Meta cuts 600 AI jobs while ramping up hiring in race against rivals

Meta is cutting roughly 600 jobs in its artificial intelligence division as the tech giant seeks to accelerate decision-making and boost competitiveness against AI rivals. The layoffs target workers in Meta’s superintelligence lab, which employs several thousand people working toward CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of bringing “superintelligence” — AI that surpasses human intelligence — to everyone.

What you should know: The job cuts reflect Meta’s strategy to streamline operations while maintaining its massive AI investments and hiring spree.

• Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang explained in a Wednesday memo that “by reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact.”
• Affected employees learned of potential job losses on Wednesday but can apply for other roles within the company.
• The layoffs won’t impact Meta’s newly formed TBD Lab Unit, where prominent researchers and engineers work on next-generation foundation models.

The hiring paradox: Despite the cuts, Meta continues aggressive AI talent acquisition with lucrative compensation packages.

• The company recently hired Wang from Scale AI, a San Francisco startup specializing in data labeling and annotation for large language models.
• Wang founded Scale AI and served as its CEO before joining Meta, which also invested $14.3 billion in the startup.
• Meta’s total workforce reached 75,945 employees as of June 30, representing a 7% year-over-year increase.

Why this matters: Meta is racing to maintain its position in the intensifying AI competition against Google, Microsoft, and emerging startups rapidly releasing new products and features.

• The company has been investing billions in AI initiatives, building new data centers, developing AI-enabled hardware like smart glasses, and launching dedicated AI applications.
• Meta’s AI research predates OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch in 2022, but the competitive landscape has dramatically accelerated since then.

Broader context: The job cuts highlight ongoing workforce anxiety about AI automation potentially replacing human roles, even as tech companies continue strategic layoffs for reasons beyond AI implementation.