Employees sue Meta, alleging discrimination in using AI to make layoffs

A group of current and former employees sued Meta, alleging that the social media giant used artificial intelligence to conduct layoffs and discriminated against some workers.

The workers allege that Meta's 'constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems' failed to take approved absences into account when determining which employees to cut.

The Meta worker lawsuit comes nearly a month after a federal judge in California ruled against tech firm Workday in a separate employee-related lawsuit involving the use of AI for hiring decisions.

A coalition of current and former Meta employees have sued the social media giant, alleging that the company used artificial intelligence in its latest round of layoffs in a way that was discriminatory.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, plaintiffs allege that Meta violated various protected-leave laws and discrimination acts related to pregnancies and disabilities, among others, and wish to pursue their claims individually in arbitration.

Attorneys representing the 26 unnamed workers said in a legal complaint filed in the United States Northern District Court of California that the plaintiffs were among the 10% of Meta's workforce cut in the company's May layoff round.

The plaintiffs allege that Meta's 'constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems' failed to take approved absences into account when determining which employees to cut.

'Those tools draw on inputs—performance ratings, calibration scores, productivity and output metrics, 'AI-native'...