Meta Platforms lays off 600 AI specialists
Meta Platforms' AI department is swimming in money and has hired so many people that they are getting in each other's way. Now 600 have to go.
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Meta Platforms is cutting approximately 600 jobs in its AI department. However, this is apparently less about cost savings and more about streamlining. Those who remain will have to work harder. For about three years, Meta has been hiring AI staff at breakneck speed for its “Superintelligence Labs,” totaling around 3,000 people, according to media reports. The result is not necessarily efficient.
“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be necessary to make decisions,” the New York Times quotes from an internal Meta Platforms memo on Wednesday. “Each person will carry more burden, more responsibility, and have more influence.” Those affected by the job cuts were informed on Wednesday. According to the memo, the data company will try to offer them other positions within the company.
Meta's Superintelligence Labs have four areas. In three of them, employees are being laid off: AI research (FAIR), in AI infrastructure, and product development. According to the memo, the division that actually deals with superintelligence and also manages Meta's Large Language Models (LLMs) is not impacted by the job cuts. The latter power chatbots on Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Threads.
Against Bureaucracy and Competition
The cutback in the AI workforce should not be understood as a retreat or a trimming of Meta's expensive AI efforts, managers have indicated. Rather, bureaucracy is to be reduced, thereby accelerating AI development.
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Meta fears falling behind in the race with other data companies. This is consistent with Meta banning third-party chatbots, including ChatGPT, from Whatsapp. This measure is to be implemented next year. In June, Meta paid 14.3 billion dollars for a minority stake in the startup Scale AI.
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