Meta AI faces internal revolt as employees call new unit 'soul-crushing gulag'

Meta's months-old AI unit is a soul-crushing gulag, say the engineers stuck inside it

Anyone who works at Meta or knows anyone who works at Meta will tell you the same thing: it is not a happy place, particularly given the seemingly endless layoffs the company has executed over the last few years -- cuts that have only accelerated as the company funnels billions into AI. Now, a new report in Wired suggests the company's Applied AI team is on the verge of revolt. The drama kicked off when someone hijacked a livestreamed, employee-only presentation this week with an expletive-laden meltdown, demanding that attendees tell a senior Meta AI executive that he was "a piece of sh_t." One presenter reportedly covered their face with their hands. That outburst, Wired reports, reflects simmering rage inside the three-month-old unit of roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers who have been tasked with supporting the company's AI research ambitions. Employees describe being forced into the group with no real choice: join or quit. Many call themselves "draftees." Their assigned work? Generating puzzles and coding problems to train AI models. "It's literally the gulag," one employee told Wired. "Most people find the work soul-crushing," said another. Meanwhile, more than 1,600 Meta employees across the company have signed a petition protesting a program that monitors their clicks and keystrokes for AI training data. Even Meta's chief product officer, Chris Cox, called the current environment "brutal" in a call with employees this week. TechCrunch has reached out to Meta for comment. The Applied AI team is led by Maher Saba, who was previously a vice president in Meta's Reality Labs division, according to earlier reports. The new organization reports up to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth. Originally, it was structured in such a way that up to 50 employees reported to one manager. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for his part, reportedly addressed the situation in an internal memo Friday, acknowledging that recent changes had "caused distress" and admitting the company had made mistakes that it plans to address. According to Wired, he added in his memo that "Meta's north star is to be the best place for the most talented people in the world to make an impact."

Meta Employees Absolutely Hate Zuckerberg's Plan for a Companywide AI Hackathon

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's internal announcement on Friday about a "large" companywide AI hackathon next month quickly sparked frustration and disbelief among employees. In internal messages seen by WIRED, some workers wrote that added responsibilities in the wake of recent mass layoffs at the tech giant had left them with little time to join such ancillary activities. Others said they felt discouraged from participating because of what they viewed as low morale and declining trust in management across the company. "I'm literally preoccupied with keeping the lights on for my team," one employee wrote on Friday. "I have no incentive to participate, let alone have the time to do so." In a post shared to Meta's roughly 70,000 employees, Zuckerberg framed the hackathon as a way for staff to build camaraderie at a time of widespread internal unrest. Ime Archibong, a vice president of product management at Meta, later shared additional details about the event, which he said would take place from July 14 to July 16 and focus "exclusively on AI Innovation." Archibong's post drew swift pushback from several employees, who responded with angry messages and sarcastic memes. "I'm not sure that this company supports a hackathon culture anymore," one employee wrote in a comment that drew more than 200 thumbs-up and heart reactions. "People are being asked to cover more work with less support while their colleagues get laid off, while also trying to avoid the risk of causing SEV1s [serious technical errors] with incautious AI use." The same employee alleged that hackathon efforts would not count toward performance evaluations, fueling frustration among the workers about the prospect of setting aside other projects to participate. Dozens of people also reacted with laughs and thumbs-up to a meme inspired by the comedy film We're the Millers, stating, "You all have the time for a hackathon?" "I honestly don't have the time to focus on this, and I'm expected to be 100% devoted" to regular work, another employee wrote. "I've participated in previous hackathons but this no longer feels like an option alongside pod sprints in my corner of the company." A third staffer called out what they described as "a disappointing change in culture" because "I don't believe there is sufficient feeling of safety to spend time on hackathon innovations." Meta declined to comment for this story. Got a Tip?Are you a current or former Meta employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporters securely on Signal Peard33.24 and at Mzeff.88. Meta has long hosted internal hackathons, but two sources tell WIRED this is the first companywide one to take place since 8,000 people were laid off last month. A Meta software engineering veteran responded to some of the employee complaints by saying that everyone is encouraged to participate. But the message still didn't quite land. "Every org I know has super aggressive goals, with efficiency gains expected and significantly less staffing," an employee commented back. "There's less time for focusing on other axis." The hackathon was one of several initiatives Zuckerberg laid out on Friday to reenergize his workforce and address internal criticism about the recent layoffs and other concerns. He said budgets for team offsites would increase and that the concept of hot desking, or workers only in the office part of the time having to share desks, would be done away with in some offices. Last year, some workers banded together to survey colleagues about the removal of their desks and the chaos and loss productivity they believe it caused, according to a person familiar with the efforts who sought anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. The group urged management to return to every employee having their own space. The layoffs appear to have opened up room, while leaving less time to hack.

