Meta deployed an AI system to decide which employees to fire. The AI apparently discriminated against workers with disabilities. Current and former employees filed a lawsuit. This marks the first time in human history that a company f*cked up layoffs.
The algorithm looked at performance data and made termination recommendations. Nobody checked if the robot understood the Americans with Disabilities Act. Turns out feeding employee metrics into a black box and hitting the fire button creates legal problems. Who could have predicted that?
Mark Zuckerberg spent billions building the metaverse that nobody wanted. He then cut costs by letting software choose which humans to eliminate. The efficiency is breathtaking. Why waste management's time on messy conversations about job performance when you can automate discrimination at scale?
The lawsuit claims the AI system failed to account for disability accommodations and disproportionately targeted workers who needed them. Meta saved money on severance consultants. They will now spend it on employment lawyers.
Tech companies have been using AI to screen job applicants for years. Meta innovated by using it on the back end. Fire people with the same indifference you used to ignore their resumes. The circle is complete.
Some retail traders still hold META stock because they believe in the long-term vision of virtual reality headsets. These same people now own shares in a company that outsourced its layoff decisions to an algorithm that might violate federal law. But sure, buy the dip.
The real breakthrough here is that Meta found a way to make layoffs even more dehumanizing than they already were. Most companies at least pretend a person made the decision. Meta let the machine do it and called it progress until the lawyers showed up.
Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash
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