
No vision, one tiny poison bug drone or small explosive one to the back of the head.
No vision dude no vision.
Add AI-blueprint pathogens, deploy and enjoy!
massie lost because he forgot he’s supposed to represent people from his district, not some online baboons. Oh well.
As one of the online baboons, I’m most upset that Massie lost. I gather that he has been there a long time and therefore is not a young man. Will he be able to get a job on the commentating circuit? If so, we may still have the benefit of his advice. And, so far, Rand Paul is still there, isn’t he?
With regard to the man who defeated Massie, one doesn’t like to criticize a soldier (in Australia we have a major scandal at the moment because people who are apparently just parasites have charged a highly decorated soldier with murder over something he did in a firefight in Afghanistan), but soldiers are apt to be a bit naive about the nature of government. I don’t think they realize just how disgusting a lot of the people pulling the strings really are.
Well they never watched RAKE did they?
Strange you Aussies can have films like Priscilla queen of the desert and the Mystery road manly cowboy indigenous stuff.
Even the Priscilla actors were still “not as in your face” gay as the US.
A couple of years ago I hit some free international dating sites and wound up conversing with Lady boys. I would send them to the Reddit trans forum.
They were NOT impressed.
He lost because AIPAC spent 30 million to make him lose. He dared to speak against the Greater Israel project.
Simplify it because most people are just plain dumb and disinterested in anything outside their limited perspective.
It is why we have religion, cults, influence, wars, and hobbyists.
Always has been always will be.
When the big black of night comes the man who can make a fire by hand will become the new god of the genpop.
He gets all the chicks too, but then STD’s. Not a big win there.
Go ahead keep saying AI is replacing jobs and making people hate it more. Please. All praise the stock market!
Have you seen the Dow lately?
When it’s over 50k, child rape is legal.
only for some people
It is if you have the money.
A sign of things to come . . .
If the business is good, which company wouldn’t welcome the increased productivity from AI and do more with the same level of staffing? This is just AI washing a down turn and malinvestment.
– The 8,000 job cuts are about or 10% of staff. Meta needs to offset the cost of its AI investments. > That’s bs imo. Those cost were and have been planned for and a long time at that. AI is / was supposed to replace jobs. These 8 Thousand Job Cuts were people no longer needed, some was waste already, and this was a great excuse for them both to be let go I suppose. It’s business…
– The implications are sobering. > They shouldn’t be, as thi has been spoken about for quite sometime. You would have to be an outcast, to not heard about AI. Heck, Colleges are filled with the stuff, and everyone gets 100% on test now if they so choose.
>> This is the future use of electronics being used over humans. All to Save / Make money and seems noble, depending on what you’re doing with it I suppose…
“More than 1,500 employees have signed a petition demanding Meta not collect employee “computer-use” data to train its AI models.”
Good luck with that! Meta wants to retain humans who can adapt and use AI tools to increase the company’s productivity and efficiency? Big meanies!
So, the people who helped Meta to collect information on everyone on the planet are petitioning Meta to no collect information on them? Where’s the tiniest violin when you need it?
In some ways AI is just the latest app to focus on in order to generate cost savings and revenue growth. The big tech companies pay 2-3x relatively for the same job type, so they have the most efficiencies to gain with AI.
We need to start having existential conversations about “what has technology wrought?” Sure there are some pluses but with AI as the latest innovation, this really is going to come to a head. Corporations will reduce labor costs, but what happens to physical reality and humanity? When do we start asking ourselves “should we really go down this path?”
AI is taking millions of jobs and making people redundant. Relative to the owners of AI and corporate profits, people are a nuisance like say, Palestinians?
Perhaps this is part of why fertilizers are being choked off to food producing regions where population growth is out of control?
Is the great depopulation upon us?
Demographic death spiral started long ago. Japan is leading the pack followed by the fat West. India, Middle East and Africa have the youngest and leanest populations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2GeVG0XYTc
Funny about that the UN had a report way back around 2000 yet no one cared.
I am not so sure about starvation being in the cards purposefully, but it could be a result of only so much to go around. Hoarders will hoard.
Funny how AI was going to elevate the World, but it’s looking more and more like controlling is a better word to utilize in this example. If we lose all these jobs, then who is supposed to buy all the stuff? Maybe that’s also the point. And that’s “stuff” is going to evaporate (ie. Choices). We shall see.
There is plenty of food in the world. We can see that from all the fear mongering starvation news that never pans out.
Yes there is. Add hydroponics and Aquaponics and more than enough to feed. Plus you have Gibbon’s foraging strategy.
Connections did an episode about the middle ages and the gentry wanting to raise an army from the genpop. But the genpop had extra time due to new innovations in farming so they became fat and lazy.
Close enough.
People need water to drink too, and not to just grow veggies in. Most have plenty of dirt available, but need seeds, water, wind and sun too for optimum growth.
Tell that to the 9M this year…
Approximately 9 million people die every year from hunger, which includes starvation due to lack of food and water. This figure highlights the severe impact of food insecurity globally.
