Down Round Meta's Highway Robbery
Jul 3, 2025
The conversation dives into Meta's aggressive recruitment strategy, successfully poaching AI talent to form its new Superintelligence team. Apple may be planning to collaborate with OpenAI for Siri, signaling a major shift in its AI approach. The discussion also highlights the absurdity of AI chatbots, featuring quirky personas like 'Granny Cougar.' Furthermore, there’s an exploration of the evolving tech culture, showing how companies like Meta and Microsoft have shifted from mission-driven to profit-centric models in the face of fierce competition.
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Trivia Comeback Victory
- Raph Dixon and James JR Hennessy returned to their trivia tradition coinciding with their podcast recording.
- They narrowly lost but still won a bonus round jug and $50 prize, celebrating with late-night recording.
Meta's AI Talent War
- Meta is aggressively hiring top AI talent with unprecedented $100 million signing bonuses to compete.
- This spending reflects their existential fear of falling behind in AI development.
AI Hiring: Winners Take All
- Meta's AI recruitment spending dwarfs normal software hiring trends which are currently down.
- This shows a winner-takes-all mentality and urgent need to secure AI dominance.