365
Departing Meta staffer posts biting anti-AI video internally amid mass layoffs
(www.motherjones.com)
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
365 points (98.7% liked)
Technology
84875 readers
5267 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Smart enough to see their work is causing massive harm on a global scale? I know we all need jobs because capitalism commodifies life, but we CAN choose where we work.
Edit to add: if these very smart people were able to land jobs at Meta, they're likely very employable elsewhere and the CHOSEto work for Meta.
For people who have been there for a while, remember that there's almost certainly an internal propaganda campaign trying to refute any negative stories that come out about Meta. I've heard enough from people who have interacted with Meta employees to know that it's almost a cult; and when you're getting paid twice a month, it probably doesn't feel as toxic and more transactional. That probably makes it more of a frog-boiling than it would seem from the outside; even smart people can get taken in by a cult.
People who have started more recently, though, have less of an excuse.
Fully agree, while people losing jobs to ai is sad i have no sympathies for meta employees. They knew pretty well how insidious that company is, and as you said, they are smart enough to find a good enough job in another company.
A bit off topic, but all this ai stuff replacing so many jobs is a bit baffling to me. At least for certain jobs. It's not like in the industrial revolution where you could see tangible results in production and efficiency. Even if it come at a terrible human cost you could see the cold logic.
Here in change, they are firing good talent only to get a subpar costlier replacement. Sure there are some places where it works, but i don't believe it's yet to the scale where you would fire so many people.
I suppose the wet dreams of a future with no employees is too good to pass.
I heard some statements that the "AI" justification is just on paper. Maybe partly because it's an easy out, and/or to keep the stick bridge looking sustainable. But that it's in reality not directly tied to any specific takeover of these individuals' work being presently or immediately taken over, and likely not efficiently either, by software. I'm not too deep into the economy so please only regard this as speculation until you can verify.
Now that you tell me, I think i have heard about that before. It does make a bit of sense, there may be some of both things to this madness. While speculation i value the observation and i will keep it mind, thank you for sharing it.
Savings on salaries means more profit next quarter. Line must go up.