Meta Employees Say,
AI Training Work Has Become a ‘Soul-Crushing’ Experience
News Desk
16 June 2026, 13:34
Meta Platforms is facing growing internal unrest after reports emerged that employees inside its newly formed Applied AI division are deeply unhappy with their work conditions and responsibilities.
According to a report by Wired, tensions inside the three-month-old AI unit recently boiled over when an employee hijacked an internal livestream and launched an expletive-filled rant targeting a senior Meta AI executive.
The incident reportedly reflects broader frustration within the team of around 6,500 engineers and product managers, who have been tasked with supporting Meta's expanding artificial intelligence ambitions.
Employees reportedly had little choice
The controversy began earlier this year when many employees learned through email that they had been reassigned to the Applied AI group.
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Employees say they were effectively given two options: join the unit or leave the company. Many internally refer to themselves as "draftees." Their primary responsibility involves generating coding challenges and puzzles to train AI models.
One employee described the work to Wired as "literally the gulag," while another called it "soul-crushing."
AI data collection sparks wider protests
The dissatisfaction extends beyond the Applied AI division. More than 1,600 Meta employees have reportedly signed a petition protesting an internal program that monitors clicks and keystrokes to collect training data for AI systems.
The growing frustration reportedly prompted Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox to address what he described as a "brutal" work environment during a recent employee meeting.
Zuckerberg acknowledges employee concerns
According to leaked audio from an earlier meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the decision to use employees instead of outside contractors for AI data work. He reportedly said that Meta employees possess significantly higher levels of expertise than third-party contractors, making them better suited for the task.
In an internal memo circulated on Friday, Zuckerberg acknowledged that recent organizational changes had caused distress and admitted that the company had made mistakes that it plans to address. He also reiterated Meta's ambition to become "the best place for the most talented people in the world to make an impact."
Leadership of the new AI unit
The Applied AI organization is reportedly led by Maher Saba, a longtime Meta executive who previously worked in the company's Reality Labs division. The unit reports to Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth.
The turmoil comes as Meta continues to invest heavily in artificial intelligence, pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure, talent and data collection in an effort to compete with rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
The latest reports suggest that while Meta's AI ambitions continue to grow, maintaining employee morale may be becoming one of the company's biggest challenges.
