Pranav Dixit

I think they thought they were being funny, but it was so utterly tone deaf.

Seattle. Brown friend and I are struggling to get the Sheraton guests-only entrance open with our keycards. White couple lets us in. “Thank you so much!” we say. “Oh, you're fine, it’s not like we’re letting a bunch of terrorists in,” they laugh. Weird. Icky. Hurtful.

Meta: Record revenue.
Me: Record number of diapers changed in a single day.
Everyone’s doing numbers this quarter.
(OK, back to parental leave)

Excited to be speaking at #AAJA25 in Seattle later this week! I’ll be joining a panel about how India and its diaspora are covered in today's geopolitical climate, drawing from my experience reporting on how Silicon Valley is reshaping South Asia.

Say hi if you're in Seattle!

♥️ Some huge personal news: I became a dad to a beautiful baby boy earlier this month! His birth marks the culmination of a long journey that has taken us across two continents, and extreme highs and lows. I’ll be out on parental leave for the next few weeks as we soak it all in.

I retrofitted Apple CarPlay in my Mazda 6 over the long weekend, and I feel incredibly accomplished.

Inside Big Tech's big salary divide: 'I feel like we're all going to get fired' From Meta to Microsoft, generative AI is accelerating Big Tech's salary divide.

"If this team delivers disproportionately, we all benefit via stocks," one Meta engineer told me about the Superintelligence hires.

New from me and @amandahoover.bsky.social: Big Tech is shifting: outsize pay for a few, growing uncertainty for everyone else. www.businessinsider.com/silicon-vall...

Inside Big Tech's big salary divide: 'I feel like we're all going to get fired' From Meta to Microsoft, generative AI is accelerating Big Tech's salary divide.

"If this team delivers disproportionately, we all benefit via stocks," one Meta engineer told me about the Superintelligence hires.

New from me and @amandahoover.bsky.social: Big Tech is shifting: outsize pay for a few, growing uncertainty for everyone else. www.businessinsider.com/silicon-vall...

Meta salaries: See how much AI engineers, researchers, and more at the tech giant get paid Federal data peels back the curtain on how much Meta pays for top talent.

Meta may be paying millions to lure top AI talent, but how much is it paying the rest of its workforce, including engineers, researchers, and product managers? My colleagues and I dug into the company's latest H1-B filings to find out. www.businessinsider.com/meta-salarie...

They'll be anonymous in the story, but I do still verify if they're actually Meta employees!

Meta employees, I'd love to do a bit of a vibe check -- completely anonymously -- for a story. My Signal is +1408-905-9124. Ping me, please?

Meta's Threads finally has DMs — nearly two years after launch. | Pranav Dixit Meta's Threads finally has DMs — nearly two years after launch. I spoke to Head of Product Emily Dalton Smith about why it took so long, what’s next, and whether private messaging changes the vibe...

Meta's Threads finally has DMs — nearly two years after launch. I spoke to Head of Product Emily Dalton Smith about why it took so long, what’s next, and whether private messaging changes the vibe.

Read Mark Zuckerberg's memo explaining what Alexandr Wang will be running at Meta The new lab will be co-led by Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's memo to staff.

🚨 Scoop with Hugh Langley: Mark Zuckerberg just announced a major reorg of Meta’s AI efforts. An internal memo we got lays out plans for a new “Superintelligence” lab, key hires from OpenAI and Google, and what’s next for Llama. Read the full memo here: www.businessinsider.com/meta-ceo-mar...

WhatsApp has become a kind of AI marketplace where chatbots like ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Perplexity jockey for users' attention (Pranav Dixit/Business Insider)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Meta's largest AI competitors are fighting for users inside its most popular chatbot app: WhatsApp WhatsApp has become a battleground for AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity, challenging Meta AI.

New: Meta’s biggest AI chatbot rivals ChatGPT and Perplexity are competing for attention inside WhatsApp, the app where Meta AI is used the most.
www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-comp...

Lose a blue check, gain a blue check.

Get ready for ads on WhatsApp Meta rolls out WhatsApp ads and Channel subscriptions as part of a strategy to make money from the app.

🚨New: WhatsApp is rolling out ads and paid subscriptions, its biggest monetization push yet. The app that once swore off ads is now opening the door to creators, signaling a new phase in Meta’s plan to make messaging a real business. www.businessinsider.com/whatsapp-upd...

Meta is turning to AI models from rivals like Anthropic to help its engineers code better Meta's new AI tool, Devmate, is powered by models from rivals including Anthropic's Claude. It reflects how the company uses competitor AI models.

🚨Scoop: Meta is turning to AI models from rivals like Anthropic to help its engineers code better. www.businessinsider.com/meta-anthrop...

😅

Got invited for drinks with a group of West Coast tech reporters tonight. It made me feel like I belonged, like I’d finally broken in. I don’t usually talk about this, but in the world of American journalism, I often still feel like an outsider. Tonight was different.

Meta is turning to AI models from rivals like Anthropic to help its engineers code better Meta's new AI tool, Devmate, is powered by models from rivals including Anthropic's Claude. It reflects how the company uses competitor AI models.

🚨Scoop: Meta is turning to AI models from rivals like Anthropic to help its engineers code better. www.businessinsider.com/meta-anthrop...

Gen X has become Meta's biggest gold mine Meta's ad strategy targets older users who drive revenue growth and have more purchasing power, as a Barclays analysis shows.

Facebook's ad business isn’t powered by Gen Z — it’s Gen X. The platform shows the most ads to users over 45, because they’re the ones who click and spend, a new report reveals. www.businessinsider.com/meta-ads-gen...

Apple stock dropped as WWDC got going. Here's why. Apple's stock suddenly dropped a few minutes into its WWDC keynote, highlighting relatively slow AI development compared to Big Tech rivals.

Apple's stock dropped minutes into WWDC. Here's why. www.businessinsider.com/apple-wwdc-a...

OK, I need recommendations for the best AI-related Substacks and other newsletters. Just stuff from independent folks, no "legacy" media.

Meta's AI team is facing a talent drain, with just three of the 14 authors credited on the landmark 2023 Llama paper still at Meta; several joined Mistral (Pranav Dixit/Business Insider)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Meta's Llama AI team has been bleeding talent. See where all the top researchers have gone. Out of the 14 creators of Meta's AI model Llama, 11 have left the company. French AI startup Mistral has five of them.

Of the 14 authors credited on the landmark 2023 paper that introduced Llama to the world, 11 are no longer at Meta. Here’s what they are up to now. www.businessinsider.com/meta-llama-a...

Finally got a Costco membership after three years of living in the US. Feels like I’ve completed a key step in the immigration process.

AI still can’t land a scoop.

Meta will rate more workers "below expectations" The company plans to increase the number of employees it ranks to its lowest performance tier.

🚨 Scoop from me and
@jyotimann.bsky.social: Meta is telling managers to rate more employees “Below Expectations” in mid-year reviews, raising the target to as high as 20% for teams of 150 or more employees, internal documents we got show. www.businessinsider.com/internal-mem...

Meta's Llama has reached a turning point with developers as delays and disappointment mount Developers told Business Insider Llama is slipping from the cutting edge, but it still has a role.

Meta's Llama has reached a turning point, with delays and disappointment, developers told my colleague Emma Cosgrove and I. www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-llam...