Meta is installing tracking software on the computers of its U.S.-based employees to monitor their keystrokes, mouse movements and clicks. The social media giant will use the data it captures to train artificial intelligence to perform certain work tasks within the company.
The plan was outlined in numerous internal memos that Meta sent to its staff. One such memo, shared by a research scientist on Tuesday in a channel for the Meta Superintelligence Labs team, also revealed that the software would take snapshots of employees’ screens as they work.
Reuters was the first to report on the data collection plan.
The memo says that what’s known internally at Meta as the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), aims “to improve the company’s AI models in areas where they struggle to replicate how humans interact with computers, like choosing from dropdown menus and using keyboard shortcuts.”
“This is where all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work,” the memo said.
AI will ‘primarily do the work’
A separate memo Monday from Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, hinted at the plan, saying the company was pursuing a vision in which AI “agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct, review and help them improve.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told Reuters that the data gathered by the monitoring software would not be used for performance assessments and that “sensitive content” would be protected.
“If we’re building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them — things like mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus,” Stone said.
It’s unclear whether Meta intends to expand the use of monitoring software outside the U.S. But Valerio De Stefano, a law professor at York University in Toronto, told Reuters that such monitoring would likely be illegal under European law.
The move is part of Meta’s push into AI. The company is also currently creating an AI version of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The digital clone, according to The Guardian, is being trained on Zuckerberg’s “thoughts, tone and mannerisms to help workers feel connected.”
The AI-aligned projects come as Meta plans to lay off 10% of its employees across the globe starting next month.