Meta has been hit with a lawsuit from 26 employees who allege that they were unfairly targeted for pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities during the company's recent round of layoffs.
The suit claims that when Meta used its internal AI system to recommend candidates for layoffs, it went after workers with known medical conditions, Reuters reports. Unable to work as often or in the same manner as non-disabled employees, the affected employees say the AI punished them unfairly. The employees are set to be officially let go on July 22, but the suit asks a judge to temporarily block the layoffs while they pursue private arbitration.
Meta's communications chief, Andy Stone, denies any wrongdoing. "This is patently untrue. Full stop," he tweeted. "Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI."
Meta, like many major tech companies that overhired during the pandemic years, has laid off thousands over the past year. Those who remain have been subjected to keyboard and mouse tracking as part of an AI training effort that the company eventually d.
In announcing more than 8,000 layoffs in May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "We do not expect other company-wide layoffs this year."
After abandoning large-scale efforts on the metaverse, Meta is moving full-speed ahead on its AI ambitions, funding massive data centers and exploring the sale of spare compute capacity.