• Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    30 minutes ago

    Fucking wild to read the article. Oracle got pissy because regulations said you can’t just shove datacenter electricity costs on people.

  • plyth@feddit.org
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    6 hours ago

    Buying Time Warner seems poisoned for digital companies, or their owners.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    8 hours ago

    Start forcing users to use AI
    lose staff
    Fire staff so that AI can take over
    lose staff
    Find out AI can’t replace the users, get devalued
    lose staff

    seems pretty toxic

    • architect@thelemmy.club
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      9 hours ago

      People shouldn’t be working for super villains.

      People stand around wondering why the fuck these companies are able to do what they do and these billionaires the same. WELL BECAUSE YOU WORK FOR THEM CHAD. IT’S LITERALLY YOUR FAULT!

      • KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 hours ago

        In a shitty job market, a job for the supervillain is better than starving and being homeless.

        This rhetoric comes from a place of privilege.

        • Bazoogle@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Lmao, they are quite literally saying it is the suffering peoples fault. Evil supervillains literally find and abuse any leverage they can get to make people work for them, depriving them of any other option. That’s why they’re supervillains to begin with.

        • wewbull@feddit.uk
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          4 hours ago

          It’s not shitty enough to completely leave your ethics at the door. You might need to take a little less pay, or work on something less interesting (although we’re talking about Oracle here).

          Somebody who landed a job at Oracle had options. That is until today. Now they have 21,000 other people to compete with.

          It’s the people somewhere like Nvidia I have some empathy for. They thought they were building gaming tech and they’ve ended up building the apocalypse.

  • Mwa@thelemmy.club
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    7 hours ago

    Maybe I might use Qemu/KVM instead of Oracle Virtual box cause of their controversies.
    (I am using KVM backend on Virtualbox)

    • sanitation@lemmy.todayOP
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      8 hours ago

      Oracle Virtual box - yeah company i used to work for got sued by oracle for using virtualbox. well extensions for it. fyi guys oracle tracks ips of everyone downloading it and their legal team will contact your company and shakedown the money .

  • Llamatron@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    I’ve worked in IT for close to 30 years and I’ve never met anyone with a good word to say about Oracle. I remember them being notorious for auditing their customers and nailing them to wall for even the slightest perceived infraction of their convoluted license agreements. I don’t understand how they still exist.

    • Mikina@programming.dev
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      9 hours ago

      JDK is the greatest scam ever.

      When something needs JDK, most people usually just download the first one they find without much thought, just like with any dependency, which is Oracle’s, instead of OpenJDK.

      Oracle will go after companies where their employees unknowlingly installed their JDK for some minor thing, and hit them with multimillion fine for breaking their license after a while. Or at least I remember hearing they used to.

      Blocking anything Oracle company-wide, especially JDK, is the first thing an IT admin should do.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      auditing their customers and nailing them to wall

      Vendor lock-in is quite profitable.

      Big on Govt projects too

    • architect@thelemmy.club
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      9 hours ago

      Yet they keep working for an evil company. They could have not done that. Had a little integrity. But no, so…

      Oh hey I’m from the future where you get judged harshly for where you choose to work.

      • Diurnambule@jlai.lu
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        10 hours ago

        It is really performant for the job it is required to do, they sell haxadata server which have really high performances

  • Mereo@piefed.ca
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    17 hours ago

    Chinese open-source models are becoming the norm. You don’t need the latest model from ChatGPT (e.g., a Ferrari) to complete your task. A simple Honda will suffice (open-source models), and it uses a lot less energy since it runs on your home or company’s infrastructure.

    Because of that, I predict that we’re going to see a lot of financial hardship among AI companies.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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      12 hours ago

      Open-weight not open source mostly. And they’re not keeping them open weight forever. Once they’ve truly surpassed the west, their future models will likely be closed down too so they could charge Anthropic level pricing and turn a profit.

      • dil@lemmy.zip
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        4 hours ago

        Deepseek v4 flash as it is now is perfectly fine for the basic agent stuff I use it for which is basically remote controlling my computer from a distance without using remote desktop. Not sure id be effected significantly if they blocked off their future models.

