Meta was accused of using AI to choose employees to fire

According to a lawsuit filed by 26 Meta employees in Oakland, California federal court, earlier this week, the company relied on criteria such as productivity and token usage (AI's basic input data unit) to fire thousands of employees earlier this year. This assessment puts people with disabilities, people who have taken time off due to health problems or to care for relatives at a disadvantage.

"Employees who take proper leave are chosen to be fired at a higher rate," the 71-page lawsuit states.

The complaint accuses Meta of failing to create a layoff list based on thorough assessments from knowledgeable managers. Instead, they use a number of internal AI systems "for scoring, ranking and selection," including the large language modeling assistant Metamate and a "second brain" that tracks employee conversations and documents. In addition, Meta scores productivity by scanning keystrokes, on-screen content, emails, and browsing history.

According to the Guardian, the plaintiff group expects the court to issue a preliminary ruling to prevent Meta from completing the dismissal while the lawsuit is considered. In addition, they also proposed remedies such as reinstating positions, paying salaries, shares, other benefits and compensation.

Previously, in May, 26 plaintiffs were informed that they would have to finish their work from July 22. Among these is a pregnant scientist who was on leave according to regulations, but received notice of dismissal just two days before giving birth. Other plaintiffs include an engineer who claims his rating was downgraded because of time off to treat an injury and a manager who is on medical leave.

A Meta spokesman on July 14 said the above accusations were unfounded, affirming that "human resource management and organizational decisions have been and are being made by humans, not AI".

According to Reuters, this may be the first lawsuit against a large US company accused of using AI to fire employees.

In May, Meta cut 10% of its global workforce, or 8,000 people. CEO Mark Zuckerberg later said there would not be any further company-wide personnel adjustments this year. These changes are part of a sweeping overhaul as the company increases its investment in AI and focuses on agents, both in products and internal workflows.