Meta's months-old AI unit is a soul-crushing gulag, say the engineers stuck inside it | TechCrunch
Short summary
A Wired report reveals deep discontent within Meta’s three-month-old Applied AI team, where 6,500 employees were “drafted” into grueling data-labeling work or forced out. Internal outbursts, petitions against keystroke monitoring, and surprise reassignments have left engineers calling the unit a “soul-crushing gulag.” Leadership acknowledges the mistakes and low morale in an internal memo.
- Meta reassigned 6,500 engineers into an "Applied AI" unit to do data-labeling grunt work, with no real choice but to comply or quit, and morale has collapsed to the point employees call it a "soul-crushing gulag"
- Someone hacked a livestreamed internal presentation to call a senior AI executive "a piece of sh*t," reflecting broader anger over the forced reassignments
- Over 1,600 employees signed a petition opposing keystroke and click monitoring used to generate AI training data
- Zuckerberg and Chief Product Officer Chris Cox have both acknowledged internally that the situation is bad, with Cox calling the environment "brutal" and Zuckerberg admitting mistakes while promising fixes
Full summary
Meta’s Applied AI unit—roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers drafted into a three-month-old team—has turned toxic. Last week someone hacked a livestreamed, employee-only presentation and launched into a profanity-laced tirade, calling a senior AI executive “a piece of sh*t.” One presenter hid their face; others watched in stunned silence. That meltdown reflects deep frustration over being “draftees” with no real choice but to join or quit, churning out coding puzzles and tasks to train Meta’s AI models.
Employees say morale is at rock bottom. Many describe the work as “soul-crushing” and liken it to a gulag. They were told via surprise emails that Meta’s AI still can’t code at human levels and needs real examples from staff. In a leaked audio clip, Mark Zuckerberg explained they’d tap employees because they’re smarter than outside contractors, praising Alexandr Wang, who sold Scale AI to Meta for $14.3 billion and now oversees Superintelligence Labs.
The frustration stretches beyond Applied AI. Over 1,600 Meta staffers have signed a petition against monitoring their clicks and keystrokes for training data. On a company-wide call, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox warned employees the environment was “brutal.” Zuckerberg later sent an internal memo admitting mistakes and promising fixes, while reaffirming his goal of making Meta “the best place for the most talented people in the world to make an impact.” Meta declined to comment to TechCrunch.