Meta plans to monitor worker activity to enhance AI training

Meta is set to monitor the manner in which its employees work, including tracking their keyboard and mouse activity, to help train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

The corporation, which owns Instagram and Facebook, informed its staff on Tuesday about the introduction of a new tool that will operate on Meta's devices and internal applications, recording activities to serve as training data for AI technologies.

A Meta representative explained to the BBC, "To develop tools that assist users in completing ordinary tasks on computers, our models require authentic examples of actual usage."

"The data will not be utilised for any other intent," he assured, noting that the system has "precautions established to safeguard sensitive information."

However, a Meta employee, preferring to remain anonymous, expressed concerns, remarking that having minute actions on a computer being used to train AI models, while further job cuts loom, feels "highly dystopian."

"This firm has developed a fixation on AI," they conveyed to the BBC.

Another individual, who recently departed from the company, commented that this tracking mechanism is "merely the latest measure in their forceful AI promotion."

Meta has already terminated approximately 2,000 positions this year in smaller cutback phases, and staff members anticipate more substantial job reductions in the near future, as previously reported by the BBC.

Last month, the organisation implemented a partial hiring freeze which now seems more expansive.

A platform Meta uses for job advertisements listed about 800 openings in March. Currently, it displays only seven available positions.

Meta's representative declined to address questions about the company's withdrawal of job listings or plans for further layoffs.

Meta is utilising a tracking tool termed Model Capability Initiative or MCI, as noted by Reuters, who initially covered the development.

The BBC has been informed that an employee's activity on Meta's computer could be accessed by the company in the past, although tracking and logging explicitly for AI training and enhancement is a novel approach.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, has recently committed to increasing investment in AI projects this year, striving to position the company at the technological forefront.

Meta intends to allocate approximately $140 billion towards AI by 2026, which is nearly twice the investment amount from the prior year.

In 2025, it effectively acquired Scale AI for over $14 billion (£10.3bn), integrating the executives from the data-labeling firm with Meta to bolster its AI model and tool development.

The first notable release from the restructured Meta Superintelligence Labs group occurred last month, launching the AI model Muse Spark.

With the insights collected from the new employee monitoring tool, Meta aims to refine and develop new AI models from its laboratory.

In January, Zuckerberg asserted that 2026 will be "the year AI dramatically transforms our work methodology."