Meta’s three-month-old Applied AI team, comprising roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers, is struggling with low morale and internal dissent, according to a new report from Wired. The unit was formed to support the company’s AI research ambitions, but employees describe being forced into the group with little choice—join or quit. Many refer to themselves as “draftees.”

Their primary tasks involve generating puzzles and coding problems used to train AI models. One employee told Wired the work is “literally the gulag,” while another called it “soul-crushing.” The discontent spilled into public view this week when someone hijacked an internal livestreamed presentation, unleashing an expletive-filled rant that demanded attendees tell a senior AI executive he was “a piece of sh_t.” One presenter reportedly covered their face.

Beyond the Applied AI team, more than 1,600 Meta employees have signed a petition protesting a program that monitors their clicks and keystrokes for AI training data. Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, described the current environment as “brutal” during an internal call this week. CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in a Friday memo that recent changes had “caused distress” and admitted the company made mistakes it plans to address. He added that Meta’s “north star is to be the best place for the most talented people in the world to make an impact.”

The Applied AI team is led by Maher Saba, a former Reality Labs VP, and reports to CTO Andrew Bosworth. The unit was initially structured so that up to 50 employees reported to one manager. TechCrunch has reached out to Meta for comment.

Source: TechCrunch