{"slug": "meta-forced-thousands-of-engineers-into-ai-training-work-now-it-s-giving-some-a", "title": "Meta forced thousands of engineers into AI training work. Now it's giving some a way out.", "summary": "Meta reversed its policy forcing 7,000 engineers into an AI training task force after employee backlash, now allowing individuals to choose whether to stay. The company's memo cited personal agency, though it preferred everyone to stay, amid a broader morale crisis and recent layoffs of 8,000 staff.", "body_md": "Meta is walking back its stance on forcing engineers to join a task force focused on AI training, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider and four people familiar with the matter.\n\nLast month, [Meta reassigned 7,000 employees ](https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-task-force-workers-2026-5)to units such as an Applied AI task force to help train Meta's coming AI models.\n\nOn Wednesday, Meta sent a memo about this task force, saying the company will now \"defer to each individual's choice.\" The company sent the email to employees who had been \"drafted,\" as some described its Applied AI task force.\n\n\"As I emphasized before, personal agency will remain at the heart of all opportunities at Meta: we will support employees in whatever decisions they make,\" the memo said.\n\n\"Of course, we'd prefer everyone to stay and push to SOTA together, but we defer to each individual's choice,\" it read, referring to state-of-the-art.\n\nThe memo went on to say that people in the unit would have preferential placement in other parts of the company due to staffing shortages.\n\nMeta declined to comment for this story.\n\nSome employees on Blind called the memo an \"undraft.\"\n\nThe task force faced significant backlash last month from employees who compared the job to data labeling.\n\nThe reversal comes after chief technology officer [Andrew Bosworth](https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-cto-andrew-bosworth-addresses-morale-after-layoffs-ai-shift-2026-6) addressed a broader morale crisis at the company. During an internal \"Tuesdays with Boz\" session on June 2, Bosworth told employees that morale was \"probably one of the worst it's ever been\" in Meta's 20-year history, Business Insider previously reported.\n\nIn May, Meta laid off 10% of its staff, or 8,000 people.\n\n*Have a tip? Contact Charles via email at *__crollet@businessinsider.com__* or on Signal and WhatsApp at 628-282-2811*.\n\n*Contact Pranav via encrypted messaging app Signal at*\n\n__+1-408-905-9124__, or email him at\n\n__pdixit@businessinsider.com__*or*\n\n__pranavdixit@protonmail.com__*. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device;*\n\n__here's our guide to sharing information securely__*.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-forced-thousands-of-engineers-into-ai-training-work-now-it-s-giving-some-a", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-lets-engineers-leave-ai-training-unit-after-mass-reassignment-2026-6", "published_at": "2026-06-24 22:53:18+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-24 23:24:34.786523+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Meta", "Andrew Bosworth", "Business Insider", "Blind"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-forced-thousands-of-engineers-into-ai-training-work-now-it-s-giving-some-a", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-forced-thousands-of-engineers-into-ai-training-work-now-it-s-giving-some-a.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-forced-thousands-of-engineers-into-ai-training-work-now-it-s-giving-some-a.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-forced-thousands-of-engineers-into-ai-training-work-now-it-s-giving-some-a.jsonld"}}