Prototype 1

Retrenchment and Outages are the new Meta

So in May, Meta fired almost 8,000 employees - about 10% of their staff. Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg wanted to focus on AI or something. I even had a colleague in Aleph who, according to him, used to work for Meta until recently, and he was one of those who got...uh, retrenched.

Then just yesterday, June 12, Messenger and the mobile Facebook site crashed. I heard a weird notification on my phone, saw that I was logged out of Messenger, and couldn't log back in. Thinking it was weird, I checked Facebook both on desktop and my phone - it worked on my laptop, but not on my phone. After digging online, I found out that it wasn't just me.

Millions of users around the world, especially in Asia, were experiencing crashes in Facebook, Instagram and the Messenger app. Fortunately, Whatsapp wasn't affected (was still receiving messages regarding work as my colleagues worked late into the night...poor guys).

Now, I am aware that there is no direct correlation between the May layoffs and the June 12 crash, but I suspect that the crash would never have happened if they didn't retrench 8,000 staff. That will inevitably weaken Meta's infrastructure, which means they're less able to deal with sudden technical glitches - such as the damned crash. Even more damning, many of who Meta fired were software engineers, just so they can divert resources to AI...well, you can connect the dots. It places pressure on the remaining staff and stretches them thin, while basically getting rid of specialized code and database knowledge. Essentially, it's like amputating your own arm because you want a shiny new prosthetic.

Relying on AI and automation alone aren't enough. You need human oversight, as this incident proves. Meta relies heavily on automated scripts, fired 8,000 staff, and see what happens? Now I understand AI is a very powerful tool, but both AI and automation are supposed to increase efficiency and alleviate tedium and burdens on the human staff, not replace them. This is why ethics are important. It's not just because of some abstract moral reason to treat people better, but treating your staff better actually has tangible and very real effects.

Also, this isn't an isolated case. Around 2023, after Elon Musk fired 80% of his Twitter staff, the platform began suffering consecutive outages, loading failures, and even a crash during the Ron DeSantis Twitter Spaces live audio event in March 2024. Well deserved, if you ask me. Speaking of Musk, in April 2024, Tesla got rid of 10% of their staff, which included software teams, robotics engineers, and even its entire Supercharger team of 500 employees. Consequently, quality of Supercharger stations deteriorated, and customers began complaining about Tesla struggling to fix charging issues satisfactorily. The kicker? New Supercharger station openings dropped 28% over the next three months when compared to the previous year, stalling the formerly rapid pace the network was growing.

Microsoft and Azure also laid off hundreds of their staff in 2024, and...you can predict what happened next. A massive Azure outage that disrupted major businesses, as well as a CrowdStrike-related outage. Now, obviously, there doesn't seem to be a direct link, and Microsoft explained that the primary cause was a DDoS attack, but I wonder if it could have been prevented if they hadn't gotten rid of their staff.

Now, it's easy to spin a narrative about corporate overlords being shortsighted, treating their employees as numbers on a clipboard, and ruthlessly firing them just to maximize their profits or save money, but the truth is, I don't know what goes on in the boardrooms and stakeholder meetings. I'm not one of them, and I can't speak for them. It's tempting to scapegoat them and point fingers, laying the blame on human greed and shortsightedness. But I would rather pivot to something more important.

AI ethics.

If anything, this proves that we cannot replace human staff with AI and expect automation to do all the work for us. Do that, and you suffer major disruptions and outages. You still need human staff to solve all these anomalies and problems that catch the AI and automation script off guard. Humans and AI should be working together to solve problems, not just fire your staff and expect AI to do all the work. We need stronger AI ethics in place, to inform the higher-ups, "Hey, firing thousands of staff is a very, very bad idea. There will be consequences, and there have already been precedents."

Hopefully, corporations learn this lesson, or they'll be, uh...outing themselves again in future.

Singapore, Nuclear Energy, and the Hope for a Cleaner Future

I've been meaning to write this for a while now, since last year, because I sometimes keep close tabs on Singapore's sustainability efforts. Since, you know, I studied ecocriticism and all that. I know we can't keep relying on fossil fuels forever, and we're trying to reduce our carbon footprint.

