Meta has laid off 600 employees from its Super Intelligence Lab. The company says this move will make the team faster and more efficient. However, the decision has caused anger among the employees.
In recent days, Meta — which had been in the headlines for hiring employees with massive salary packages — is now making news for layoffs. Reports say the company has fired 600 employees from its Super Intelligence Lab division. According to reports, Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexander Wang, issued a memo regarding this decision. The memo stated that the move was made to make the team faster and more efficient. The company believes that smaller teams can make decisions more quickly, and each member can take on greater responsibility and play a more impactful role. However, this decision has sparked anger among employees and on social media.
What was in Wang’s memo?
Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Wang, explained in his memo that the reason behind the layoffs was to make communication and approval processes quicker in smaller teams, which would make decision-making easier. Meta wants its AI team to become the most agile and talented team in the industry. Notably, in recent months, Meta had spent millions of dollars hiring AI experts from companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Apple. Now, the company is removing employees from its old AI research and infrastructure units to work on a new plan. Despite the major layoffs, Wang stated that the company will not reduce its investment in AI projects.
Who was affected and what support will they get?
Meta’s layoffs have impacted its old AI research, product, and infrastructure units. However, the new and high-profile TBS Lab has been excluded from the layoffs.
Employees who have been let go will receive 16 weeks of pay as severance. In addition, they will get an extra 2 weeks of salary for every year they have worked at the company.
The laid-off employees have been given a “non-working notice period” until November 21, allowing them time to apply for other roles within Meta. The company’s recruitment team is also assisting them in finding new positions.
Employees expressing anger
Since Meta’s layoff decision, people have been expressing their anger on social media. On the Blind app, one employee wrote that long-serving employees were being let go to make room for employees who joined just a few months ago. Someone even wrote online that wealthy people forget that a job is not just a number—it is someone’s whole life.People have also speculated that Meta might be preparing to outsource its work, indicating that even high-tech jobs in artificial intelligence are no longer completely secure.
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