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AI will soon replace mid-level engineers at Meta, says Zuckerberg
Meta plans to dismiss approximately 3,600 employees identified as low performers and replace them with new hires, according to an internal memo Tuesday.
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The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, confirmed to AFP that CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision will affect five percent of its workforce. Meta had approximately 72,400 employees as of September.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said.
The CEO said the performance-based cuts are intended to ensure that the company has the “strongest talent” and is able to “bring new people in.” Performance-based dismissals are a common practice among major US corporations. Microsoft announced similar cuts last week affecting less than one percent of its workforce, Business Insider reported.
The layoffs come amid broader changes at Meta, in advance of Donald Trump returning to the White House on January 20. Last week, Zuckerberg announced the end of the company’s US fact-checking program that aimed to combat misinformation on its platforms. The program had faced criticism from conservative voices who viewed it as censorship.
Zuckerberg has also said artificial intelligence (AI) will soon replace mid-level software engineers at his company. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the tech mogul said AI is on the verge of reaching a level where it can perform tasks typically handled by mid-level engineers, including writing code and solving complex problems.
“Probably in 2025, we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of mid level engineer that you have at your company that can write code,” he said.
Zuckerberg also suggested that this transformation could boost productivity while reshaping the tech industry’s workforce dynamics.
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