Meta Layoffs Stress Harsh AI Reality Inside Zuckerberg's Company (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0183269475
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/18/179232/meta-layoffs-stress-harsh-ai-reality-inside-zuckerbergs-company
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/18/metas-layoffs-starting-this-week-underscore-zuckerbergs-ai-reality-.html
> [...] Whatever anxiety investors are experiencing, the feelings inside the company are more intense, with some longtime staffers questioning Meta's AI pursuits under AI chief Alexandr Wang, while also weighing if now is the time to leave for opportunities at other companies in the AI race, according to current and former employees. Data aggregated by Blind, an anonymous professional network that requires users to verify their employment with a work email address, reveals some of the internal malaise. Meta's overall rating by employees on Blind has declined 25% from a peak in the second quarter of 2024 to the current period, with a 39% drop in its culture rating. In every category other than compensation, Meta has seen a ratings decline and dramatically underperforms rivals Amazon, Google and Netflix, the Blind data reveals.
>
> The company's full-court press with AI included the [3]recent debut of an employee tracking tool intended to collect data from staffers' actions, such as mouse movements and keystrokes on their work computers. The Model Capability Initiative, or MCI, as it's called, is part of Meta's efforts to train AI models to power digital agents that can perform various coding and white-collar tasks. Employees have characterized the data tracking tool as "dystopian," according to messages viewed by CNBC, with some workers expressing fear that personal information could be leaked. Some Meta workers have noted that their workplace computers appear slower since the company initiated the project, adding to their frustration, sources said.
>
> Meta workers responded by creating an [4]online petition that urges Zuckerberg and leadership to shutter the project. "Collecting and repurposing this kind of data raises serious concerns around privacy, consent, and trust in the workplace," the petition says. "It should not be the norm that companies of any size are permitted to exploit their employees by nonconsensually extracting their data for the purposes of AI training."
Further reading: [5]NYT: 'Meta's Embrace of AI Is Making Its Employees Miserable'
[1] https://meta.slashdot.org/story/26/04/23/1917223/meta-is-laying-off-10-of-its-workforce
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/18/metas-layoffs-starting-this-week-underscore-zuckerbergs-ai-reality-.html
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/21/1849217/meta-to-start-capturing-employee-mouse-movements-keystrokes-for-ai-training-data
[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/05/12/2242241/meta-employees-launch-protest-against-mouse-tracking-tech-at-us-offices
[5] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/10/0545234/nyt-metas-embrace-of-ai-is-making-its-employees-miserable
Surprise, surprise. (Score:4, Insightful)
You start out doing it to others; but the empire always comes home in the end.
Meta: The model for America going forward (Score:3)
The business owners of America are desperate to believe that what is happening at Meta is a repeatable pattern. First, implement AI tracking and data aggregation on employees, then remove those employees as they begin to complain in favor of using the AI that was trained on the previously gathered data. It remains to be seen if this will actually be a viable way to continue moving a business forward, but this is the vision that has been sold by the AI prophets over the last few years, and there are a lot of very excitable executives extremely excited at the prospect that they can finally be free of unpredictable and demanding employees and only have to utilize automation systems labeled AI to do all the work that humans used to do.
Let's see how this pans out for Meta long-term as they continue down this path of what seems to be madness from the outside. If they have a bumpy few months, followed by great success, expect to start feeling that same dystopian view implemented in more businesses.
Re: (Score:3)
> The business owners of America are desperate to believe that what is happening at Meta is a repeatable pattern. First, implement AI tracking and data aggregation on employees, then remove those employees as they begin to complain in favor of using the AI that was trained on the previously gathered data. It remains to be seen if this will actually be a viable way to continue moving a business forward, but this is the vision that has been sold by the AI prophets over the last few years, and there are a lot of very excitable executives extremely excited at the prospect that they can finally be free of unpredictable and demanding employees and only have to utilize automation systems labeled AI to do all the work that humans used to do.
It's the dream of sociopathic greedy billionaires everywhere. Too bad for them that it's a pipe dream.
Here's the harsh reality: AI doesn't work. You can spend days cajoling AI into doing something correctly and spend days reviewing the bad code over and over until it gets it right or you can spend days writing the code. On average, the time savings are minimal, and the cost in terms of code understanding is enormous, resulting in less and less maintainable code over time until you eventually end up havin
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to wait and see how it pans out... it's happening regardless of how it actually works out... they'll rework the AI until it works fine for the job.
What're school loan outfits going to do when they have to go after a whole college graduating class when none of them can find a job?
How's society going to be when nobody can find a job, nobody can afford to buy anything, and all these companies keep cranking out more stuff?
Won't even be able to afford a $1 overstock iPhone 30.
Re: (Score:2)
Meta isn't saying they are gaining so much productivity that they don't need so many employees. What they are saying is that they are spending so much money on AI infrastructure, that they need to cut the number of employees, to pay for it.
> Meta is expected to begin cutting about 8,000 jobs this week as it pours more money into AI infrastructure
Who would use any AI by Meta (Score:2)
META lost all trust with users, so why would people choose any of their products other than the 3 which social forces keep in existence -- instagram, Whatsapp, and facebook. Meanwhile, instagram has become pretty much the same crap as facebook.
What goes around, comes around. (Score:3)
Employees have characterized the data tracking tool as "dystopian," according to messages viewed by CNBC, with some workers expressing fear that personal information could be leaked.
That "data tracking tool" is Facebook itself, which they themselves have built.
Jes sayin (Score:2)
Without theSlashdot requires anti capitalism posts, Since I am required to be on FB (but maybe not much longer, thanks be) I'm inundated with AI junk, and for some reason Erectile disfunction pills as well as endless ads for women's vibratory stimulation products. RFI blocking hats, fake Rolex watches, RF blocking underwear, as well as weird AI generated stories. And offers to join thirst traps
And very little else, about the only things I am interested in is Maxwell Parrish and Weyth paintings, But ther
Also Further Reading (Score:2)
Here's yet [1]another Slashdot post [slashdot.org] on the topic besides the three already listed.
That morale is down after layoffs and intrusive monitoring seems like the pretty obvious outcome of the previous stories.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/21/1849217/meta-to-start-capturing-employee-mouse-movements-keystrokes-for-ai-training-data