Facebook group Meta has carried out more layoffs this week as part of Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to increase efficiency. The layoffs now affect employees in technical areas and the Instagram office in London, which is likely to be closed. The restructuring was announced in March, and around 4,000 layoffs are reportedly taking place. Another round of layoffs is expected to follow at the end of May, mainly affecting business-related departments.
In contrast, Tesla has been able to sell more electric cars recently due to price cuts. The company aims to use its “cost leadership as a lever,” but lower margins have led to a significant drop in operating profit, net profit, and cash flow. Tesla’s pricing policy remains unpredictable, as the management stated that prices will continue to develop, up or down, based on various factors. Despite this, shareholders are pleased that Tesla has manufactured and sold more electric cars.
Meanwhile, another interest of Elon Musk is artificial intelligence, and the company behind Stable Diffusion has released two language models as open source. The Large Language Models are under a copyleft license, and developers are free to use, study, and adapt them for research and commercial purposes while respecting the license.
In the tech industry, SpaceX is lowering the prices for Starlink satellite internet in Germany and several European countries. The monthly fees have decreased from €80 to €65, and the necessary antenna cost is now €300 instead of €460. The US company has not explained the reason for the price reduction, but it is now cheaper in Germany, Spain, Ireland, and Austria.
In the latest episode of the #heiseshow, the team discusses the importance of the hard core of analog enthusiasts in the digital age. Additionally, a Pentagon official believes that an interstellar comet might be an alien probe, and there is talk of Google’s plans for AI search after Samsung seeks another search engine for its Android devices.
