Meta has sacked 8,000 employees – and has reportedly been tracking mouse movement and keystroke data internally. Say whaaat….
In a significant move that reflects the tech industry’s ongoing pivot toward automation, Meta has confirmed that around 10% of its global workforce will be cut.
The layoffs are set to take effect from May 20, with another 6,000 roles being eliminated or frozen.
It’s not exactly out of nowhere. The company has been steadily reshaping itself since its “Year of Efficiency” phase, and this feels like the next step — fewer people, more AI.
Internally, the cuts have been framed as a way to “offset investments,” which is doing a lot of heavy lifting. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pretty direct about where things are heading, saying AI can now handle work that used to require full teams. By his estimate, AI could be responsible for around half of Meta’s software development by the end of 2026.
That direction comes with serious spend. Meta is planning to invest between $115 billion and $135 billion into AI this year, scaling up fast as it competes with Google and OpenAI.
For employees affected, the company is offering 16 weeks of base pay, plus two weeks for every year of service, along with 18 months of health coverage.
Still, the more uncomfortable detail is the tracking. Reports suggest Meta has been monitoring things like mouse movements and keystrokes — data that can be used to train AI systems. It’s not something the company’s made a big public point about, but it shifts how this whole move reads.
Because taken together, it’s a pretty blunt picture: cut thousands of jobs, ramp up AI investment, and potentially use internal worker data to help build the systems replacing them.
Meta isn’t alone here. Microsoft has also moved this week, offering buyouts to thousands of staff as the wider industry leans harder into automation.
Markets seem to like it. But for workers, it’s another reminder of how quickly the ground is shifting — and who’s being asked to move first.
