It’s unclear from the article exactly what happened, but the general implication/allegation one takes away is that Walmart tech operations looks more like waste management contracting from the Sopranos.
Readit NewsJCM9 commented on Walmart Fires VP in Tech for Taking Daily Kickbacks Starting from $30K ctol.digital/news/walmart... · Posted by u/napolux
“Agentic” seems the be some quick pivot buzzword that the AI grifters started pushing as soon as generic AI started to show cracks.
“Hey this AI stuff looks a bit overhyped.”
“AI? Oh that’s kids stuff, let me tell you about our agentic features!”
Giving flaky shaky AI the ability to push buttons and do stuff. What could possibly go wrong? Malicious actors will have a field day with this.
JCM9 commented on Being “Confidently Wrong” is holding AI back promptql.io/blog/being-co... · Posted by u/tango12
Add to being confidently wrong is the super annoying way it corrects itself after disastrously screwing something up.
AI: “I’ve deployed the API data into your app, following best practices and efficient code.”
Me: “Nope thats totally wrong and in fact you just wrote the API credential into my code, in plaintext, into the JavaScript which basically guarantees that we’re gonna get hacked.”
AI: “You’re absolutely right. Putting API credentials into the source code for the page is not a best practice, let me fix that for you.”
JCM9 commented on 95% of Companies See 'Zero Return' on $30B Generative AI Spend thedailyadda.com/95-of-co... · Posted by u/speckx
I wouldn’t be surprised if 95% of companies knew this was a money pit but felt obligated to burn a pile of money on it so as not to hurt the stock price.
FOMO on the way up to the peak is a powerful force. Now that we’re sliding down the other side FOMO turns into “WTF did we just spend all that money on again?”
JCM9 commented on 95% of Companies See 'Zero Return' on $30B Generative AI Spend thedailyadda.com/95-of-co... · Posted by u/speckx
We are entering the “Trough of disillusionment.” These hype cycles are very predictable. GPT-5 being panned as a disappointment after endless hype may go down as GenAI’s “jump the shark” moment.
It’s all fun and games until the bean counters start asking for evidence of return on investment. GenAI folks better buckle up. Bumps ahead. The smart folks are already quietly preparing for a shift to ride the next hype wave up while others ride this train to the trough’s bottom.
Cue a bunch of increasingly desperate puff PR trying to show this stuff returns value.
They are still not hiring junior engineers
Well they’re just trying to reduce headcount overall to get the expenses for AWS in better shape and work through some bloat. The “we’re doing layoffs because of AI” story wasn’t sticking though so looks like now they’re backtracking that story line.
So to summarize:
My boss said we were gonna fire a bunch of people “because AI” as part of some fluff PR to pretend we were actually leaders in AI. We tried that a bit, it was a total mess and we have no clue what we’re doing, I’ve been sent out to walk back our comments.
JCM9 commented on AWS in 2025: Stuff you think you know that's now wrong lastweekinaws.com/blog/aw... · Posted by u/keithly
Some good stuff here. I wish AWS would just focus on these boring, but ultimately important, things that they’re good at instead of all the current distractions trying to play catch up on “AI.” AWS leadership missed the boat there big time, but that’s OK.
Ultimately AWS doesn’t have the right leadership or talent to be good at GenAI, but they do (or at least used to) have decent core engineers. I’d like to see them get back to basics and focus there. Right now leadership seems panicked about GenAI and is just throwing random stuff at the wall desperately trying to get something to stick. Thats really annoying to customers.
JCM9 commented on Databricks is raising a Series K Investment at >$100B valuation databricks.com/company/ne... · Posted by u/djhu9
They were expecting to be cash flow positive in Jan 2025, according to [0]. That said, it is hard to tell if they actually became cash flow positive since with them still being a private company, they aren't required to release that information.
[0]: https://www.databricks.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/d...
Whenever companies release glowing fluff PR about their amazing financials they key word in there is “non-GAAP.”
i.e. when we exclude a bunch of pesky costs and other expenses that are the reason we’re not doing so well, we’re actually doing really well!
Non-GAAP has its place, but if used to say the company is doing well (vs like actual accounting) that’s usually not a good sign. Real healthy companies don’t need to hide behind non-GAAP.
JCM9 commented on Databricks is raising a Series K Investment at >$100B valuation databricks.com/company/ne... · Posted by u/djhu9
Looks like someone is thinking “hey let’s wave our hands in the air and talk about AI and someone will write us a cheque!” as a way to kick the can down the road that this far into it they’re still not selling a product that’s making money. Looks a bit desperate TBH.