Technology

The AI talent wars are just getting started

Published

1 year ago

December 20, 2024

The AI talent wars are just getting started

For my last issue of the year, I’m focusing on the AI talent war, which is a theme I’ve been covering since this newsletter launched almost two years ago. And keep reading for the latest from inside Google and Meta this week.

But first, I need your questions for a mailbag issue I’m planning for my first issue of 2025. You can submit questions via this form or leave them in the comments.

“It’s like looking for LeBron James”

This week, Databricks announced the largest known funding round for any private tech company in history. The AI enterprise firm is in the final stretch of raising $10 billion, almost all of which is going to go to buying back vested employee stock.

How companies approach compensation is often undercovered in the tech industry, even though the strategies play a crucial role in determining which company gets ahead faster. Nowhere is this dynamic as intense as the war for AI talent, as I’ve covered before.

To better understand what’s driving the state of play going into 2025, this week I spoke with Naveen Rao, VP of AI at Databricks. Rao is one of my favorite people to talk to about the AI industry. He’s deeply technical but also business-minded, having successfully sold multiple startups. His last company, MosaicML, sold to Databricks for $1.3 billion in 2023. Now, he oversees the AI products for Databricks and is closely involved with its recruiting efforts for top talent.

Our conversation below touches on the logic behind Databricks’s massive funding round, what specific AI talent remains scarce, why he thinks AGI is not imminent, and more.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity:

Why is this round mostly to help employees sell stock? Because $10 billion is a lot. You can do a lot with that.

The company is a little over 11 years old. There have been employees that have been here for a long time. This is a way to get them liquidity.

Most people don’t understand that this is not going into the balance sheet of Databricks. This is largely going to provide liquidity for past employees, [and] liquidity going forward for current and new employees. It ends up being neutral on dilution because they’re shares that already exist. They’ve been allocated to employees and this allows them to sell those to cover the tax associated with those shares.

How much of the rapid increases in AI company valuations have to do with the talent war?

It’s real. The key thing here is that it’s not just pure AI talent — people who come up with the next big thing, the next big paper. We are definitely trying to hire those people. There is an entire infrastructure of software and cloud that needs to be built to support those things. When you build a model and you want to scale it, that actually is not AI talent, per se. It’s infrastructure talent.

The perceived bubble that we’re in around AI has created an environment where all of those talents are getting recruited heavily. We need to stay competitive.

Who is being the most aggressive with setting market rates for AI talent?

OpenAI is certainly there. Anthropic. Amazon. Google. Meta. xAI. Microsoft. We’re in constant competition with all of these companies.

Would you put the number of researchers who can build a new frontier model under 1,000?

Yeah. That’s why the talent war is so hot. The leverage that a researcher has in an organization is unprecedented. One researcher’s ideas can completely change the product. That’s kind of new. In semiconductors, people who came up with a new transistor architecture had that kind of leverage.

That’s why these researchers are so sought after. Somebody who comes up with the next big idea and the next big unlock can have a massive influence on the ability of a company to win.

Do you see that talent pool expanding in the near future or is it going to stay constrained?

I see some aspects of the pool expanding. Being able to build the appropriate infrastructure and manage it, those roles are expanding. The top-tier researcher side is the hard part. It’s like looking for LeBron James. There are just not very many humans who are capable of that.

I would say the Inflection-style acquisitions were largely driven by this kind of mentality. You have these concentrations of top-tier talent in these startups and it sounds ridiculous how much people pay. But it’s not ridiculous. I think that’s why you see Google hiring back Noam Shazeer. It’s very hard to find another Noam Shazeer.

A guy we had at my previous company that I started, Nervana, is arguably the best GPU programmer in the world. He’s at OpenAI now. Every inference that happens on an OpenAI model is running through his code. You start computing the downstream cost and it’s like, “Holy shit, this one guy saved us $4 billion.”

“You start computing the downstream cost and it’s like, ‘Holy shit, this one guy saved us $4 billion.’”

What’s the edge you have when you’re trying to hire a researcher to Databricks?

You start to see some selection bias of different candidates. Some are AGI or bust, and that’s okay. It’s a great motivation for some of the smartest people out there. We think we’re going to get to AGI through building products. When people use technology, it gets better. That’s part of our pitch.

AI is in a massive growth base but it’s also hit peak hype and is on the way down the Gartner hype curve. I think we’re on that downward slope right now, whereas Databricks has established a very strong business. That’s very attractive to some because I don’t think we’re so susceptible to the hype.

Do the researchers you talk to really believe that AGI is right around the corner? Is there any consensus of when it’s coming?

