'It's Literally the Gulag': Furious Meta Employees Speak Out on 'Soul-Crushing' AI Jobs

US megacap tech firms are slashing jobs at a record pace as AI increasingly overhauls legacy systems, cuts costs, and boosts operational efficiency. AI leader Meta Platforms is among US companies that reduced its global workforce by 8,000 jobs in May or about 10% of the company.

At the same time, the organisational restructuring is expanding Meta's Applied AI unit, where 6,500 employees have been drafted since April. The intriguing part is there is no application process for joining this unit, and workers are reportedly selected with options to join or leave the company.

The latest Wired report disclosed an out-of-control situation at a livestreamed Meta meeting recently, where an employee ranted about 'being the company's b*tch,' and asked the presenters of the call that was open to thousands of Meta employees to locate a specific Meta AI executive and 'tell him that he's a piece of sh*t.'

The rant was followed by presenters urging everyone on the call to mute before moving on with their technical talk, but some employees on the call commented about the 'spicy' start.

The incident, as reported by Wired, reflects growing tensions inside Meta's AI unit, which was established in March to support work at Meta Superintelligence Labs.

Feels Like Working at 'The Gulag'

Multiple Meta employees reportedly told Wired about the dissatisfaction with how Meta assembled the Applied AI division and the drudgework they have been assigned to enhance AI models.

'It's literally the gulag,' a Meta employee told the media outlet. 'You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week.'

Applied AI jobs involve writing puzzles and coding problems to train Meta's AI models. Workers who were hired to build new-age apps are now assembling training data for AI scientists.

Another Meta employee stressed that 'almost all' employees seem unhappy and most find the work 'soul-crushing.'

Meta Workers Push Back Against Intrusive Monitoring

Meta recently began recording US employees' clicks and keystrokes to generate AI training data, but more than 1,600 workers have signed a petition urging management to stop the process. However, Meta only scaled back a bit, allowing employees to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes only.

However, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly highlighted in a Friday internal memo that mistakes are inevitable while reiterating his pledge of no more mass layoffs in 2026. Furthermore, he plans bigger budgets for team events, a hackathon next month, and assigned desks by year as potential fixed to the growing unrest among employees.

In a meeting open to all Instagram employees, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox reportedly addressed the 'brutal' environment created by the 'insanity of this company' in recent months. At the same time, Cox applauded Instagram employees for launching features and serving nearly 2 billion users amid what he compared to 'running a marathon in the middle of a hailstorm.'

Cox had concluded by saying that he needed to reckon with how he could 'get in touch with the company again' and 'not be overearnest' about the power of AI, adding that the technology is neither God, 'nor is it the devil.'