'Tell Him He's a Piece of Shit': Meta's New AI Unit Is a Total Mess

Someone interrupted a livestreamed, employee-only presentation at Meta earlier this week with an expletive-filled outburst about "being the company's bitch," according to a recording heard by WIRED. The individual then asked the people leading the call to write to a specific Meta AI executive and "tell him that he's a piece of shit." One of the presenters covered their face with their hands, according to a witness. (The speaker could not be reached for comment, and the meeting's two leaders moved on with their technical talk after asking everyone to mute, though employees commented on the stream about the "spicy" start.) The incident, which took place on a call open to thousands of employees, reflects growing frustration inside the company's Applied AI team, which was formed in March to support the work of AI researchers at Meta Superintelligence Labs. Three current employees tell WIRED there is widespread dissatisfaction with how Meta assembled the unit of about 6,500 engineers and product managers and the drudgework they allege they have been assigned to improve AI models. Each spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. "It's literally the gulag," one of the employees claims. "You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week." Another employee describes some of the tasks -- generating puzzles to test how reliably AI models from Meta and other companies can solve them -- as easy compared to the software development work they had been doing previously. But the new projects feel menial and "almost all" employees seem unhappy, they say. "Most people find the work soul-crushing," the third employee says. Meta declined to comment for this story. Got a Tip?Are you a current or former Meta employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporters securely on Signal at peard33.24 and zoeschiffer.87. Applied AI isn't the only unit where tensions are boiling over and contributing to what workers describe as record-low morale. The company's AI-focused restructuring, which included 10 percent of the company, or 8,000 employees, being let go last month has generated extra work and stress throughout several divisions, including data center engineering and Instagram, several current and former employees tell WIRED. Across the company, more than 1,600 employees have signed a petition demanding that Meta stop a recently launched initiative to monitor US employees' clicks and keystrokes to generate AI training data. (The company has scaled back the program slightly, allowing employees to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes and request specific exemptions). During a meeting this week open to all employees at Instagram, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox addressed the "difficult" and "brutal" environment created by the "insanity of this company" in the past few months, according to a recording heard by WIRED. Cox applauded Instagram employees for launching features and serving around 2 billion users amid what he compared to "running a marathon in the middle of a hailstorm and then, like, your teammate gets replaced and then we're recording you." "It's like what the fuck," he said, drawing laughs, before repeating himself. "It is like what the fuck." Cox said he needed to reckon with how he and other leaders could "get in touch with the company again" and "not be overearnest" about the power of AI. "It is neither god, nor is it the devil," he said. "And it's nowhere near as good as you think it is, and it is nowhere near as bad as you think it is. And it changes every week ... and it doesn't know what day of the week it is." In an internal memo on Friday seen by WIRED, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that recent organizational changes had caused distress across Meta. "Given the complexity of these changes, we've made mistakes and will almost certainly make more," he wrote. "As we navigate this period, I'm also focused on providing as much stability going forward as possible." Zuckerberg reiterated a vow to not carry out additional mass layoffs this year. He introduced a plan to limit the number of employees per manager, which on some teams, such as Applied AI, had deliberately ballooned to a ratio of 50 to one. Budgets for team events would increase, he said, and a large hackathon planned for next month could also help bring the company together. By the end of the year, employees in many locations would have assigned desks again, the CEO wrote. "Talented People" Zuckerberg's memo also addressed the allegedly dismal situation in Applied AI directly, referring to the unit by its acronym. He suggested the team was a waypoint, not a destination. "Work like AAI is critical to advancing our models and it lets very talented people contribute to those efforts while we create other roles they can contribute to around Meta over the coming months as well," he wrote. Engineers selected for the unit have no choice but to join or leave the company, an unusual requirement for highly valued technical employees in Silicon Valley. That's led some members of Applied AI to describe themselves as "draftees." The organization has grown in batches since early April. "It's crazy to watch people experience the shock of it as each wave comes in," an early member of Applied AI says. Some employees are being asked to finish two tasks per week. These involve generating complex software coding problems to help AI scientists better train and evaluate the performance of the latest frontier models. Some of the work is meant to help develop AI agents that generate software or other outputs. One worker describes the assignment as "mechanical and not creative" and certainly "not using their full skillset and knowledge." They feel they were hired to develop social media apps for billions of people, but now find themselves assembling data for hundreds of AI scientists to feed to computer chips. Meta released pioneering open-weights AI models three years ago, but has had mixed results with subsequent releases. Applied AI is among several expensive initiatives Zuckerberg has spun up in hopes that the company can better compete in the growing market for AI services. Zuckerberg noted in his memo that, unlike some other AI labs, "automating work" was not Meta's primary focus. "The products we'll build will range from much more personalized Instagram and Facebook experiences and glasses that help you throughout the day to better tools for small businesses to thrive and create jobs, and personal superintelligence agents that understand your goals and work 24/7 on your behalf to help in the ways you want," he wrote. To get there, he said, "Meta's north star is to be the best place for the most talented people in the world to make an impact."

