Software Engineering Daily: SED News – "Apple Bets on Gemini, Google’s AI Advantage, and the Talent Arms Race"

Date: February 3, 2026
Hosts: Gregor Vand (A), Sean Faulconer (B)

Episode Overview

This episode of SED News covers key developments in the tech world from late 2025 and early 2026, focusing on Apple's AI strategy shift, Google's competitive edge in AI infrastructure, and how top-tier tech companies are reshaping talent acquisition and retention. The hosts also provide practical insights on the evolving job market for software engineers and close out with a lighter look at engineering creativity from recent Hacker News highlights.

Highlights and Key Discussion Points

1. Personal Catch-Up and Industry Moves

• Starlink Wi-Fi Is a Game Changer for Air Travel
  • Gregor shares his experience using Starlink-enabled in-flight Wi-Fi on Qatar Airways:
    • “It was just mind blowing in terms of the quality of the connection and the speed. And the fact is, what's gate to gate?” [01:53]
    • No logins or signups—connect and go [02:38]
  • Sean received free Starlink Wi-Fi on a United flight and praised the frictionless experience [02:07–03:07].
• Industry Career Moves:
  • Confluent Acquired by IBM:
    • “The big news back at the beginning of December was Confluent is being acquired by IBM. Now there's of course a lot of things that have to go on for a deal of that size and magnitude to go through, but it's kind of shaken up my world.” [03:34]
  • Supabase Growth:
    • Gregor describes Supabase's fully remote culture and the positives of in-person offsites to build team communication [03:56].

2. Tech Headlines Roundup

a. Tesla Deprecates Autopilot

• Tesla ends its "assisted" Autopilot system to focus entirely on full self-driving mode.
  • “I believe they're essentially in the software terms like deprecating the assisted Mode and going 100% into full self driving mode, which I think probably makes sense.” – Sean [05:55]
• Waymo investigated for some infractions—no indication self-driving vehicles are going away [06:28].
• The normalization of self-driving technology is compared to the now-routine marvels of flight [07:08–07:50].
  • Notable Quote:
    • “My kids, when they're adults, self-driving cars are probably not going to be anything special. It'll just be the normal thing that they grew up around.” – Sean [07:08]

b. Apple’s Pivot: Partnering with Google Gemini for Siri

• Reports indicate Apple is close to launching a Gemini-powered Siri, shifting from years of lackluster AI performance.
  • “Apple's AI foray has not maybe gone to plan or maybe it's going exactly to plan, which was just to kind of sit back and do nothing for a while. Although Siri was supposed to be that… what Siri promised was actually more like what things like ChatGPT ended up becoming.” – Gregor [08:36]
• Reflection on why voice-based assistants didn’t live up to the conversational AI promise; text interfaces like ChatGPT hit the mark instead [10:38–11:44].
• “Can you bring these two giants together to create something interesting?” – Sean [10:01]
• Apple's AI leadership shake-up: John Giannandrea (former AI chief) has left [11:44].
• Siri’s Gemini integration expected February 2026 (sources: Bloomberg, TechCrunch) [12:06].

c. OpenAI Disrupts Talent Compensation: Ending the Vesting Cliff

• OpenAI now allows employees to vest equity monthly or quarterly, eliminating the standard one-year “cliff” period [13:44+].
  • “You're not going to have to wait one year. You're going to be able to join the company. And I think it's almost like monthly or at worst, quarterly, you're going to have these chunks of equity vest, which is just a hugely different way of doing things compared to virtually any other tech company out there.” – Gregor [13:44]
• Motivated by competition for AI talent and attempts to reduce new-hire risk aversion [14:43].
• Concerns about attracting short-term ‘mercenaries’ over mission-driven employees [15:43].
  • Notable Quote:
    • “I just wonder how that changes the psychology or does it create certain biases even towards the type of employee that you're going to attract?” – Sean [15:43]
• OpenAI’s immense investment: $6B spent on stock-based compensation for 2026, nearly 50% of projected revenue [18:09].
• Importance of understanding equity liquidity events—many join for equity that may be hard to liquidate unless the company has specific policies (Shopify, Databricks examples) [21:51–23:57].

d. The "Code Red": Google’s TPU Advantage, OpenAI’s Response

• OpenAI declared a “code red” after Google’s rapid progress with Gemini 3, which offers significant AI model performance gains, particularly for graphics [23:44–29:53].
  • Google's “unfair advantages”: unique datasets, established user base, dedicated AI chips (TPUs).
  • TPU vs. GPU:
    • GPUs (graphics cards): versatile but not optimized for AI computation; designed for gaming with “architectural baggage.”
    • TPUs: custom hardware for deep learning operations—cheaper and more efficient at scale, sidestepping Nvidia’s high margins.
    • “They designed it to do one thing only and do it really well, which is massive matrix multiplication.” – Sean [26:39]
• Gemini 3's leap in AI-driven infographic/image capabilities marked a turning point and caught OpenAI’s attention [29:53–31:39].
  • “The only downside was in my opinion LinkedIn just became an absolute garbage of all these Nano Banana images. They were impressive, but it seemed like nobody could post a thing without this being part of the post.” – Gregor [31:39]

e. Meta Acquires Manus, Singapore as AI Startup Haven

• Meta acquires Manus for $2B. Manus offered AI tools for productivity (presentations, websites) with an agentic, high-cost operating model [32:29–35:24].
  • Manus moved HQ from China to Singapore in 2024 to encourage global expansion and de-risk from Chinese policy.
• The acquisition’s strategy is unclear: “The thing that I struggle a little bit with is how does Manus in particular fit into whatever Meta's overall AI strategy is? ... Maybe there is some grand unified plan, but it's lost on me.” – Sean [35:24]
• Jokes about Meta’s motivation: “Hey, can you get us a Manus? Can you buy Manus for us?... Oh, I just bought the company.” – Gregor [35:44]
• Broader trend: China discourages “tall poppies” (dominant startups) and indirectly encourages internationalization [37:42].

