Meta Inc. is slashing 600 jobs in a strategic move to boost its Artificial Intelligence team. Facebook-and-Instagram parent has spent billions to recruit top researchers from other AI research labs and companies recently.
The layoffs are happening in the Meta Super Intelligence Labs division, which is the umbrella entity for its focused AI efforts. The division has around 3,000 employees as of now.
Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang confirmed the job cuts in MSIL division through an internal memo on Oct 22, according to Business Insider. The social media giant is hoping that this move will help in creating a more efficient workflow.
“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,” Wang wrote in a memo as per news reports.
Meta has also informed its risk division that several roles in the department will be eliminated due to the enhanced internal technology that is replacing their jobs, according to Business Insider. Michel Protti, Meta’s chief compliance and privacy officer of product, informed Wednesday the risk division that it has been moving away from manual review to a more automated process, the internal memo showed. The social-media giant did not disclose the exact number of layoffs in the risk division.
Meta is encouraging employees to apply for jobs in different departments within the company and expressed confidence that most will find internal roles, as per news reports. These employees are talented and Meta needs their skillsets for different departments in the company, Wang said.
The job cuts will not affect fresh hires for Meta’s TBD Lab Unit. The unit is tasked to build the company’s next-generation AI models. The Facebook parent is still actively recruiting for this division.
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