Meta training AI on its workers
- Meta has begun installing software on U.S. employees’ work computers to capture mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and occasional screenshots as training data for artificial intelligence agents that can perform office tasks. - Internal documents say the Model Capability Initiative tracks activity across hundreds of apps and sites, including Google, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, GitHub, Slack, Atlassian, Threads and Manus, as Meta expands workplace automation. - The rollout follows Meta’s 2025 decision to cut about 5% of staff as “low performers” and fits Andrew Bosworth’s push to collect more internal work data for “AI for Work.” (reuters.com)
Meta is using its own employees’ computer activity to train artificial intelligence systems that can carry out office work. (reuters.com) Internal memos reviewed by Reuters said the new tool, called Model Capability Initiative, will record mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes on U.S.-based employees’ work computers. The memos said it will also take occasional snapshots of screen content. (reuters.com) The stated goal is to teach Meta’s models the small actions people use to operate software, including picking from dropdown menus and using keyboard shortcuts. One memo said employees could help the models improve “simply by doing their daily work.” (reuters.com) CNBC reported the tracking list includes hundreds of websites and apps, among them Google, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, GitHub, Slack, Atlassian, Threads and Manus. CNBC said earlier versions of the list also included OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. (cnbc.com) Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told Reuters the data gathered through Model Capability Initiative would be used for model training, not performance assessments. Stone also said safeguards were in place to protect “sensitive content,” though Reuters said Meta did not detail which content would be excluded. (reuters.com) Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, told employees in a separate memo that the company would increase internal data collection under an effort once called “AI for Work,” now renamed Agent Transformation Accelerator. Bosworth wrote that Meta’s “vision” is one where agents “primarily do the work” and employees direct and review them. (reuters.com) The project lands after Meta spent the past year reorganizing around AI and cutting staff. In January 2025, Meta said it would trim about 5% of its workforce, or roughly 3,600 jobs, targeting what Mark Zuckerberg called the company’s “lowest performers.” (reuters.com) (cnbc.com) Meta is also trying to catch up with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google in generative artificial intelligence. CNBC reported Mark Zuckerberg’s spending push brought in Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang, and Meta this month introduced a new model called Muse Spark through its Meta Superintelligence Labs unit. (cnbc.com) The immediate result is that routine employee work inside Meta is becoming both labor and training data. The company says that is how it will build agents that can use computers more like people do. (reuters.com)