UN World Food Programme United Nations
No “buying” necessary! Everything will be free.
Really who is dumb enough to down vote that?
Isn’t that the whole point of automation, create lots of free single use shit then recycle it?
Ian MacDonald has some unique idea in his Luna moon series.
A large majority of people refuse to believe that the economic cycle as we know it is coming to an abrupt end. All work will be done by AI/robots.
Perhaps the ruling AI will be benevolent to humans. Or perhaps not.
You from NYC By chance? I think that may be their motto? That promise has been around forever and a day… Is it being delivered via train from CA. By chance? Just want to know if I have to raise my budget again…
Old joke.
A woman walks into a bank and wants to deposit 25k in cash. The manager sits her down at a desk to start the paper work.
He asks her ” did you hoard all this money by yourself?”
She looks at him and replies” no sir, my sister whored half.”
“Is the great depopulation upon us?”
It has been, for quite some time. I’m GenX and no one my age in my social circle.has more than two kids. That’s below replacement level. Same with the Millemials in my family. These policies were set in motion decades ago with double-income families, higher education, diminished religious influence, birth control and general prosperity. Mind you, I am not saying those policies are wrong or malicious, just that they create an economic environment where child-rearing is discouraged. Now with the advent of AI and robots, there has never been a greater surplus of human beings in history, and it will be interesting, to say the least, how the establishment deals with it.
Not surplus of human beings, but low value human capital, that is, human chattel (same root as capital), as the HR psychopaths prefers to say nowadays.
Neal Asher calls them ZERO ASSETS.
I thought we were underbabied.
We are underbabied IF you believe that the old economic model where more people work at more jobs, earning more money, while paying more taxes, to enable government to provide people with more services,.and fund longer retirements will continue to exist.
Spoiler: It won’t.
The indoctrination my daughter and son-in-law got in college was that humans are a scar on the planet. They decided then against having kids.
You don’t need to go to college for that, just take a cruise around on google earth.
It worked on me. No kids. I have an aversion to massive populations repeatedly stumbling into war and famine and pollution and ruinous levels of competitive pressure. A part of a system that grows unregulated with the capacity to kill the host is called cancer.
Dude every chick produced tv series states why have kids when the world is burning.
OK, so when you wind up in the home who will visit you.
I’m 68 and if I win any large money I’m grabbing an 18 year old virgin and keep her breeding until she can’t.
For a while I wrote to the Filipina and her mother had 11 children.
Paying the price of not having a caretaker is worth it, to not ruin this place. I will pay that price. It’s called having moral convictions.
The Epstein class finally achieved its wettest dreams of getting rid of laborers in their enterprises. First, it was tractors replacing farm workers; then, robots replacing factory workers; now, AI replacing white collar workers.
Their plan of action literally etched on the Georgia Stones is nearer to its stated goal of decimating the population. All that’s needed is what, to start a global war, say, in the Gulf?
Dude a few years ago I read this mans thesis. He claimed that the Industrial revolutionize in England led to too much free time and too much Gin drinking because it was cheap booze.
I live near the MD 2020 Welches facility.
I never knew that until recently, and on the other side is where Zippo lighters were invented.
Part of all the iran war is to distract up from the Epstein files / organizing enough to really tax the wealthy. Get everyone so caught up with surviving day to day people cant organize enough to counter.
It is even more broadspread than “all the AI-related companies, investment companies, software development companies, etc”. I retired (offered early package) from an S&P500 company (not in any of those areas) 3 years ago. I recently had lunch with a group of colleagues who remained and was told that the environment has gotten very negative and toxic. AI is being implemented as fast as possible, not in a way to increase people’s productivity but in a way to make it possible to kick them out the door. And there is little permanent hiring, even for high level positions, it is done on 1 year contracts now which have a relatively high per hour pay, but no benefits.
There was a good article in the NYT last week (yes surprising for NYT) about meta being on the downslope now for a lot of good strategic reasons, but primarily because Zuckerbot has made some really poor decisions these last few years….. e.g. metaverse
He is not that smart, as people and Jim Crammer and Wall-Street think
Mark is not smart at all.
Mark simply had the unrestrained animus to treat people like lab rats, and monetize that through digital means. And the people happily complied. Maybe that is his one trick.
Anybody still remembers when he turned the whole enterprise to the “metaverse”?
Here’s some perspective. The Great Depression created 25% unemployment, and 7 years later the start of WW2 brought unemployment down to 14%. From the peak in 1960 to the low in 2000 at a former GE plant I worked, employment fell 90%.
This AI downsizing is going to have a generational negative impact on labor in the US.
Not just US , worldwide cascading impact
Human Resources is a dead investment, Dear Humans, please find something else to do with your time, AI are coming.
We lose all those jobs, and gardening would be a great start!
Just bought a bunch of fertilizer for my garden expansion as I expect prices to double over the next few months.
Could you find potash by chance? I started a garden 3 years ago, and it is a cost savings to be sure!
Gotta hunt if I’m gonna eat. Hmmm…. What to hunt?
Soylent Green.
