Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta's Future
43m 52s
Dean of Power McCormick, a prominent figure in public service and technology, has joined Meta as President and Vice Chairwoman to lead its transformative AI and data center expansion. Her leadership emphasizes economic and social impact, particularly in underserved communities like Richland Parish, Louisiana, where Meta’s investment has generated a significant tax surplus, directly boosting teacher compensation and reversing population decline. The community initially resisted data centers due to misinformation and fears, but through transparent communication, sustainable practices—such as water efficiency and renewable energy—and a collaborative partnership with local leaders, trust has been built. Meta has also launched America’s Workforce Academy, a five-week training program with guaranteed job placement for fiber technicians and other skilled workers, addressing critical labor shortages. This initiative, supported by unions and industry leaders like Google and BlackRock, establishes a shared standard for workforce development across the tech sector. Additionally, McCormick highlights Meta’s commitment to responsible AI, including new parental controls that limit children’s screen time to one hour daily and the company’s pledge to set industry-wide standards with bipartisan state attorneys general. She also underscores the social value of Meta’s wearable technology, such as the Meta Glasses, which are now being used by blind veterans to regain independence and access information, demonstrating how AI can enhance real-world lives. Despite past controversies and allegations of addictive design, McCormick asserts that Meta has fundamentally shifted its culture toward user well-being and safety, positioning the company as a leader in ethical, inclusive, and community-driven technological advancement.
A trailblazing leader in government, business, and philanthropy. A former presidential advisor to Donald Trump, Dean of Power McCormick, joined Meta Platforms as President and Vice Chairwoman. She'll help lead the company's massive AI expansion, including data centers, investments and global partnerships. Power McCormick's background is exactly where Meta's new bottlenecks are. There is a transformation in humanity coming. Nothing can stop that now with this technology. It's 3.5 billion people every day are on Meta. I think we all know that the next three years could be the whole game. Women are the secret sauce. How about that? Please welcome Dean of Power McCormick. Dean of Power McCormick. But thank you for being here. We were just finishing up a conversation with Satya about how do we tell the story about the benefit of data centers and what they're doing to communities and why they're actually net economically positive. So I'm going to get right into it because I know you actually have a video on this. Do you want to just start with your video? Would that be okay? That'd be great. I'm going to say so psyched to be at the All In Summit first time to speak and as long as this episode and panel gets way more listeners and views than Senator McCormick's did when he came on. I'll be very, very happy with that. So now we can roll the tape. No competition. Good. We'll put it on Polymarket. Let's watch the video. I've grown up here my whole life and I've seen a lot of people move away looking for work including my son. What you were hearing a lot lately was there's nothing here for us anymore. We knew that having a data center would give us an industry here that we haven't had before. That's a huge investment in our community. We started this business simply because Meta was coming. We thought we could hit it big when we got to cater for 40 people that we do 400 a week. Since Meta came to town we've hired more employees. A multi billion dollar capital investment like the one that Meta is making in Richland Paris is it was transformative. It's extremely exciting to attract and retain quality teachers. So when I first got the news about the bonus it was job drop and my mouth was literally wild. We're not in it for the money. We're teachers because it's in our heart but the bonus has been extremely helpful. With the investment that Meta has made in our community now we can do a better job of taking care of long. I do feel a lot of hope for the future of my students. It gives them the opportunity if they never thought that they would have. And I would say one of the biggest things is people coming back home. You know the future is happening here and happening now. You have some folks from the video here? Can they come on out? Come on out. Sheldon in season we have the superintendant from that video, the superintendant in Richland Paris. Thanks for joining us. Pleasure. Hi sir. Hi Sheldon. How are you? Come on down. Good to meet. How are you? Well, thank you for being here. Thanks for having us. You want to do an introduction? Sure. What an honor. It's an honor for me to be here with Sheldon and Susan. We spent a lot of time in Louisiana. It's our largest data center investment for Meta. And I've been with them in Louisiana and what is remarkable to me is just the leadership that, frankly, the governor has shown. Susan is the Commerce Secretary for Louisiana, the Economic Development Secretary. And Sheldon, who I'm going to let him speak for himself, but he is such an inspirational figure there. And he is the one that realized that because of our investment, the tax surplus would go straight to teachers. And maybe you could talk just a little bit about that. Yeah. So it's great to be here. I just think back to my first interaction with Meta, it was in the summer of 2024. And it was at our local community college, and I just remember after the meeting getting in my car, and it's hot in Louisiana, so I turned the air on. And I just sat there and I said, the game has changed. This is going to give our parish an opportunity to do something that it's never been