A leaked audio is being circulated on social media with the claim that it is Mark Zuckerberg explaining why Meta has started tracking employee computer activity, stating that the company wants its AI systems to learn directly from its employees. This comes at a time when thousands of employees across the world were shaken by layoff emails from Meta.
According to social media reports, the audio is believed to be from an internal all-hands meeting held on April 30. Zuckerberg allegedly made the comments after an employee questioned Meta’s decision to install tracking software on company computers in the US. The software was reportedly designed to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes, raising concerns among employees.
HT.com could not independently verify the authenticity of the leaked audio.
What he hear in the audio
“So in other news, I know layoffs are top of mind, but there were also some updates this week around, and a question around employee device tracking,” the employee said during the meeting, and then asked Zuckerberg to explain why the company was monitoring workers’ computers.
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Per the audio, Zuckerberg defended the practice, saying modern AI systems improve by observing highly skilled people performing real-world tasks.
“So we’re in a phase where basically the AI models learn from watching really smart people do things,” he said.
Zuckerberg said that Meta believes its own employees are more capable compared to the outside contractors various AI companies depend on when it comes to training data. He argued that by studying how Meta engineers code, solve problems and use computers, the company’s AI systems could become even more capable.
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“The average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks,” Zuckerberg allegedly said. “So if we’re trying to teach the models coding, for example, then having people internally build tools or solve tasks that help teach the model how to code, we think is going to dramatically increase our model’s coding ability faster than what others in the industry have the capability to do.”
The leaked audio has surfaced at a time when Meta is racing to compete with rivals in the global AI battle while simultaneously laying off employees. The layoffs are part of the company’s recently announced restructuring effort aimed at cutting costs and improving efficiency, while pouring billions of dollars into AI at the same time.
