Meta lays off 600 in AI division regardless of billion-dollar AI push

Meta has invested closely in synthetic intelligence — from AI chatbots and companions to the infinite AI slop generator Vibes and even an AI-powered courting assistant. However that enthusiasm is not translating to job safety for everybody.

On Wednesday, Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang introduced in a memo that the corporate is shedding roughly 600 staff inside its AI unit. The information, first reported by Axios and confirmed by CNBC, impacts workers engaged on AI infrastructure, the Basic Synthetic Intelligence Analysis (FAIR) group, and different product-related groups.

Regardless of the cuts, Meta says it is nonetheless hiring for its new superintelligence division, dubbed TBD Lab.

Impacted staff had been informed their final day will likely be Nov. 21 and are at present in a “non-working discover interval.” The corporate is providing 16 weeks of severance pay, plus two further weeks for yearly of service, and is encouraging affected staff to use for different roles inside Meta.

“By lowering the dimensions of our workforce, fewer conversations will likely be required to decide, and every particular person will likely be extra load-bearing and have extra scope and influence,” Wang wrote within the inner memo, based on TechCrunch.

The layoffs do not seem to sign a retreat from AI. Only a day earlier, Reuters reported that Meta closed a $27 billion financing cope with Blue Owl Capital to fund an enormous information heart enlargement — a transfer analysts say is essential to supporting its subsequent technology of AI instruments.

This additionally follows an aggressive AI hiring spree. In current months, Meta has lured prime expertise from OpenAI, introduced Wang on board, and invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI.