Meta Chief Says AI Won't Replace Humans, Now Sacks 8,000 Employees

The trend of layoffs due to Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues. Latest, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has laid off 8,000 of its employees globally, for efficiency to boost AI development infrastructure. The layoff of thousands of workers appears at odds with statements by Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg. Behind the statement, Reuters reports that Meta increased AI capital expenditure to hundreds of billions of US dollars. As AI spending rises, Meta has now laid off 8,000 employees. This move to cut thousands of staff undermines Zuckerberg’s statement and strengthens the view that AI will replace humans. The layoff action is essentially part of a broader restructuring by Meta to increase efficiency while reallocating corporate resources to AI development. The wave of Meta layoffs began in Singapore on Wednesday, 20 May early morning, when several employees received termination emails around 04:00 local time, as reported by Business Times. Employees in the UK, United States, and other countries are also scheduled to receive notices in the morning according to their time zones. The number of affected employees is estimated to be around 10 percent of the company’s total workforce. Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to prioritise AI. This year, Meta has committed to spending more than $100 billion on AI investments, with total capital expenditure expected to reach $125-145 billion. The large investment is used to accelerate AI technology development to compete with Alphabet and OpenAI. However, Meta’s grand transformation into an AI-based company is said to have triggered internal unrest. Some employees report frustration and anxiety about the changes. On Wednesday, Meta offices were largely empty after the company asked staff to work from home. According to several employees, some workers even began taking free snacks and laptop chargers from the office at the start of the week for fear of losing their jobs before the weekend.