EnderMB
@EnderMB@lemmy.world
- Comment on Arizona toddler rescued after getting trapped in a Tesla with a dead battery | The Model Y’s 12-volt battery, which powers things like the doors and windows, died 3 days ago:
A lot of people are giving Tesla shit here, but surely there should be regulations in place to ensure something like this isn’t allowed to be released for public use?
- Comment on Microsoft insiders worry the company has become just 'IT for OpenAI' 6 days ago:
All of big tech is really worried about this.
- Apple is worried about its own science output, with many of their office heavily employing data scientists. A lot of people slate Siri, but Apple’s scientists put out a lot of solid research.
- Amazon is plugging GenAI into practically everything to appease their execs, because it’s the only way to get funding. Moonshot ideas are dead, and all that remains is layoffs, PIP, and pumping AI into shit where it doesn’t belong to make shareholders happy. The innovation died, and AI replaced it.
- Google has let AI divisions take over both search and big parts of ads. Both are reporting worse experiences for users, but don’t worry, any engineer worth anything was laid off and there are no opportunities in other divisions for you either. If there are, they probably got offshored…
- Meta is struggling a lot less, probably because they were smart enough to lay off in one go, but they’re still plugging AI shite in places no one asked for it, with many divisions now severely down in headcount.
If the AI boom is a dud, I can see many of these companies reducing their output further. If someone comes along and competes in their primary offering, there’s a real concern that they’ll lose ground in ways that were unthinkable mere years ago. Someone could legitimately challenge Google on search right now, and someone could build a cheap shop that doesn’t sell Chinese tat and uses local suppliers to compete with Amazon. Tech really shat the bed during the last economic downturn.
- Comment on Sainsbury's staff beat up shoplifter after dragging him into the back room 5 weeks ago:
It’s definitely a thing in the UK. Much like how a person will have insurance to cover theft, businesses have theft insurance, alongside insurance to cover damages.
- Comment on Sainsbury's staff beat up shoplifter after dragging him into the back room 5 weeks ago:
While I don’t support shoplifting, it’s literally not inconveniencing anyone involved here. Worst-case, security calls the police, and they claim losses from insurance.
That man will probably press charges, and get some money he probably needs, assuming he’s okay. Those involved will almost certainly lose their jobs, and will probably end up in the position that this other person was in - unemployable.
I really don’t get what their end goal was here, other than to beat the shit out of someone.
- Comment on Google has an idea to prevent phone scams, but it'll mean allowing its AI to listen in on your calls 1 month ago:
While I do agree with the premise of your comment, most countries (including the US) have strict and long-standing laws on recording phone conversations. Even if Google wanted to do this, I can see it being an absolute nightmare to egress data from a device onto external storage.
- Comment on who's tried it? what does it taste like? 1 month ago:
Ever tried shandy? It’s basically that, but Guinness.
The sweetness of the Monster is countered by the stoutness of…the stout, basically making a shandy.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
That’s definitely not what’s happening right now at Amazon (where I work), and based on what I’ve heard from coworkers from Google and Meta, it’s basically the same story over there.
Hell, we’ve just had another layoff in our Games division, and many software engineers were enticed to work there so they could cut their teeth on games tech instead of standard micro-services. Now, they’re frantically battling against external candidates for the few internal roles available.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
I’m not so sure that’s true in big tech any more.
When goals aren’t met, or projects don’t show validity in the market, those teams get wound down and the employees are laid off. Moonshot projects still exist, but it’s not uncommon to see execs be parachuted into new orgs with the plebs being fired.
- Comment on After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year 1 month ago:
I’d love to, but in terms of pure availability I can get almost everything I’ve ever wanted to listen to, aside from some weird geoblocking or removal of defunct band’s back catalogues.
- Comment on Google employees question execs over 'decline in morale' after blowout earnings 1 month ago:
You would be mortified at how many people in big tech, including those that have directly experienced injustice or unfair treatment at work, simply want no part of a tech union.
Frankly, some industries absolutely need it (e.g. games). If they’ll put up with what they put up with and still choose not to unionize I don’t really know how software engineers will…
- Comment on Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT 1 month ago:
They also committed to providing open dumps of their data to make it free to all. At the start, they were doing all the right things.
- Comment on xkcd #2929: Good and Bad Ideas 1 month ago:
Hmm, I had never thought of it…but soup is absolutely a neutral experience. Even a good soup on a cold, winter day is still slightly above neutral, and is improved by non-soup add-ins.
- Comment on Tesla to lay off everyone working on Superchargers, new vehicles 1 month ago:
Amazon has been trimming employee numbers for close to three years now. Any large layoffs now see a dip in stock, so most of the layoffs this year have been small-scale to not worry the investors.
- Comment on Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai-led company fires entire Python team for ‘cheaper labour’ 1 month ago:
The Python team weren’t just random folks writing Python. Several are core Python contributors who maintained official forks, ran library matching for internal software, and gave back to the language and community. They didn’t just go for cheaper talent, they replaced some arguably irreplaceable engineers and shat over OSS at the same time.
- Comment on Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai-led company fires entire Python team for ‘cheaper labour’ 1 month ago:
Are you disputing that their AI offering is better than what Google have produced in the same space?
- Comment on Google layoffs: Sundar Pichai-led company fires entire Python team for ‘cheaper labour’ 1 month ago:
Source: I’ve done student outreach for Amazon (sitting at a booth, chatting to students, doing student program interviews).
That ship has sailed. While big tech still means big salaries, many graduates are now smart enough to realise that the magic number a company says they’ll pay you every year is meaningless if they’ll lay you off three months from now to appease some shareholders.
