Comment by com2kid
15 hours ago
> They’re private companies. If they can’t tie it to profit, it’s not adding value.
Smart companies understand other types of value exist.
If a democratic population hates you, it is harder to convince politicians to do your bidding. (Not impossible, just harder!)
If potential employees don't think kindly of you, it is harder to recruit.
Llama is a constant source of good PR for Meta in the developer community. Compared to just a couple of years ago when they were mostly laughed at by devs for metaverse stuff. Now it is "holy cow Zuck is standing up to Microsoft and Amazon and democratizing AI!"
With Llama, Meta has got great PR, and also developed cutting edge tech.
They also get to benefit from thousands of developers trying to make Meta's models run more efficiently.
> other types of value exist
Sure. But they intermediate to profit. I'm not suggesting leadership should be justifying everything in those terms. But if an entire product line doesn't have a solid long-term net revenue generating or cost saving consequence, it's a flag for governance.
> potential employees don't think kindly of you, it is harder to recruit
And you get higher churn. Cost imperative. Not the sole reason--you have to work with the people, after all. But that's an agent benefit. Companies treat high-value employees well because it makes sense to, and they'd probably cease to exist if they stopped doing it.