Yong Social Finance

Mark Zuckerberg is placing a bet on prediction markets.  The Meta CEO recently directed a small team to build a new smartphone app called Arena. It will operate independently from Facebook and Instagram. The goal is to compete with fast-growing platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. Prediction markets are everywhere right now. They have exploded into a cultural phenomenon. You see them mentioned during major sports events and even at award shows. Users wager on anything from politics to the Super Bowl. It is like the stock market but for future outcomes instead of companies. This is not Meta's first attempt at this concept. The company already tried this with a previous app. It shut down quietly just a few years ago. So why try again? And what happened the first time? The Arena Strategy Arena will not involve real money at launch. Users will likely use a video game-style points system instead. Think of it like collecting points for making accurate predictions. You compete fo...

Meta has a reputation for moving fast and breaking things. But nobody expected the company to start breaking its own engineers this quickly. Just a few months after launching a new artificial intelligence unit, internal reports describe working conditions inside the team as a “soul crushing gulag.” That is not a metaphor from a disgruntled ex employee. Those words are coming from engineers still trapped inside the unit right now. The unit was supposed to be Meta’s crown jewel. A dedicated team focused on pushing the next wave of generative AI products. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale about what happens when speed and pressure completely replace basic human respect. What Went Wrong Inside Meta’s AI Unit The problems started almost immediately after the unit formed. Leadership wanted results faster than any reasonable timeline would allow. Engineers found themselves working around the clock with no clear direction. Projects changed weekly. Goals shifted daily. One engineer...