Not a phase of abandonment, on the contrary, a phase of concentration of efforts. The Meta group (Facebook, Instagram) has decided to eliminate about 600 positions within its division dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) to rationalize its operations after a major hiring campaign, US media reported on Wednesday.
Meta’s decision is intended, according to the New York Times, to respond to its “organizational growth”, following a considerable recruitment campaign organized to strengthen its AI resources. According to a memo sent by Meta’s AI CEO Alexandr Wang, these job cuts will mean that “fewer discussions will be needed to make decisions.” What the group’s managers internally call an “agility-oriented restructuring.”
Reorganization rather than dismissal
According to the Wall Street Journal, many of the employees affected by this measure could remain at Meta by changing positions. Because it’s not about Meta abandoning the AI race. These layoffs will, a priori, mainly affect FAIR, Fundamental AI Research, the unit originally led by Yann Le Cun.
But, as Axios points out, at the source of the information, Meta is still hiring for its new TBD Lab structure, which focuses primarily on training reasoning models and increasing their power. These two structures are two of the four units located within Meta, along with Products and Applied Research and MSL Infrastructure.
However, to fill the ranks of TBD Lab, Meta has stolen millions of dollars and shares from big names in the field of artificial intelligence in recent months. Additionally, many of the affected employees will be redirected to another unit.
Accelerating towards superintelligence
Meta is investing heavily in AI, to the point that Mark Zuckerberg openly states that he is willing to “waste a few hundred billion dollars” if it means staying in this innovation race. It wants to regain ground against its competitors in the race for “superintelligence”, a hypothetical technology with cognitive abilities superior to those of humans, the holy grail of California’s Silicon Valley. This reorganization should help move more quickly towards this smarter-than-human AI, although it is worrying.
In mid-September, Meta presented connected glasses that integrate a screen in the lenses and extensive AI functions, continuing its commitment to the fusion between the real and virtual world.
The group announced in August the launch in California of an organization aimed at financing local candidates in favor of less strict regulation of AI in the face of Chinese competition. Under the Californian sky two trends seem to oppose each other: one that wants to advance more cautiously and another that wants to go all out.
Source: BFM TV
