To what extent the obsession with artificial intelligence of technology companies is an unavoidable bet, or a paranoia that they will regret, time will tell. At the moment they have already invested more than what it cost to build the railway. Some giants like Meta are shaking the foundations of the company to give absolute priority to AI.
According to the medium Bloombergvia The Vergesources familiar with the matter assure that Meta plans to lay off 15,800 workers in the coming days. That represents 20% of their staff.
Meta already laid off 1,500 employees just a few weeks ago, affecting its mixed reality division, the one most affected by this change of direction towards AI.
New layoffs in Meta
The source does not indicate which areas will be affected, there may be more cuts at Reality Labsthe Meta section in charge of augmented and virtual reality projects. There will also be cuts in areas of marketing and software, basically everything that does not have to do with AI.
Social networks are saved because they are the laboratory where AI projects will be tested, and the fastest way to implement that AI in users, whether they want it or not.
At the moment, Meta is located in the second division of the AI market, with products that are not as relevant as those of OpenAI, Google or Microsoft.
In recent months, Meta has invested billions of dollars in AI data centers, hiring experts, and purchasing experiments like MoltBook.
And as always happens, when there are large expenses and cuts come, the first to pay are the workers.
If these are confirmed 15,800 layoffsit would be the second largest “batch” in the entire history of Meta. At the end of 2022, it laid off 22,000 employees.
Company spokesman Andy Stone said: “This is speculative information about theoretical approaches.” We will see if in the end all these layoffs are carried out, or only a part.