Huge Profits AND Huge Layoffs?

I have been busy deleting most of my Facebook posts. Here's why.

According to Bloomberg's Market Daily this morning, Meta "CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company plans to invest as much as $65 billion in AI projects this year, more than had been expected —?reinforcing?the perception it is spending from a place of strength."

Meanwhile, "Facebook's shares are coming off a rally of 16 straight sessions, the longest streak of any current Nasdaq 100 Index company going back to 1990.?The stock added more than 17% over the surge, bringing its market capitalization above $1.8 trillion."

In the face of this unprecedented wealth, Facebook this week is laying off perhaps as many as 4,000 employees. Officially framed as targeting “low performers,” these layoffs are likely part of a broader effort to streamline and refocus the company’s workforce. The timing and context suggest something more calculated: an intentional reduction in human labor as AI tools become increasingly capable of filling the gaps.

By the way, when you label a massive round of layoffs as targeting "low performers", you slander every fired employee. When you do this as a smokescreen for something else, that's incredibly machiavellian and cruel.

Zuckerberg recently said on Joe Rogan's podcast that, "By 2025, Meta, along with other companies in the industry, will likely have an AI that functions as a mid-level engineer, capable of writing code.”

Hmmm... it's 2025.

Business Insider is reporting that they spoke with eight terminated employees, who said they received "At or Above Expectations" ratings — the middle tier in Meta's three-level midyear review system — in their 2024 assessments. These employees said they were surprised to learn their ratings had been downgraded to "Meets Most," one of the lower tiers in Meta's year-end performance system that refers to meeting most, but not all, expectations and made them eligible for Monday's cuts. They asked to be anonymous because they weren't authorized to discuss internal company matters.

Do you really think AI isn't going to destroy jobs?

This newsletter is focused on doing well by doing good. Meta is doing the opposite.

P. S. The only reason I haven't entirely left Facebook is because I need Messenger to communicate with the foster dog organization we support.