Basically it all came down to cost cutting among multiple divisions to free up capital for AI investments.
[TheVerge] Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella seeks to reassure Microsoft employees in layoffs memo // Cements that A.I is the future
- Thread starter SomeNorseGuy
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Basically it all came down to cost cutting among multiple divisions to free up capital for AI investments.
MS spent $100B on something the big boss doesn't give a flying fuck about... let that sink in.
The biggest cuck in all the gaming industry
Who knew MS putting Office on Mac and iPad meant they didn't give a damn about the software?
Halo is Back
Member
AKA "You will all be replaced by A.I., and it's for your own benefit, and by that I mean it will make me richer."
dragonyeuw
Member
The problem is we've given these mega corps too much power to determine the course for which our society functions. Nobody has yet to explain to me what the fallback is in a consumption driven economy when you replace huge numbers of consumers with AI. UBI? What's the plan? It's all rooted in short term, get in and get out profit maximization without a single fuck given to what lies beyond that.Sad but true.
RetroGamingUK
Member
This is the most important question.
1. Did they lay those game devs off because they can be replaced by AI for game production?
…or…
2. Did they lay them off because they needed to redirect the funds towards general AI products?
Considering the studio closures I think it's the latter, which will mean a slow down in future Microsoft Gaming releases going forward.
1. Did they lay those game devs off because they can be replaced by AI for game production?
…or…
2. Did they lay them off because they needed to redirect the funds towards general AI products?
Considering the studio closures I think it's the latter, which will mean a slow down in future Microsoft Gaming releases going forward.
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IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I agree that governments need to take this issue more seriously. If they can't protect jobs, then they need to look at alternatives such as UBI.
I also believe that these companies who are letting go of staff for AI need to look at the long game. More people unemployed means everyone has less money to buy goods and services, which will impact these companies in the long run.
Even if UBI becomes mainstream, It'll probably be just enough to keep people afloat.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
No, but you see, isn't saying "tomorrow-engineer can do the job of three today-engineers" a much nicer way to express "I am firing two engineers and making remaining one work 996 Tencent style"!
Oh and that "tomorrow-engineer" will produce a lot sloppier, less optimized and less secure work, but labor savings are king, am I rite?
StereoVsn
Gold Member
"Why Not Both.gif"
They are freeing ca$h for more capex expenditures on AI data centers AND firing people to replace them with AI.
bigedole
Member
Our portfolio of products has grown and it's impossible to grow the team in a sustainable/intelligent way to immediately meet the new demand for positions. AI is a productivity tool but no decisions on headcount or staffing/resourcing have been made based on this nascent technology. Reality is that any healthy company is pushing its employees to do more with less, because whoever figures out how to reduce their costs and increase their margins will succeed.
I have no misconception that the company owes me anything. They pay me a lot. I trade my time/effort for this compensation quite happily. If a time comes in the future that my relative value is diminished because I couldn't figure out how to do the same amount of work as my peers or the dreaded H1B applicants then that's a reckoning I'll have to face. Today I'm thinking about how I can leverage AI to do my job better and avoid falling into irrelevancy.
I'm firmly in the camp of we should all learn to adapt. Pretending the future isn't coming won't help us as individuals or as a species.
Appreciate the engagement here but this will be my last reply in the thread.
Unknown?
Member
Nominal confusion. The stock market peaked in value around 1999/2000. Since then it has gone up nominally but lost value as a whole.This doesn't look like "being run into the ground"
But I don't follow MS that much so maybe I'm missing something?
MS might be up individually though, but putting all your eggs into one basket because it's hot doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
Salz01
Member
The board will replace the ceo…
panda-zebra
Member
Dhalsim in a hoodie said:
Topher
Identifies as young
Pretending this amounts to corporations helping "us as individuals or as a species" to "adapt" is the most naive thing I've read in this thread. This is about greed. You drank that corporate cool aid my man.
SomeNorseGuy
Gold Member
'You can't raw dog it' says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: 'If you're not using AI, you're going to lose your job to somebody who uses AI'
'I'll be sure to go home and tell people, you're not gonna raw dog this.'
