Meta Employees Face Keystroke, Mouse Click Surveillance for AI Training; Job Cuts Loom

Meta has begun implementing a new surveillance tool to track employee activity, including keystrokes and mouse clicks, on internal computers and applications. This data will be used to train the company's artificial intelligence models, a spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday, asserting the data will not be used for other purposes and includes safeguards for sensitive content.

The initiative, reportedly named the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), arrives as Meta employees anticipate further job reductions, following approximately 2,000 layoffs this year. A former employee described the tracking as "just the latest way they're shoving AI down everyone's throat," while a current staff member labelled the practice "very dystopian" amidst job insecurity.

Meta's public job listings have drastically decreased, from around 800 in March to just seven currently, with the company declining to comment on staffing plans. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's co-founder and chief executive, has pledged significant investment in AI, aiming to spend approximately USD#140 billion on AI in 2026, nearly double the previous year's expenditure. This includes the effective acquisition of Scale AI for over USD#14 billion in 2025.

Zuckerberg stated in January that 2026 would be "the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work," noting that "projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person." This aligns with the firm's ambition to position itself at the forefront of AI technology, leveraging employee data to refine new models such as the recently launched Muse Spark.