IA researchers recently arrested a version of the question, “Is it really Zuck?”“”
As indicated for the first time by BloombergThe meta-PDG personally asked the TOP AI talent to join its new laboratory and restart “superintelligence” and restart. Its recruitment process generally takes place as this: awareness of cold by e-mail or WhatsApp which cites the history of work of the recruit and requires a conversation of 15 minutes. Dozens of researchers have received this type of messages from Google alone.
For those who agree to hear his argument (surprisingly, not all), Zuckerberg highlights the latitude they will have to make of risky bets, the extent of Meta products and the money that he is ready to invest in the infrastructure to support them. He clearly indicates that this new team will be empowered and sit with him at Meta headquarters, where I am told that the offices have already been reorganized for the incoming team.
Until now, most titles have focused on the eye compensation packages that Zuckerberg offers, some of which are well in the eight -digit range. As I have already covered it, hire the best IA researcher, it’s like hiring a star basketball player: there are very few, and you have to pay. Example: Zuckerberg has just paid 14 Instagrams to hire the AI CEO scale Alexandr Wang.
It is easily the most expensive hiring of all time, overshadowing the billions that Google spent to rehthe Noam Shazeer and his main character team. Ai (an agreement that Zuckerberg has transmitted). “The opportunities of this magnitude often have a cost,” Wang wrote in his note to employees this week. “In this case, this cost is my departure.”
Zuckerberg’s recruitment frenzy is already starting to shake up its competitors. The day before its deadline for tenders for certain senior Openai employees, Sam Altman dropped a try Proclaiming that “before anything else, we are a research company of superintendent”. And after Zuckerberg tried to hire CTO Deepmind Koray Kavukcuogluhe was Given a bigger title and now reports directly to the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai.
I expect Wang to have the title of “AI” officer in Meta when the new laboratory is announced. Jack RaeA main researcher from Deepmind who signed, directs pre-training. Meta certainly needs reset. According to my sources, Llama has so far fell behind the Meta products teams recently discussed using models of other companies (although this is very little likely to occur). However, Meta’s internal coding tool for engineers is already using Claude.
While Meta’s existing AI researchers have good reasons to look over their shoulders, the investment of $ 14.3 billion in Zuckerberg has made many long-standing employees, or quite rich. They made champagne jump in the office this morning.
Then Wang held his last hand meeting to say goodbye and cried. He did not mention what he would do in Meta. I expect his new team to be unveiled in the coming weeks after Zuckerberg has obtained a critical number of members to officially connect.
Apple is used to being at the top of the technology industry, and for a good reason: the company has experienced an almost unequaled series of dominance.
After spending time at Apple’s headquarters this week for WWDC, I’m not sure that its leaders appreciate the meteorite that goes to their way. The pride they display suggest that they do not understand how AI fundamentally changes the way people use and create software.
On Monday, everyone knew that everyone couldn’t expect the Siri renovated renovated the previous year. Apple, on his credit, admitted that he had dropped the ball there, and it seems that a great language of reconstruction of Siri is underway and to come in 2026.
However, the AI industry moves much faster than Apple’s exit calendar. As Siri is perhaps good enough to follow the pace, he will have to face the locking that Openai and others build through their characteristics of memory. Apple and Openai are currently partners, but the two companies want to control the interface to interact with AI, which places them on a collision trajectory.
Apple’s decision to let developers use its own fundamental models on devices for free in their applications seem strategically intelligent, but unfortunately, the models seem far from being directed. Apple Directed its own benchmarksWho are not impressive, and confirmed a lean context window of 4,096 tokens. It is also saying that The models will be updated alongside its operating systems – a snail rate compared to the speed with which AI companies move.
I would be surprised if serious developers use these Apple models, although I can see them useful for independent developers who are only just starting and do not want to spend on the main cloud models. I do not think that most people care about the angle of confidentiality that Apple claims as a differentializer; They already share their darkest secrets with Chatgpt and other assistants.
Some of the new features of Apple Intelligence that I demo this week were impressive, such as the live translation for calls. Above all, I left with the impression that the company is based strongly on its Chatgpt partnership as a stopgap until Apple Intelligence and Siri are both where they must be.
AI is probably not a short -term risk for Apple’s affairs. No one has shipped anything near the contextually aware SIRI that was demo during WWDC last year. People will continue to buy Apple equipment for a long time, even after Sam Altman And Jony IVE Announce their first AI device for Chatgpt next year. Arc glasses are not going soon, although we can expect to see more glasses from Meta, Google and Snap in the coming year.
Overall, these devices fed by AI could start to siphon the commitment of the iPhone, but I don’t see people replacing their smartphones for a long time. The biggest question after this week is whether Apple has what it takes to get up on occasion and reset culturally for the AI era.
I would have liked to hear Tim Cook solve this problem directly, but the only interview he made for WWDC was A cover story In Variety On the new company F1 movie.
- AI agents arrive. I recently caught up with the CEO of Databricks Ali Ghodsi Before the annual conference of business developers this week in San Francisco. Given the position of Databricks, he has a unique view and bird eye of the place where things go to AI. He does not imagine a short -term future where AI agents completely automate real world tasks, but he predicts a wave of startups over the next year that will get closer to actions in areas such as travel booking. He thinks that humans will need (and wanted) to approve what an agent does before he triggers and finishes a task. “We have most of the planes that steal automated, and we still want drivers in there.”
- Research is the new standard at Google. This is clear after the deployment of this week of the “voluntary outing program” in Core Engineering, the research organization and other divisions. In its internal memo, please search Nick Fox It was clear that management thinks that the buyouts succeeded in other parts of the company that tried them. In a separate memo that I have seen, Exec in engineering Jen Fitzpatrick called the buyouts an “opportunity to create internal mobility and new growth opportunities”. Google seems to try a cultural reset, which will be a difficult task for a company of its size. We will see if it can remove it.
- Evan Spiegel wants help with AR glasses. I doubt that its announcement that consumer glasses are coming next year is only aimed at AR developers. The telegraphy of the plan and the announcement that Snap has spent $ 3 billion on equipment to date feels more intended for potential partners who want to play larger glasses, like Google. A strategic investment could help isolate Snap of the stock market pain. A complete acquisition can also be outside the table. When he was recently requested If it would be open to a sale, Spiegel has not closed it as he has always done, but rather said that he “would consider anything” which helps the company to “create the next computer platform”.
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As always, I salute your comments, especially if you are an AI researcher offering a juicy job offer. You can answer here or Ping me safely on the signal.