'You can't raw dog it' says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: 'If you're not using AI, you're going to lose your job to somebody who uses AI'
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
Over where? They never stop, world wide. Printer is always running for any and all countries with fiat paper monies.
Phil Spencer:
"Looking forward, there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox. We think there's a good brand value for Xbox there."
"You're going to see more of our games on more platforms, and we just see that as a benefit to the franchises that we're building… players love to be able to play."
One of the reasons for this decision is to grow the Microsoft Gaming franchises… in the next 5–10 years, console-exclusive games will be a smaller part of the gaming industry."
MS spent $100B on something the big boss doesn't give a flying fuck about... let that sink in.
It's Microsoft culture, their fetish for "beating the competition."
Xbox and Phil Spencer, with their $100 billion in spending, have proven that Nadella's Microsoft is still the same as it was under Ballmer, only now they're more discreet about their stupidity.
In Ballmer's time, they would have paraded Sony's coffin; today, they're saying via email that they're going to bury Sony.
Microsoft's Held a Funeral for the iPhone, in Photos
A ship party for Windows Phone 7 includes a mock funeral for the iPhone and BlackBerry, among other antics.
www.cnet.com
clarky
Gold Member
The US obviously.
HerjansEagleFeeder
Member
Even if he did it, he first needs to make sure a couple thousand Indians get new jobs at Microsoft. They're obviously more qualified than non-Indians.
Microsoft is not laying people off due to AI. That's the 'cover' that they and the rest of the Mag 7 are using. What they're really doing is hiring h1-b employees to replace Americans in the same jobs to save money. Microsoft has already hired almost 5,000 through June this year despite all the layoffs they're doing. And look at how many they've added every year, they're not firing those guys, they're firing Americans to hire people to move here.
They've averaged 10,000 a year new h1bs the past 3 years.
H1b needs to be done away with. It may have been a good idea 30 years ago but employers are now abusing it to the max.
They've averaged 10,000 a year new h1bs the past 3 years.
H1b needs to be done away with. It may have been a good idea 30 years ago but employers are now abusing it to the max.
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genesisblock
Member
I always thought that H1B was given only to those exceptional talent from other countries. Was that ever a thing was the barrier that low to begin with.
Topher
Identifies as young
Exceptionally cheap talent.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Obviously, Satya's reign has been good for the stock price, but like… I don't care about that. I care about the actual products they produce, which have largely turned to shit. At some level, I get where people are coming from when they say Satya's bad for the company because, like Intel, that kind of shit can catch up with you if you let things slide for too long. He'd better hope his AI gamble pays off.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
Figured and really it was somewhat rhetorical as I don't understand why the US would be singled out specifically for this action is all. They are all playing this game and, as best I can tell, only a few nation states are preparing for what's next instead of rapidly upping the ante. The real medicine is painful, no one will administer that unfortunately and the longer that is avoided, the more painful the remedy becomes, therefore even more avoidance and thus further acceleration.
clarky
Gold Member
Im not massively into following it these days to be honest.
In the UK they now claim to winding it down with "QT".
Hence why I said are they still doing that.
I do realise its a practice done elsewhere (everywhere) also.
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DownLikeBCPowder
Member
They will all claim that - just like they claimed that Stateside. One may ponder the wisdom of state controlled banks purchasing and influencing the market so directly. In the end, they will find they must be more than the lender of last resort, they have become the buyer of last resort and the finality of that is an ominous one. More and more central banks will become the market until it is completely broken. Consider that QE was first administered in a zombie economy - Japan - only after attempting actual negative rates. Consider that QE was further introduced to these other systems internationally after the "Great Financial Crisis" and has yet to disappear, rather only to accelerate. That will continue despite short term disruptions to such programs as once the genie has escaped the bottle. . . QE was a fraud to begin with and the only purpose of QT, in reality, is the hope that they will be able to further deploy future QE "when necessary" or that the "cannon" will have just enough powder to function. Instead, these are closing in on end game policies in a game of kick the can which requires ever more frequent and stronger kicks.
