As Meta races to recenter itself round artificial intelligence, the tech large is mandating that more than 7,000 workers must move to new teams, and it’s radically altering some staff’ jobs. The Guardian has additionally discovered that a few of these reassigned staff will shift to 2 new groups: one constructing AI cloud infrastructure and one other that’s constructing an inner AI agent codenamed Hatch.
Late final week, Meta staff obtained a discover that engineers had been “chosen” for reassignment and would start reporting to the cloud infrastructure and Hatch groups by the top of this week. Meta made an identical transfer final month when it reshuffled at least 1,000 engineers on to a brand new knowledge labeling group known as Utilized AI, or AAI – at first giving them the choice to volunteer, however later telling staff: “Transfers aren’t optional.”
“Our work, infrastructure and our merchandise are essentially altering on account of the continued acceleration of AI,” wrote Peter Hoose, vice-president of manufacturing engineering at Meta, in an inner put up in regards to the two new groups seen by the Guardian. “The tempo of what we’re constructing is unprecedented, and these are precisely the sort of challenges that outline what we do greatest.”
A Meta worker referenced final month’s reshuffle in a touch upon Hoose’s announcement, writing: “Does ‘chosen’ indicate that is an [Applied AI]-style draft reasonably than a voluntary transfer?”
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the shift and mentioned the groups are about 25 folks every.
Meta can also be taking away some managers’ direct studies and shifting these managers into roles the place they’re anticipated to supply work greater than oversee others – a shift that’s beneath method all through Silicon Valley as companies embrace AI tools and try to flatten their management structures.
This rapid-fire reorganization is stirring up discontent inside Meta throughout an already volatile era. “The brand new orgs showcase a shift in prime degree administration technique in the direction of micro-authoritarianism,” mentioned a Meta engineer, who requested anonymity as a result of they don’t seem to be approved to talk to the press. As an alternative of empowering staff, it appears like Meta’s angle has shifted to, “‘No, we let you know what to do, and command and order is the way in which ahead,’” this worker advised the Guardian.
Meta is expected to lay off approximately 10% of its workforce this week – regardless of record earnings throughout the first three months of 2026. Staff are additionally riled up over the corporate’s plans to surveil them extensively at work and use the info it collects to coach AI fashions. The corporate has begun rolling out a monitoring instrument known as Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which tracks staff’ mouse actions, keystrokes, each time they open and shut their laptop computer, and something they copy and paste – and feed it into an AI mannequin as coaching knowledge.
A Meta spokesperson advised the Guardian: “If we’re constructing brokers to assist folks full on a regular basis duties utilizing computer systems, our fashions want actual examples of how folks really use them – issues like mouse actions, clicking buttons and navigating dropdown menus. To assist, we’re launching an inner instrument that may seize these sorts of inputs on sure purposes to assist us prepare our fashions. There are safeguards in place to guard delicate content material, and the info just isn’t used for some other goal.”
The corporate’s staff don’t appear to be reassured by this.
Traditionally, Meta was recognized for its generous perks and adaptability: excessive pay and free meals, and infrequently giving staff the autonomy to decide on what they labored on. However since Meta’s first-ever layoffs in 2022, the corporate’s inner tradition has shifted. The Meta engineer interviewed by the Guardian mentioned the corporate has been whittling away perks over time. “Small acts foreshadowed what was to come back: rolling layoffs with months of uncertainty earlier than affirmation, MCI, drafting … It appears like they’re attempting to defeat our spirit by touchdown a number of assaults without delay.”
All of this has been making Meta staff really feel disillusioned at work. Final week, a gaggle of staff started making an attempt to prepare their colleagues to push again in opposition to Meta’s AI plans. They posted flyers throughout no less than 5 US Meta workplaces that requested questions like “Need Meta to cease accumulating worker knowledge to feed to their AI fashions?” and requested staff to sign a petition demanding that the corporate “not acquire worker ‘computer-use’ knowledge for the needs of coaching AI fashions”.
Thus far, greater than 500 Meta staff have signed the petition, a Meta knowledge scientist who requested anonymity for worry of profession repercussions advised the Guardian. “Meta has an excessive tradition of worry,” they mentioned, including that the corporate sometimes quashes worker dissent. However that is the “first time” Meta staff have rallied in opposition to the corporate in additional than a 12 months.
Along with this petition, a gaggle of Meta staff within the UK are organizing to type a union with United Tech and Allied Staff (UTAW).
These newest developments mark a notable shift within the temper on the world’s largest social media firm. Previously, Meta staff have been outspoken and criticized administration – together with an employee-organized virtual walkout in 2020 over Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dealing with of Donald Trump’s posts encouraging violence in opposition to Black protesters. However since 2022, when layoffs started, staff have largely been quiet.
OpenAI’s, Google’s and Anthropic’s shopper AI merchandise are already within the lead, so Meta has been enjoying catch-up within the AI race. In January, Zuckerberg mentioned in an earnings name that the corporate will spend as much as $135bn on AI infrastructure this 12 months “to coach main fashions and ship private tremendous intelligence to billions of individuals and companies all over the world”. Final month, Meta launched its AI mannequin, Muse Spark, the primary one to have come out of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Attaining these AI ambitions would require not simply infrastructure, but additionally engineers – which suggests the corporate is treading a nice line as its layoffs and inner reorganizations have an effect on worker morale.