Meta Platforms Inc. is facing a lawsuit from 26 employees who allege the company used artificial intelligence to identify workers for layoffs who were on medical leave or had disabilities. The suit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, claims Meta's AI systems penalized employees for exercising their legal right to take medical leave.
According to the lawsuit, Meta employed internal tools, including a bot named "Metamate," along with AI usage dashboards and data on keystroke and computer activity, to assess employee productivity and identify those for termination. The plaintiffs contend that this technology failed to account for employees on approved medical leave, effectively reducing their performance ratings and leading to their inclusion on layoff lists.
The employees, who include managers, engineers, scientists, and researchers from California, New York, and Washington D.C., are seeking to block Meta from proceeding with the layoffs while they pursue individual arbitration of their workplace disputes. The lawsuit alleges that Meta's layoff practices violated federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination or retaliation against workers with disabilities, or those taking medical or pregnancy-related leave.
Plaintiffs also assert that Meta did not adequately test its AI systems for bias, which they claim would violate recent legislation in California and New York City. The suit marks what appears to be the first legal challenge against a major company for allegedly using AI in its layoff processes.
In May, Meta announced a significant round of job cuts, eliminating approximately 8,000 positions, which represented nearly 10% of its global workforce. This reduction was part of a broader company restructuring aimed at increasing efficiency and boosting investment in artificial intelligence. An additional 7,000 employees were reassigned to AI-focused roles.
A Meta spokesperson denied the lawsuit's allegations, stating that workforce management and organizational decisions are made by people, not AI. The company asserts that the claims in the suit lack merit.
The tech industry has seen a substantial number of layoffs this year, with nearly a third of all job cuts occurring in the sector. Artificial intelligence has been cited as a primary driver for these reductions, with AI-related reasons leading announced layoffs for four consecutive months as of June, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Meta has committed significant financial resources to its AI initiatives, planning to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion this year alone on AI infrastructure, including data centers and the necessary processing chips. This surge in demand has contributed to a shortage of memory chips, driving up costs for technology companies and impacting consumer product pricing.