Reminds me of "Don't dig for the gold, sell the shovels".
Could also be read:
> Meta spends 10% of last year's revenue to acquire 49% of a top AI data company and poach their leadership, to ensure they are a key player in what could be a ~5-trillion dollar industry by 2033.
Meta has a history of this. Acquiring Oculus (and leaning in on VR), Ray-Ban partnership (and leaning in on AR)... etc.
These all just seem like decisions to ensure the company's survival (and participation) in whatever this AI revolution will eventually manifest into.
What top AI company? Certainly not Scale, right? You realise that frontier labs don't really use Scale anymore exactly because they can't be trusted not to sell their secret-sauce human data collection protocols. No-one in the industry takes this guy seriously.
It's always a warning sign where the only thing I know about a CEO is how many podcasts and media events they do each week, and nothing about their business.
Bringing up Oculus and VR is quite fitting, because I think it's the same problem. Meta is attempting to find their next business, but like with social media they don't really have a plan. It worked out well with Facebook and some of the purchases surrounding social media, but it was never a clear path to profit, so they slapped ads on it.
Why does Meta want VR to work? Create the Meta-verse? We're back at why, what problem does it solve? Same with AI, what's the goal here, besides being an AI company?
Just a thought, but VR/AR is constantly recording video and audio.
It wouldn't surprise me if at least some of that data is being piped back to Meta. Data that can latter be used by LLMs to train on.
Even if this isn't enabled on consumer models, on the corporate side it can make sense. Say you're a risk adjuster for a factory. Walk around with your VR headset. In real time MetaOshaHelper can identify issues, you can tag them yourself.
Then send the video back to your on prem LLM for data processing. New hires get a VR headset which can use this data for help on boarding.
Or... Robots will use the data and replace human workers entirely.
I sort of doubt that most business would want that. Sorry to latch on to one specific thing in an interesting comment. But just imagine having AI tracking in the workplace, e.g. OSHA violations, violations of building code and workplace regulations in general. You'd have shitty manufactures, builders, trucking companies, kitchens, warehouses and everything in between begging you to stop.
Occasionally you're going to ignore things that get flagged, but I would love an AI to say oh by the way that machine over there isn't latched on correctly and can fall over if not corrected.
This deal brings into focus whether the shovels are data or GPUs. Advantage to data comes, surprisingly, in perishability: a GPU fleet remains cutting edge for only one product cycle.
Roblox, Rec Room, Epic/Fortnite are worth about 10-20% of Meta. There is a market there, Horizon just hasn't worked out and they don't have anything like the amount of technology behind Unreal Engine/Fortnite or even Roblox, closer to Rec Room but without the game design chops.
I mean have you seen the interview he did with Theo Von? The guy is a straight up Alien in the way he talks and acts, all those memes about him being a lizard aren't exactly far off.
He was isolated from the real world starting at around age, what, 22?
I'm all for calling out his random flailing in this space for what it is, but it always strikes me as strange when people are surprised that he's weird and robotic. I'm betting he never learned how to actually interact with other professional humans.
He's lived in a golden tower surrounded by people who agree with him or want something from him since he was 21 or 22. Imagine what you would be like if you didn't have any struggles from such an early age. Imagine what your personality would be like if you didn't have substantive, non-transactional, human interactions since the age of 22.
I kind of feel bad for the guy. His wealth and fame have ensured that he would never be normal, or anything approaching normal. Think about it - how does he even know if he has a bad idea? Do you think there are a ton of people around him that want to call out whatever dumbass idea he has? I doubt it. B-b-b-illions of dollars tends to flavor conversations, I would imagine.
That being said, I don't feel that bad, because he can literally change the world and chooses not to.
Could also be read:
> Meta spends 10% of last year's revenue to acquire 49% of a top AI data company and poach their leadership, to ensure they are a key player in what could be a ~5-trillion dollar industry by 2033.
Meta has a history of this. Acquiring Oculus (and leaning in on VR), Ray-Ban partnership (and leaning in on AR)... etc.
These all just seem like decisions to ensure the company's survival (and participation) in whatever this AI revolution will eventually manifest into.