Google commits to buying power generated by nuclear-energy startup Kairos Power

Finally, 24 years in, it’s really starting to FEEL like a new century.

Sort of feels like we wasted a long time having our best and brightest figuring out how to optimize advertising algorithms. I think we're finally starting to recover from that phase.

Citation needed for the claim that any particular non-trivial fraction of engineering talent has been wasted on ad algorithms, or that those are the "best and brightest", or that those people would have been doing other useful work if the ads didn't exist.

Without evidence this is just a repetition of an old, unproven meme for internet points.

You can look at what percentage of each big tech company's revenue is ads or how much they've spent on their advertising platforms.

That not related to the claim about engineering talent.

The talent follows the money. Consider what was hottest during the 2000s-2010s tech boom, startups offering free services with the value proposition of eventual data collection for ads.

Maybe also look at value instead of revenue, in terms of public market caps or private acquisitions. At least Facebook's $1.48T market cap is derived from ads.

That doesn't answer the question. I asked for, and I quote, "any particular non-trivial fraction of engineering talent has been wasted on ad algorithms, or that those are the "best and brightest", or that those people would have been doing other useful work if the ads didn't exist".

Your inability to provide evidence is suggestive that the evidence does not exist.

I'm not sure what else you want beyond my answer, maybe proof that these big tech companies have indeed been hiring bright engineers, but maybe you or someone else can find it on the Internet. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Dig1t on this.