Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth Admits Company’s AI Reorg Was ‘Bad’

Meta did it a “bad” job. to roll roll out a new piece of artificial intelligence and aims to “revive” the internal culture of happiness through better communication, job growth, and snacks, the CEO told employees Monday in an internal post seen by WIRED.

The comments by Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, follow WIRED reports last week that revealed general dissatisfaction within the Applied AI engineering unit. Meta hired about 6,500 engineers and product managers in March to work on projects aimed at improving the company’s AI models. But what the workers said that the work is despicable, led someone to say that the work is a “despicable group.”

“We have shattered your belief that your expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you will be interested,” Bosworth wrote. “We disrupted the regulatory framework that gives you stability when the rapid changes in the system, including lending/lease, left all parties vulnerable.”

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rebellion within the AI ​​community is part of a a wide swing on the ground morale at Meta due to mass layoffs, employee supervision, and other concerns among employees. In recent days, several executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have written internal messages acknowledging the employees’ views and promising changes to address them.

In a lengthy memo, Bosworth, who has long been seen as a Zuckerberg loyalist, said employees will receive more personal attention in the future. Meta plans to give managers about 20 direct reports each, he wrote, and try to reduce the number of employees who transition to new managers as part of the restructuring. He added that Meta’s leadership is committed to clarifying the causes of organizational change and organizational change. Managers will focus on management and secondly on autonomous work, and employees can have “AI coaching” tools when they decide to use them.

In response to comments on his memo about the Applied AI team, Bosworth wrote, “We obviously did a terrible job of explaining the vision, giving people a clear picture of how we can help them and their jobs in the transition, and painting a picture of how it will change over time.”

In a separate statement last Friday seen by WIRED, Maher Saba, the vice president leading the Applied AI team, told employees who were forced to join that they will now be allowed to take on other positions within Meta if they can protect them. “Moving forward, we’re going back to business as usual and giving people this agency to use what they love,” Saba said.

Bosworth stressed that Meta does not hold to the belief that AI will replace AI workers. However, he said, “We need to heed the saying, ‘AI won’t take your job but someone who knows AI can.’ He added that there will be a “hard sell for a while” around the amount of compute available to different groups to use AI tools. “We will do everything we can to be transparent and invest appropriately to minimize problems,” he wrote, urging employees to escalate any problems.

And, to boost morale, Bosworth vowed to make the company a “fun and exciting” place to work. The goal will be to “develop microkitchens,” which are places to relax inside offices with snacks and drinks, and to increase the amount of travel and the use of social activities, so that employees can spend time together in person.

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