Meta's months-old AI unit is a soul-crushing gulag, say the engineers stuck inside it
A Wired report describes Meta's three-month-old Applied AI unit, made up of roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers, as being on the verge of revolt. Employees say they were forced into the group with no real choice and assigned work generating puzzles and coding problems to train AI models, with some calling it soul-crushing. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly acknowledged in an internal memo that recent changes caused distress and that the company made mistakes.
Key Takeaways
- A new report suggests the unit, which employs 6,500 people, is on the verge of revolt.
- That outburst, Wired reports, reflects simmering rage inside the three-month-old unit of roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers who have been tasked with supporting the company's AI research ambitions.
Employees describe being forced into the group with no real choice: join or quit.
- A report last month in Business Insider shed light on how many employees learned they'd be moved into the group - through a surprise email, a process that one self-described draftee described later on Reddit as " quite random ."
According to an internal announcement in April reviewed by Business Insider, Meta's AI models still lacked the knowledge to outperform humans at technical tasks like coding.
- According to earlier reports, the Applied AI team is led by Maher Saba, a 12-year veteran of Meta who was previously a vice president in its Reality Labs division, the division that burned through $83 billion on the metaverse before Meta moved on to AI.
- Previously the Silicon Valley Editor of TechCrunch, she was named Editor in Chief and General Manager of TechCrunch in September 2023.
Stats & Key Facts
- #Meanwhile, more than 1,600 Meta employees company-wide have signed a petition protesting a program that monitors their clicks and keystrokes for AI training data.
- #According to earlier reports, the Applied AI team is led by Maher Saba, a 12-year veteran of Meta who was previously a vice president in its Reality Labs division, the division that burned through $83 billion on the metaverse before Meta moved on to AI.
- #Originally, it was structured in such a way that up to 50 employees reported to one manager.
A new report suggests the unit, which employs 6,500 people, is on the verge of revolt. Anyone who works at Meta or knows anyone who works at Meta will tell you the same thing: It is not a happy place, particularly given the seemingly endless layoffs the company has executed over the last few years - cuts that have only accelerated as the company funnels billions into AI. Now, a new report in Wired suggests the company's Applied AI team is on the verge of revolt.
The drama kicked off when someone hijacked a livestreamed, employee-only presentation this week with an expletive-laden meltdown, demanding that attendees tell a senior Meta AI executive that he was "a piece of sh*t." One presenter reportedly covered their face with their hands. That outburst, Wired reports, reflects simmering rage inside the three-month-old unit of roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers who have been tasked with supporting the company's AI research ambitions.
According to an internal announcement in April reviewed by Business Insider, Meta's AI models still lacked the knowledge to outperform humans at technical tasks like coding. "For agents to understand how people actually complete everyday tasks using computers, we need to train our models on real examples," the post read. Meanwhile, more than 1,600 Meta employees company-wide have signed a petition protesting a program that monitors their clicks and keystrokes for AI training data.
For more details please read the original article at TechCrunch AI.
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