"Tell him he's just a XXX!" Live meeting spirals out of control as an "AI rebellion" erupts within Meta.

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Meta’s recent large-scale restructuring centered on artificial intelligence is causing intense turmoil within the company. Employee morale continues to fall, with frequent public protests.

According to reports, during an internal live-streamed meeting attended by thousands of employees this week, one participant lost control of their emotions, interrupted the speaker with profanity, and demanded that those present convey their criticisms to a certain AI executive, directly calling the person “a piece of shit.”

This scene exposed the long-standing dissatisfaction within the company directly to the public. Insiders analyze that the incident reflects the pervasive anger and sense of disillusionment within the newly established Applied AI department.

Facing increasingly acute internal conflicts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in an internal memo that the company “made mistakes” during the AI-driven team restructuring process, and promised to create “meaningful positions” for employees whose jobs were adjusted.

According to Reuters, Zuckerberg also stated that the company does not expect to undergo further company-wide layoffs this year. Analysts pointed out that these statements mean Meta’s senior management has realized that this round of restructuring poses a substantial threat to talent retention and is working to ease the crisis.

Forced Reassignments and Surveillance Controversy: Meta’s AI Transformation Ignites Internal Anger

The Applied AI department was established in March 2026, originally intended to support researchers at Meta’s Superintelligence Lab. The department currently has about 6,500 engineers and product managers, many of whom were forcibly reassigned with little warning.

This department is just the most representative microcosm of Meta’s broader restructuring. In May this year, Meta laid off about 8,000 employees, citing the need to advance AI transformation, and another 7,000 were moved to new AI-related projects. Employees from data center engineering, Instagram, and several other departments reported that work pressure and workload have increased significantly.

In addition, more than 1,600 Meta employees signed a petition demanding the company halt an internal project. This project collected training data for AI agents by recording U.S. employees’ mouse clicks, keyboard input, and screen activities. Under pressure, Meta has made a minor reduction in the scale of this project.

Task Downgrades and Flat Organization Dilemma—Employees Trapped in Career Confusion

The core dissatisfaction among Applied AI department employees is not with the company’s AI strategic direction itself, but with the fundamental change in job nature and the crude transition process.

Engineers who were forcibly reassigned now mainly generate puzzles, write programming challenges, and complete evaluation tasks to test the reliability of AI models. For those previously accustomed to product development, feature launches, and creative collaboration, this shift is widely seen as a professional downgrade.

“You suddenly lose your sense of purpose, hardly interact with anyone, and just mechanically repeat these tasks every week.” said one current employee, describing their work status. Another employee put it more bluntly: “Most people find this work suffocating.”

Excessive flattening of the organizational structure has further exacerbated the problem. According to reports, in some teams within the Applied AI department, there is a very low manager-to-employee ratio, with each manager overseeing an average of 50 employees. Many employees said they lack necessary support, see no clear path for promotion, and rarely have the opportunity to be noticed by management.

Meta Executives Rush to Manage Crisis: Admit Mistakes and Begin Repairs

This week, Instagram Chief Product Officer Chris Cox directly addressed the company’s internal turmoil in an all-hands meeting.

He described the past few months as the “craziness” of the company bringing a “difficult” and “brutal” environment. He compared employees’ situations to “running a marathon in hail, having your teammates changed out midway, all while someone is recording you nonstop on the sidelines.” Cox also made a rare, sober commentary on AI itself: “It (AI) is neither god nor demon. It’s not as good as you think, nor as bad as you fear.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg was even more direct in his internal memo. He wrote: “Given the complexity of these adjustments, we made mistakes.” He promised to strive for “as much stability as possible” and announced plans to hold a large-scale hackathon in July, as well as begin adjusting the management structure of the Applied AI department.

For Meta, the cost of this restructuring is not limited to morale. Engineering talent is the scarcest resource in the AI race; if core employees continue to feel marginalized, the risk of turnover will intensify at crucial times. Statements by Zuckerberg and Cox show that management is aware of the problem—and that remedial action is underway. But whether these efforts can stabilize the workforce remains uncertain.

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