Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #09 Snippet | Meta Is Cutting 20% of Its Workers to Pay for AI — And the Stock Went UP
Transcript
- Thomas: AI announced plans to merge CPT the Atlas web browser and codecs into single desktop super app Codecs gets autonomous agent features first. It'll write code browse the web analyze data on your computer without you ⁓ number two meta is reportedly allegedly planning to lay off 20 % of its workforce, about 16,000 people, allegedly. Like I said, to fund that $135 billion in AI spending. Crazy. Then, very good. And then they also allegedly denied the reports. But that's still debated. ⁓ But here's the thing. Meta stock rose 3 % on the layoff rumor. allegedly the Trump play. Wall Street. malcolm: So cool. Thomas: literally rewarded the idea of firing companies, or no, no, I'm sorry, firing 16,000 people. Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the tech layoffs AI washing quotations, saying companies are using AI as a cover for the pandemic over hiring cuts across the industry. Across the industry, 56,000 workers have been laid off in 2026 so far, we're only in March. with AI cited in 12,000 plus US job cuts according to the challenger, or to challenger gray and Christmas. So people are getting laid off because AI, right? And we're overly cooked. So kind of like with our inside perspective, the black box truth, it's a paradox and nobody wants to say out loud. are building AI, or companies building AI are also the ones firing people because of AI. Message. or at least saying they are. Sam Altman just called it AI washing, but companies are blaming AI for layoffs that are really about correcting pandemic error over hiring. That was a thing, a lot of hiring in the pandemic. And then AI came about big shifts. And then the OpenAI CEO admitting that AI isn't actually replacing as many jobs as headline success is just a convenient excuse. But Meta stock going up 3 % on the layoff rumor should tell you that malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: what Wall Street actually values. Fewer humans, more machines, higher margins. So whether the AI office are real AI replacement or AI washing, it doesn't matter to the 16,000 people who just lost their job or the 16,000 who might lose their jobs and the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands that have lost their jobs before. An open AI building an autonomous coding agent while calling other companies layoffs fake. ⁓ That's a contradiction of the entire moment. If you're early career, this is actually a window. You're cheap and AI literate, but you need to understand the game. So that all ties together. If your early career is good, if you're a middle manager, you might be cooked. If you've been around super long time, you should be stacked and ready to go. But yeah, it's a scary world outside. It's a cold world. malcolm: Yeah, man.