Asger Risom
After cutting thousands of jobs, Meta is now tracking employee activity to train AI systems—raising concerns about surveillance, automation and the future of work.
After laying off thousands of employees, Meta is taking a new step in its aggressive push into artificial intelligence.
The company will now monitor how its remaining workers use their computers—down to individual clicks and keystrokes.
Tracking begins
Meta has told employees it will deploy a new internal tool designed to log activity across company devices and software.
According to BBC reporting, the system—called the Model Capability Initiative—records how staff interact with their computers, with the data used to train AI systems.
A Meta spokesperson said the approach is necessary to improve automation tools. “If we’re building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them,” the spokesperson said.
The company added that safeguards are in place and that the data is not intended for other uses.
Uneasy workforce
The move lands at a sensitive moment inside the company.
Meta has already cut around 2,000 jobs this year, with expectations of further reductions. At the same time, hiring has slowed dramatically, with job listings dropping from hundreds earlier this year to just a handful.
Some employees say the new tracking measures are difficult to separate from those broader changes.
One worker described the situation as “very dystopian,” while another former employee said the initiative is “just the latest way they’re shoving AI down everyone’s throat.”
AI above all
The tracking initiative is part of a wider strategy to accelerate AI development.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence, with Meta expected to invest around $140 billion in 2026—nearly double the previous year.
The company has also made major moves to expand its capabilities, including a multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI and the launch of new systems from its Superintelligence Labs division.
Fewer people, more automation
Zuckerberg has argued that AI will fundamentally reshape how work gets done.
Earlier this year, he said that projects which once required large teams could increasingly be handled by a single highly skilled individual supported by AI tools.
The use of employee activity data to train those systems suggests that transformation is already underway inside Meta.
For workers, however, the shift raises a difficult question: as companies build AI to replicate human tasks, how much of that process will depend on closely watching the humans still doing the job?
Sources: BBC