Honestly, there’s not a great consensus. I’ve been in this field for a very long time and I’ve been pretty vocal in saying that it’s not right around the corner. The large language model is a great piece of technology. It has massive amounts of economic uplift and efficiencies that can be gained by building great products around it. But it’s not the spirit of what we used to call AGI, which was human or even animal-like intelligence.

These things are not creating magical intelligence. They’re able to slice up the space that we’re calling facts and patterns more easily. It’s not the same as building a causal learner. They don’t really understand how the world works.

You may have seen Ilya Sutskever’s talk. We’re all kind of groping in the dark. Scaling was a big unlock. It was natural for a lot of people to feel enthusiastic about that. It turns out that we weren’t solving the right problem.

Is the new idea that’s going to get to AGI the test-time compute or “reasoning” approach?

No. I think it’s going to be an important thing for performance. We can improve the quality of answers, probably reduce the probability of hallucinations, and increase the probability of having responses that are grounded in fact. It’s definitely a positive for the field. But is it going to solve the fundamental problem of the spirit of AGI? I don’t believe so. I’m happy to be wrong, too.

Do you agree with the sentiment that there’s a lot of room to build more good products with existing models, since they are so capable but still constrained by compute and access?

Yeah. Meta started years later than OpenAI and Anthropic and they basically caught up, and xAI caught up extremely fast. I think it’s because the rate of improvement has essentially stopped.

Nilay Patel compares the AI model race to early Bluetooth. Everyone keeps saying there’s a fancier Bluetooth but my phone still won’t connect.

You see this with every product cycle. The first few versions of the iPhone were drastically better than the previous versions. Now, I can’t tell the difference between a three-year-old phone and a new phone.

I think that’s what we see here. How we utilize these LLMs and the distribution that has been built into them to solve business problems is the next frontier.

Elsewhere

Google gets flatter. CEO Sundar Pichai told employees this week that the company’s drip-drip series of layoffs have reduced the number of managers, directors, and VPs by 10 percent, according to Business Insider and multiple employees I spoke with who also heard the remarks. Relatedly, Pichai also took the opportunity to add “being scrappy” as a character trait to the internal definition of “Googleyness.” (Yes, that’s a real thing.) He demurred on the most upvoted employee question about whether layoffs will continue, though I’m told he did note that there will be “overall” headcount growth next year.
Meta cuts a perk. File this one under “sad violin”: I’m told that, starting in early January, Meta will stop offering free EV charging at its Bay Area campuses. Keep your heads held high, Metamates.

What else you should know about

OpenAI teased its next o3 “reasoning” model (yes, “o2” was skipped) with impressive evals.
TikTok convinced the Supreme Court to hear its case just before its US ban is set to take effect. Meanwhile, CEO Shou Chew met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago to (I’m assuming) get a sense of what his other options are should TikTok lose its case.
More tech-meets-Mar-a-Lago news: Elon Musk inserted himself into the meeting between Jeff Bezos and Trump. Robinhood donated $2 million to Trump’s inauguration. And Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son pledged to invest $100 billion into AI tech in the US, which happens to be the same number he has floated for a chip venture to compete with Nvidia.
Apple complained about Meta pressuring the EU to make iOS more compatible with third-party hardware. Anyone who has synced photos from the Ray-Ban Meta glasses to an iPhone will understand why this is a battle that is very important for Meta to win, especially as it gears up to release its own pair of AR glasses with a controller wristband next year.
Amazon is delaying its return-to-office mandate in some cities because it doesn’t have enough office space.
Perplexity, which is projected to make $127 million in revenue next year, recently raised $500 million at a valuation of $9 billion. It also acquired another AI startup called Carbon to help it hook into other services, like Notion and Google Docs.

Job board

A few notable moves this week:

Meta promoted John Hegeman to chief revenue officer, reporting to COO Javier Olivan. Another one of Olivan’s reports, Justin Osofsky, was also promoted to be head of partnerships for the whole company, including the company’s go-to-market strategy for Llama.
Alec Radford, an influential, veteran OpenAI researcher who authored its original GPT research paper, is leaving but will apparently continue working with the company in some capacity. And Shivakumar Venkataraman, who was recently brought in from Google to lead OpenAI’s search efforts, has also left.
Coda co-founder and CEO Shishir Mehrotra will also run Grammarly now that the two companies are merging, with Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury staying on as a board member.
Tencent removed two directors, David Wallerstein and Ben Feder, from the board of Epic Games after the Justice Department said their involvement violated antitrust law.
Former Twitter CFO Ned Segal has been tapped to be chief of housing and economic development for the city of San Francisco.

