Meta reassigns more than 1,000 software engineers from advertising teams into data labeling roles for AI model training ahead of expected layoffs
Some teams shifted 20-40 percent of developers to annotation work.
#488kache@YACINEMTBDo you know what all of the top AI researchers do that their subpar counterparts don't? They actually look at the data
The top google search engineers spend their mornings doing a/b blind tests of search results on Google sheets with their own eyeballs
Gergely Orosz@GergelyOroszHas been for weeks, now. Covered it two weeks ago in @Pragmatic_Eng fwiw those forcefully reassigned to data labelers were not laid off and probably will not be let go this year (no more mass layoffs). One positive at least if you want to hire from Meta, now is the time btw
#488kache@YACINEMTBIf you think you are above labeling data you are not going to make it
kache@yacineMTBDo you know what all of the top AI researchers do that their subpar counterparts don't? They actually look at the data The top google search engineers spend their mornings doing a/b blind tests of search results on Google sheets with their own eyeballs
#488kache@YACINEMTB@chris_j_paxton It's also true for pure RL! You need to look at rollout samples the entire way through
Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxtonImo this is true for data collection too, at least a little bit
#732Chris Paxton@CHRIS_J_PAXTONImo this is true for data collection too, at least a little bit
kache@yacineMTBIf you think you are above labeling data you are not going to make it
@paularambles it just effectively creates zombie & fearful employees… continuous layoffs are a major morale killer. i can’t believe they are doing it so regularly.
“paula”@paularamblesan ironic thing about the meta layoffs is that they also function as a pretty good retention mechanism. it’s hard to quit your job when you know there’s a chance that the next round of layoffs could pay you 4+ months of severance to leave instead.
#1179Minh Nhat Nguyen@MENHGUINi find interesting that data labelling is essential but frequently disliked. i suspect it's bc in most cases, people aren't really rewarded for putting in very high effort and attention to detail versus phoning it in w mid quality, so people phone it in.
Gergely Orosz@GergelyOroszNever heard so many standout infra engineers + AI infra eng actively wanting to leave Meta than now. A month ago they were building cutting-edge infra and then got assigned to AI data labelling Most of them went “WTH” and now I’m the middle of interviewing Madness from Meta
the other thing is that if you spend 3 weeks creating "code datasets" it feels like an accomplishment than improving a live codebases . it's spiritually more like a "code factory".
Minh Nhat Nguyen@menhguini find interesting that data labelling is essential but frequently disliked. i suspect it's bc in most cases, people aren't really rewarded for putting in very high effort and attention to detail versus phoning it in w mid quality, so people phone it in.
#1702“paula”@PAULARAMBLESan ironic thing about the meta layoffs is that they also function as a pretty good retention mechanism. it’s hard to quit your job when you know there’s a chance that the next round of layoffs could pay you 4+ months of severance to leave instead.
Gergely Orosz@GergelyOroszNever heard so many standout infra engineers + AI infra eng actively wanting to leave Meta than now. A month ago they were building cutting-edge infra and then got assigned to AI data labelling Most of them went “WTH” and now I’m the middle of interviewing Madness from Meta
everyone i know who survived this round of layoffs wants to quit, but then immediately goes “but there will probably be another round in august”
“paula”@paularamblesan ironic thing about the meta layoffs is that they also function as a pretty good retention mechanism. it’s hard to quit your job when you know there’s a chance that the next round of layoffs could pay you 4+ months of severance to leave instead.