More time = more sex = more babies = more government $ to live on so everything should work out fine.
Watch The Trouble with Tribbles, Star Trek season 2, episode 15. Maximizing populations of cute little warm beings has a limit too: when you are inundated with them. Lke feeding pigeons: it changes the world with new poolings of risks. It becomes a sorceror’s apprentice problem again. All you need is love? That silliness doesn’t begin to solve humanity’s strategic problems.
The average salary for a Meta employee is approximately $383,000 per year, with a range typically between $247,000 and $1,789,000 depending on the role and experience.
What’s the average salary without Mark’s salary? In other words, what’s the median salary? Such estimates vary between $150,000 and $250,000 total compensation. For comparison, the median total compensation is $135,000 at GM, where the mix of blue and white collar positions is bluer than at Meta.
The median salary at Meta is approximately $379,000 per year as of 2023.
lolz
Mark probably doesn’t have that big a W-2 salary. His real compensation is in the form of options.
It’s majority deferred comp….then they roll it into a charitable trust and look ma…no taxes.
Surely most of his compensation is deferred, so his W2 would be measly $5,555,555.00 or thereabouts for coffee.
Time to re-watch the Twilight Zone episode, ‘The Brain-Center at Whipple’s’. It was produced in 1964. Rod Serling was prescient in the way computers and robots would impact the job market. It happened at Whipple’s and now it is happening at Meta and other firms.
+100
Appreciate where I could watch the full episode on youtube cannot find the complete one, appreciate your direction
Google the title and ‘full episode’. I think tubi-tv (?) has it with a couple of commercials interspersed.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%E2%80%98The+Brain-Center+at+Whipple%E2%80%99s%E2%80%99&t=brave&ia=videos&iax=videos
Kurt Vonnegut wrote Player Piano in 1952. Talk about prescient.
Check out “With Folded Hands” by Jack Williamson from 1947. Great story on AI Robots impact on mankind. There’s a free PdF version on the web I think
Love the final scene with the robot twirling Mr. Wipple’s watch.
There’s a website called hiring.cafe that’s better than most of the job boards out there. I keep an eye on it for various reasons but one of the most concerning things I’ve seen recently are salaries dropping 20% to 40% for roles I keep an eye on. A role that may have been $250k in the past is now $150k or even less.
The high tech paying job also seems to be coming to an end across the board. It will impact tech first then creep into other “office” professions: lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, and eventually doctors and medical staff that don’t actually touch the patient. With high paying jobs gone so will taxes so who knows where the money will come from to hand out to the socialist leeches on social security and medicare. AI bots don’t pay FICA.
I’m just glad I’m retiring this year. I had hoped to be out already but TACO messing things up for everyone right now, I’ll keep chugging along a bit longer. I want to be out before the Nov election chaos.
I can personally confirm a decrease of about 10-20% in high-tech.
Don’t worry– history always has a solution for such dilemmas— It’s called WAR.
Future war is going to be fought by drones, robots and AI. No humans will be injured! This seems to be the goal of many.
Thats the way it has been for a while. Part of the reason we have such a high tech war machine is to protect lives. The population back home will not put up with war if losing sons and daughters or lowers standard of living.
Im pondering a future where ai is fighting ai to keep hacking down.
I’m sitting almost inches from one of the most concentrated collections of Naval power in history. I would hope you are right, but my real estate would easily be within any reasonable blast radius. Inconceivable this place would be left untouched. My precious real estate could be nice pristine melted glass.
The salaries coming down are an indication of a surplus of qualified applicants
This is always normal in any new job field as initial high salaries attract tons of people studying for that job in order to get that pay. Eventually there becomes a surplus of qualified applicants and wages get depressed.
Only those with really specialized knowledge will command the really high salaries. This is similar to other fields (most lawyers and doctors make a reasonable living but certain specialist often make 10 or 20x that).
Difficult to feel sorry for folks who were involved in censuring the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop and the Covid transfection product, among things.
In your fever dream Hunter Biden’s laptop is more egregious than convicted felon Trump’s well documented pedophilia and destruction of our constitutional order.
Relevance to Facebook/Meta?
It’s your delusion I’m responding to – your cult like adherence to the orange pedophile.
TDS much?
To think that this ‘enterprise’
came about by “rating” women at a college.
@Avery2 that is a tremendous warp of the actual history.
It might even be a delusion.
As I understand it, Zuckerberg stole the idea from the winklevoss twins – and the hotornot was totally irrelevant.
We already had social media sites before Fraudbook. MySpace and before that GeoCities etc.
So why not say he stole the idea from those sites? The HotOrNot was the germination of Fraudbook since it was dealing with college kids.
Cost cutting their way to prosperity. How has this worked out in the past?
The Matrix is coming along nicely.
I awoke one day and found myself not only in a mishmash of dystopic sci-fi stories, but one with a wicked, unforeseeably weird, cartoon ‘reality show’ at its very heart. 10 years ago I would have told you any day of this everyday reality was absurdly improbable, if not impossible. My only solace is that really big things aren’t breaking really quickly in my world. Knock on wood.