The tension is palpable in the corridors of Meta. A recent incident, where an employee interrupted a internal meeting broadcast live to insult an executive of the AI division, highlighted a deep unease. This public outburst is just the tip of the iceberg, revealing growing frustration within the tech giant, particularly in its new unit “ Applied AI » created in March.
Why is the Applied AI unit called a “gulag”?
The Applied AI unit, with strong 6,500 peopleaimed to support the group’s ambitions in terms ofartificial intelligence. But for many engineers, this assignment turned into a punishment. They were forcibly transferredwith a simple choice: join the team or leave the company. These ” conscripts ”, as they call themselves, were entrusted with tasks deemed thankless and repetitive, far from their initial expertise.
Their mission mainly consists of creating puzzles or code problems to train and evaluate AI models. A work described as “ mechanical and not creative ”, or even “ crushing » (soul-crushing) by several internal sources. One employee even summed up his daily life in a chilling way: “ It’s literally the gulag. Suddenly you no longer have any purpose in life ».
What is Mark Zuckerberg’s justification for this strategy?
Faced with discontent, Mark Zuckerberg tried to justify this strategic choice. He says it’s better to use the company’s engineers rather than external contractors. He estimates that the average Meta employee has a intelligence « significantly superior » to that of service providers. The objective is therefore to mobilize this internal expertise to train AI agents on real and complex tasks.
However, this justification is difficult to convince, especially when it is accompanied by a chaotic management. In its early days, the Applied AI unit was structured in such a way that a single manager could supervise up to fifty people. This organization, described as “ catastrophic » by technical director Andrew Bosworth himself, has largely contributed to the fall in morale, described as being at its lowest in 20 years.
How is Meta management reacting to this internal crisis?
The unease is not limited to the Applied AI unit. Another program, aimed at monitor clicks and employee keystrokes to collect data, has sparked an outcry, with a petition signed by more than 1,600 people. Chris Cox, the director of products, himself recognized the environment “ brutal » and the “ madness of this company » in an internal communication.
Aware of the extent of the damage, Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo to his teams. He recognizes that the reorganizations have “ caused distress », an admission which highlights the risks for mental health teams. He promised an end to mass layoffs for the year, a augmentation des budgets for team events and suggested that working within Applied AI was just a temporary stop for many talents. It remains to be seen whether these promises will be enough to restore confidence.
