Meta Is in Crisis, Google Search’s Makeover, and AI Gets Booed by Graduates
Meta Is in Crisis, Google Search’s Makeover, and AI Gets Booed by Graduates
Meta 陷入危机，谷歌搜索改头换面，AI 在毕业典礼上遭嘘
This week on Uncanny Valley, the team discusses Meta’s recent layoffs and what they’ve been hearing from employees about the increasingly grim vibes at the company. They also talk about Elon Musk losing his lawsuit against OpenAI and share highlights from Google’s annual conference—including an ambitious AI vision to change how people search the web. Finally, what do recent college graduates and women whose spouses work in AI have in common? They’re all sick of hearing about it. 在本周的《Uncanny Valley》节目中，团队讨论了 Meta 最近的裁员情况，以及他们从员工那里听到的关于公司内部日益严峻的氛围。他们还谈到了埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）输掉针对 OpenAI 的诉讼，并分享了谷歌年度大会的亮点——包括旨在改变人们搜索网络方式的雄心勃勃的 AI 愿景。最后，刚毕业的大学生和丈夫从事 AI 工作的女性有什么共同点？她们都对 AI 感到厌倦了。
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry. Zoë Schiffer： 欢迎收听《连线》（WIRED）的《Uncanny Valley》。我是商业与行业总监 Zoë Schiffer。
Brian Barrett: I’m Brian Barrett, executive editor. Brian Barrett： 我是执行主编 Brian Barrett。
Leah Feiger: And I’m Leah Feiger, director of politics and science. Leah Feiger： 我是政治与科学总监 Leah Feiger。
Brian Barrett: And we’re all in the same room— Brian Barrett： 我们现在都在同一个房间里——
Zoë Schiffer: Oh, my God. Zoë Schiffer： 天哪。
Brian Barrett: —for the first time from the podcast. Brian Barrett： 这是播客开播以来第一次（聚在一起）。
Zoë Schiffer: Same room. Zoë Schiffer： 同一个房间。
Leah Feiger: I got invited to the group chat. Leah Feiger： 我终于被拉进群聊了。
Zoë Schiffer: You did. Zoë Schiffer： 是的。
Brian Barrett: Look at that. Brian Barrett： 看看这场景。
Zoë Schiffer: Today on the show, we’re discussing the complete meltdown over mass layoffs at Meta. We spoke to more than a dozen employees, and it turns out the job cuts are far from the only reason why Meta employees are really going through it. Zoë Schiffer： 今天节目中，我们将讨论 Meta 大规模裁员引发的全面崩溃。我们采访了十几名员工，结果发现，裁员远不是 Meta 员工感到痛苦的唯一原因。
Brian Barrett: And of course, we wouldn’t skip the Elon Musk verdict. He lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI in really as full a way as you can, as dramatically as possible. I know, Zoë, you’re looking forward to talking about that. Brian Barrett： 当然，我们不会错过埃隆·马斯克诉讼案的判决。他输掉了针对萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）和 OpenAI 的诉讼，输得非常彻底，过程也极具戏剧性。我知道，Zoë，你很期待聊聊这个。
Zoë Schiffer: Yes. Zoë Schiffer： 是的。
Brian Barrett: And I’m looking forward to talking about Google’s annual developer conference, I/O, where it debuted some dramatic changes to search. Brian Barrett： 我则很期待聊聊谷歌的年度开发者大会 I/O，会上他们发布了搜索功能的一些重大变革。
Leah Feiger: And you might’ve seen that Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, recently got booed by graduating students after he praised AI in a commencement speech. We’re going to get into why young adults might be using AI, but they have very complicated feelings about it. And later in the show, we’re going to hear about why women married to AI bros have had enough. Leah Feiger： 你可能已经看到，谷歌前首席执行官埃里克·施密特（Eric Schmidt）最近在毕业典礼演讲中称赞 AI 后，遭到了毕业生的嘘声。我们将深入探讨为什么年轻人虽然在使用 AI，却对它有着非常复杂的情绪。节目稍后，我们还将聊聊为什么那些嫁给“AI 兄弟”（AI bros）的女性已经受够了这一切。
Zoë Schiffer: First up, let’s dive into what is happening at Meta. This week, the company is letting go of roughly 10 percent of its workforce, which is about 8,000 employees total. It’s the latest round of job cuts, adding to the roughly 25,000 jobs that have been cut in the past few years as part of Mark Zuckerberg’s Year of Efficiency that started in 2023 and now the latest AI-forward workplace, which he is trying to develop and impose. Zoë Schiffer： 首先，让我们深入了解 Meta 正在发生的事情。本周，该公司裁减了约 10% 的员工，总数约为 8,000 人。这是最新一轮裁员，加上过去几年里作为马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）自 2023 年开启的“效率之年”的一部分，以及他目前试图开发和推行的最新“AI 优先”工作场所计划，累计裁员已达约 25,000 人。
