Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth Admits the Company’s AI Reorg Was ‘Atrocious’
Key takeaways
- Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- The unrest inside the AI team is part of a broader downward swing in morale at Meta in the wake of mass layoffs, worker surveillance, and other concerns among employees.
- In the lengthy memo, Bosworth, long seen as a Zuckerberg loyalist, said that employees would receive more personalized attention going forward.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photograph: David Paul Morris/Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Meta did an “atrocious” job of rolling out a new artificial intelligence division and will aim to “rekindle” a more cheerful internal culture through better communication, career growth, and even snacks, a top executive told employees on Monday in an internal post seen by WIRED.
The comments made by Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, follow reporting by WIRED last week that revealed widespread dissatisfaction within the Applied AI engineering unit. Meta formed the division of about 6,500 engineers and product managers in March to work on projects aimed at improving the company’s generative AI models. But what workers described as the menial nature of the work prompted one to describe it as “a gulag.”
“We’ve undermined the trust you have that your specific expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you can actually have an impact,” Bosworth wrote. “We shook up the management structure that was providing you stability while rapid changes in strategy, including the boom/bust cycle of hiring, left entire teams in the lurch.”