In what is likely to be the first of many such lawsuits that target silicon valley bigwigs, a number of Meta employees who were recently laid off are now accusing an AI-powered algorithm for disproportionately targeting workers with pre-existing medical conditions.
Around 26 Meta employees are now alleging that the tech giant relied on factors such as productivity and AI use in deciding which workers get axed, disadvantaging those who missed work due to medical complications
As many as 26 Meta employees have now anonymously filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Oakland, California, accusing the company of disproportionately targeting employees with disabilities, or ones who took medical leaves, in its upcoming round of layoffs that commence on July 22.
According to the plaintiffs, they were notified back in May that their current roles at Meta would be terminated in late July. Do note that the social media giant laid off around 10 percent of its workforce - equal to ~8,000 employees - in May, with further cuts possibly in the offing even though Mark Zuckerburg, the CEO of Meta, recently asserted that there would be no further layoffs in the ongoing year.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to block the upcoming terminations, citing state and federal laws that ban any discrimination or retaliation against employees with existing medical conditions, or ones who are either pregnant or take medical leaves.
The complaint cites a number of AI-powered tools that Meta supposedly used to rank employees on a termination list, including the 'Metamate' tool that tracks internal employee communications. Meta also supposedly tracked worker productivity by actively scanning keystrokes, screen content, emails, and browser history of each employee.
Basically, the plaintiffs feel that their medical conditions and leaves unduly penalized them on metrics such as productivity and AI use, leading to their termination.
Meta's AI strategy in a flux
Meanwhile, Meta's overarching AI strategy is in a bit of a flux at the moment. A few days back, the company spurred a lot of questions when it launched Meta Compute, an initiative that aims to rent out its inference-related compute capacity, adopting a page out of the playbook currently being used by most neoclouds.
Concurrently, Meta plans to start manufacturing its own ASIC, dubbed Iris, come September. The chip has been designed in partnership with Broadcom, and will be manufactured by TSMC.
Do note that the tech titan is one of the heaviest spenders on AI at the moment, aiming to deploy 7 gigawatts of compute capacity by the end of 2026, which entails a CapEx of $145 billion. It also plans to double this capacity to 14 gigawatts by next year.
More recently, Meta launched a paid tier of its flagship AI model, dubbed Muse 1.1, which is competitive with the latest Gemini models. The company is opting for low-cost inference as its distinguishing factor relative to the recent offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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