Meta accused of using biased AI targeting for mass layoffs

Meta 被指控利用有偏见的 AI 进行大规模裁员

A group of 26 former Meta employees is suing the company over claims that it used AI tools to unfairly target workers on leave with layoffs, as reported earlier by Reuters. In the lawsuit, the employees allege Meta determined which workers to dismiss based on performance data collected by a “constellation” of internal AI tools, but failed to exclude those on parental or medical leave from its ranking system: 据路透社早先报道，一群由 26 名 Meta 前员工组成的团体正在起诉该公司，声称其利用 AI 工具不公平地将休假员工列为裁员目标。在诉讼中，这些员工指控 Meta 根据由一系列内部 AI 工具收集的绩效数据来决定裁员名单，但未能将处于育儿假或病假中的员工从其排名系统中排除：

The result was that employees who took protected leaves were disproportionately selected for layoff, based on scoring that not only failed to account for their protected leaves, but in effect penalized the employees for exercising their legal rights to these leaves. 结果是，那些休受保护假期的员工被不成比例地选中进行裁员。这种评分机制不仅没有考虑到他们的受保护假期，实际上还因为员工行使了这些假期的合法权利而对他们进行了惩罚。

The layoffs mentioned in the lawsuit occurred in May as part of Meta’s plans to slash 10 percent of its staff, or around 8,000 workers. Meta’s former employees allege the company used an internal AI assistant, called Metamate, employee-trained AI agents, internal dashboards displaying AI token usage, and other tools to “score, rank, and select employees for inclusion on the termination list.” 诉讼中提到的裁员发生在 5 月，是 Meta 裁减 10% 员工（约 8,000 人）计划的一部分。Meta 的前员工声称，该公司使用了名为 Metamate 的内部 AI 助手、员工训练的 AI 代理、显示 AI Token 使用情况的内部仪表板以及其他工具来“对员工进行评分、排名，并将其选入解雇名单”。

The lawsuit accuses Meta of violating federal and state laws preventing employers from terminating workers for taking protected leave. “These claims lack merit and are not based on facts,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton tells The Verge. “Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI.” 该诉讼指控 Meta 违反了联邦和州法律，这些法律禁止雇主因员工休受保护假期而解雇他们。Meta 发言人 Tracy Clayton 对 The Verge 表示：“这些指控毫无根据，也不符合事实。劳动力管理和组织决策过去和现在都是由人做出的，而不是由 AI 做出的。”