To train AI, Meta is tracking employees’ clicks

In the Big Tech version of driving someone into the woods and handing them a shovel, Meta told US employees that it’s installing mandatory keystroke-tracking software on their computers to help train the company’s AI agents, Reuters reported this week.

The internal announcement stated that AI models “still lack some of the basic ways that humans use computers like choosing from dropdowns and keyboard shortcuts,” so “all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work.”

The humans are not happy. According to Business Insider:

• The top-rated comment on the internal memo was “this makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?”
• “There is no option to opt out,” Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth responded, drawing a wave of crying, shocked, and angry emoji reactions.

Bosworth previously told employees that Meta would ramp up its internal data collection to build toward a future where “our agents primarily do the work and our role is ‌to direct, review and help them improve,” he said.

Meanwhile…as Meta (and every other tech titan) turbocharges its AI spending, the Facebook and Instagram parent company plans to lay off 10% of its global workforce next month, with more cuts expected in tandem with AI advancements, Reuters reported.—ML