Meta announced major job cuts, spends billions on AI

What a world we currently live in. :/

Meta has officially begun laying off approximately 8,000 employees; they represent roughly 10% of the company's global workforce. The reason? An aggressive restructuring to fund and prioritise artificial intelligence. Also, Meta cancelled its plans to fill 6,000 open roles. That makes sense. If they are laying off people why would they hire new ones? But there is more.

Meta is going to reassign 7,000 employees from legacy departments directly into AI-focused workflows. I imagine they will be employed as long as they are useful and before being laid off when AI can also replace them.

So, between layoffs, cancelled roles, and reassignments, nearly 20% of Meta's entire workforce was affected by the recent shift.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta's internal memos revealed that the workforce reduction is designed to offset astronomical capital expenditures. Meta's plan is to spend up to $145 billion to build AI data centres. This would allow Meta to secure the computing power required with the goal of catching up with rivals OpenAI and Google.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, speaking about AI tools has said that now AI tools allow "one person to do what teams did before," suggesting a shift toward highly automated organisational structures. Clearly, Zuckerberg is redirecting resources to elite superintelligence initiatives.

Logically, the restructuring has caused significant employee anxiety, as anyone can imagine. There has also been controversity after reports of an internal AI computer-tracking programme that logs keystrokes, clicks, and mouse movements of U.S. staff. The software is designed to harvest data and train Meta's upcoming autonomous AI models. What can go wrong?

Employees have expressed their frustration, protesting the mandatory tracking saying that they are being forced to train the automated systems that will replace them in their own jobs.

Meta is not the only company getting rid of traditional tech roles to fund AI initiatives. Other companies including Cisco, Oracle, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Intuit have also eliminated thousands of mid-level engineering and operational roles to prioritise machine learning talent and infrastructure.

It's only big tech laying off people in masses. Smaller tech companies including Block and Snap have laid off thousands of workers, too.

According to the BBC, tech analysts say that AI-driven automation is replacing mid-level and operational roles increasingly fast. What no one talks about is what solutions these companies are offering for the mass layoffs.

It seems like Mark Zuckerberg has become obsessed with AI. I would like to hear from at least one CEO of a big tech company talking about the plans they have in place for the future of work and all the people loosing their jobs. What does society have to say? Aren't we all supporting this dystopia?