able to do. So when the groundbreaking ceremony happened in December of 2024, I could immediately start to see the increase in our sales tax collections. There are six taxing entities in our payers, the Richland Payers School Board collects 51 percent of the taxes for the district. So I was able to see the sales tax collections go from 5 percent, 10 percent, which is normal for a school system to about 60 or 70 percent. And at that time, the number of workers at the data center site increased. Those collections peaked at about 260 percent. That's an increase in sales tax collections. And so we have a one cent and a one half cent sales tax that's dedicated to employee salaries. And so we're announcing the sales tax increases at our school board meetings, and we're educators so people can do the math. They start to figure out this is going to translate into a larger sales tax check, which directly goes into our salaries. So in December of 2025, we gave out a one half cent sales tax check. That check doubled from the previous year. So it went from roughly about $4,000 to about $8,000. So we hadn't seen a full year of spiked increases in sales tax collections. That happened this past June. So our certified employees received an increase of about $40,000 in their sales tax check. They got a $40,000 check. They got a $50,000 check. Wow. So the check, the previous year was $10,000. So if you take that December increase in the June increase, it was a net of about $45,000 for our teachers. The reason, Dina and I were talking about this panel, and everyone hates data centers. They pull negative 80 in the United States. And Dina was telling me the story, and I was like, we should tell this story because it is unbelievable. The teachers and the community have this negative sentiment about data centers before where they all we hate data centers, we don't want them here. Or was that before this wave happened, and the community didn't really kind of pay much attention to it? I think initially there was the unknown. And we are. We are the beginning. We're a starting point. There was no reference for us to access. We couldn't say, okay, well, when the last time, when was the last time we had a $50,000 capital investment, so how do we handle that? A few million dollars, that's huge for us, so there was anxious thoughts. I think meta has done an excellent job of informing us and educating us. And that's going to have to continue to happen. Sometimes this communication is not about the most informed person in the community, it's about the least informed person in the community. So we're working to make sure that we continue to get that positive message out about the good things that are happening because there are a lot of good things that are happening in our pairs. Yeah, I think to the superintendent's point, Louisiana was a little bit late to the data center game, which has actually worked remarkably well to our benefit in that the meta investment was the first one in the state, and because of the partnership, the way we negotiated the deal, I call it a partnership, not a negotiation, frankly, all along, the community, when we first brought the idea even prior to you knowing superintendent, the community was an apprehensive because there was a great deal of unknown now.
keep in mind this was now about 20 months ago is when we started the conversation there so the chatter wasn't as much as it is now but you're talking about a community that was really starved for opportunity as you saw on the video you know we had lost population the average wage is in Richland Parish were roughly 36 38 thousand dollars a year prior to this investment so the data center went to a place in Louisiana you know Mississippi Delta Parish that was Mississippi River Delta obviously it was it was longing for this opportunity and we got ahead of that and I think we got ahead of that very wisely in the way we addressed both the concerns the impact on the community the good impact on the community and the natural resources and all the things we're hearing right now in a weird way then all of this noise is actually somewhat beneficial in the sense that you may just want to go to Dean and say we'll just take all your data center I mean I've been quite honest I think our governor would actually say that he was changed in the in the earnings potential of normal average Americans yeah we the governor just signed an executive order a few months ago creating a framework for us under which we will engage with large load users right and the privilege that it gives us now is we get to be choosy right we we have a sales tax exemption which is critical to be able to land an investment of this size in this scale but now we get your really court who our partners are going to be and the governor claims it all the time that Metta really was the prototype for us and it said a very high standard and that's now the standard we're going to follow we are not one of those states who is saying no we're one of those states that are saying yes and yeah so maybe you could help us with pretty clear the economic case for you know building and growing and creating jobs take us through the list of valid concerns communities have one of them's pollution I'm not sure if this is running off of gas or if it's all solar renewables increased electricity cost water closed loop versus non-close loop noise pollution and aesthetics these buildings are awfully ugly it typically as created did any of those applied did you get any of that feedback from the community or journalist what's that or journalist no no actually journalism actually but it is is its facts facts these are the facts of the people hold on I'll finish these are the facts that community members have valid concerns about there are people who've had data centers put next to them that are polluting that are creating noise and there are valid water concerns and there are communities where their electricity went up so I'm asking a serious