Meta is reportedly planning to cut jobs as AI spending rises

Meta is betting the farm on AI, regardless of the rising price. Now, the company is reportedly preparing to cut a fifth of its workforce through widespread layoffs, according to exclusive sources. Reuters report.

There is no specific number or date for when the cuts will occur, but senior Meta executives have reportedly asked their peers to start planning layoffs, the three anonymous sources cited by Reuters said.

A Meta representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Reuters sourcesMeta plans to work with fewer workers now as AI agents help them with their daily tasks. It also aims to reduce costs associated with ramping up AI infrastructure.

Meta is investing increasingly large sums of money to compete in the ever-evolving AI landscape, creating a “Super smart team“which you are working to achieve Artificial general intelligenceOr AGI.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally initiated a series of expensive hirings and acquisitions during the tense AI talent war, poaching the Scale AI co-founder in A deal worth $14.3 billion and Offering $100 million signing bonuses to OpenAI engineers.

Few public victories so far

CNET Artificial Intelligence expert Caitlin Al-Shadrawi He notes that Meta’s largest AI projects have yet to come to fruition.

“Meta has spent large sums of money to keep up with its ambitions in the field of artificial intelligence, from hiring to building data centers,” Al-Shadrawi said. “But all this money has not led to as many public gains as recent reports suggest it will Delaying the issuance of its new founding modelHis name is avocado. Rumors about cost-cutting measures such as layoffs are another sign of Meta’s suffering.”

Meta’s struggles with avocados are not an isolated issue for the company. In the past year, Meta has suffered a series of setbacks Bring llama models 4 To the public. Recently, Meta smart glasses powered by artificial intelligence She was in A.C Class action lawsuit Related to capturing sensitive information – including nudity and private encounters. High meta costs are likely partly related to these frustrations with AI.

The rumored layoffs wouldn’t be the first time Meta executives have committed to cutting such a massive portion of its workforce. However, this will be the first time this has happened since the company has been focusing strongly towards developing its own AI models. Meta laid off 21,000 employees Between 2022 and 2023.

If these layoffs happen, Meta will be far from the only Silicon Valley giant cutting costs by laying off workers in the age of artificial intelligence. Over the past few months, such as major companies Amazon, roadblock and Atlantic It announced layoffs affecting thousands of employees, citing increasing reliance on artificial intelligence tools as a motivating factor.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg told investors that he saw “projects that used to require large teams now being done by one very talented person.”

Meta continues to increase its spending on AI projects and platforms. The company was recently purchased multibooka social networking platform for artificial intelligence, which is Buying Chinese startup Manus For 2 billion dollars. Reuters reports The company still plans to spend $600 billion on data centers by 2028.