      • dil@lemmy.zip
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        4 hours ago

        Hop on rednote, they aren’t fans of their own AI and were collectively throwing fits when claude got banned there.

      • Guilvareux@feddit.uk
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        7 hours ago

        I don’t know how much they’re actually doing to surpass the West tbh. A lot of the success relies on distilling closed models, and running the models cheaper with almost comparable effectiveness. If the Chinese are showing that such profit/investment strategies in closed models are weak and can be easily decimated by a competitor, what motivation would they have to adopt one?

        • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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          5 hours ago

          If their models truly are reaching parity with new western models as many claim, then it can’t be from distillation alone, they must be gathering their own datasets too. It takes months to train a new model.

          Also distillation only really saves you the data collection and preparation (categorization). Training is still expensive, as is inference. It’s likely architectural changes that are making their inference cheaper (MoE vs dense models for one), not sure if they’ve gotten any good methods for making training cheaper.

          • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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            57 minutes ago

            There is zero proof of distillation. Minimax 2.7 development was surrounded by moderate use of Claude. M3 is their latest generation, and pretty solid, but its performance cannot be attributed solely (or even 5%) to distillation, and that is only lab that has been accused of significant API use. These claims are all 3-4 months old by now, and Anthropic blocked China access after publishing the accusations. Repeated BS is BS from losers trying to lobby for support.

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      13 hours ago

      it uses a lot less energy since it runs on your home or company’s infrastructure.

      A CPU-cycle requires energy no matter where it is. The open source models may be more efficient, or you may distribute the power usage over a greater geographical area. But you’re not using less energy because you’re running the model at home.

      Because of that, I predict that we’re going to see a lot of financial hardship among AI companies.

      I do like the idea that open source will kill tech giants.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        You are correct. OpenAI etc. valuations are based on the difference between revenue and cost. The key part is that open source breaks the monopoly. It stops excessive rent being charged (now or in the future) to use Ai models.

        Tech giants will still exist, but closed model advantages won’t.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    15 hours ago

    I wonder if it’s related at all to this ongoing trend ( How Money Works on YouTube). Tech Bros got sore about the post-epidemic culture at their companies: People wanted to work from home, and knew that their talent was important so they got bold asking for pay raises and benefits.

    And the tech bros took this personally. So first came the RTO mandates (which got rid of some techs, specifically the best and brightest) and then came later layoffs, some of which were blamed on AI automation.

    AI automation was never actually that much further along.

    Anyway, they laid off too many people, to the point that the remaining workforce didn’t know how to run the business and the tech. So they had to hire back some of the greybeards, and are still replacing lost positions with rookies fresh out of college.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      4 hours ago

      I think this layout is 100% about S&P downgrading Oracle’s credit rating to one step above junk. They’re on the hook for the WB acquisition and the data centre build out for OpenAI, both of which look hugely negative. Wisconsin (data centre location) just sent the a bill for $7B because they don’t trust oracle to pay the future costs to the state the development would incur.

      With no credit rating, and not much liquid cash all they can do is cut costs. Hence layoff.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      15 hours ago

      are they replacing? seems like the layoffs has gotten worst, and people arnt finding jobs in tech like they did, i saw a correlation an uptick in posts on many subs lining up with the layoffs. especially without how employers are using AI/ATS system to screen people out of a job.

      • julysfire@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        I work in engineering at a medical tech place. We have been having quarterly layoffs for almost 2 years now and I haven’t seen a new face in that time.

  • comador @lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Couldn’t happen to a better group of companies. Let them all beg for bailouts and be denied.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      and be denied

      Maybe under a sane leadership, certainly not now. Trump will give them a bailout and a shipping container full of “deported” teenagers.

      • artyom@piefed.social
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        20 hours ago

        Even Obama handed out bailouts like candy. No chance this admin doesn’t.

        • 4am@lemmy.zip
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          19 hours ago

          I mean that’s one of the big draws of capitalism right? Much of the state’s power is derived from its elite oligarchy and their industrial contributions, in exchange for basically having a blind eye turned to anything they want.

