Meta Layoffs in AI Division: 600 Jobs Cut Amid Superintelligence Push

Jobair Tuaha

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has made headlines once again — this time for cutting around 600 jobs in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) division.

The move has sparked debate across Silicon Valley and beyond, raising questions about the balance between innovation, automation, and human talent in the age of AI.

Meta Layoffs in AI Division: 600 Jobs Cut Amid Superintelligence Push

What’s Happening at Meta

According to multiple U.S. outlets including 'Reuters' and 'The Washington Post', Meta has laid off roughly 600 employees across its AI unit.

The job cuts reportedly affected:

The Facebook AI Research (FAIR) team
AI product and infrastructure teams
Other supporting technical roles

However, one key division — the Meta Superintelligence Lab (also called TBD Lab) — remains untouched. This lab, led by top-tier AI researchers, is still hiring aggressively to build what Meta calls the “next generation of AI systems.”

These layoffs come as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at making teams “smaller, faster, and more efficient.”

In an internal memo, Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said the company wants to encourage “fewer conversations, faster decisions, and higher impact.”

Why Meta Made These Cuts

Despite being one of the biggest investors in AI globally, Meta says these layoffs aren’t about cutting back — but reorganizing.

The company’s new direction emphasizes agility and specialization. Large, slower teams from Meta’s legacy AI research era (like FAIR) are being replaced with leaner, project-driven teams that can quickly ship results.

In simple terms: Meta is trimming the old to make way for the new.

While that sounds strategic, critics point out that it’s part of a broader pattern — where big tech firms use “restructuring” to quietly reduce headcount and streamline costs amid heavy AI spending.

The Irony: AI Boom and Layoffs at the Same Time

Meta’s move comes at a time when AI is booming globally.

From ChatGPT to Gemini, nearly every tech giant is pouring billions into artificial intelligence — yet workers in the same field are being laid off.

This paradox reflects a new kind of industry transformation:

AI is not just creating opportunities — it’s also replacing roles.

Reports suggest some of Meta’s internal functions, especially in engineering and support, are now being automated or managed by AI tools.

That means fewer manual processes and, unfortunately, fewer people.

Employee & Industry Reactions

The layoffs sparked frustration among affected staff and the wider tech community.

Many took to LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) to express shock and disappointment — especially since Meta had been publicly celebrating its AI breakthroughs just weeks earlier.

One laid-off engineer reportedly wrote,

> “AI is supposed to empower humans, not replace them. This feels like we’re training our replacements.”

Meanwhile, some recruiters and startups — including AI startups in San Francisco — have already started offering roles to laid-off Meta talent, eager to absorb the experienced engineers and researchers.

What It Means for the Future of AI and Tech Workers

For the tech world, Meta’s AI layoffs are both a warning and a sign of evolution.

For AI professionals: Job security is no longer guaranteed — even in booming sectors.
For companies: There’s pressure to innovate while cutting costs.
For investors: It shows how competitive and volatile the AI race has become.

Meta’s long-term AI vision still revolves around superintelligence, multimodal models, and open-source AI. But its execution strategy is shifting — fewer general researchers, more goal-oriented developers.

In short: Meta is betting on speed and focus, not size.

The Bigger Industry Picture

Meta’s layoffs mirror a broader trend among tech giants:

Google has quietly downsized AI infrastructure teams in early 2025.
Microsoft merged overlapping AI groups after its OpenAI partnership deepened.
Amazon has cut machine learning operations to reallocate resources to cloud AI tools.

Even though AI is the future, companies are still facing profit pressure, overlap, and burnout from rapid scaling.

This signals a new phase — the AI consolidation era — where efficiency trumps expansion.

Final Thoughts

Meta’s latest layoffs reveal an uncomfortable truth:

Even in the hottest tech field on Earth, no job is truly “future-proof.”

The company insists these changes will make its AI teams faster and more impactful. But to many, it also highlights the uneasy tension between AI innovation and human displacement.

The question remains:

> Is AI now powerful enough that it’s replacing its own creators?