Meta to lay off 10% of workforce, invest more in AI

[0:00] Facebook and Instagram's parent company says it's cutting 10 percent of its workforce. [0:04] Meta says it'll lay off about 8000 employees starting next month. The company's also canceling [0:09] plans to fill 6000 open roles as it plans to invest more on developing artificial intelligence. [0:14] ABC's contributor and Google tech policy fellow Mike Muse is here for more. Hi Mike are these [0:19] layoffs a direct result of AI. They are in the sense of the way that Meta is reprioritizing its [0:28] efforts within artificial intelligence. What Meta is doing is reducing the redundancy of positions [0:36] that they have in order to focus on more efficient ways to create AI products that they would like to [0:42] deploy. I also think what's really interesting about this is the 6000 open jobs that are now closed. [0:48] What that signals to me is that Meta is clear on its priorities signaling going forward that it will [0:54] be focused on AI. Diane the challenge that Meta has and all other big tech companies is the cost of [1:01] designing, building, researching and creating artificial intelligence. Part of that research [1:07] that is needed is the data centers that are needed to have so much energy or what we call compute in [1:14] the tech world to power the research and the development of these tools. That is very capital [1:19] intensive. And so in order to have that capital what this is signaling is Mark Zuckerberg is saying [1:25] the amount of spend that he is willing to do in order to build that infrastructure. And so part of [1:30] that is the reduction of workforce in order to offset to be more cash intensive for capital [1:37] infrastructure projects such as data centers. Microsoft's also looking to cut nearly 9000 workers [1:43] and offering buyouts. Is this part of a larger trend? It is. What's interesting about Microsoft though [1:51] Microsoft is using this as a way of calling it choice for those individuals who have employment [1:58] and age that adds up to 70 years. And so what they are like to do is those who are able to have freedom [2:03] and choice in this position to take the buyout to do the same thing that Meta and other companies are [2:08] doing Diane is to free up capital. Microsoft is one of the leading companies when it comes to cloudware [2:16] in terms of cloud and cloud software. A lot of clients that they have are startup companies [2:22] that are really working on artificial intelligence projects. And again Diane I keep leaning on this [2:26] word research in order to for these startup companies in order to develop new projects new [2:31] tools that they would like to deploy to society they have to have large amounts of energy in order to build [2:37] that. And then that comes with using the cloud. And so what Microsoft needs to do is to build data [2:43] centers of their own in order to make sure they have robust cloud capabilities in order for these [2:48] companies that are their clients to service it. Because they have strong competition with Amazon ASW [2:55] and then with Google cloud services too as well. Microsoft cloud services called Azure and so they [3:01] have to stay competitive as well. And so we're seeing a competitive race in the microprocessor [3:06] semiconductor chips. We're seeing a competitive race in who can deploy AI tools and technology and [3:10] generative AI space such as meta, open AI and anthropic. But we're also choosing a competitive [3:16] race in the cloud service industry with Amazon, Google and Microsoft. I know you're optimistic that [3:22] AI will innovate industries and end up creating more jobs. So what are you watching for on that front? [3:28] I'm watching for a couple of things. One in terms of productivity. How much tools will they be able to [3:33] deploy that makes the productivity natural toward the human experience. But I'm really looking at it from a [3:39] perspective. What we don't talk about often Diane is the disability challenges that so many [3:46] individuals face across the globe. I believe that AI could be a great tool to assist to make it easier [3:52] for integration into society. And also too I'm looking at medical research and advancement in medical [3:58] research and the ways that surgeries could be done, early detection for cancer. And then I'm really [4:03] looking at in terms of the future if we're looking at strong computations and super computing in order to help [4:09] maybe find cures for diseases that we once thought were incurable. Meanwhile, MED is introducing new tools [4:16] aiming to help parents and teens navigate AI. The company says parents will be able to see what their teens are [4:22] asking AI about. And a new expert counsel will work to keep AI experiences safe and age appropriate. How will that work? [4:31] I look at this from two different ways, right? There's pros and cons to this, right? This is something I have been saying and a lot of [4:36] individuals have been saying is that to give parents more control over what their teens are looking at [4:42] on the internet and on these apps. And so as a result, parents will be able to receive a weekly update on [4:50] things that their children are searching for when it comes to wellness, when it comes to entertainment, [4:54] when it comes to other life questions. And then part of that is they also went in partnership with a [5:00] research-based nonprofit foundation that will help them give open-ended questions in order to engage [5:07] their child in things that they're looking for. In addition, parents will be given alerts when children [5:14] are looking and asking the AI questions that could possibly be of harm. The issue I have with that, [5:20] though, is how much does that violate children's youth freedom of speech and privacy? Because they may want [5:26] to ask the AI questions in ways they may be uncomfortable in asking their parents questions. [5:31] And then how will their parents perceive them without having the full context? And then if the parent [5:37] doesn't have enough of the emotional intelligence to enter a very sensitive topic with grace and with [5:43] a non-judgment dynamic. But also, too, a key part of that, though, is they're creating what's called this [5:49] well-being council where there's individuals from different leading universities that will help meta [5:55] keep them honest, if you will, when it comes to how they're actually deploying this product to ensure [6:01] that it's safe for teens and also too safe for parents. Diane, it's really reminiscent of Meta's [6:06] oversight board. Oversight board is a non-party board that deals with content moderation challenges [6:14] that users flag to the oversight board to contest any content that Meta has flagged. That, for me, this [6:22] wellness initiative is very reminiscent of Oversight Board. So, Meta is already used to using outside [6:28] counsel for advice and for guardrail protection. [6:31] Mike Muse, thank you.