Meta to track workers' clicks and keystrokes to train AI

Meta to track workers' clicks and keystrokes to train AI9 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleKali HaysTechnology reporterGetty ImagesMeta will start tracking the way employees work, including their keystrokes and mouse clicks, to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models. The company, which owns Instagram and Facebook, told workers on Tuesday that a new tool will run on Meta's computers and internal apps, logging their activity to be used as training data for AI technology.A Meta spokesman told the BBC: "If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them.""The data is not used for any other purpose," he said, adding that the tool has "safeguards in place to protect sensitive content".But one Meta employee, who asked not to be identified, said having their smallest actions on a computer being used to train AI model as workers expect a slew of additional job cuts feels "very dystopian"."This company has become obsessed with AI," they told the BBC..Another person who recently left the company said the tracking tool is "just the latest way they're shoving AI down everyone's throat".Meta has already laid off around 2,000 employees this year in smaller rounds of cuts, but employees have been expecting deeper job losses in the coming months, as the BBC previously reported.Last month, the company enacted a partial hiring freeze which now appears to be more far-reaching.A website that Meta uses to advertise all of its jobs hosted about 800 listings in March. Now, it is advertising just seven jobs.Meta's spokesman declined to comment on the company's removal of job listings or plans for cuts.Meta is using a tracking tool called Model Capability Initiative or MCI, according to Reuters which first reported the move.The BBC has been told that an employee's activity on a Meta...