Meta is reportedly downsizing its legacy AI research team

Meta is planning to axe around 600 roles within its legacy AI research division, according to a report from Axios. The layoffs will reportedly impact Meta’s Fundamental AI Research unit, also known as FAIR, while the company continues to hire workers for its newly formed superintelligence team, TBD Lab.

Meta kicked off an AI hiring spree after investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI and hiring CEO Alexandr Wang in June. It paused hiring just months later and announced a restructuring that will focus on AI-related products and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Meta’s AI research team has taken a backseat, with FAIR leader Joelle Pineau leaving earlier this year. In August, Meta AI’s head Wang said that Meta “will aim to integrate and scale many of the research ideas and projects from FAIR into the larger model runs conducted by TBD Lab.”

Now, Meta is reducing roles inside FAIR as it makes high-profile hires for TBD Lab.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Wang writes in a memo seen by Axios. The layoffs will also affect roles within its AI product and infrastructure teams, though Meta will allow impacted employees to apply for other roles within the company, Axios reports.

The Verge reached out to Meta with a request for comment.

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