A new class action lawsuit accuses Meta of using artificial intelligence systems to select employees for layoffs, disproportionately affecting workers with disabilities and those who had taken protected medical or family leave. The complaint, filed yesterday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by 26 former employees requesting anonymity, raises serious questions about the use of AI in hiring and termination decisions.
The Metamate system and 'second-brain' agents at the heart of the controversy
According to the lawsuit, Meta did not base the layoff list on the considered judgment of managers familiar with employees' work. Instead, the company allegedly used a constellation of internal AI systems, including a system called Metamate, employee-trained 'second-brain' agents, keystroke and activity monitoring data, AI token usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance ranking and calibration tools. These systems scored and selected the 8,000 employees included in the layoffs that occurred last year.
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Employee classification based on AI adoption levels
A particularly controversial aspect is that Meta allegedly classified employees by their stage of adoption of internal AI tools, using categories such as 'AI Native', 'AI First', and 'AI Enabled'. Employees with lower scores in these categories were at higher risk of being laid off, regardless of their actual job performance. The lawsuit argues that this mechanism unfairly discriminated against individuals who, due to health issues or disabilities, could not intensively use the AI tools.
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This case fits into a broader landscape of legal disputes over the use of artificial intelligence in corporate decisions. Just a few weeks ago, major publishers sued Google for using copyrighted material to train the Gemini model. Additionally, the case echoes the OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol incident, where the model deleted files without authorization, raising concerns about AI reliability.
Legal implications and potential precedent for AI regulation
The class action could set an important precedent for regulating AI in the workplace. The plaintiffs' lawyers argue that using algorithms for layoff decisions violates federal and state laws protecting workers with disabilities and family and medical leave rights. Tech companies, increasingly reliant on AI to optimize operations, now face the challenge of balancing efficiency with legal compliance. According to labor law experts, Meta's selection algorithm may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. For more on algorithmic bias, see Wikipedia's page on algorithmic bias.
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Meta has denied the allegations, calling the lawsuit baseless. However, details emerging from the complaint, such as the use of activity monitoring dashboards and AI-usage-based ranking systems, cast a shadow over the company's personnel management practices. The case is set to proceed through the legal system, while regulators and the public watch closely for developments in AI workplace regulation.
