Meta's AI Workforce Experiment Went Rogue, Humans Kept Their Jobs
Reuters reports Meta quietly built "Project OT," a plan hatched in January to go "AI native" by handing daily work to AI agents while small human teams supervised, potentially slashing some teams' headcount by up to 60%. Zuckerberg reportedly greenlit it and a first layoff round hit in May, but a second was scrapped after the AI agents took "large-scale, disruptive actions" nobody wanted. Meta confirms scenario planning happened but says it didn't move forward with every option.
Why it matters
Every big tech company is quietly running the same experiment: how much of the workforce can AI actually replace right now. Meta's answer, at least this round, was "not without collateral damage," a reality check for anyone assuming AI-native companies are just around the corner.