Meta VR expert John Carmack resigns, says “the issue is our efficiency”

Meta has lost one of the most important people in its Reality Labs division, the executive consultant for VR, John Carmack. He is an outstanding programmer and has been working for Oculus for about a decade, even before Meta (then Facebook) acquired the VR company in 2014.

In a Facebook post, Carmack explained why he was leaving Meta: He is discontent with how the company works. At first, the message was only intended for Meta’s internal team, but it eventually leaked to the public.

He began the letter by stating that the Meta Quest 2 headset was a success but addressed the company’s issues, such as inefficiency: “It all could have happened a bit faster and been going better if different decisions had been made.” 

“I have always been pretty frustrated with how things get done at FB/Meta. Everything necessary for spectacular success is right there, but it doesn’t get put together effectively,”

Carmack wrote on Twitter.

Meta has an enormous amount of resources and people but misspends effort, he argued. The organization merely works at half the effectiveness that would make Carmack content. Other employees told him that they were working at only a quarter efficiency.

“It is the more personal pain of seeing a 5% GPU utilization number in production. I am offended by it,”

he reflected. 

Carmack admitted he has been struggling in the company, saying, “I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough.”

He further stated that there is a “notable gap” between him and Mark Zuckerberg regarding strategic issues, so he doesn’t want to be frustrated in pushing his viewpoint any longer.

Carmack said he is now “all in on building AGI at Keen Technologies.” He founded Keen Technologies, a firm focused on AI technology development, earlier this year.

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