Tech Layoffs Scare Many, but There's Still Room to Grow

Author

Walter Wimberly
February 17, 2025

Welcome back my Tech Curious friend. I’m so glad you’re here. Below you can find information about the most recent tech news. So let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Meta’s Mega Layoffs

Meta’s Zuckerburg announced earlier this year that low-performing people would soon be laid off from Meta. However, as layoffs began this week, rumors of people being laid off despite having good performance reviews.

This is going to cause many challenges for the laid-off employees, which feel they have been publicly shamed. Many are claiming it will make it harder for them to find new work.

However, don’t worry, Meta is still hiring lots of people, especially those with AI skills.

Tech Layoffs Abound

More companies than just Meta are having layoffs. The large tech companies tend to have layoffs in waves, and this is just another one. However, to some survivors, it is making them question their loyalty to the company, as well as some of their career choices.

Because of the size of the big tech companies, and their tendency to over hire, layoffs can be overly displayed without reflecting genuine sentiments within the overall tech industry. However, while true, it doesn’t make living through it any easier.

A common theme in several of the layoff announcements is that they are due to AI improvements. While this makes for good business reading, the question will be if this really helps those companies in the long run. Only time will tell.

Grok 3 Coming Soon

Another day, another AI model is released. This week xAi’s Grok 3 chatbot should release as early as Monday evening.

Much hyped by Musk as “the smartest AI on earth”… however, we’ll wait to see what the benchmark results say. However, initial reports say that it is multilingual, has improved accuracy, and is three times faster than predecessors.

Guess Who Turned 20?

If you guessed YouTube, then you’re right. Founded by three original engineers from PayPal, it was originally going to be a dating site, but a place to share videos became the purpose and they never looked back.

Over the years, YouTube has been a source of copyright fights, viral videos, and become a place where people go to learn about anything they want.

Not all Teachers are Afraid of AI

As AI becomes more prevalent, we’re seeing some teachers starting to incorporate AI into the classroom. While some say it is taking too long, they have to realize it takes time to redesign lessons, build new plans, etc.

Recently I spoke at two sessions. One topic was solely on how professors at my University can use AI in the classroom. I was able to demonstrate how I’m using it, and how I’m asking and inviting students to use it.

Second, was at an online ACA Conference on Open and Affordable Resources, where a part was in how I use AI to supplement free and low-cost resources for my students, to help save them money on classes.

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