Meta is installing new tracking software on US-based employees\u2019 computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and \u200bkeystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models. The move is part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously, the company told staffers in \u200cinternal memos seen by Reuters. The tool, called Model Capability Initiative (MCI), will run on work-related apps and websites and will also take occasional snapshots of the content on employees\u2019 screens, according to one of the memos, posted by a staff AI research scientist on Tuesday in a channel for the company\u2019s model-building Meta SuperIntelligence Labs team. The purpose, according to the memo, was to improve the company\u2019s AI models in areas where they struggle to replicate how humans interact with computers, like choosing from dropdown menus \u200band using keyboard shortcuts. \u201cThis is where all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work,\u201d it said. The Facebook and Instagram owner has been moving aggressively to \u200bintegrate AI into its workflows and reshape its workforce around the technology, arguing it will make the company operate more efficiently. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told employees \u2060in a separate memo shared on Monday that the company would step up internal data collection as part of those \u201cAI for Work\u201d efforts, now re-branded as Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA). \u201cThe vision we are building towards is \u200bone where our agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct, review and help them improve,\u201c Bosworth said. The aim, he added, was for agents to \u201cautomatically see where we felt the need to intervene \u200bso they can be better next time.\u201d Bosworth did not explicitly spell out how those agents would be trained, but said Meta would be \u201crigorous\u201d about \u201cbuilding up data and evals for all the types of interactions we have as we go about our work.\u201d Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged that the MCI data would be among the inputs. AI workforce overhaul Stone said the data gathered via MCI would not be used for performance assessments or any other purpose besides model training and that safeguards were in \u200bplace to protect \u201csensitive content,\u201d without elaborating on which types of data would be excluded from collection. \u201cIf we\u2019re building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people \u200bactually use them \u2014 things like mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus,\u201d said Stone. The push to automate functions previously performed by human staffers reflects a broad pattern among major US companies this year, especially in the tech sector. AI \u200ctools have captivated \u2060Silicon Valley with their ability to handle complex tasks like creating apps and organising large volumes of data with limited human oversight, sparking a selloff in stocks of traditional software companies and inspiring some executives to plan extensive job cuts. Meta is planning to lay off 10% of its workforce globally starting on May 20 and is eyeing additional large cuts later this year. Amazon.com similarly has trimmed 30,000 corporate employees in recent months, representing nearly 10% of its white-collar workers, while in February, the fintech company Block chopped nearly half of its staff. Internally, Meta has been exhorting staffers to use AI agents for coding and other tasks, even if it slows them down in \u200bthe short term. It has also been wiping \u200bout distinctions between certain job functions in favour \u2060of a new general-purpose job title called \u201cAI builder.\u201d Last month, it created a new Applied AI (AAI) engineering team aimed at improving the coding capabilities of Meta\u2019s AI models and using them to craft AI agents that can perform the bulk of the work to build, test and ship future products and infrastructure at Meta. Meta started transferring \u201cstrong\u201d \u200bsoftware engineers into AAI earlier this month. Surveillance concerns Computer logging and screenshotting technology have historically been used by companies to hunt for employee misconduct or non-work-related \u200bactivities, said Ifeoma Ajunwa, a \u2060law professor at Yale University. The move to log employees\u2019 keystrokes takes the data-gathering goals a step further, she said, subjecting white-collar employees to a degree of real-time surveillance previously experienced only by delivery drivers and gig workers. \u201cOn the US side, federally, there is no limit on worker surveillance,\u201d Ajunwa said, adding that state-level laws require at most that workers be broadly informed when employers are monitoring them. European law would likely prohibit such monitoring, said Valerio De \u2060Stefano, a law \u200bprofessor at York University in Toronto who studies technology and comparative labour law. In some countries, such as Italy, using electronic monitoring \u200bto track employee productivity is explicitly illegal, while in Germany, courts have held that employers can deploy keystroke logging only in exceptional circumstances, such as suspicion of a serious criminal offence. Additionally, De Stefano said, the practice would likely be considered a violation of Europe\u2019s \u200bGeneral Data Protection Regulation. More broadly, he said, awareness of employer surveillance shifts the balance of workplace power in the employer\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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