question based on facts I'm wondering if any of those apply to you yeah Janie said this was gonna be easy no no yeah clearly you know we're all people right we all here we all have the same concerns again some of it was that we got very lucky with the timing of all this because those issues were addressed before they became in the public forum of issues you know number one this was farmland this was agricultural land and early on in the conversations with with the meta team they they made a decision to use a more expensive but more efficient system that actually uses less water than was being used on that land when it was being farmed right it's not a statistic you hear very often the second piece about the energy clearly we're we're hearing it across the board but there are two really critical components to this number one is that Louisiana has abundant natural gas we have about 32,000 miles of natural gas pipelines in Louisiana today if we don't add another mile so we have access to natural gas everywhere but but in the in the relationship that met a created with energy the the energy provider there from day one before this was an executive order from the president or even the governor met a paid for its own generation it paid for grid resilience it paid for grid upgrades it paid for storm cost Louisiana has storm assessments when we have hurricanes it happens every now and then it's paying for storm cost in a state where they did not operate right when these hurricanes hit so it's actually taking burdens off of the Louisiana consumer so all those issues were issues and they were addressed with the original negotiated deal and I will say it's really why it's become the prototype for how we move forward with others this is a question for you you used to be the deputy national security advisor so answer this maybe with just a bit of that hat on I mean Jason brings up valid concerns but then there's this data that is so clear for you but also for others I mean you just heard from Satya why is this misinformation campaign winning so soundly in America what has happened like what is going on well I think first the questions that Jason raised are really legitimate questions and I think we start with a premise that if a community doesn't want one of our data centers they get to choose they get to decide but that we actually have to up front and way more aggressively explain what our investment and partnership means and we have a compact a compact that Susan and children are describing first not just pay for your own electricity make sure that you're working to drive electricity costs down the second is the water issue it's very real in farmland and rural communities but there's absolutely now new technology fact AI driven technology that makes you able to actually increase water consumption the third is the teachers I'll be very honest this was not our idea this actually happened because this law allows or in fact mandates that every extra dollar of tax surplus goes directly to the teachers and the superintendent was telling me things that just are so remarkable used to have a hard time recruiting teachers now his phone is ringing off the hook throughout Louisiana teachers wanting to come there and this may end up being the best school district in the entire state and now we have taken that learning and we're investing in teachers and first responders and you saw of course the economic development impact for small businesses that's our compact everywhere we go meta make sure that we make sure that we do those things but to answer your question Shamath I don't think that our industry has done a good job communicated just just flat out we have to do a better job but before you can communicate anything you've actually got to be meaningful and have real impact and so we've started for the premise that we want to be the best actor and the best partner possible and now having frankly the impact that we see in Louisiana we're very proud of the impact you're having in Texas and Ohio but I think we have to tell these stories more and I know you're alluding to where is this information coming from you know it was just with Chairman cotton and vice chairman Mark Warner and the intelligence committees you know they do believe they have evidence that our adversaries are trying to gen this up I can't comment on that but what I can tell you is if you wanted to stop America right now what would you do this is exactly what you would try to do if you were any of our adversaries you would want us to stop building data centers in the United States so that we could you know we would not be on a path to being AI dominant in the world this is what you would do so whether they're doing it or not this is definitely an approach you would take and I actually said to them very respectfully these are great jobs and the communities that want the jobs want the teacher bonuses want these investments should be allowed to have them and those that don't should opt out but we certainly don't want our companies our my company and our peers to start thinking about building data center it's so easy to bunk these issues the water one is the one that's just confounding that confounding confounding that that narrative keeps staying alive I think you did a amazing job on X of this woman with this bottle of dirty water that she trucks around and and you're just like there's there's well there's no you know what I you know what I love I love that it's a federated republic that the founders designed and some states are gonna win some states are gonna be idiots and they're gonna lose and you know you guys are gonna have this incredible economic advantage I do want to add to to Dean's point as well just as the teachers are calling Sheldon to consider going to his parish to teach the minute that got announced that y'all were giving $50,000 bonuses I can't tell you how many leaders of rural parishes in Louisiana called me and said Secretary do y'all have any who are considering