In brief
Meta has initiated a program to monitor employees' keystrokes and mouse clicks to gather data for training AI tools. The move, branded as the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), has sparked anxiety among staff, especially amidst ongoing job cuts. Employees fear that their work habits will be exploited while the company pushes for AI advancements, with Meta reportedly planning a substantial increase in AI investment over the coming years.
Meta will start tracking the way employees work, including their keystrokes and mouse clicks, to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The company, which owns Instagram and Facebook, told workers on Tuesday that a new tool will run on Meta's computers and internal apps, logging their activity to be used as training data for AI technology.
A Meta spokesman told the BBC: If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them.
The data is not used for any other purpose, he said, adding that the tool has safeguards in place to protect sensitive content.
However, one Meta employee, who asked not to be identified, expressed concern about having their smallest actions on a computer used to train AI models as workers expect a slew of additional job cuts, describing it as very dystopian.
Meta has already laid off around 2,000 employees this year in smaller rounds of cuts, and deeper job losses are anticipated within the company. The tracking tool is called the Model Capability Initiative or MCI, as reported by Reuters.
Meta plans to invest approximately $140bn in AI in 2026, nearly doubling its previous year's commitment. The company's recent AI efforts include acquiring nearly half of Scale AI for $14bn to bolster its capabilities.
Mark Zuckerberg has stated that 2026 will be transformative for AI in the workplace, indicating a paradigm shift in how projects are executed, highlighting the potential for significant efficiency gains.
