It seems Mark Zuckerberg is not going easy on his workforce. The Meta CEO has confirmed that the company is tracking employees’ activity at work and more layoffs could still happen. According to a report from The Information, the social media giant has started using a new internal tracking system on work devices.
This AI tool records things like mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and even occasional screen snapshots. While this raised concerns among employees, the US-based social media giant says the purpose is not to monitor productivity but to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
According to the report, the internal tool — called Model Capability Initiative (MCI) — is designed to capture how humans interact with computers. This includes actions like selecting options from menus or using keyboard shortcuts.
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The report claimed that Meta is planning to use this data to make its AI systems smarter and more human-like. During a meeting, Zuckerberg explained the thinking behind this move.
“One basic insight and hypothesis that we have is that a lot of data generation across the field is done by these contract companies. In general, the average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks if you’re working through these contractors,” he was quoted as saying.
In simple terms, Zuckerberg-owned company believes its own employees can provide better-quality data compared to external contractors and that could give it an edge in the AI race.
At the same time, the platform is also preparing for more job cuts. Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said layoffs are still on the table.
“Will there be more layoffs? The question always comes up. I’d love to say that there are no more layoffs, but I can’t say something we can’t deliver. While the business is strong, priorities change, competition is fierce, and we will continue to manage our costs responsibly,” she said.
Zuckerberg also clarified that AI is not directly replacing jobs but it is making smaller teams more efficient.