our parish please bring one here so so the global narrative is not happening in Louisiana I frankly I don't believe it's happening every way the propaganda calling you from across the country like other states saying is this real how did this work and starting to kind of lean in and see if they can participate so historically one of the challenges we've had as a rural school system is that our best and our brightest will they'll do exceptionally well in school they may even go to our local universities but when they leave I have a good idea in my head that they're not coming back to Richland Parish because we can't offer our jobs that attract them so they they leave and they go to other states and they go to other cities and now we're able to to to write our own narrative that if you want to leave and go you can but you don't have to we have opportunity here for you here in Richland Parish you have the ability to stay here to raise your family and I think it's changing the narrative in our parish well Dina I know you've got another video for us to watch also on how do we get more workers to come and participate in this growing economy while we watch that why don't we thank Susan and Sheldon for joining us thank you both for being here thank you so much thank you so much appreciate you very much appreciate you coming out thank you so much
I've always wanted to do something big. I know that this is the program that I need to be in in order to discover that. - In order for a lot of technology to advance, we need the infrastructure. - Mehta is blessing these guys with the opportunity to be a part of that, to help lay foundation for the future. - You can come into the program with no prior experience. After you finish your four weeks here, be able to go into the workforce. - I'm grateful for this opportunity. I'm excited to actually get to do the work. - To have a group of students who are taking the opportunity serious and are doing it with passion, that means everything. - Once they're able to finish our course, there's so many different paths that they can take. - The more that we learn and establish this workforce, the more we can impact future generations. - I feel like it will change the world. I'm ready to work. (audience applauding) - You were telling me a story about a posting for fiber optic technician. Can you just tell that story 'cause I think it's incredible? - So, even in our site in Louisiana, one of the issues is that we just can't find enough workers. And you really need a set of obviously welders and pipe fitters and construction workers, electricians. But there's something that every data center site really needs fiber technicians, the people that just actually lay and cut the fiber. And we just could not find enough people. And so we just made a curriculum and we partnered with a few people, CBRE and others. And we realized that this program just didn't exist. So we decided if you can do it for fiber technicians, why not go beyond? It's a five week fast track training program where you get all of your safety training, you get designated something called job site ready so you can get the job. We met a guarantee you a job if you graduate on one of our data center sites. And you have that certification with you, whether you wanna stay at our site or elsewhere. And the missing piece is that while there are, as David Sacks has said over and over again, there are 500,000 open jobs for these roles over the next couple of years. But there is this gap between people actually getting those jobs. And it's because it turns out if you're a waitress or you're an Uber driver or you are a home healthcare worker, you live paycheck to paycheck. You cannot afford to take that time off unpaid. The training is weirdly very expensive, OSHA training and things like that. And what if you do that and you don't get a job? So we launched America's Workforce Academy. We launched it, I don't know, four months ago. 40,000 Americans applied. We've graduated 250 people. And we have a 90% retention rate. So people that are getting into these contractor jobs on our data center sites, you can see. They've learned a new trade. They've left behind a job that wasn't as fulfilling and that of course every company that's hiring them is just thrilled. It's also something that's interesting, David, that you and I talked about, which is we have partners across the board in this program. We didn't put meta in the name because we are so excited to be working with other companies that are interested in recruiting these workers as well. But working with the unions, Sean McGarvey, the head of the trades, Nab2, is a friend and we made a great partnership with him. Some of those workers are union sites, some are non-union. But an interesting voice that has emerged in this debate is the unions. The union leadership now is saying, we want to be anti the anti-data center backlash. These are our jobs. These are for our people. And so they actually put out, even before the midterms, a note saying they are only going to support candidates that support data centers. How much? Ballot? How much balance sheet capital does it take to get this thing off the ground? And do you see the other majors, the big eight kind of joining forces and having this new educational track kind of become a de facto standard in America? You know, all of us are working on this. In fact, I just talked to Ruth Porat at Google. She's done an incredible job on workforce. And she's actually brought together. We're going to join this alliance, Larry Fink. At BlackRock has joined the alliance. She's bringing together other companies. We might compete on models and products, but we don't want to compete on people. We as an industry, I think, are doing this part well, where we're really working together. Because anybody that gets trained to work on a metadata center site can certainly go to a Google site or a Microsoft site. And so this is a place where we've really come together. How do