LLNS may have excluded the wrong people in last VSSOP? The exclusions were based on outdated job categories and related skills. ULM are now thinking that in the future, job categories and functional areas will have to be re-defined. The next VSSOP/ISP will be based on the new categories and functional areas. The questions I have are: 1) Why didnt they think of that before the transition. It seems like their style is “change things as you go”. Planning is out the window! 2) Who will give input on the new changes? The next RIF apparently is going to be more lucrative than the VSSOP. Depending on the length of employment, a RIFed person, not only gets their 1 week pay per year of service but also from 30 to 120 days notice, essentially 30 to 120 days pay. Please feel free to comment on the rumors or add new ones you actually heard.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-new-chinese-ai-model-claims-to-outperform-gpt-5-and-sonnet-4-5-and-its-free/
If the January arrival of R1 was that country's "Sputnik Moment," then Thursday's debut of Moonshot's Kimi K2 Model is the Chinese AI industry's moon landing (pun intended).
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/11/13/chinas-ai-is-quietly-making-big-inroads-in-silicon-valley
“Chinese open models have become a de facto standard among startups in the US,” Lambert told Al Jazeera.
“I’ve personally heard of many other high-profile cases, where the most valued and hyped American AI startups are starting training models on the likes of Qwen, Kimi, GLM or DeepSeek,” Lambert said, adding that many US firms have been reluctant to publicly disclose their use of Chinese technology.