Meta's AI team on the brink of a revolt
What's the story
Meta's Applied AI team, a group of some 6,500 engineers and product managers, is reportedly on the brink of a revolt, according to WIRED. The unrest was triggered by an incident where an employee hijacked a livestreamed presentation and launched into an expletive-laden tirade against a senior Meta AI executive. The outburst has highlighted the growing discontent within this relatively new unit.
Work conditions
'Draftees' describe their experience as 'soul-crushing'
The employees of Meta's Applied AI team have described their experience as being forced into the group with no real choice. They either had to join or quit, leading many to refer to themselves as "draftees." Their main job involves creating puzzles and coding problems for training AI models. One employee even went so far as to say, "It's literally the gulag," while another said, "Most people find the work soul-crushing."
Communication breakdown
Transfers to Applied AI team done via surprise emails
A recent Business Insider report revealed that many employees were informed about their transfer to the Applied AI team through surprise emails. This abrupt process was described as "quite random" by one self-described draftee on Reddit. An internal announcement in April, reviewed by Business Insider, admitted that Meta's AI models still couldn't beat humans at technical tasks like coding.
Strategic move
Zuckerberg defends decision to draft Meta engineers for AI training
In a leaked audio recording from an internal meeting, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the decision to draft Meta's own engineers instead of hiring outside contractors. He argued that Alexandr Wang, who sold his data-labeling start-up Scale AI to Meta for $14.3 billion before becoming chief AI officer and heading up Meta Superintelligence Labs, knows the data-labeling world well. The company believes its average employee has "significantly higher" intelligence than third-party contractors.
Employee unrest
Over 1,600 employees sign petition protesting monitoring program
More than 1,600 Meta employees have signed a petition protesting against a program that monitors their clicks and keystrokes for the AI training data. The discontent has grown so much that Meta's chief product officer, Chris Cox, had to address the "brutal" environment on a call with employees this week.
Leadership response
Applied AI team headed by Maher Saba
Meta's Applied AI team is headed by Maher Saba, a 12-year veteran of the company. He previously served as vice president in Reality Labs, the division that spent $83 billion on the metaverse before shifting focus to AI. The new organization reports to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and was initially structured with up to 50 employees reporting to one manager.