you expand the capacity? So there's 40,000 that apply, but you pick 400. That's 39,600. Yeah. And we started four months ago. And now we're literally getting calls from Mary Barat, GM. I'd like 1,000 employees. Once you have the curriculum and the certification and the partners to deliver it, you can do these everywhere. We're doing them in community colleges, VFW halls. In that particular program, you actually have to have a site that's kind of like a model data center so that you can show how to train the fiber technicians. But we're working with the Association of Builders and Contractors. They have thousands and thousands of places across the country where they operate. Why is it so expensive? Outside of you guys, basically, backstopping this. To get something like job site ready and OSHA awareness. I mean, this should seem like you go online. And I think the thing that we unlocked is that we actually pay during the training what you would get if you are already in the job. It used to be that there's a very low fee or an apprentice fee for so long that it wasn't the full payment of the job. And so we do that from the beginning. And then, of course, these jobs. I mean, David and I've been in Pittsburgh with some of these workers. And these are jobs. Welders make $120,000 a year in Pittsburgh. That is meaningful, great work. And I think the unlock that we're very proud of with this program is that there just wasn't a clear and fast path to getting on the job site and to having a guaranteed job. It's great that you have these jobs because with AI progressing so quickly, these developers are going to need something to do. And so I think they can segue into electrician jobs. I'm kidding, obviously. But it's absolutely fantastic work on the data centers, fully supported, great job on the meta-glasses, amazing. And this effort-- Where are your meta-glasses, Jason? I give you a set of tools. They're right here on the bag. Right in my backpack. No, they're actually super impressive. And this effort is-- I brought my spare with you. This effort is truly impressive. But you said you wanted me to do a fastball or two. And you didn't want it to be-- He didn't say that to you, Cal. She literally asked me for at least one fastball. I would say, Cal, fastball. OK, so we'll just keep it all softballs. Will you ask, please, please, come back. Yes, you know I had Jason. No, no, no, no, we'll go softballs, the boys are softballing. No, no, no. I mean, we have meta here. And you just paid the largest settlement in second only to the tobacco industry. And just ahead of BP oil, two of the biggest disasters this country ever faced. And this one is particularly tough. And they wonder why they call him fake news. No, I-- Members are wrong. I'm happy to talk about the meta glasses if you prefer. I'm so-- actually, seriously, I'm so-- No, no, no, no, no. Go read your effective author with it. I'm actually really glad you asked me about it, because-- Yeah, well, let me finish the question. You may not be. So I'm going to lean in now, so to speak. The real, I think, challenge a lot of us have with Facebook as an organization. And these are amazing. The videos are super inspiring and well-produced. But you guys really did damage, significant damage to children. You knew that these products were too addicting. And the philosophy of the company from the beginning when Chalmouth was there, hey, move fast, break things. Let's go super fast. My sincere question is, how has the culture changed inside of Facebook? And you're making a new series of potentially more addicting products with character-based AI companions, with views as a product. So I'm curious, what's changed in the organization? And what did you learn from that record setting, fine? And something that is, you could have done a lot better on. Well, I totally disagree with basically every single premise in your question. So what's fine? I'm not going to let that-- $17 billion settlement says otherwise. Well, do I get to speak, or are you done with your 10-minute question? OK, I totally disagree with the premise of that. I see. I've only been there eight months. I was on the board for a year. And I can tell you, because I work with these people every day. They are really, really focused on ensuring that parents are empowered, teens are supported. And I couldn't be actually more proud of the agreement that we just made. We made it with 52 bipartisan attorneys general across the United States and the territories. We are now setting industry standards. We agreed that if your state signed on with us that children under 18-- not 16-- can only be on our platform for two hours a day. The app shuts off after that. And it completely shuts off at night. There are no notifications during the school day, at all, of any kind. And frankly, parents have way more supervision now. Many, many ways that they can decide what their kids are on. How long they're on and what they're seeing. And I think that we're proud of that, because if others in our peer group joined, this could be pretty historic and game-changing. And Jason, I'm a mom of six daughters. So this is really personal to me. I watch them grow up in this generation. And I feel that we really can actually find a way to come together. The reason your numbers were wrong on the settlement is because we actually agreed to give an additional $5 billion