Brian Barrett: We record this on a Tuesday, but the reason we’re able to talk so fully and confidently about this is because Meta announced this a while ago. Brian Barrett： 我们是在周二录制的这期节目，之所以能如此全面且自信地讨论这件事，是因为 Meta 在一段时间前就已经宣布了。
Leah Feiger: Oh, yeah. Leah Feiger： 哦，是的。
Zoë Schiffer: They didn’t announce it. The news leaked. Zoë Schiffer： 他们并没有正式宣布，是消息泄露了。
Brian Barrett: The news leaked. But then they acknowledged it. Brian Barrett： 消息泄露了，但随后他们承认了。
Zoë Schiffer: Weeks and weeks later. Zoë Schiffer： 那是几周又几周之后的事了。
Brian Barrett: Yes. But still, it’s been a long time— Brian Barrett： 是的。但即便如此，已经过去很长时间了——
Zoë Schiffer: It’s a long time. Zoë Schiffer： 确实很久了。
Brian Barrett: —that this has been out in the open, which has resulted in, I think, a little bit of chaos time inside of Meta, because you’ve got, a what, a 1 in 10 chance of not having your job anymore? Brian Barrett： 这件事已经公开了很久，我认为这导致 Meta 内部出现了一段混乱时期，因为你面临着——大概是十分之一的失业概率？
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah it’s, I mean, suffice to say, impacting morale in really horrific ways, but it’s not the only thing, like we said. Mark Zuckerberg is also really encouraging employees to use AI. There’ve been all of these changes internally to that end. Some people really like it and are adopting it. Some people are really pushing back on it. But I think for a lot of employees who joined Meta during this era of endless perks, lots of job security, kind of like a chiller atmosphere compared to some of the other startups in the Valley. Zoë Schiffer： 是的，可以说，这以极其糟糕的方式影响了士气，但这并不是唯一的原因，正如我们所说。马克·扎克伯格也在大力鼓励员工使用 AI。内部为了这个目标进行了各种变革。有些人很喜欢并正在采用它，有些人则在强烈抵制。但我认为，对于许多在那个拥有无尽福利、工作保障充足、相比硅谷其他初创公司氛围更轻松的时代加入 Meta 的员工来说，情况确实不同了。
Leah Feiger: Let’s invest. Leah Feiger： 让我们投入其中。
Zoë Schiffer: They have that going for a while. Zoë Schiffer： 他们曾有过那样一段时光。
Leah Feiger: It wasn’t full Google, but it— Leah Feiger： 虽然不像谷歌那样（福利极致），但它——
Zoë Schiffer: Somewhat there. Zoë Schiffer： 差不多吧。
Leah Feiger: —had that vibe. To me, someone so on the outside of this in every single way, I know about these layoffs because they’ve been, (A) so chaotic, but (B) in some ways, needlessly so. Not to say that other tech companies aren’t firing scores of workers all the time. That feels like something we discuss on this podcast frequently, but this is happening with such a large runway and in a way that’s making employees feel so terrible about themselves. Leah Feiger： ——确实有那种氛围。对我这样一个完全置身事外的人来说，我知道这些裁员是因为：(A) 它们太混乱了，(B) 在某些方面，这种混乱是不必要的。并不是说其他科技公司没有一直在裁员，这似乎是我们在这个播客中经常讨论的话题，但这次裁员的过程如此漫长，且让员工感到如此自我怀疑。
Brian Barrett: Well, because it’s not just the layoffs, right? It’s also, even if you stay there, if you’re not culled from the herd, you are going to have to deal with this world in which you’ve got spyware on your laptops training AI to probably take your job at some point, right? Brian Barrett： 嗯，因为不仅仅是裁员，对吧？即使你留下来了，没有被“淘汰”，你也必须面对这样一个世界：你的笔记本电脑上安装了间谍软件，正在训练 AI，而这些 AI 很可能在某个时候取代你的工作，对吧？
Zoë Schiffer: Explain that a little bit. Zoë Schiffer： 稍微解释一下。
Brian Barrett: Meta announced, and this was more public, that they were going to put software on employee laptops that would monitor their keystrokes and how they move their cursors and basically how they do their… Brian Barrett： Meta 宣布——这一点比较公开——他们将在员工的笔记本电脑上安装软件，监控他们的按键记录、光标移动方式，以及他们基本上是如何进行……