Highlights of the world technology village 2023

The wave of layoffs at technology companies, the race for artificial intelligence, unexpected developments in the cryptocurrency market... are the highlights of the past 12 months.

The great layoff of tech workers

The world technology village opened in 2023 with the news that Amazon laid off 18,000 workers - the largest number for a technology company. "Labour overcapacity, supply chain difficulties, inflation, productivity spikes due to Covid-19 transportation network expansion increase costs," said Doug Herrington, Senior Retail Executive of Amazon, said.

In mid-January, Salesforces and Microsoft announced they would lay off 8,000 and 10,000 employees , respectively. A few days later, Google announced a 6% reduction in staff, equivalent to 12,000 people having to quit. By March, Meta had a " brutal layoff ", causing 10,000 employees to leave the company. In addition, a series of other companies such as Stripe and Spotify also announced large-scale layoffs.

Esther Crawford, who is considered Twitter's hardest-working employee, was also fired at the end of February. Photo: X/Crawford

Statistics from Layoffs.fyi , a site that tracks layoffs, show that this year at least 224,503 technology workers have lost their jobs. However, analysts point out a reality: companies that eliminated thousands of employees are not on the verge of bankruptcy, some even have good revenues. However, after a period of hot growth, they began to worry about redundancy, so they had to make adjustments to save operating costs and increase the productivity of those who stayed. The fact that X (Twitter) is still operating stably after reducing its staff by 75% has become a model for all parties to aggressively refine their apparatus.

Generative AI race

After only two months of launch, at the end of January, ChatGPT suddenly attracted 100 million users . The fever has prompted a series of businesses from the US such as Google and Meta to China such as Alibaba and Tencent to publicize new generation chatbot models. In Vietnam, a number of startups and large technology companies also develop and introduce Vietnamese-speaking generative AI models to keep up with the general trend. 2023 can be seen as the year that AI becomes widely available to users.

ChatGPT interface. Photo: Bao Lam

Generative AI also opens up a new battle in the semiconductor industry. In addition to data and algorithms, GPU graphics processing chips also play a particularly important role, deciding which company or country will hold the advantage. The thirst for AI chips is sweeping the world, bringing Nvidia into the trillion-dollar club by providing top GPU models for artificial intelligence training. Rival companies such as Intel, Huawei, AMD, and Microsoft also introduced new GPUs, making the race increasingly exciting.

Fluctuations of the cryptocurrency market

A series of accusations and lawsuits shadowed the cryptocurrency market for most of 2023. In mid-June, Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon received the first fine after the Luna disaster . At the end of September, Zhu Su, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), an investment fund that was once among the top in the cryptocurrency market, was arrested in Singapore after a year on the run.

Binance founder CZ. Photo: Reuters

In October, the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), former CEO of digital currency exchange FTX, officially took place. The jury "unanimously agreed" that SBF was guilty of all seven counts in the indictment related to cryptocurrency fraud. This person currently faces 115 years in prison .

In November, the cryptocurrency market was shaken again when Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering regulations, and agreed to leave his position as CEO. Binance also agreed to pay a total fine of $4.3 billion.

However, the last month of the year witnessed the community's joy when Bitcoin surpassed the $40,000 mark, the highest price since April 2022. A series of other cryptocurrencies also prospered, such as Solana increasing from 84 to 110 USD, setting the highest price record in 20 months.

The "coup" at OpenAI

The technology industry suddenly received "shocking" news at the end of the year when the OpenAI board of directors forced Sam Altman to leave the CEO position on November 17. By November 20, more than 700 company employees simultaneously signed a letter threatening to quit if Altman was not reinstated. On November 22, OpenAI successfully negotiated, bringing him back to the CEO position.

OpenAI employee party after Sam Altman returned to the CEO position on November 22. Photo: X/Greg Brockman

The cause of the CEO's ouster has not been announced. Billionaire Elon Musk repeatedly asked questions about the " scary thing " that caused Altman to be fired. Reuters sources said that the OpenAI board of directors received a letter warning about the dangers of the Q* (Q-Star) project promoted by Altman. His return to run the company makes some experts worry that the threat of AI destruction may be closer.

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