dollars and to go down to only one hour of use on our platform if YouTube Tiktok and Snap join us. Because as we know, as we know people leave one set of apps and go to another, but wouldn't it be pretty amazing in America if children under 18 could only be on apps for an hour a day shut off at night and I don't, I just think that's 100% yes. Thank you. Do you think it should be universal to them off or do you think it should be controlled by the parent? Like give the parent basic. It is controlled. What's your view? Well it is meaning, meaning obviously a parent can override it, but our app actually just does turn off. I see. Yeah. Obviously a parent. It's funny. I was in Texas this weekend, at the Texas Ohio State game, you, my alma mater and it was really funny. I had so many people come up to me and say, you know you, you know this turning. Off because it's literally happening. Turning off Instagram is hurting college recruiting, football recruiting. I'm like, what? What are you talking about? In Texas, we put all of our kids videos on Instagram and they get recruited. So it is interesting. I said, well, we live in America, that's up to you. You can decide as a parent if you want to do more, but it does actually shut off and a parent has to override that. A parent. I think it's great. I remember just being with my kids at the dinner table and my son was trying to show me something and he had hit the limit, just turned off and there's nothing, and I was like, this is fantastic. And what did the reason is? You're like, leave it off? What's that? You're like, just leave it off. You don't care. The reason is, is a parent, it's whackable because the content is syndicated across all these platforms. And that's why what you're saying is so right. When my son, when my kids, my five kids go to school, they interact with YouTube as their primary outside of school mechanism because so much of the school content and educational content is there. So even if you shut off shorts and Instagram, they pop up over here. So it is this whackable problem for parents and you, it's a full time job to manage it. And so if there is effectively like a labeling and like, you know, a decision on governance by these companies, it's deeply helpful for all of us that have jobs or trying to live a life and raise kids normally so they don't become zombies. In fact, you're very active managing your kids' mobile phone. Yeah. How many do you have? I think the new defaults probably are better. I mean, just thinking about my kids usage, yeah, it'd be nice if it turned off after, you know, an hour or two. So yeah, look, I think that's, that's an improvement. I do have to sort of defend meta because I do think that there was a little bit of a ridiculous pile on where, you know, the company is getting sued by adults who are blaming the use of this completely voluntary product. No one's forcing you to use any of these social network products. And then something goes wrong in their life that has many causes. And then they're suing meta and winning big judgments. And then the state AGs get in on the act and all the trial lawyers, the trial lawyers, the trial lawyers that have the money, I thought, yep. So let's just acknowledge that there is a little bit of a shakedown going on here as well. I mean, let's face it, that is kind of how the American court system works. But look, I think that they have reached a resolution that I think is not beneficial and I like the new defaults. And ultimately, this is about parental control. You know, parents should choose what, you know, and how, what apps are kids used and for how long? It should not be the government doing that. It should be the parents. Tina, can you just make it as easy as possible for the parents to do it? And in my view, the only reason to do these new defaults is because of the Wackenville Prom, it is sometimes difficult for the parents to like -- I mean, that is -- I'm glad we're having this discussion. I think the issue for me has been the industry got very addicted to gamification and designing products to be addicting and creasing time spent on app was, in fact, internally what Facebook was focused on. The challenge is, you know, you can be too good at something. And I think Facebook, along with YouTube and their algorithm, we're just too good at addicting people to it, whether they're adults or kids, and I will commend you, even if it was late as an organization in doing the right thing now, and then leading the other organizations to do the right thing. Let me build on what you're saying with a statement. And we sat there, talked about this. I think Jensen will talk about it, Elon will talk about it, but we are -- you're going to hear this word RSI over and over over the next 18 months, recursive self improvement, which is this idea that if you define a function, a reward function for an AI and let it go, it's going to self-improve. So to your point, Jensen, anything, whether it's, you know, world of warcraft or angry birds or whatever app, you put it into an RSI loop and you add the reward function being time, all these apps will proliferate. Microsoft Word will keep you there for nine hours if it can. So if, unless companies make a decision, like you guys say, here's a threshold and beyond this threshold, we're just going to turn it off, it's going to be kind of turtles all there. And as how does it inform product decisions going forward? You got this incredible new product, Muse, you're in the mix on the bots. But again, I think the leadership and challenging the other organizations is what I will give you Kudos for. You know, I don't want to speculate. I want to talk about this addiction thing as it relates to the product that we all tried on backstage. We all put on a meta-class. And I've never had the product before. What is the repeated use case of that product, do you think? What is it that gets people? Yeah, the glasses. Sorry. I remember when Google had the goggles, and then Apple had VR, and everyone's had an effort at putting something on your face, and none of them have stickiness. They're all really interesting novelty experiences. And then your usage tapers off, and you kind of put it in the drawer, and it's like a cool tech relic. Well, they're very stylish. Yeah. These are the Kylie Jenners. No, actually, we are so excited about this as a product. The engineers have been working on this for 10 years. You make a good point that if people don't look good in them, and they're not stylish, they're not going to put them on. But billions of people wear glasses, whether they're to