Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, cut 600 jobs in its artificial intelligence division, US media reported. The company confirmed the layoffs on Wednesday while continuing to hire new employees for its superintelligence lab.
FAIR and AI Infrastructure Teams Face Major Reductions
Axios revealed the cuts impact Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) unit, product-focused AI teams, and AI infrastructure groups. The newer TBD Lab remains untouched. Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang told employees in a memo that Meta encourages affected staff to seek other internal roles. Most are expected to secure new positions within the company.
Wang wrote that smaller teams enable faster decisions, stronger accountability, and broader impact for each employee. The California-based firm continues hiring for TBD Lab, which develops Meta’s latest large language models (LLMs). These models power tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s own Llama.
Meta’s Open-Source AI Strategy Draws Contrast
Meta continues to follow a unique AI strategy. The company offers its Llama system as a semi–open-source platform, allowing public use and modification of key components. Over one billion people use Meta’s AI tools monthly. However, analysts say Meta still trails competitors such as OpenAI and Google in driving widespread consumer adoption of large language models.
