A hot potato: Meta is expanding how it monitors employee computer use as part of its push to improve artificial intelligence systems, a move that is drawing internal resistance. In an update shared with US employees and reviewed by The New York Times, Meta said it will begin collecting detailed data on how workers use their computers. That includes what they type, how they move their mouse, where they click, and what appears on their screens.
Meta said the data will help its AI systems learn how people complete everyday tasks on a computer.
The reaction inside Meta was immediate and, in many cases, negative. Employees raised concerns in internal forums, questioning both the scope of the tracking and the lack of an opt-out option. "This makes me super uncomfortable," one engineering manager wrote. "How do we opt out?"
Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer, replied. "There is no option to opt out on your corporate laptop." The response drew a wave of reactions, including more than 100 emojis expressing frustration and surprise.
Meta says the data collection is narrowly focused. "There are safeguards in place to protect sensitive content, and the data is not used for any other purpose," said spokesman Tracy Clayton. Bosworth also addressed concerns about security in internal discussions, writing, "This data is very tightly controlled. This will not be a leak risk."
The tracking effort comes as Meta restructures much of its work around AI. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, Meta has been investing heavily in AI models, infrastructure, and research, including a push toward what Mark Zuckerberg has described as "superintelligence." Those changes are now showing up in daily workflows. Employees are expected to use AI tools more regularly, and in some cases, their usage is being measured.
Internally, Meta has introduced dashboards that track how many tokens employees use – a metric tied to AI processing. Several employees said the dashboards have turned usage into a form of competition. Some have begun building large numbers of AI agents to automate tasks, while others have built tools to manage or evaluate those agents. In some cases, this has led to layers of automation – agents reviewing other agents – as usage increases.
At the same time, the company is cutting jobs. Meta said it plans to lay off about 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 employees, with cuts expected to take place in May. In an internal message, Janelle Gale, the company's head of human resources, said the reductions would help "offset the other investments we're making." She added: "I know this leaves everyone with nearly a month of ambiguity, which is incredibly unsettling."
The overlap between layoffs and increased reliance on AI has added to the tension. Some employees have questioned whether they are helping build systems that could eventually replace parts of their own roles. "It's incredibly demoralizing," one employee wrote. Others have started looking for new jobs or trying to position themselves to receive severance.
Similar tensions are emerging across the tech industry. Companies including Microsoft, Block, and Coinbase have all announced layoffs or buyouts as AI tools begin to change how work is done, particularly in software development. Tools that can generate code are reducing the amount of manual work required, which in turn is reshaping how teams are structured.
"There is no playbook for AI in the workplace yet," Leo Boussioux, a professor of information systems at the University of Washington, told The New York Times. "AI can potentially make everyone a better coder and help them do way more things with fewer resources, but as a result, it also brings more intensity to the daily life of the worker."
Meta executives have pushed back on the idea that the company is using the new tracking systems for employee surveillance. During a company-wide meeting, Zuckerberg said the data collection is not intended for "surveillance or performance tracking or anything like that," but instead to help train AI systems on "how smart people use computers to accomplish tasks."
"I think we know that AI is one of the most competitive fields, probably in history," he said.
Even at the leadership level, there is some uncertainty about where the changes will lead. "We don't really know what the optimal size of the company will be in the future," said Chief Financial Officer Susan Li during a recent investor call. "I think there's a lot of change right now, with AI capabilities advancing rapidly."