Lawsuit Says Meta's AI Use Resulted in Unfair Layoffs

Meta is facing a first-of-its-kind legal challenge over how it allegedly used artificial intelligence to decide who lost their jobs, Reuters reports. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Oakland, 26 anonymous employees say Meta relied on internal AI-driven tools and productivity metrics to rank staff for layoffs, a process they claim unfairly penalized workers with disabilities, those who took medical or family leave, and pregnant employees. "Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work," the lawsuit states, per the Guardian.

The suit seeks to pause planned job cuts while the claims move to private arbitration and accuses Meta of violating anti-discrimination laws and new bias-testing rules for AI in California and New York City. Meta cut about 10% of its global workforce in May, and the plaintiffs are among the nearly 8,000 people who were affected by that wave of layoffs, the AP reports. Their separations are not set to begin until July 22, so they are currently still Meta employees. The company denies the allegations, saying people—not AI—made workforce decisions.