AI agents meant to replace Meta workers made “large-scale, disruptive actions”
AI agents meant to replace Meta workers made “large-scale, disruptive actions”
旨在取代 Meta 员工的 AI 智能体引发了“大规模、破坏性的行动”
Earlier this year, Meta created a “plan” to reduce some of its teams by as much as 60 percent to make the company “AI native,” Reuters reported today, citing two people familiar with Meta’s internal affairs. 据路透社今日援引两位知情人士的消息报道，今年早些时候，Meta 制定了一项“计划”，旨在将其部分团队裁减多达 60%，以使公司实现“AI 原生化”。
Reuters’ report highlights the challenges organizations face when analyzing the best uses for AI and determining when the technology is a better fit for certain tasks than employees. 路透社的报道凸显了各机构在分析 AI 的最佳用途，以及确定何时 AI 比员工更适合执行特定任务时所面临的挑战。
Meta confirmed to Reuters that the plan, reportedly codenamed Project OT (short for organization transformation), explored scenarios in which Meta reduced some team headcounts by 60 percent and that the plan called for two rounds of layoffs. Meta wouldn’t confirm which teams Project OT affected. Meta 向路透社证实，该计划代号为“OT 项目”（组织转型 Project Organization Transformation 的缩写），确实探讨了将部分团队人数削减 60% 的方案，并计划进行两轮裁员。Meta 未确认哪些团队受到了 OT 项目的影响。
Meta told the publication: As part of our company restructuring earlier this year, we asked some teams to conduct a scenario planning exercise looking at the potential impact of redeployments, open role closures and cuts. This ultimately resulted in moving thousands of employees to do priority work on several newly-established teams, as has been publicly reported. Ultimately, we didn’t move forward with every scenario from the exercise – and it was never assumed we would. Meta 对该媒体表示：“作为今年早些时候公司重组的一部分，我们要求一些团队进行情景规划演练，以评估重新部署、关闭空缺职位和裁员的潜在影响。正如公开报道的那样，这最终促使数千名员工被调往几个新成立的团队从事优先工作。归根结底，我们并没有推进演练中的每一个方案——我们也从未假设过会这样做。”
Reuters reported that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg “set Project OT in motion and directed executives to proceed with the changes to management structures” earlier this year. It said that the first round of layoffs from Project OT occurred in May and that Meta canceled the second. 路透社报道称，Meta 首席执行官马克·扎克伯格今年早些时候“启动了 OT 项目，并指示高管们推进管理结构的变革”。报道称，OT 项目的第一轮裁员发生在 5 月，而 Meta 取消了第二轮裁员。
Reuters said it reviewed “scores of internal documents, posts, and recordings” and spoke with “more than 20 people with knowledge of Meta’s inner workings” about the since-scrapped plans. Per the publication, Meta executives created Project OT in January. 路透社表示，他们查阅了“数十份内部文件、帖子和录音”，并与“20 多位了解 Meta 内部运作的人士”进行了交谈，讨论了这些已被废弃的计划。据该媒体报道，Meta 高管于 1 月份创建了 OT 项目。
Project OT reportedly explored using AI to perform “much of the daily work performed by thousands of human employees.” Small teams of people would oversee the AI, the report said, citing “one internal planning document reviewed by Reuters and three people familiar with the project.” In these scenarios, Meta would give some employees new roles and lay off others. One HR executive reportedly said that Meta would have reduced its headcount by about 25 percent or more under these scenarios. 据报道，OT 项目探讨了利用 AI 来执行“数千名人类员工日常工作中的大部分内容”。该报道援引“一份路透社查阅的内部规划文件和三位知情人士”的话称，由小规模团队负责监督 AI。在这些方案中，Meta 会为部分员工安排新职位，并裁掉其他人。据称，一位人力资源高管表示，在这些方案下，Meta 的员工总数将减少约 25% 或更多。
Meta told Reuters that it canceled Project OT before determining how many layoffs the plan called for. Meta was going to use some of the money that it saved from layoffs to pay for high-performing employees, especially those with AI engineering skills, Reuters reported, citing “two people familiar with the matter.” Meta 告诉路透社，在确定该计划需要裁员多少人之前，他们就已经取消了 OT 项目。据路透社援引“两位知情人士”的消息报道，Meta 原计划将裁员节省下来的部分资金用于支付高绩效员工的薪酬，特别是那些具备 AI 工程技能的员工。
“AI native” / “AI 原生”
One of the Project OT documents that Reuters reviewed described “AI native” as a company where “AI-ready tools and agents interact, workflows are automated, [and] new builds are AI-first.” Being “AI native” also means, per the document, selling AI agents to third parties, which Meta started doing in June. 路透社查阅的一份 OT 项目文件将“AI 原生”描述为一家“AI 就绪的工具和智能体相互交互、工作流程自动化，且新构建均以 AI 为先”的公司。根据该文件，“AI 原生”还意味着向第三方出售 AI 智能体，Meta 已于 6 月开始这样做。
