1 yr. ago • 96%

Exclusive: Meta to lay off employees in metaverse silicon unit on Wednesday

www.reuters.com Exclusive: Meta to lay off employees in metaverse silicon unit on Wednesday

Meta is planning to lay off employees on Wednesday in the unit of its metaverse-oriented Reality Labs division focused on creating custom silicon, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Meta @lemdro.id Exclusive: Meta to lay off employees in metaverse silicon unit on Wednesday

Technology @beehaw.org Exclusive: Meta to lay off employees in metaverse silicon unit on Wednesday

34 comments

If the cuts are deep, they could hamper Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s project to build augmented and virtual reality products enabling access to a set of immersive virtual

VR is interesting to me. I have zero desire for a facebook product, I don't care how good it is.

Zuckerberg has to realize he, as the messenger, is poisoning the future he wants to exist.

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- It’s a shame that Oculus was gobbled up by them, and a shame that they seem to be the only ones capable of making an untethered unit.
  
  I’ve used the quest, and could take or leave the built in stuff, mostly leave, but the untethered desktop VR experience was something else.
  
  I just won’t ever buy a Facebook product.
  
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  They even pissed off John "Literal Rocket Scientist" Carmack enough to leave.
  
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  Weren't they talking about adding ADs right in VR ?
  
  Seriously, what a nightmare. You try to escape reality playing a video game in immersion through VR and you get served ads ?
  
  That added to privacy issues at Facebook, I would never touch that product.
  
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  Yeah, I'm still using my Quest 2, but I'm sure in time there'll be a really good offer from someone else, and I would buy that. I'm really interested in what Valve might have to offer soon
  
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  Unfortunately, Oculus was started by a Maga head so... I'm not sure who is worse. Probably the Maga head but Zuckerberg sold privacy data to Cambridge analytica.
  
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- It sucks, because I’ve listened to a ton of interviews with him discussing VR/AR and I actually think he is super interested in the tech and is doing pretty incredible stuff in the space. But the blatant disregard for people’s personal privacy and Facebook/Social Media’s destructive history prevents me from trusting Meta in this area and many others. What’s sad is that Zuck actually is pretty damn smart, and I think he’s one of the few billionaires that really understands tech. They’ve been open sourcing things and just getting better overall in a lot of ways but at the end of the day the trust isn’t there.
  
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  I loved the CV1 oculus. The moment Facebook integration started happening I noped the fuck out of there. Also can't stand overly proprietary environments. Acquiescence to researchers like yann lecun would be the only reason I don't absolutely detest meta at this point.
  
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  VR is potentially cool, but meta is building a version of Second life that has less privacy and more monetization. Hard pass
  
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- I was quite sad when I crossed Occulus off my list following the acquisition.
  
  I would have loved one.
  
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- This is the core problem. The overlap between people who use facebook and people who are interested in VR is not very big. Most people on facebook just want to see pictures of their grandchildren and are hardly the kinds of people who would be early adopters of technologies like this. VR enthusiasts on the other hand simply have no interest in whatever kinds of shit Zuckerberg has to offer. Some might hold their noses and try it anyway, but you're just making your potential userbase smaller and smaller.
  
  This idiotic "metaverse" thing has always been a hilarious joke and is doomed to fail. This has been obvious ever since it was announced. Zuckerberg got lucky with facebook turning out to be a great way to creep on^W^W keep in touch with friends and other contacts. He's not a visionary and doesn't have a clue how to build a new thing people want from scratch. But he thinks he does cause he got lucky with facebook.
  
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  I worked at a university years ago and saw some VR prototypes for things like medical/surgical training, remote interaction (remote surgery, hazmat, etc) and other things. Very cool uses of the technology where it makes a lot of sense.
  
  Seeing the VR used there the way it was makes me completely uninterested in using it for any sort of social/personal use any time soon. VR clearly has a lot of niche applications, but not as a general social/entertainment platform.
  
  2
  
  I'm interested in VR, but the cost of decent, non-oculus hardware is prohibitive.
  
  1
- I was bummed that they bought oculus, but now they've advanced the tech so much and made it so clear to the market that people want unrestricted vr that I'm hoping the whole debacle jumpstarts a stream deck equivalent, just a headset with decent tech running on open source software or minimally restricted software that just works.
  
  That's why the oculus was so good, they just released it it developers play with it, no logins, no required software environments, just creative fun
  
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  I'm with you. I want Meta to keep heavily developing in the VR and AR space, but not so I can buy products from them. I just want the increase in new products and innovation from other companies that would come with that development.
  
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- I think the Quest 3 now has DRM and a bunch of other intrusive components, so that's definitely off the table.
  
  Pico looks promising, will have to do more research.
  
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- I was ready to buy a vr headset until I realized the only one under 1000 was meta.
  
  Nope.
  
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  HP Reverb G2?
  
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  Same. I even tried it and it's really cool, and at that price point I would... but meta. I even heard at one point they forced you to log in with your facebook account to use it. Wtf? I don't even have one. So basically I'll wait for the valve index 2.0. VR is not mature yet and they all have quirks and trade offs.
  
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The metaverse silicon team? Money really was too cheap in the pandemic.

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- Is it really surprising that a massive company investing billions into a nascent technology would develop in-house chips for it?
  
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  Yes
  
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Wonder if he'll make an oh-so-brave mea culpa and be praised for it like when they did massive layoffs early this year? Of course it's your fault dude, you're the founder and CEO! What an asshat.

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This is the best summary I could come up with:

If the cuts are deep, they could hamper Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's project to build augmented and virtual reality products enabling access to a set of immersive virtual worlds known as the "metaverse," particularly the AR glasses that he has predicted "will redefine our relationship with technology."

The FAST unit, which has roughly 600 employees, worked on developing custom chips to equip Meta's devices to perform unique tasks and operate more efficiently, differentiating them from others entering the nascent AR/VR market.

A separate chip-making unit in Meta's infrastructure division focused on artificial intelligence work has likewise hit roadblocks.

Meta currently makes a line of mixed reality headsets called Quest and smart glasses designed with Ray-Ban eyeglass maker EssilorLuxottica (ESLX.PA) that can stream video and speak with wearers through a new AI virtual assistant.

A first version of that product is set to be completed next year, although Meta is not initially planning to make it widely available to consumers, the source said.

Meta has slashed around 21,000 jobs since November of last year as it has sought to reassure investors that it was reining in costs amid waning revenue growth, high inflation and concerns that Reality Labs was losing too much money.

The original article contains 482 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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