Meta Conscripts 6,500 Engineers as Data Labelers: Revolt Exposes AI Training Ceiling

Engineers inside Meta's roughly 6,500-person Applied AI unit revolted after being reassigned to generate coding puzzles and annotation data to train AI agents, dubbing the group 'the gulag.' A June 12 internal livestream was hijacked by an employee cursing at an AI executive, prompting Zuckerberg to concede Meta 'made mistakes' in its AI restructuring following May layoffs of roughly 10% of staff.