Meta Fires 600 AI Researchers While Building AI to Replace Everyone Else

You can't make this shit up.

Meta - the company spending billions to build AI systems that will automate everyone else's jobs - just fired 600 people from their own AI research division. Not junior employees. Not administrative staff. AI researchers. The people literally building the technology that's supposed to be Meta's entire future.

The reason? They need to "accelerate decision-making" and make the team "more efficient."

Bro. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

What Happened

On Wednesday, Meta's chief AI officer Alexandr Wang dropped the news: approximately 600 positions from the superintelligence division are getting axed. This comes straight from Axios, confirmed by Meta to TechCrunch.

Wang's justification in the internal memo? Classic corporate speak: "By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing."

Translation: We're firing a bunch of you so the survivors can work harder and we can move faster. Also, too many people were slowing us down with annoying things like "questions" and "considerations."

Here's the kicker - this is happening right after Meta went on a massive hiring spree over the summer. They poached 50+ researchers from competitors with multimillion-dollar compensation packages. Literally throwing money at people to join the team. Now, a few months later? Yeeting 600 people out the door.

This is all part of Meta's ongoing "year of efficiency" initiative that CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched in 2023. You know, the same "efficiency" drive that's seen thousands of job cuts across the company while profits soared and Zuckerberg's net worth climbed another $50 billion.

The silver lining (if you can call it that): Meta claims most affected employees "should find alternative positions within the organization." So they're getting reshuffled internally rather than straight-up dumped. At least that's the official line.

Why This Is Actually Wild

Let's break down the absurdity here.

Meta is in an all-out arms race with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to build superintelligence. This isn't some side project. This is literally their entire strategic bet for the next decade. Zuckerberg has said repeatedly that AI is Meta's future, that they're going all-in, that they're building the foundation models that will power everything.

And now they're cutting 600 AI researchers because... there's too many of them?

The stated reason - "too many conversations slowing down decisions" - is peak MBA brain rot. Yeah, you know what else slows down decisions? Not having enough people to actually do the work. You know what speeds up bad decisions? Having fewer smart people in the room to say "wait, that's a terrible idea."

But here's what's really happening: Even Meta - one of the world's richest companies, spending tens of billions on AI - can't justify the headcount.

Think about that for a second. If a company printing money and betting its entire future on AI technology is cutting AI researchers, what does that tell you about every other company's appetite for maintaining technical headcount?

Real-World Impact

600 AI researchers getting cut might not sound like much compared to the tens of thousands Meta has laid off over the past two years. But these are specialized, highly-paid roles. These are people who were supposedly critical to Meta's future.

If you're an AI researcher, data scientist, or ML engineer, this should be a wake-up call. Even at companies where AI is the core business - even when you're literally building the future product - you're not safe. "Strategic priority" doesn't mean job security anymore.

The tech industry has spent the last three years selling this narrative that AI roles are the safe bet. Learn AI, work in AI, build AI - that's where the jobs are! That's the future!

Meanwhile, Meta just proved that even the people building AI are expendable when the efficiency spreadsheet says so.

The broader context makes it worse: Meta is joining OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in the race to build AGI and superintelligence. Every single one of these companies is simultaneously building world-changing AI technology and cutting staff to hit efficiency targets. The technology that's supposed to create abundance is being used as justification for austerity.

What This Means For You

If you're in tech, the message is clear: No role is safe. Not even the roles building the automation.

Here's your play:

1. Don't bet everything on AI roles being stable. Yes, AI skills matter. But companies will cut AI teams just as fast as any other team when the CFO demands it.
2. Build leverage outside your job. Side projects, consulting, independent income streams. Your employer can yeet you anytime, efficiency drive or not.
3. Watch the pattern, not the PR. Companies say AI is their future while cutting AI staff. That disconnect tells you everything about how expendable you are.
4. If you're at a company doing "year of efficiency" layoffs, start planning your exit. These things come in waves. First 10%, then another 15%, then "surprise" another 20%. Don't wait for your turn.

The real lesson here isn't about Meta specifically. It's about the entire industry playbook: Build AI to automate everything, use "efficiency" as cover to cut headcount, watch profits soar, repeat.

Even the people building the AI aren't immune. Especially when the AI they're building can help justify cutting them too.

Welcome to the future. It's efficient as hell. Just don't expect to have a job in it.