Technology

Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters

Published

4 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters

Meta is “temporarily pausing” the ability for teens to chat with its AI characters as it develops a “new version” of the characters that will offer a “better experience.” The company made the announcement in an update to a blog post from October where the company had detailed more parental controls for teen AI use. The change blocking teens from accessing the characters will go into effect “starting in the coming weeks.”

”Since we announced our plans to build parental controls for AI characters in October, we started developing a new iteration of AI characters generally (i.e. for both adults and teens),” spokesperson Sophie Vogel tells The Verge. “Rather than building the parental controls twice (for the current AI characters and the new iteration of AI characters) we’re pausing teen access to the current version while we focus on the new iteration. When that new iteration is available for teens, it will come with parental controls.”

According to TechCrunch, “Meta said that it heard from parents that they wanted more insights and control over their teens’ interactions with AI characters, which is why it decided to make these changes.”

In October, Meta announced that parents would be able to block their teens’ access to one-on-one conversations with its AI characters, block their teens from talking with specific AI characters, and share insights with parents on the topics their teens discuss with Meta’s AI characters and its AI assistant. The original plan was to roll out those controls early this year.

Last year, also in October, Meta changed Instagram teen accounts to allow teens to be able to see content that’s reflective of what might be shown in a movie rated for people that are 13 or older.

Update, January 23rd: Added information from a Meta spokesperson.

Technology

Ransomware attack exposes Social Security numbers at major gas station chain

Published

4 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

Ransomware attack exposes Social Security numbers at major gas station chain

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Cybercriminals are happy to target almost any industry where data can be stolen. In many cases, less prepared and less security-focused companies are simply easier targets.

A recent ransomware attack on a company tied to dozens of gas stations across Texas shows exactly how this plays out. The incident exposed highly sensitive personal data, including Social Security numbers and driver’s license details, belonging to hundreds of thousands of people.

The breach went undetected for days, giving attackers ample time to move through internal systems and steal sensitive data. If you’ve ever paid at the pump or shopped inside one of these convenience stores, this is the kind of incident that should make you stop and pay attention.

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What happened in the Gulshan ransomware attack

According to a disclosure filed with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Gulshan Management Services, Inc. reported a cybersecurity incident that impacted more than 377,000 individuals. Gulshan is linked to Gulshan Enterprises, which operates around 150 Handi Plus and Handi Stop gas stations and convenience stores across Texas.

WINDOWS 10 USERS FACE RANSOMWARE NIGHTMARE AS MICROSOFT SUPPORT ENDS IN 2025 WORLDWIDE

The company says it detected unauthorized access to its IT systems in late September. Investigators later determined that attackers had been inside the network for roughly ten days before anyone noticed. The intrusion began with a phishing attack, a reminder of how a single deceptive email can still open the door to massive breaches.

Ransomware attacks don’t just hit tech companies. Retailers like gas stations store sensitive customer and employee data that criminals actively target. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

During that window, the attackers accessed and stole personal data, then deployed ransomware that encrypted files across Gulshan’s systems. The compromised information includes names, contact details, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. That combination is especially dangerous, since it can be used for identity theft, account takeovers and fraud that may surface months or even years later.

Why the lack of a ransomware claim still matters

So far, no known ransomware group has publicly taken credit for the attack. That might sound like good news, but it does not necessarily change the risk for affected individuals. In many ransomware cases, silence can mean one of two things. Either the attackers have not yet posted stolen data publicly, or the victim company may have resolved the incident privately.

Gulshan’s filing states that it restored its systems using known-safe backups. That detail often suggests a company chose to rebuild rather than negotiate with attackers. Even so, once data has been copied out of a network, there is no way to pull it back. Whether or not the stolen information ever appears online, the exposure alone puts affected people at long-term risk.

This incident also highlights a recurring pattern. Retail and service businesses handle huge volumes of personal data but often rely on legacy systems and frontline employees who are prime phishing targets. Gas stations may not feel like obvious hacking targets, but their payment systems, loyalty programs and HR databases make them valuable all the same.

We reached out to Gulshan Management Services for comment regarding the breach, but did not receive a response before our deadline.

A customer pumps gas at a gas station on Feb. 13, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

10 steps you can take to protect yourself after a breach like this

If your information was exposed in this breach or any similar ransomware incident, there are concrete steps you can take to reduce the fallout.

1) Monitor your credit and identity closely

If the company offers free credit monitoring or identity protection, enroll in it. These services can alert you early if someone tries to open accounts or misuse your identity. If nothing is offered, consider signing up for a reputable identity theft protection service on your own.

Identity Theft companies can monitor personal information like your Social Security Number (SSN), phone number, and email address and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account. They can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals.

See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com.

2) Consider a personal data removal service

The less of your information that’s floating around data broker sites, the harder it is for criminals to target you. Data removal services can help reduce your digital footprint over time.

