Meta faces internal pushback amid AI development efforts

Mark Zuckerberg wanted Meta to become an AI-native company. The company’s own employees had a different term for the experience: a “soul-crushing gulag.” The great reassignment In spring 2026, Meta moved approximately 6,500 to 7,000 engineers into its Applied AI unit, tasking them with training data work. For many of these engineers, people who were hired to build consumer products or infrastructure, the shift felt less like a career opportunity and more like a demotion dressed up in corporate strategy language. Employee sentiment tells the story in stark numerical terms. Favorable ratings inside Meta dropped from 74% to 55% during the restructuring period. CTO Andrew Bosworth acknowledged that morale had sunk to levels resembling previous company crises. Then came the layoffs. In May 2026, Meta cut roughly 10% of its workforce, eliminating around 8,000 positions. Those cuts were actually the restrained version: internal plans under what was called Project OT had contemplated reducing headcount by up to 60%, a target that was ultimately abandoned as the backlash intensified. When surveillance met resistance Launched in April 2026, the Model Capability Initiative was designed to tra...