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  • 💰 Meta's $14B AI Power Play, 🚫 OpenAI Cuts Ties + $100M AI Salaries Are Real

💰 Meta's $14B AI Power Play, 🚫 OpenAI Cuts Ties + $100M AI Salaries Are Real

4 AI developments that will change how you work (and get paid).

Hey, it's your AI update.

In today's issue:

  • Meta drops $14 billion on Scale AI (and poaches their CEO)
  • OpenAI immediately cuts ties with Scale after Meta deal
  • AI salaries hit $100 million (yes, you read that right)
  • Apple uses AI to design chips faster
  • And more...

P.S. My AI Productivity Assistant turns 2-hour Sunday planning sessions into 10-minute wins. Last 20 readers get it cheaper + early access. Join the early list →

Best Links This Week

My Must-Reads:

AI Trends & News

  • Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI shows how desperate Big Tech is to win the AI race (CNBC)

Tools & Software Finds

  • Apple exploring AI to speed up chip design—could cut development time by months (Pakistan Today)

Industry Moves

  • AI talent wars heat up with $100M salary offers being thrown around (R&D World)

Worth the Scroll

  • Claude is the most insane AI collaborator—see how one developer built an entire app in minutes (LinkedIn)

We recently launched our social media on X and LinkedIn — go give us a follow!

🏢 1. Meta Makes Its Biggest AI Bet Yet

Meta acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI for $14.3 billion and hired the company's 28-year-old CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new "Superintelligence" unit. This isn't just an investment—it's Meta saying "we're behind and we need to catch up fast."

Why This Matters:

  • Scale AI specializes in training data for AI models

  • Wang is now leading Meta's push toward AGI (artificial general intelligence)

  • Zuckerberg has grown frustrated that rivals like OpenAI appear to be further ahead than Meta

The Ripple Effect: OpenAI immediately cut ties with Scale AI after the Meta deal, showing how these partnerships are reshaping the entire industry.

 💔 2. OpenAI Says "It's Not You, It's Us" to Scale AI

Days after Meta's massive investment, OpenAI announced it's phasing out its work with Scale AI. Translation: "We're not sharing our data partner with our biggest rival."

What This Tells Us:

  • AI companies are getting territorial about their data sources

  • The talent wars are creating awkward breakups

  • Quality training data is becoming more valuable than gold

This is like watching your two best friends get divorced—and you have to pick sides.

💸 3. AI Salaries Hit Stupid Money Territory

Remember when $200K felt like big money in tech? Those days are over. Some AI professionals are now getting offers ranging from high six-figures to reportedly $100 million, according to OpenAI's Sam Altman.

The Reality Check:

  • Top AI researchers are getting paid like professional athletes

  • Companies are desperate for anyone who can actually build this stuff

  • If you know how to train large language models, you're basically printing money

But here's the twist: While AI superstars get $100M, regular tech workers are still getting laid off. The gap between AI haves and have-nots is getting wild.

🍎 4. Apple Quietly Uses AI to Build Better AI Chips

While everyone's fighting over chatbots, Apple is exploring AI to speed up the design process of its custom chips. Smart move—use AI to make better AI hardware.

Why This Is Clever:

  • Chip design usually takes years

  • AI could cut that time significantly

  • Apple gets better chips faster than competitors

It's like using a 3D printer to make better 3D printers. Meta-level genius.

🧠 3 Advanced Ways to Use AI to Actually Work Smarter

These aren't the usual ChatGPT tricks. These are cutting-edge workflows that are actually changing how work gets done.

1. 🎤 AI Meeting Sidekick for Better Decisions

Smart executives are using AI to turn rambling meetings into actionable insights.

The Setup:

  • Record your meeting (with permission)

  • Feed the transcript to Claude with this prompt: "Extract the 3 biggest decisions made, who owns what, and flag anything that contradicts previous meetings"

  • Get a clean summary with action items and red flags

Tools: Otter.ai + Claude, Zoom transcripts + GPT-4, Notion AI

The Game-Changer: You catch inconsistencies and missed commitments that would normally slip through the cracks.

2. 🔍 AI-Powered Talent Scouting

Recruiters and hiring managers are using AI to find hidden gems before they hit the job market.

How It Works:

  • AI scans GitHub commits, LinkedIn activity, and industry forums

  • Identifies people doing interesting work but not actively job hunting

  • Creates personalized outreach messages based on their actual projects

  • Predicts who might be ready for a career move

Tools: Custom scripts + OpenAI API, Apollo + AI analysis, recruitment AI platforms

The Edge: You're recruiting people who aren't even looking—the best kind of candidates.

3. 🧪 AI Product Experiment Designer

Product teams are using AI to design and analyze A/B tests that actually matter.

The Process:

  • Feed AI your product metrics and user behavior data

  • Ask it to design experiments that could move your key metrics

  • Get hypothesis, test design, sample size calculations, and success criteria

  • Run the test and feed results back for analysis

Tools: Claude + your analytics data, custom GPT trained on experimentation best practices

Result: Instead of random A/B tests, you run experiments that are statistically sound and business-relevant.

A quick note before you go

Thanks for reading this week’s Brain Bytes — I hope something here helped you move faster or think better.

How’d this one land?

P.S. Want curated tool picks and content recs? Fill this 30-second form so I can tailor the drops to you: Fill out form →

See you next week, — Oliver

Oliver