While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

Even when no ransomware group claims responsibility, stolen data can still fuel identity theft, fraud, and account takeovers long after a breach occurs. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

3) Use a password manager

A password manager helps you create and store unique passwords for every account. If attackers try to reuse stolen data to break into your online accounts, strong, unique passwords can stop that attempt cold.

Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.

FIBER BROADBAND GIANT INVESTIGATES BREACH AFFECTING 1M USERS

Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at Cyberguy.com.

4) Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) everywhere possible

2FA adds an extra barrier, even if someone has your personal details. Prioritize email, banking, cloud storage, and shopping accounts, since those are often targeted first.

5) Install and keep a strong antivirus software running

Strong antivirus software can help detect phishing attempts, malicious downloads, and suspicious activity before it turns into a full compromise. Keep real-time protection enabled and don’t ignore warnings.

The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.

Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

6) Watch for phishing and follow-up scams

After breaches like this, scammers often send fake emails or texts pretending to be the affected company or a credit monitoring service. Slow down, verify messages independently, and never click links you weren’t expecting.

7) Review your credit reports regularly

Check your reports from all major credit bureaus for unfamiliar accounts or inquiries. You’re entitled to free reports, and catching issues early makes them much easier to fix.

8) Freeze your credit to stop new accounts from being opened

If criminals expose your Social Security number, place a credit freeze as soon as possible. A credit freeze blocks lenders from opening new accounts in your name, even when thieves have your personal details. The credit bureaus offer freezes for free, and you can temporarily lift one when you apply for credit yourself. This step stops identity theft before it starts, instead of alerting you after the damage is done. If you prefer not to freeze your credit, place a fraud alert instead. A fraud alert tells lenders to verify your identity before approving credit, which adds another layer of protection.

To learn more about how to do this, go to Cyberguy.com and search “How to freeze your credit.”

In the Gulshan attack, hackers spent days inside internal systems, stealing personal data before deploying ransomware that locked down files. (Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)

9) Protect yourself from tax refund fraud with an IRS Identity Protection PIN

When Social Security numbers are stolen, tax fraud often follows. Criminals can file fake tax returns in your name to steal refunds before you ever submit your paperwork. An IRS Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) helps prevent this by ensuring only you can file a tax return using your SSN. It’s a simple but powerful safeguard that can block a common form of identity theft tied to data breaches.

10) Lock down existing bank and financial accounts

Don’t just watch for new fraud, proactively secure the accounts you already have. Enable alerts on bank and credit card accounts for large transactions, new payees, or changes to contact information. If your SSN or driver’s license number was exposed, consider calling your bank to ask about additional protections or account notes. Acting early can prevent small issues from becoming major financial problems.

Kurt’s key takeaway

Your personal data doesn’t just live with banks and hospitals. Retailers, gas stations, and convenience store operators also hold information that can cause real harm if it falls into the wrong hands. When attackers get in through something as simple as a phishing email and stay undetected for days, the damage can spread fast. You can’t prevent these breaches yourself, but you can limit how much power stolen data gives criminals by locking down your accounts and staying alert.

Do you think everyday businesses like gas stations take cybersecurity seriously enough? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

The TikTok deal is done, finally

Published

16 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

TikTok USDS Joint Venture’s mandate is to secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures. It will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation while ensuring continuous accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications.

Data Protection: U.S. user data will be protected by USDS Joint Venture in Oracle’s secure U.S. cloud environment. The Joint Venture will operate a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program that is audited and certified by third party cybersecurity experts. The program will adhere to major industry standards, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) CSF and 800-53 and ISO 27001 as well as the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Security Requirements for Restricted Transactions.

Algorithm Security: The Joint Venture will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data. The content recommendation algorithm will be secured in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment.

Software Assurance: The Joint Venture will secure U.S. apps through software assurance protocols, and review and validate source code on an ongoing basis, assisted by its Trusted Security Partner, Oracle.

Trust & Safety: The Joint Venture will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem and have decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and content moderation.

TikTok USDS Joint Venture has three managing investors, Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX, each holding 15%. Completing the full consortium of investors are: Dell Family Office, the investment firm of Michael Dell, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Vastmere Strategic Investments, LLC, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group, LLP; Alpha Wave Partners; Revolution; Merritt Way, LLC controlled and managed by partners of Dragoneer; Via Nova, an affiliate of General Atlantic; Virgo LI, Inc., investment arm of a foundation established by Yuri and Julia Milner in support of science; and NJJ Capital, the family office of Xavier Niel, a French entrepreneur and pioneer in telecommunications. ByteDance retains 19.9% of the Joint Venture.