Meta employees are revolting against its AI rules and it's a lesson for us all

Employee frustration is spilling into public view as Meta doubles down on AI Meta's aggressive push into artificial intelligence is facing growing resistance from an unexpected group: its own employees. According to a recent report from WIRED, frustration inside Meta has reached a boiling point following a series of AI-related restructuring efforts, layoffs, and workplace policies. The tensions became public this week when an employee interrupted a company-wide livestream with an expletive-filled rant directed at Meta's AI leadership, shocking thousands of colleagues watching the presentation. Recommended Videos The incident may sound like an isolated outburst, but employees say it reflects a much broader problem inside the company. Over the past several months, Meta has reorganized large parts of its workforce around artificial intelligence, creating new teams tasked with helping improve and evaluate AI models. The company has simultaneously invested heavily in its AI ambitions while restructuring existing divisions and reducing headcount. One of the most controversial initiatives has been the creation of Applied AI, a unit reportedly comprising around 6,500 engineers and product managers. Employees interviewed by WIRED described the work as repetitive and disconnected from the jobs they were originally hired to do. Some reportedly spend their time creating coding challenges and test cases used to train and evaluate AI systems rather than building products directly used by customers. AI ambition is colliding with employee morale The dissatisfaction extends beyond a single team. According to the report, Meta's recent AI-focused restructuring coincided with layoffs affecting roughly 10% of the workforce, or around 8,000 employees. Workers across multiple divisions reportedly describe morale as being at historic lows as teams adapt to new priorities and additional workloads. Another flashpoint has been Meta's effort to collect employee activity data for AI training purposes. More than 1,600 employees reportedly signed a petition opposing a program designed to monitor clicks and keystrokes on company devices. Following the backlash, Meta adjusted the initiative by allowing workers to pause data collection temporarily and request exemptions in certain cases. Even senior executives have acknowledged the turmoil. During an internal meeting, Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox reportedly described the recent environment as "difficult" and "brutal," while comparing the company's situation to running a marathon during a hailstorm. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also admitted in an internal memo that the company had made mistakes during the restructuring process and promised greater stability moving forward. The situation highlights a broader AI challenge The events unfolding at Meta illustrate a growing challenge facing the technology industry. As companies race to build more advanced AI systems, many are asking employees to change roles, learn new skills, and contribute to projects that may feel disconnected from their original expertise. While executives often focus on technological progress, workers can experience these shifts very differently. Meta argues that its AI investments are necessary to build future products, including smarter social media experiences, AI assistants, and next-generation wearable devices. Zuckerberg has repeatedly described AI as central to the company's long-term strategy. However, the employee backlash serves as a reminder that successful AI adoption is not only about technology. It also depends on trust, transparency, and ensuring workers understand how they fit into a rapidly changing future. For Meta, the challenge now is not just building better AI models. It is convincing its own employees that they want to help build them.