Inside Meta’s AI Division, Anger Boils Over After Mass Layoffs

Meta’s artificial intelligence unit is facing open internal anger after last month’s layoffs and a new round of organizational changes. During a live internal presentation this week, a Meta employee interrupted the session, demanded that presenters tell a senior AI executive he was “a piece of shit,” and sparked attention over what employees say is a worsening work climate.

According to audio obtained by WIRED, workers described the Applied AI team, created in March and now numbering about 6,500 engineers and product managers, as draining and mechanical. One employee called it “a gulag,” another said the job felt “mechanical and not creative,” and a third said many felt the work was “soul sucking.” Employees on the team, which supports researchers in Meta Superintelligence Labs, must either join the unit or leave the company, and some say they feel they were effectively “conscripted.” Their work includes generating difficult programming problems for training AI models.

The unrest comes after Meta laid off about 8,000 employees last month, including dozens in Israel, roughly 10% of the company’s workforce. The cuts have increased pressure in other areas, including data center engineering and Instagram. More than 1,600 employees also signed a petition opposing a company plan to track workers’ keyboard and click activity in the U.S. for model training. Meta later softened the plan and let employees pause data collection for up to 30 minutes.

In an internal Instagram meeting, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox compared the moment to “a marathon in the middle of a hailstorm,” saying staff are dealing with restructuring, business pressure and rapid AI adoption at the same time. He also said, “What the hell?” twice. In a Friday memo, CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the turmoil, writing that “we made mistakes” and likely will make more, while promising no further mass layoffs this year. He also said some teams have been left with as many as 50 employees per manager, and described Applied AI as a “way station” where talented people may move into other roles in the coming months. Meta did not comment to WIRED.