No more Meta layoffs this year! Zuckerberg admits making mistake in AI workforce overhaul
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees the social media giant had made mistakes in the AI transformation of its workforce, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
Zuckerberg is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence as he tries to reshape his company’s inner workings around technology; This reflects a broader pattern among large U.S. companies this year, particularly in the technology sector.
In the note, Zuckerberg describes the rapid developments in artificial intelligence and the challenges brought by the explosion of technology.
“Given the complexity of these changes, we have made mistakes and will almost certainly make more,” Zuckerberg said, adding that he was “focused on providing as much stability as possible” in terms of organizational changes going forward.
“I don’t want to promise too much because the world is changing beyond our control,” he said, reiterating that Meta does not expect any more company-wide layoffs this year.
Meta will try to find new roles for employees who are reassigned to train AI models, he said, after the Facebook owner carried out a major restructuring in May, laying off 10% of its workforce globally and shifting 7,000 employees to new initiatives related to AI workflows.
“It has also allowed us to reduce the size of teams by creating important new roles for people, knowing that if we make mistakes here and there, we can move some people back,” Zuckerberg said.
Meta declined to comment on the memo when contacted by Reuters.
Zuckerberg said the company plans to increase investment in team-building initiatives, including higher budgets for offsite and corporate events, and will hold a large-scale hackathon in July to encourage cross-team collaboration and development of its latest models.
Zuckerberg said Meta has taken concerns about expanding executive oversight responsibilities and plans to scale back the app.
Meta’s new Applied AI Engineering unit reportedly has a flat structure with a ratio of individual contributors to executives of up to 50:1.
In April, Meta raised its annual capital spending forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion.
