Meta sued by 26 employees who say its AI systems targeted workers on medical leave for layoffs

TL;DR

Twenty-six Meta employees sued the company alleging its AI scoring systems penalised workers on medical leave during May layoffs.

Twenty-six current and former Meta employees have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the company of using AI-powered systems that disproportionately targeted workers with disabilities or who had taken medical leave when selecting people for mass layoffs. The suit, filed Monday in Oakland, California, alleges that Meta relied on productivity metrics and AI token usage data when it cut roughly 8,000 jobs beginning on May 20, effectively penalising employees who had missed work for protected reasons. It appears to be the first lawsuit against a major US technology company to challenge the use of AI in conducting layoffs.

The 71-page complaint names a constellation of internal AI systems that the plaintiffs say Meta used to score, rank, and select employees for the termination list. Those included Metamate, a large language...

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