Unfortunately, Singapore has very little natural resources, so we can't rely on hydroelectric generators. Wind is too inconsistent, and I think we're setting up solar panels, but apparently even solar energy has its limits at the moment. So one of the things I heard we're considering is small modular reactors, and whether it's a viable option for Singapore. We've hired Mott MacDonald to study nuclear technologies for safety checks and even have joint partnerships with both South Korea and the United States (we even have a Singapore Nuclear Research and Safety Institute at NUS).

Apparently, they are better than conventional nuclear reactors - something I'm really concerned about, given what happened in Fukushima, and how...you know, my entire dissertation and research are centered on Godzilla of all franchises.

Why small modular reactors, or SMRs? Apparently, they are a fraction of the size of a conventional nuclear reactor, and can be prefabricated for easier transport and installation. They generate less power, obviously, but are supposedly a lot safer to reduce risks of accidents like that of Fukushima.

Now, despite my concerns over nuclear power, I can't help but be optimistic. I don't want to be completely dismissive of nuclear energy in land-scarce Singapore, but I also want to ensure we minimize the risks because if something happens...yeah, it will be bad. Very bad. However, we can't just go, "Nope" instead of finding solutions. As such, I'm going to see if I can weigh the risks of small modular reactors and how it'll affect Singapore.

I'm also intrigued by the possibility of nuclear fusion reactors, which I believe are being tested by global entities such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. I've heard some breakthroughs last year, such as plasma containment periods breaking records. In January 2025, China's EAST reactor set a record of about 17 minutes, only for France to break it a month later with 22 minutes. A year later, China apparently confirmed plasma can remain stable at extreme densities, while South Korea's KSTAR tokamak had its own breakthrough, holding plasma at 100 million degrees for 102 seconds, beating its previous record of 48 seconds. Fusion reactors promise clean energy without needing to worry about radioactive waste, but apparently, we're still a long way off. One can hope, though, and I don't know if it'll ever be practical to install nuclear fusion reactors in Singapore.

I've seen them in Supreme Commander, and man, they generate tons of power. But that's still a sci-fi scenario far in the future. Will we be able to achieve it? Who knows?

I know Singapore aims to be an AI Hub...but should we let it cook?

I am aware that Singapore is trying to be an AI hub, and there are news that we plan to build AI data centers on our island. However, I think there are concerns to think about, such as heat, water consumption and our tropical climate, which gets compounded when we think about climate change and global warming. Would building AI data centers not aggravate the rising temperatures of our already hot island-city? And aren't we supposed to lack water and natural resources? Ugh.

I've been thinking, and sometimes I ask Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini to help me because I lack the technical expertise - I'm more of a humanities major, my specialties lie in literature and history, though I'm supposed to have studied ecocriticism too. Since AI is supposed to help us solve problems, I've been considering how we can tackle the questions of sustainability and environmentalism alongside the use of AI.

There are a few suggestions, from the help of my AI friends. Apparently, they suggest using seawater cooling. Instead of assuming we're landlocked, we might as well use the surrounding sea to mitigate the heat. Or we can build data centers underground (I'm sure the government must have considered this). Or we have to consider stricter efficiency standards, such as PUE ratings, before granting permits.

I understand that Singapore cannot be left behind in the use of AI, and we do need to grow along with emerging developments. At the same time, while aiming to be an AI hub, we should also consider other priorities such as urban heat and water scarcity. Diverting water resources to cooling AI data centers cannot come at the cost of depriving citizens and residents of water consumption. At the same time, we also need to protect the earth.

A new era

We are in the process of entering a new era, where coding is done by AI, rather than by human hands. This is not to say that human developers are no longer needed — we can now focus on creativity while AI handles the mundane tasks. It allows humanities majors to close the gap and be more versatile rather than living within our own bubbles.

Proof is in the Pudding...or Coding

This blog is evidence that anyone can become a coder. The computer science degree will undoubtedly give you an advantage, but that doesn't mean the door to development is closed to the rest of us. AI brings fresh and exciting opportunities, and we should learn to take advantage of it instead of fearing it. Humans are still necessary — AI also requires prompts, and that's where we come in.