Meta is cutting around 600 jobs within its artificial intelligence unit, a move it says aims to boost efficiency.
The layoffs to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs division, which has nearly 3,000 employees, come as the company’s efforts to lean into AI had become overly bureaucratic, and the social media giant hopes the cuts will produce a more efficient workflow, an internal memo showed, according to Axios.
“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang wrote in the memo.
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The cuts will affect the company’s FAIR AI research, product-related AI and AI infrastructure divisions, according to Axios. Employees in the newly formed TBD Lab unit, tasked with developing the company’s next-generation AI models, will maintain their positions.
Meta said it is encouraging impacted employees to apply for other jobs within the company, and expects most will find other internal roles, Axios reported.
“This is a talented group of individuals, and we need their skills in other parts of the company,” Wang said.
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Meta is continuing with its AI efforts and is still actively recruiting for its TBD Lab unit, according to Business Insider.
The cuts also come as Meta informed staff in its risk division this week that several of their positions will be eliminated due to the company’s enhanced internal technology that is replacing their jobs, Business Insider reported.
Meta’s chief compliance and privacy officer of product, Michel Protti, notified employees in the risk org on Wednesday that it has been moving away from manual reviews to more automated processes, an internal memo showed, according to Business Insider.
“As a result, we don’t need as many roles in some areas as we once did,” he wrote.
The number of positions affected by the layoffs to the risk unit was not disclosed.
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