Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, is cutting 600 jobs in its artificial intelligence division, US media reported. The company confirmed the layoffs on Wednesday while continuing to recruit for its superintelligence lab.
FAIR and Infrastructure Teams Face Major Cuts
Axios reported that the layoffs will hit Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) unit, product-focused AI teams, and AI infrastructure groups. The newer TBD Lab unit remains unaffected. Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, in a memo cited by Axios, urged displaced employees to apply for other roles within Meta. The company expects most to find new positions internally.
Meta Refines AI Focus and Structure
Wang wrote that a smaller team will allow faster decisions and greater individual impact. Meta continues to hire for TBD Lab, which develops its large language models (LLMs). These models power tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Llama.
Unlike its competitors, Meta shares its Llama system as a semi-open source product, allowing users to modify key elements. The company claims over one billion people use its AI tools monthly. However, many observers still view Meta as trailing behind OpenAI and Google in driving widespread consumer adoption of LLMs.
