Meta Employees Revolt Over Forced AI Reassignment, Calling It 'Gulag'
Meta’s massive investment pivot towards artificial intelligence (AI) has triggered a wave of internal protest. A number of employees reassigned to the AI division have expressed deep dissatisfaction with their working conditions, with one describing the experience as being like a ‘gulag’ or forced labour camp.
A report by Wired revealed that Meta’s Applied AI team is on the brink of internal rebellion. Tensions boiled over this week when someone hijacked a live internal company presentation, shouting profanities and demanding attendees tell a senior AI executive that he is a ’piece of sh*t’.
The incident is said to reflect long-simmering anger within the three-month-old Applied AI unit. The team comprises roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers tasked with supporting Meta’s AI research ambitions.
A previous Business Insider report indicated that many employees learned of their transfer to the unit via a sudden email. One affected employee described the process on Reddit as completely random. According to an internal announcement reviewed by Business Insider, Meta moved staff to the unit because the company’s AI models were not yet capable of surpassing human abilities in technical tasks like programming. ‘To make agents understand how people complete everyday tasks using computers, we need to train our models using real-world examples,’ the announcement stated.
In a leaked internal meeting recording from the same month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the rationale for using internal staff over external contractors. He noted that Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who previously sold his data-labelling startup Scale AI to Meta for US$14.3 billion, has a deep understanding of the data-labelling industry. Zuckerberg also candidly stated that the average Meta employee has a ‘far higher’ intelligence level than third-party contractors, making them more suitable for the work.
Despite this, several employees claimed they had no choice but to join the new unit or leave the company. Many have labelled themselves ‘draftees’, or forcibly conscripted workers. Their primary task is to create puzzles and programming problems to train Meta’s AI models. One employee told Wired, ‘It’s literally like a gulag,’ while another added, ‘Most people feel the work is soul-crushing.’
Morale issues are reportedly not confined to the Applied AI team. Over 1,600 Meta employees have reportedly signed a petition protesting a company programme that monitors their clicks and keystrokes for AI training data. The bleak working atmosphere is said to have spread across various divisions, with Chief Product Officer Chris Cox reportedly feeling the need to address the ‘brutal’ work environment during a call with employees this week.
The Applied AI team is led by Maher Saba, a 12-year Meta veteran and former vice president of Reality Labs, the division that spent approximately US$83 billion on metaverse projects before Meta shifted its focus to AI. The new unit operates under the supervision of Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, and its initial organisational structure reportedly had some managers overseeing up to 50 employees.
Amid the growing complaints, CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the situation in an internal memo on Friday. He acknowledged that the company’s recent changes have caused pressure for some employees, admitted Meta has made mistakes, and pledged to make improvements. In the memo, he reiterated that ‘Meta’s North Star is to be the best place for the world’s most talented people to make an impact.’