Meta to lay off 600 AI jobs amid reorganization

Meta is cutting roughly 600 positions from its superintelligence lab as part of a wider effort to streamline its AI operations, Axios reported Wednesday.

Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang told staff in a memo that the move aims to reduce internal bureaucracy, allowing employees to have more impact and responsibility.

The layoffs follow a busy summer of hiring, during which Meta attracted over 50 top AI researchers from competitors with multimillion-dollar packages. 

Cuts will affect FAIR AI research, product-related AI, and AI infrastructure, but TBD Lab remains untouched.

Despite the reductions, Meta plans to maintain overall headcount and assist affected employees in new roles within the company.

The reorganization comes as the Mark Zuckerberg company is positioning itself to compete more effectively with rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google while keeping its AI teams agile and focused.