Episode #9: Metaverse Setbacks, AI Privacy, Uber’s Kubernetes Leap, Discord’s Search Revolution & The “AI-First” Mandate
Meta’s Metaverse Misfire Continues
In another blow to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse dreams, Meta’s Reality Labs division has now lost over $60 billion since 2020. The unit, responsible for Meta’s virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses, posted a staggering $4.2 billion operating loss in Q1 2025 alone. Wall Street has increasingly questioned Meta’s massive investments in the metaverse, which Zuckerberg claims could take years to become a viable business. With new tariffs potentially driving up device costs, and recent layoffs in the Oculus Studios unit, the future of Meta’s metaverse ambitions appears increasingly uncertain. The staggering losses at Reality Labs serve as a cautionary tale for tech giants chasing the next big thing. While Zuckerberg remains committed to building the “next computing platform,” investors are growing impatient with the lack of tangible returns. As the tech industry faces broader economic headwinds, Meta’s inability to turn its metaverse vision into a profitable reality could serve as a wake-up call for other companies tempted to bet the farm on unproven futuristic concepts. Reference: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/30/metas-reality-labs-posts-4point2-billion-loss-in-first-quarter.html
WhatsApp Brings Privacy to the Cloud
In a move that’s sure to delight privacy-conscious users, WhatsApp has unveiled a new “Private Processing” feature that lets you harness the power of AI without compromising your data. Instead of processing sensitive info on your device, the app will securely offload tasks like message summarization to anonymous, encrypted servers. “We know people want the latest AI tools, but they also want to keep their chats private,” said WhatsApp spokesperson Alex Chen. “Private Processing gives you the best of both worlds - advanced features with airtight security.” The opt-in system uses cutting-edge encryption to ensure your messages stay between you and your contacts, not WhatsApp’s servers. While there are always some risks with cloud processing, WhatsApp promises to be transparent about the technology and let users audit the code. Looks like the future of messaging is both smart and secure!
Migrating Uber’s Compute Platform to Kubernetes: A Technical Journey
Uber Completes Massive Migration to Kubernetes. In a major technical milestone, Uber has successfully migrated its entire compute platform from Apache Mesos to Kubernetes. This multi-year effort involved overcoming significant challenges around scale, integration, and automation to move over 3 million compute cores to the industry-standard container orchestration platform. Uber’s Container Platform team had to build custom components like artifact retrieval, gradual scaling, and faster deployments to support the company’s unique needs at massive scale. With the migration now complete, Uber plans to converge all its cluster management technologies onto Kubernetes, further simplifying operations.
How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages
In a major engineering feat, the team at Discord has unveiled a groundbreaking new system for indexing trillions of messages. By deploying Elasticsearch on Kubernetes and implementing a multi-cluster “cell” architecture, Discord can now index double the messages with significantly faster query times. The new system also introduces exciting new search capabilities, including the ability to search across all of a user’s direct messages. Additionally, Discord has developed a solution to handle “Big Freaking Guilds” with billions of messages, using dedicated Elasticsearch clusters with multiple shards. This innovative approach ensures seamless search performance even for the largest communities on the platform. Discord’s engineering prowess continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in real-time communication and collaboration.
”AI-first” is the new Return To Office
Tech CEOs are at it again, this time demanding that all work be “AI-first”. Shopify’s Tobi Lütke kicked off the trend, declaring that “We will add AI usage questions to our performance and peer review questionnaire.” Other CEOs like Duolingo’s Luis von Ahn have followed suit, insisting that “AI use will be part of what we evaluate in performance reviews.” But as writer Anil Dash points out, this seems like more posturing than practical strategy. He argues that while AI can be helpful for those who aren’t experts, great workers don’t necessarily need AI to excel. These CEOs may just be trying to signal their tech-savviness to each other, rather than actually empowering their employees. As Dash puts it, “If you think your workers and colleagues are too stupid to recognize good tools that will help them do their jobs better, then… you are a bad leader and should step down.” Looks like the latest “tech trend” is more about ego than productivity.