Meta is cutting roughly 10 percent of its workforce — about 8,000 jobs-in its latest round of layoffs, a reduction the company’s leadership attributes in part to heavy spending on AI and new data centers. The move adds to roughly 25,000 jobs eliminated over the past few years under a program dubbed the “Year of Efficiency,” which began in 2023. people interact with the web.
The Uncanny Valley hosts say Meta’s announcement leaked and was only acknowledged weeks later, and they connect the staffing cuts to internal morale problems as the company reorients around AI. The episode highlights Mark Zuckerberg’s push to build an AI‑forward workplace as both a spending priority and a source of friction inside the company, with the layoffs presented as another episode in a multiyear restructuring effort.
On Google, the podcast walks through the headline moments from I/O: a larger presence for Gemini across products, a redesigned Search experience described by hosts as more agentic, and continuing development of wearable smart‑glasses technology. The hosts argue these pieces form an ambitious AI vision that centralizes automated agents and could change where value and user interaction sit across Google’s services.
The episode also flags mounting public and legal pushback to the industry’s AI push. Hosts note that Elon Musk lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, and they recount an incident in which former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed by graduating students after praising AI in a commencement speech. The show cites reporting that spouses and families are expressing fatigue with constant AI conversation at home, painting a picture of growing social unease around everyday interactions with intelligent systems.
Uncanny Valley is hosted by Zoë Schiffer (director of business and industry), Brian Barrett (executive editor), and Leah Feiger (director of politics and science). The episode includes an automated transcript and lists standard listening options — Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Spotify — for listeners who want to subscribe to future installments.
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