see or obviously sunglasses. And we're really excited about the features. You can obviously listen to music. The only way I listen to all in every week is wearing my meta-classes, as I'm walking or working out. They actually have the incredible speaker, and so your phone calls are perfect. And now we have a couple of features we're really excited about. Conversation focus. So when Jamoth is at dinner with his beautiful wife, and he actually wants to hear her, if he looks at her, all the noise, it goes away except her voice, which is pretty cool. And then translation. That's great. Can I do the opposite? When I'm Jamoth, it's interesting. Dena, it's interesting you bring this up, Dena. Great. Jamoth is just telling me he got the new Apple AirPods 5 specifically because of wife canceling the opposite feature. You can actually tune in, but I know that way. I know that way. You're wrong and I'm right. Okay, thanks. With these products, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, in the sense that if you design it, poorly, no one's going to want to use it. If you design it really well, and it's a big success, a bunch of travelers are going to say it was a dick-ass, and then you get sued for that. So true. Dena, can you-- I just wanted to move to AI for a second before-- No, I want to finish on this, so like-- but it has this kind of recurrent use case built into it at this point. Is that-- Because I really want to understand-- There isn't so many people are working-- I mean, all of our peers are working on wearables. It's because I do think people want to be part of the world. They actually don't want to be holding boxes, walking around. They actually really want to be able to talk to their family, take a picture, take a video, listen to music, and it be hands-free. We have oakles that are really, really cool for extreme sports. So the use cases are just everyday life. And I think you're going to show a video. The thing that surprised us was one use case that we hadn't anticipated, and that blind veterans. Actually, somebody was joking with me. They said, how are you getting blind people to wear glasses? That doesn't make sense to me. Can we show this video? He is such an honor to be here. We're in Austin, Texas, at a BFW Hall, where metamates are sitting down with amazing men and women who've served our country and who lost their eyesight. They have just been telling us they feel like they're getting their independence back. And we're so proud to be giving them metaclasses. I took him to church. They have the scriptures on the screen in front. I've never been able to read that. But I asked metta and he read the words for me. Seeing these extraordinary servicemen and women, all we've been saying is thank you. Thank you. We don't have America without all of them. And as a big surprise, we are about to introduce them to Chris Stapleton. I just want to come by and say thank you for all your service and some regular training. Chris Stapleton is the best. He came and joined us. It was actually on 9/11 and just a couple days ago. And what we learned is that a group of blind veterans from the organization that supports them came and actually worked with the metta engineers and designed specific features. And it just turns out, obviously, the glasses can see for you and read to you. One of the gentlemen I was sitting next to put the glasses on and he said, "Hey, metta, call John." And I was sitting there. I couldn't hear obviously what he was hearing and he just started sobbing. And I said, "Is everything okay, sir?" He said, "That's the first time I've ever called my son on my own." Oh, that's cool. Wow. So we're seeing these kinds of use cases, of course, that we're incredibly proud of. I guess AI creates the unlock for the glass. Exactly. That makes a lot of sense. Is that the form factor that you think kind of gets AI?
in a prevalent way for most people in the world is the glasses form factor, or is there something else you think? - I'm sure there will be many products. I mean, I think what I have learned from our team is that glasses are a thing. People wear glasses and it's something that, many, many people, they're affordable. And people, obviously, we really worked hard. Mark was very focused, not just on the design, but the weight of it. So it takes a lot to put the technology in here until still keep it stylish. And I think you're a minority owner of RayBand, no? - Yes. - Or it looks like I've got the broad-- - Yeah, they're our partner. Yeah, we have an exclusive with that. - I think that's why people should reconsider these. As a product category, 'cause I've had them since Google Glass. And the battery never worked. They were too bulky. You look like a dork in them. And now the battery works. And because you can control them, not with Syria, which is still kind of broken, but this actually works. And when you're with your kids and you want to take videos, when you're skiing, or you want to take pictures, it actually, putting a phone between you is much more intrusive. So I think this actually brings you into the real world. And the translation feature is also very slick. So when you go to Japan, or you go somewhere and they're talking to you in another language, it can actually translate. Or if you see a sign, boom, just instant translation without taking your phone out, it's time for people to reconsider these specifically for those reasons. Yeah. - You've used them a long time, though, so you really know. - Yeah, the battery's the battery problem, the fidelity. And just they didn't work. And now it does, yeah. So-- - Dina, just talking about the adario's essay this weekend. There was a report, but it was unverified that sucks at something to the effect of, we need to go as fast as we can. I don't know if that was kind of misinformation. No, no, it was like a report that just hit Twitter at the same time that Dario's or X, when Dario'sing up. But just taking a step back broadly, how did you process that essay