Meta’s Applied – A livestreamed, employee-only Applied AI presentation at Meta was interrupted by an expletive-filled outburst, while multiple employees describe the newly formed unit as menial and soul-crushing. The turmoil comes as morale falls across the company after AI-fo
When the livestreamed, employee-only presentation began, the technical talk was the point. Then it wasn’t.
An individual interrupted the call with an expletive-filled outburst about being “the company’s bitch,” according to a recording heard by WIRED. The same person then directed the meeting’s leaders to contact a specific Meta AI executive and “tell him that he’s a piece of shit.”
A witness said one of the presenters covered their face with their hands. After the outburst, the meeting’s two leaders moved on with their technical talk, asking everyone to mute. Employees watching the stream afterward commented on the “spicy” start.
Meta’s Applied AI team was formed in March to support AI researchers at Meta Superintelligence Labs. But the incident mirrors frustration that several current employees say is now widespread inside the unit. Three current employees told WIRED there is dissatisfaction with how Meta assembled Applied AI. which is made up of about 6. 500 engineers and product managers. and with the drudgework some employees say they’ve been assigned to improve AI models. The speaker in the recording could not be reached for comment. and the employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
One employee described the experience as dehumanizing. “It’s literally the gulag,” they said. “You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week.”
Another employee said some of the tasks they’ve been given involve generating puzzles to test how reliably AI models from Meta and other companies can solve them. They said those assignments are easy compared with the software development work they had been doing before. Yet the new projects, they said, feel menial, and “almost all” employees appear unhappy.
“The third employee says: ‘Most people find the work soul-crushing.’”
Meta declined to comment for this story.
Applied AI isn’t the only place where tensions are spilling into day-to-day work. The company’s AI-focused restructuring last month. which included 10 percent of the company—8. 000 employees being let go—has generated extra work and stress across multiple divisions. according to several current and former employees who spoke to WIRED. The pressure is described as reaching areas including data center engineering and Instagram.
Across the company. more than 1. 600 employees have signed a petition demanding that Meta stop a recently launched initiative to monitor US employees’ clicks and keystrokes to generate AI training data. The company has scaled back the program slightly. allowing employees to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes and request specific exemptions.
This week, the strain also surfaced in a separate setting: a meeting open to all employees at Instagram. Meta chief product officer Chris Cox addressed the “difficult” and “brutal” environment created by what he called the “insanity of this company” in the past few months. according to a recording heard by WIRED.
Cox applauded Instagram employees for launching features and serving around 2 billion users. framing it against the instability he said many workers feel. He compared the work to “running a marathon in the middle of a hailstorm and then. like. your teammate gets replaced and then we’re recording you.”.
“It’s like what the fuck,” Cox said, drawing laughs, before repeating himself: “It is like what the fuck.”
He also said he needed to “get in touch with the company again” and to not be “overearnest” about the power of AI. “It is neither god, nor is it the devil,” Cox said. “And it’s nowhere near as good as you think it is. and it is nowhere near as bad as you think it is. And it changes every week … and it doesn’t know what day of the week it is.”.
Meta Applied AI Meta Superintelligence Labs artificial intelligence employee morale layoffs Chris Cox Instagram AI training data cybersecurity workplace monitoring petition
Lol people are calling it the gulag now? man.
Meta really out here building AI teams like it’s customer service. If they’re asking people to do “puzzles” all day, I get why morale is trash. Also that outburst sounds unhinged.
Wait so someone interrupted a tech livestream to call an exec a piece of shit? I mean yeah that’s wild but maybe the exec deserved it, idk. These companies keep hiring 6,500 people and then act like everyone should be happy doing drudge work. Seems like AI hype train just makes regular folks miserable.
This article is confusing because it says AI morale is falling “after AI-fo”?? but then it jumps to the applied team. And “the company’s bitch”?? like is that even real or just a disgruntled employee being dramatic. Either way if they’re muting the stream and covering faces, that’s… not good. Sounds like management picked the wrong people for Applied AI.