3. Main Topic: The 2026 Developer Job Market and the Impact of AI

General Market Trends

• 2025 saw significant layoffs, but volumes were not catastrophic and many were related more to business realignment than direct AI displacement [40:40].
• R&D, data, and AI/ML roles remain in demand; non-strategic positions are more at risk.
  • “Not all the layoffs are necessarily tied to displacement by AI… a lot of them have actually been hired back into new roles.” – Sean [40:40]

OpenAI, AI Tools, and the Evolution of Developer Skills

• AI code tools like GitHub Copilot have shifted from being a “junior dev” advantage to leveling up senior engineers, since experience is necessary to effectively instruct and validate AI assistants [41:36–44:27].
  • “We're seeing that really strong engineers are becoming even stronger engineers by leveraging some of these essentially really helpful agent interns that they can now depend on.” – Sean [43:01]
• There’s concern that reliance on AI-suggested code may stunt junior dev growth or warp expectations around skills progression.
  • “If you're always insulated from the details because of the AI, how do you ever get to a place where you're senior?” – Sean [43:18]
• Potential solution: Education must evolve, putting more emphasis on architectural and abstract thinking, not just coding syntax.

Open Source and AI-Generated Contributions

• Open source remains critical for gaining practical experience, but projects are increasingly rejecting AI-generated pull requests to maintain code quality [45:27].
• AI tools are not universally adopted, especially among those working on “really low level stuff” [44:27–46:18].

Key Takeaways

• The job market is dynamic but not dire for engineers who build strong fundamentals and a broad understanding of tech.
  • “People who have solid fundamentals and a breadth of knowledge tend to have a place in tech.” – Sean [47:56]
• It’s still early days; adaptability remains crucial as the field shifts.

4. Hacker News Highlight

• Doom on an Earbud (doombuds.com)
  • The community’s enduring fascination with running "Doom" on unconventional hardware continues.
    • “Doom has been ported to an earbud. This is the kind of ridiculous stuff that we always like to talk about and highlight… people doing fun stuff in engineering, whether it makes sense or not.” – Sean [48:34]
  • Only works on the Pinebuds Pro (open-source firmware earbuds).
  • Doom as an engineering rite of passage: previous episode also covered “Doom in TypeScript types” [49:14–49:54].

Memorable Quotes

• On Google's TPU Advantage:
  • “Whereas with TPU... they designed it to do one thing only and do it really well, which is massive matrix multiplication…” – Sean [26:39]
• On OpenAI’s Vesting Policy:
  • “I just wonder how that changes the psychology or does it create certain biases even towards the type of employee that you're going to attract?” – Sean [15:43]
• On the Main Job Market Trend:
  • “It is not as doomsday as maybe the news makes out and there is a lot of opportunity for engineers.” – Gregor [47:21]
• On How Tech Careers Remain Accessible:
  • “People who have solid fundamentals and a breadth of knowledge tend to have a place in tech.” – Sean [47:56]

Notable Timestamps

• [01:53]: Starlink inflight Wi-Fi reviewed
• [03:34]: Confluent’s acquisition by IBM (Sean)
• [05:45]: Tesla’s Autopilot deprecated; self-driving sector context
• [08:36]: Apple’s Siri to adopt Google Gemini AI
• [13:44]: OpenAI ends traditional vesting cliff
• [18:09]: OpenAI’s $6B stock comp spend (~50% revenue)
• [26:39]: Google’s TPU vs. GPU hardware edge
• [29:53]: Gemini 3 performance leap, OpenAI “code red”
• [32:29]: Meta buys Manus, Singapore’s startup ecosystem
• [40:40]: Tech layoffs—context and career stability
• [41:36]: Stack Overflow survey on AI's effect for devs
• [43:01]: AI enables “strong engineers [to become] even stronger”
• [48:34]: Doom ported to an earbud (Hacker News fun)

Overall Tone & Language

Conversational, insightful, occasionally humorous, and always informed by deep technical and industry experience. The hosts express curiosity, skepticism, and excitement in the face of rapid technological and professional change, with a solid focus on practical advice for software engineers.

For Listeners

This episode provides:

• An up-to-date analysis of the AI arms race between tech giants
• Deep dives into the realities of compensation and career growth at the world's top AI firms
• Concrete advice on navigating the 2026 tech job market
• Entertaining glimpses of geek culture and engineering creativity

Essential listening for anyone interested in the intersection of cutting-edge tech, career strategy, and the evolving culture of software engineering.