Meta layoffs: Mark Zuckerberg-led firm to cut 600 jobs in AI Superintelligence Labs after pouring billions into project

Months after spending a billion dollars to acquire talent for Meta’s ambitious artificial intelligence project, Mark Zuckerberg’s AI Superintelligence Labs plans to lay off about 600 employees with the aim of being more competitive, Bloomberg reports citing an internal memo. Employees affected by the cuts were alerted Wednesday, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News, although the company’s newly formed TBD Lab group, which includes many of the highest-paid recent hires, was not affected. “By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more burdensome and have more scope and impact,” Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, wrote in a memo to colleagues. Meta is encouraging affected employees to apply for jobs elsewhere within the company, and will continue to hire for its AI teams, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details were not public. Axios previously reported on the job cuts. The downsizing is the latest move in the heated AI race by Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who are spending aggressively to keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI and Alphabet Inc. said Google. Meta has spent billions acquiring top talent from across the industry, including a $14.3 billion investment in data-tagging startup Scale AI, which led to Wang joining Meta and leading its AI efforts. (This is a breaking story, more updates to come…) (With input from Bloomberg)