They see OpenAI, and they see a startup that basically mopped the floor with ALL of big tech in something they supposedly did for the better part of a decade. I genuinely think we’re a few small success stories away from FAANG being completely relegated to boomer tech like IBM.
Google is done, IMO. The same goes for Meta, the two big tech companies that showed people how “fun” an office could be. They’re now relegated to normal companies…and their output over the last few years show a set of companies with few stand-out winners. Do you really want to slog through a tough CS degree and a 4-5 stage interview process requiring months of prep to work on Google Docs, or work hard for years only to be woken up every night for a whole week because Amazon Fashion is suffering downtime, all while VP’s move to different departments in a blindingly obvious move to avoid department shutdowns and being associated with mass job losses?
IMO, if Google stick with Sundar, and Amazon stick with Jassy, they are done. They’ll lose their status and go into slow decline over the next decade.
- Comment on Come on, science! 1 month ago:
I recently upgraded from a OP6 to the new Pixel, and aside from being a bit shinier in some ways, it felt like an expensive downgrade, since I’ve lost a headphone jack and gained features I didn’t particularly care about.
The days of a phone upgrade bringing new features feel like a lifetime ago.
- Comment on ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say 1 month ago:
I mean…if operating in a country meant selling your US business, you’re probably not going to say “oh gods someone please buy us 🙏”, if you want a big payout…
- Comment on Nurses Protest 'Deeply Troubling' Use of AI in Hospitals 2 months ago:
Way back in 2010 I did some paper reading at university on AI in healthcare, and even back then there were dedicated AI systems that could outperform many healthcare workers in the US and Europe.
Where many of the issues came were not in performance, but in liability. If a single person is liable, that’s fine, but what if a computer program provides an incorrect dosage to an infant, or a procedure with two possible options goes wrong and a human would choose the other?
The problems were also painted as observational. Often, the AI would get things with a clear solution right far more, but would observe things far less. It basically had the same conclusions that many other industries have - AI can produce some useful tools to help humans, but using it to replace humans results in fuck-ups that make the hospital (more notably, it’s leaders) liable.
- Comment on Tesla’s in its flop era 2 months ago:
It’s weird, because in many ways he could’ve been viewed as a champion of the left. He owns one of the largest brands in “sustainable” travel, owns a space company, and has money to burn.
I think he probably had a mental breakdown a few years ago, and that what we’ve seen is from him is basically untreated mental illness, exacerbated by being pals with the likes of Rogan and Chappelle, two guys that can handle fame and not give a fuck.
But things could’ve been very different if he weren’t such a cunt.
- Comment on Tesla’s in its flop era 2 months ago:
I wonder if there was ever an entry-level model to begin with. It’s been on the cards for about a decade, and many people have looked at Tesla saying “wow, a good electric car, I’ll definitely get one once they’re affordable”.
- Comment on Tesla profits nosedive as more job cuts announced 2 months ago:
It’s sad to say, but I’m glad we’re at a point where shareholders now look at job cuts as a negative, and layoffs don’t result in an increase in share price.
Amazon have been cutting jobs for their third year running now, on top of URA, and the only thing keeping our CEO in a job right now is happy shareholders.
- Comment on The Man Who Killed Google Search 2 months ago:
I’ve no idea why, but Amazon in particular has a huge number of Indian managers. It’s never particularly bothered me, but I do see this sentiment amongst other people of Indian origin - often the most critical of Indian managers.
Is there something specific about Indian leadership that pushes growth above anything else? The sentiment in Amazon is one of ruthlessness, and pushing growth and positive short-term metrics above everything else.
- Submitted 2 months ago to technology@lemmy.world | 19 comments
- Comment on UK: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones 2 months ago:
I went to look around a nursery the other day, one that is attached to a school. We walked past kids that couldn’t have been older than 6-7 dancing (possibly filming) to a TikTok vid.
I’m usually against governments getting involved in the internet, since they have such a piss-poor understanding of tech, but it would be good to see some kind of regulation that bans people of a certain age from operating a smartphone without a limited set of operations (i.e. to contact parents, to get school alerts, etc), alongside school bans for the use of social media on school grounds. My wife is a teacher, and cyber bullying is rampant, whether it’s the police getting called in over someone (underage) sending nudes and having them posted online once they break up, or fights being planned via iMessage or WhatsApp, and sometimes even people creating fake Tinder/Grindr profiles of their teachers (or to try to match with them).
Obviously, there are parents that’ll just say “fuck it, it keeps them quiet” or ones that’ll let them use a smartphone due to peer pressure, but a lot of it can be cut down before it becomes a problem.
In many ways, I’m quite glad I grew up with AIM and MSN Messenger. This kind of online power would have been crazy to me as a kid, and I don’t envy kids that have to deal with this landscape.
- Comment on Google fires 28 employees after protest over Israel cloud contract 2 months ago:
Well…if you believe Blind they are doing more layoffs today.
- Comment on But how would they be able to live on that? 2 months ago:
Bezos isn’t CEO of Amazon. He’s still paying lots more.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
My Windows 11 install is also fine, but bloat will always be bloat, and the last thing I want is performance compromised by something I don’t want.
The real dog in my house out of Windows, Fedora, and Mac is my Mac. I can boot Windows and Linux several times before my MVP decides to log me in. Perhaps it’s a sign that end-users don’t really care too much about performance? After all, if boot-up time mattered we’d probably all be on Chromebooks…
- Comment on this one goes out to the arts & humanities 2 months ago:
Not sure why you’re downvoted, but this is already happening. There was a story a few days ago of a long-time BBC voice-over artist that lost their gig. There have also been several stories of VA workers being handed contracts that allow the reuse of their voice for AI purposes.
- Comment on this one goes out to the arts & humanities 2 months ago:
That’s why it would need regulation to work…