Lawsuit Alleges Meta Used AI for Layoffs, Impacting Vulnerable Workers
A lawsuit filed by 26 former employees claims Meta used AI systems to select workers for layoffs, allegedly targeting those with disabilities or on protected leaves.
Meta Platforms is facing a lawsuit alleging that the company's AI systems were improperly used to select employees for its large-scale layoffs, which impacted approximately 8,000 workers. The complaint, filed yesterday by 26 "Doe" plaintiffs in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, claims the selection process unfairly targeted individuals with disabilities or those who had taken protected medical or family leave.
According to the lawsuit, Meta did not rely on the considered judgment of managers but instead utilized a constellation of internal artificial intelligence systems. These reportedly included a system internally referred to as 'Metamate,' employee-trained 'second-brain' agents, keystroke and activity monitoring data, AI token usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance ranking and calibration.
The lawsuit further alleges that employees were graded, in part, on their usage of Meta's internal AI tools. Meta's internal dashboards reportedly classified employees by their adoption stage of AI tools, using categories such as 'AI Native,' 'AI First,' and 'AI Enabled.'
The plaintiffs are seeking answers regarding the specific criteria used for their terminations. Meta has not yet publicly commented on the lawsuit. This case highlights growing concerns about the deployment of AI in workforce management and its potential for discriminatory outcomes.