Lawsuit claims Meta's layoff decisions were made by AI, not humans

Key Points:

• A lawsuit filed by 26 Meta employees alleges that the company's AI-driven layoff process disproportionately targeted workers with disabilities and those on protected medical or family leave, using internal AI tools to score and rank employees for termination.
• The complaint claims Meta's AI systems penalized employees who took protected leaves or requested accommodations by failing to adjust scoring metrics, resulting in a disparate impact against these workers.
• Meta denies the allegations, stating that layoff decisions were made by people, not AI, and that the claims lack merit and factual basis.
• Plaintiffs seek a court injunction to preserve their employment status during arbitration, an independent audit of the AI-based layoff process, and preservation of all related data and documents.
• The layoffs, affecting approximately 8,000 employees, come amid Meta's record revenue and significant planned AI investments, raising employee concerns about the necessity and fairness of the cuts.