Meta redirects 7,000 top staff to train its AI models

Meta has reassigned 7,000 of its highest‑performing employees to newly created Applied AI teams, a move described by the company as a way to accelerate the training of its artificial‑intelligence models. The staff were given compulsory transfer notices shortly after the firm announced a wave of layoffs that saw 8,000 workers receive termination letters. The reallocation is overseen by Maher Saba, vice‑president of engineering, who reports directly to chief‑technology officer Andrew Bosworth, and includes placement in specialised pods such as the Agent Transformation Accelerator. Employees have reacted with a mix of relief at being “selected” and uncertainty about their new roles, as discussions on internal forums reveal. Zuckerberg’s strategy aims to use the expertise of its own talent pool to close the gap with rivals like OpenAI and Google, turning human performance into high‑quality training data for Meta’s AI systems.