Lawsuit Claims Meta’s Layoff Decisions Were Made by AI, Not Humans
A lawsuit filed by 26 former Meta employees alleges that the company used artificial intelligence tools to decide which 8,000 workers to lay off, a process that allegedly discriminated against those with disabilities or on protected leaves.
Twenty-six employees who were terminated by Meta have filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claiming that the company relied on AI systems to compile the layoff list. According to the complaint, Meta used a suite of internal AI tools, including a system called 'Metamate,' employee-trained 'second-brain' agents, keystroke and activity monitoring data, AI token usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance rankings. Employees were reportedly graded on their use of Meta’s AI tools, with categories such as 'AI Native,' 'AI First,' and 'AI Enabled.'
The lawsuit alleges that these monitoring tools did not account for differences caused by disabilities or protected medical and family leaves. Workers on leave or whose output was reduced by a disability were unable to accumulate the same data points, which allegedly led to their selection for layoffs.
Meta has denied the allegations, stating that workforce management decisions were made by people, not AI. The company called the claims meritless and not based on facts. This is believed to be the first lawsuit against a major U.S. company challenging the use of AI in conducting layoffs.