Do any of these look like they ever intend to actually end? Or does it look like the beginning of runaway action and reaction? These fraudulent fiat systems are breaking and desperation of the administrators and "deciders" will only increase.
Angry_Megalodon
Member
I dont get people who say stuff like "this is the future and it's inevitable!!!" like religious zealots proclaiming the holy scriptures. You are just parroting the talking points of a bunch of tech bross who want the cake for themselves.
No, it's not the future, it's a dystopian dream just like the mission to Mars, the hyperloop and every other insane project these people envision. Just tell them to fuck off and don't follow like sheep.
No, it's not the future, it's a dystopian dream just like the mission to Mars, the hyperloop and every other insane project these people envision. Just tell them to fuck off and don't follow like sheep.
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cinnamonandgravy
Member
i used a buttload of AI today
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Oh sweet summer child.
archangelmorph
Gold Member
That's the L1 Visa.
That was the case in the 90's when it first came about. Maybe for a couple years.
Then, like everything else, corporations started abusing it, starting with IT. They started hiring H1b's, making the existing workers train them, and then fired the existing workers. And since there was all this diversity crap going around, not only did they fire American workers, it made their stupid diversity numbers look better too. Started this vicious cycle.
In the last 10 years though as the Mag7 have grown, they've figured out that they can cripple wages for tech workers by bringing in vast amounts of people from overseas. By and large they're all mediocre, lots of degrees that are made up, just taking advantage of the system. These people have no leverage at all, meaning that it's very hard for them to switch jobs as well, and if they quit they have to go back to their home country basically. That's what the Mag7 are using them for, leverage against existing employees. Definitely not productivity. There's like over 500,000 tech worker H1-b's now, and I believe it's becoming a problem in the medical field as well.
It's just embarrassing that we're doing this to our own population. The corporations are paying the politicians off to keep it in place. It's causing new grads in tech to have troubles finding jobs coming out of school.
It's worse than outsourcing because not only does it take a job here, it also reduces wages here, and then they take up housing and other resources here. It's like someone taking your job and then bidding up housing/rent at the same time. Anyone who is living in a city is probably getting hosed from this to some degree.
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StereoVsn
Gold Member
Man, US balance sheet post 2008 is really telling. It's all kinds of insane.
Nadella responds to job concerns and lays out the why, what, and how of Microsoft.
Satya Nadella seeks to reassure Microsoft employees in layoffs memo
Nadella finally responds to employees concernswww.theverge.com
"I want to speak to what's been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations," says Nadella in a memo to all Microsoft employees today. "These decisions are among the most difficult we have to make. They affect people we've worked alongside, learned from, and shared countless moments with — our colleagues, teammates, and friends."
"I also want to acknowledge the uncertainty and seeming incongruence of the times we're in. By every objective measure, Microsoft is thriving — our market performance, strategic positioning, and growth all point up and to the right. We're investing more in CapEx than ever before. Our overall headcount is relatively unchanged, and some of the talent and expertise in our industry and at Microsoft is being recognized and rewarded at levels never seen before. And yet, at the same time, we've undergone layoffs.
This is the enigma of success in an industry that has no franchise value. Progress isn't linear. It's dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding. But it's also a new opportunity for us to shape, lead through, and have greater impact than ever before."
Nadella now wants employees to keep the "growth mindset" culture in mind while the AI platform shift is reshaping Microsoft's products and business models. "It might feel messy at times, but transformation always is," says Nadella. "Teams are reorganizing. Scopes are expanding. New opportunities are everywhere."
Trogdor1123
Member
Folks at MS must be looking to sharpen those interview skills…
RoadHazard
Gold Member
How I hate corporate bullspeech. It's incredibly disgusting.
sendit
Member
Didn't realize is was Nadellas fault. Phil Spencer has been redeemed. Give Phil a raise and another decade.
genesisblock
Member
I noticed a similar trend happening in countries exporting cheap labour. The system is fundamentally broken when it can be abused like this. There are some incredible talent overaeas and I'm all for opportunities to realize potential but to use it as a means to exploit workers is truly a horrific scenario that has devestating effects in the future.