          When you allow structure of such importance to exist as a business, you balance your house on toothpicks.

          Therefore, you can allow them to snap and tumble your whole home down a cliff; or you can treat them as part of the state (but, only when they need it. To keep up appearances.)

      • TIEPilot@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        lol you think either party wouldn’t bail them out? They all own stock in these companies, party line means fuck all when it comes to their net worth. Both parties will link arms sing kumbaya and rip us off yet again…

    • CoriolisSTORM88@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      While I agree with the anti Oracle sentiment, that’s 21,000 employees that didn’t say they wanted AI BS. The suits and ceos that do this aren’t the ones that pay the price. It’s always the ordinary people like you and I.

      • fizzle@quokk.au
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        20 hours ago

        I don’t think employees can really be separated from the company mission. They might not be the ones who benefit the most, but they still receive some benefit in exchange for producing the outcome.

        People resign from roles on ideological grounds all the time.

        • 4am@lemmy.zip
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          18 hours ago

          We’re still throwing out morality platitudes on tech workers as we’ve watched since COVID as the tech sector at all levels has bled jobs, senior staff looking for positions for 2-3 years in some cases.

          It’s impossible out there. I have moral objections to the way my company operates too but if I quit now my family will lose everything. I mean thankfully I’m not exactly crushing orphans in the orphan crushing machine but in a sane market I would look for something a little more aligned with my personal ideals. However just like buying a stick of RAM for a reasonable price, it just ain’t happening right now.

            • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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              12 hours ago

              “My family’s homeless but at least I’m not working for a corporation anymore”

              • fizzle@quokk.au
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                11 hours ago

                “I chose a job that I find satisfying even though I could earn more if I sold out”

                • 4am@lemmy.zip
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                  6 hours ago

                  Yeah again this leaves out the “job I already have” vs “mythical better job that simply doesn’t exist right now” part

                • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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                  9 hours ago

                  You’re still part of the corporate machine if you work at Walmart or McDonald’s, they won’t pay you enough to feed your family and I doubt the job is satisfying.

                  Like you do realise it was standard operating procedure in the US tech scene to apply for at least 400-500 jobs BEFORE the layoff craze that’s lasted years now, right?

                  It’s different in my country but it took me 3 whole months to find a new job when unemployed which was pretty bad compared to my previous experience. A bit later it took my friend a YEAR to get a new job. Now their boss is saying every engineer should be providing at least 3x value to customers using AI and they have no option but to stay at this job because nobody is hiring.

        • Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours ago

          I’ve resigned on ideological grounds twice. It’s hard to do, especially if you don’t have a safety net or savings to tide you over until your next job. That being said, I think that executive pay should be reduced to compensate for job losses (as a payout to all the people who got fired) anytime shit like this happens. Make the C suite take accountability for their gambles.

        • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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          20 hours ago

          I 100% agree if we’re talking about employees with the capacity to earn more than a living wage.

          You can’t tie people to the actions of the company they’re working for if they’re living paycheck to paycheck.

          Employees in the tech sector can absolutely afford to not work at Oracle or Flock or any one of the other antihuman shitholes like them. For a lot of these people all it took for them to sell their morality was a chance to make six figures.

  • liking625@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Now they are literally forcing clients to their cloud I’d they want accessible support instead of draconian prices…

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Jesus. This puts workers at, what, 150-200k laid off this year? Awful.

    But I do like that part about mandatory power grid guarantees. If we lived in a reasonable country that would be a federal regulation.

    • saltesc@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Yeah. Wisconsin sticking up for itself.

      And Oracle’s only angle was, “You’ll regret this. People will go elsewhere!”

      Seriously, I don’t see what data centres give their hosts. They barely require a workforce after setup, they rip through resources, they fuck with the environment, they offer no municipal services, and they’re eyesores. At best they’re a form of property tax revenue and I guess rates revenue.

    • Pistcow@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      let’s just say $100k if there’s the random custodial engineer in the mix. That $2.1 billion in salary. They reduced headcount 13% in 2025 and this would bea 15% from that. Probably cash strapped and about to go bust. Good.