John Carmack has resigned as Meta’s chief technology officer, saying the company is “consistently sabotaging itself” in its VR efforts and that it “hasn’t been able to kill dumb stuff before it does damage.” Carmack made these comments in a leaked internal memo interested business (signature required). Carmack says he is now focusing his efforts on his AI startup.
After the leak occurred, Carmack posted a file Full text gives note on Facebookwith some additional context.
“This is the end of my decade in VR. I have mixed feelings,” Carmack begins. After writing that Quest 2 is “almost exactly what I wanted to see from the beginning”, he explained that the problem with him lay in the “expertise” of the company.
“We have an insane amount of people and resources, but we are constantly sabotaging ourselves and wasting effort. There’s no hiding it; I think our organization is running at half efficiency which makes me happy.
“It was a struggle for me. I have a top notch voice here, so I feel like I should be able to push things forward, but I’m clearly not persuasive enough. Most of the stuff I complain about ends up making its way a year or two later and accumulating evidence, but I’ve never been able to kill stupid stuff before it does damage or sets a direction, and I think my influence on the parties has been positive, but it has never been a great motivator.
While some of those words are harsh, Carmack says the pain is partly driven by the years he spent writing efficient code. “When you work so hard to improve most of your life, seeing something become terribly ineffective hurts your soul.” He also adds that he might have been more persuasive if he had moved to Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters and was more involved in leadership rather than focusing on programming, but “I figured I’d hate it, avoid it and probably lose it anyway.” “. ”
Carmack’s departure from Meta had been long awaited. Several years ago, the co-founder of Id Software wrote that he hoped the last work of his career would focus on creating artificial general intelligence. Earlier this year, his startup Keen Technologies was at AGI $20 million in funding raised (about £16.4 million). Recently, Carmack has only spent “about 20%” of his time on the meta.
Carmack’s departure may have more symbolic meaning than real. Even before he joined Meta from ZeniMax, himself source of controversy Carmack was one of the most prominent faces of the recent virtual reality renaissance. When the original Oculus Rift compression technology was shown, it was Carmack in a back room at E3 with a prototype Jerry-equipped headset and a copy of Doom 3. He left the industry and gaming in general behind , the end of an era.