and the call for regulation, or how are you guys thinking about this? - Well, first, I really agree with a lot of what Satya said. I mean, the premise, the starting point, is that safety is paramount. And that is something that Mark talks about all the time. I watch daily how he and Alex Wang and that Friedman who run our lab think about it. And a whole team of people exists to think about the safety of the models. And I think that they're very legitimate questions around that. I think the difference is that Mark just has a very different view. And I think that view is based on 20 years of a business model of empowering and connecting people. And that 3.6 billion people are on our platform every single day. 200 million small business owners operate their business every single day. And so his belief is that the more you distribute this technology, the more people that have super intelligence and are able to reach their potential, are able to have access to education and health care that they could have never imagined before. Learning that they could have never achieved before is not only better for each of those individuals, but it's better for society as a whole. So he fundamentally just believes when he wrote in his piece, "The Future is For Everyone," that the democratization of artificial intelligence will actually lead to a more stable society. That is just a fundamental belief that he has. And I think that the thing that he thinks about is so then what is his role, what is our role. And I think we were extremely proud to have the very first American open source model just a few weeks ago. Well, Dina, you've got a lot on your plate. We really appreciate you taking the time to come and join us today. We covered a lot. It was awesome. Thank you for being here. Thank you guys so much. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. You're welcome. That was great.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Dean of Power McCormick, a former presidential advisor and trailblazer in government and business, has been appointed President and Vice Chairwoman at Meta, where she will lead the company’s AI expansion, including data centers, global partnerships, and workforce development.
Meta’s investment in communities like Richland Parish, Louisiana, has transformed local economies by generating a massive tax surplus, directly funding teacher bonuses—increasing some educators’ pay by up to $50,000—and revitalizing rural areas that had lost population and economic opportunity.
Meta is addressing community concerns about data centers—such as pollution, noise, and water use—through transparent, proactive measures, including renewable energy use, closed-loop water systems, and a commitment to local workforce training, while building a national model for responsible AI infrastructure development.
Summary:
Dean of Power McCormick, a prominent figure in public service and technology, has joined Meta as President and Vice Chairwoman to lead its transformative AI and data center expansion. Her leadership emphasizes economic and social impact, particularly in underserved communities like Richland Parish, Louisiana, where Meta’s investment has generated a significant tax surplus, directly boosting teacher compensation and reversing population decline. The community initially resisted data centers due to misinformation and fears, but through transparent communication, sustainable practices—such as water efficiency and renewable energy—and a collaborative partnership with local leaders, trust has been built.
Meta has also launched America’s Workforce Academy, a five-week training program with guaranteed job placement for fiber technicians and other skilled workers, addressing critical labor shortages. This initiative, supported by unions and industry leaders like Google and BlackRock, establishes a shared standard for workforce development across the tech sector. Additionally, McCormick highlights Meta’s commitment to responsible AI, including new parental controls that limit children’s screen time to one hour daily and the company’s pledge to set industry-wide standards with bipartisan state attorneys general.
She also underscores the social value of Meta’s wearable technology, such as the Meta Glasses, which are now being used by blind veterans to regain independence and access information, demonstrating how AI can enhance real-world lives. Despite past controversies and allegations of addictive design, McCormick asserts that Meta has fundamentally shifted its culture toward user well-being and safety, positioning the company as a leader in ethical, inclusive, and community-driven technological advancement.
FAQs
Dean of Power McCormick serves as President and Vice Chairwoman at Meta Platforms, where she leads the company's AI expansion, including data centers, investments, and global partnerships.
Meta's investment in Louisiana has boosted local tax revenues, increased employment, and directly funded teacher bonuses, leading to improved school funding and a significant return on community investment.
While communities have valid concerns about pollution, noise, and water use, Meta addresses them proactively by using renewable energy, closed-loop water systems, and ensuring local tax surpluses benefit public services like education.
Meta launched the America's Workforce Academy, a five-week fast-track training program that certifies workers in fiber optic technology and provides guaranteed jobs at data center sites, with a 90% retention rate.
Meta has introduced new platform defaults that limit children under 18 to two hours of daily use and shut down the app at night, with no notifications during school hours, to enhance parental control and user well-being.
Unions have expressed strong support for data centers, with leadership stating they will only support candidates who support data center development, highlighting a shift toward collaborative workforce planning.
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