This year, Meta reportedly launched a pilot program that restructured engineering teams, research teams, and at least eight other teams into smaller groups. This followed the reported October publishing of an internal post called “AI-Native Playbook,” in which a Meta product management team member outlined how the pilot would remove middle management and use “agent-assisted analysis” to help prioritize daily tasks. 今年，据报道 Meta 启动了一项试点计划，将工程团队、研究团队以及至少其他八个团队重组为更小的组别。此前，据报道 10 月份发布了一篇名为《AI 原生手册》（AI-Native Playbook）的内部帖子，其中一名 Meta 产品管理团队成员概述了该试点项目将如何精简中层管理，并利用“智能体辅助分析”来帮助确定日常任务的优先级。
Reuters noted that HR employees and “AI systems” would help Meta’s leaders decide about promotions; however, Meta told the publication: “Performance rating and promotion decisions were and are made by people, not AI.” 路透社指出，人力资源员工和“AI 系统”将协助 Meta 的领导层决定晋升事宜；然而，Meta 对该媒体表示：“绩效评估和晋升决定过去和现在都是由人做出的，而不是 AI。”
Second thoughts / 重新考虑
Immediately after issuing the May layoffs, Zuckerberg reportedly canceled the November wave. Reuters said it “was unable to determine what exactly prompted Zuckerberg to shift course.” 据报道，在 5 月份发布裁员消息后，扎克伯格立即取消了 11 月的裁员计划。路透社表示，他们“无法确定究竟是什么促使扎克伯格改变了方针”。
Reuters said March and April reports of impending layoffs and Meta tracking employees’ keyboard and mouse input in order to train AI agents (Meta has since paused the program) hurt employee morale. Another potential factor in Meta’s decision to scale back Project OT was uncertainty about whether increased AI use would boost productivity. 路透社称，3 月和 4 月关于即将裁员的报道，以及 Meta 为训练 AI 智能体而追踪员工键盘和鼠标输入（Meta 此后已暂停该计划）的行为，损害了员工士气。Meta 决定缩减 OT 项目的另一个潜在因素是，人们对于增加 AI 使用是否能提高生产力存在不确定性。
Citing internal posts, Reuters noted: “For instance, code changes made to the internal software platforms and infrastructure employees use on the job were up 220 percent year-over-year, according to a post by [Meta CTO Andrew] Bosworth in early June. But changes that led to new or upgraded features reaching Meta users were only up 36 percent.” 路透社援引内部帖子指出：“例如，根据 [Meta 首席技术官安德鲁·博斯沃思] 6 月初发布的一篇帖子，员工在工作中使用的内部软件平台和基础设施的代码变更量同比增长了 220%。但最终转化为触达 Meta 用户的全新或升级功能的变更量仅增长了 36%。”
Internal posts also reportedly pointed to AI agents making “large-scale, disruptive actions that humans are unlikely to execute” and leading to a 40 percent increase in major technical and security incidents compared to the prior year. Employee time spent resolving those problems increased by as much as 70 percent. Meta declined to comment on these internal posts. 据报道，内部帖子还指出，AI 智能体采取了“人类不太可能执行的大规模、破坏性行动”，导致重大技术和安全事故比上一年增加了 40%。员工解决这些问题所花费的时间增加了多达 70%。Meta 拒绝就这些内部帖子发表评论。
In July, however, Zuckerberg reportedly acknowledged during a company meeting that the “trajectory of the agentic development over at least the last four months hasn’t really accelerated in the way that we expected.” 然而，据报道，扎克伯格在 7 月份的一次公司会议上承认，“至少在过去四个月里，智能体开发的发展轨迹并没有像我们预期的那样真正加速。”
Many organizations, including those much bigger and much smaller than Meta, are exploring ways that AI could help with company goals, such as by saving employees time, driving revenue, or reducing costs, including, in some cases, human resources. Meta’s story also shows how far some firms are willing to go to implement AI in an advantageous way, even at the cost of jobs. Meta’s case suggests that even some of the most eager organizations may struggle to replace various human workloads with AI while also highlighting the risks of overzealous AI projects. 许多机构，包括规模远大于和远小于 Meta 的公司，都在探索 AI 如何助力实现公司目标，例如节省员工时间、增加收入或降低成本（在某些情况下包括人力资源成本）。Meta 的故事也展示了某些公司为了以有利的方式实施 AI 愿意走多远，即使是以牺牲工作岗位为代价。Meta 的案例表明，即使是一些最积极的组织，在用 AI 取代各种人类工作负载时也可能举步维艰，同时也凸显了过度热衷于 AI 项目所带来的风险。