Meta accused of using biased AI targeting for mass layoffs

More than two dozen former employees claim Meta used AI to rank workers’ performance, but failed to exclude people on medical leave.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

A group of 26 former Meta employees is suing the company over claims that it used AI tools to unfairly target workers on leave with layoffs, as reported earlier by Reuters. In the lawsuit, the employees allege Meta determined which workers to dismiss based on performance data collected by a “constellation” of internal AI tools, but failed to exclude those on parental or medical leave from its ranking system:

The layoffs mentioned in the lawsuit occurred in May as part of Meta’s plans to slash 10 percent of its staff, or around 8,000 workers. Meta’s former employees allege the company used an internal AI assistant, called Metamate, employee-trained AI agents, internal dashboards displaying AI token usage, and other tools to “score, rank, and select employees for inclusion on the termination list.”

The lawsuit accuses Meta of violating federal and state laws preventing employers from terminating workers for taking protected leave. “These claims lack merit and are not based on facts,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton tells The Verge. “Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI.”