Meta Implements Employee Activity Tracking for AI Development
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, announced it will begin monitoring employee interactions with their computers, including keystrokes and mouse clicks, to gather data for training its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
On Tuesday, Meta informed its workforce that a new software tool will operate on company computers and internal applications, recording user activity to serve as training data for AI technologies.
A Meta spokesperson explained to the BBC,
"If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them."The spokesperson added,
"The data is not used for any other purpose,"and emphasized that the tool incorporates
"safeguards in place to protect sensitive content."
Employee Reactions and Company AI Focus
Despite these assurances, some employees expressed concern about the initiative. One Meta employee, who requested anonymity, described the experience of having even minor computer actions used for AI training amid expectations of further job cuts as
"very dystopian."The employee remarked,
"This company has become obsessed with AI,"in comments shared with the BBC.
Another former employee characterized the tracking tool as
"just the latest way they're shoving AI down everyone's throat."
Workforce Changes and Hiring Freeze
Meta has already reduced its workforce by approximately 2,000 employees through smaller rounds of layoffs earlier this year. However, staff anticipate more significant reductions in the near future, as previously reported by the BBC.
Last month, Meta implemented a partial hiring freeze, which now appears to have expanded considerably. In March, the company’s job listing website featured around 800 open positions; currently, it advertises only seven vacancies.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the removal of job listings or any plans regarding further cuts.
Details on the Tracking Tool and AI Strategy
According to , which first reported the initiative, Meta is deploying a tracking system named Model Capability Initiative (MCI). The BBC was informed that while employee activity on Meta computers was previously accessible to the company, the specific logging and tracking for AI training purposes is a new development.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and chief executive, recently committed to increasing AI investment this year, aiming to establish the company as a leader in the field.
Meta plans to allocate approximately $140 billion to AI efforts in 2026, nearly double its investment from the previous year.
In 2025, Meta effectively acquired Scale AI for over $14 billion (£10.3 billion), integrating executives from the data-labeling firm to assist in building AI models and tools.
The first major release from Meta’s revamped Meta Superintelligence Labs group was the AI model Muse Spark, launched last month.
Meta intends to utilize data collected from the new employee tracking tool to train upcoming AI models developed by the lab.
Zuckerberg’s Vision for AI in the Workplace
In January, Zuckerberg stated that 2026 will be
"the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work."He added,
"We're starting to see projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person."
