一位工程师发布的抗议笔记本电脑监控的帖子在Meta内部迅速传播开来。

qimuai 发布于 阅读:28 一手编译

一位工程师发布的抗议笔记本电脑监控的帖子在Meta内部迅速传播开来。

内容来源:https://www.wired.com/story/meta-employee-protest-mouse-tracking-surveillance-ai-training/

内容总结:

Meta强制监控员工行为引发内部强烈反弹:数千员工联名抗议“键盘记录”软件

近日,社交媒体巨头Meta(原Facebook)因强制在美国员工电脑上安装一款名为“模型能力计划”(Model Capability Initiative)的监控软件,在公司内部引发巨大争议。该软件会记录员工在使用特定应用程序时的屏幕内容、鼠标移动、点击行为及下拉菜单选择等操作,旨在收集“人类实际使用电脑的真实案例”以训练人工智能(AI)模型。

员工痛斥“侵犯隐私”,近两万人关注内部帖

一名工程师在公司内部论坛发布长文,直指此举“自私地说,我不希望屏幕被截取,因为这感觉像是对隐私的侵犯;但从更大范围看,我不想生活在一个人类——无论是员工还是其他人——被当作训练数据来剥削的世界。”该帖子吸引了近两万名同事阅读。

这名工程师还表达了对AI技术发展的复杂心态:“我喜欢用AI写代码,但对其对世界的影响深感不安。我们正在确立什么样的技术使用规范?员工又将被如何对待?”

联名请愿要求停止“非自愿数据采集”

自上周四起,一份内部请愿书在Meta员工中流传,要求公司立即停止这项被员工视为“剥削”的计划。请愿书明确指出:“任何规模的公司都不应被允许在未经员工同意的情况下,为AI训练目的提取其数据,这不应成为常态。”该请愿信同时被媒体WIRED获取。

尽管仅在美国员工中实施,但英国办公室的员工同样感到担忧。代表Meta员工的组织方代表埃莉诺·佩恩(Eleanor Payne)直言,这项监控计划是引发士气低落和英国办公室工会化努力的首要原因。“我认为这基本上是信任的崩溃。”她表示,目前寻求成立工会的员工人数“意义重大”且前所未有。

抗议行动升级:张贴海报被撕,部分员工“软抵制”

在加州和纽约的Meta办公室,员工已在食堂等公共区域张贴海报,号召同事签署请愿书。两名不愿透露姓名的员工称,公司已移除部分海报,但厕所内的海报似乎“存活”时间更长。Meta对此拒绝置评。

同时,有消息称,部分不愿签名的员工采取了“软抵制”策略——故意延迟安装该屏幕记录工具,尽管这会导致系统持续弹出提醒通知。员工们尚不清楚公司能容忍这种拖延多久,而随着下周裁员计划的推进,Meta的员工总数将减少10%,可能进一步削弱管控能力。

法律监管空白下的新难题:员工数据成AI训练“新矿”

在美国,雇主出于安全、培训、评估等目的监控员工设备通常拥有较大权限。但专家指出,利用此类工具收集数据,用于训练AI系统在无人监督下自主操作电脑,这似乎是一种全新策略,且让许多员工感到不安。过去数年,尽管多家公司投身“代理型AI”竞赛,但通常是通过招募志愿者(有时是付费)并征得同意来采集数据。

公司内部分裂加剧,集体行动呼声高涨

请愿组织者呼吁Meta尊重员工“讨论、组织及争取更好工作条件”的合法权利。一位工程师在内部帖中感慨,过去11年间,特别是近5年,Meta文化持续恶化:“裁员、预算削减、多年追求效率和强度……都加剧了日渐增长的恐惧感。”而监控软件的推出,则成为压垮情绪的“最后一根稻草”。

“MCI(模型能力计划)是AI运动的缩影,”这位工程师写道,“虽然只是小小的温度调节旋钮,但它代表了人们将被强迫构建的那类系统。”他号召同事重视集体行动的价值:“你的声音很重要。正是这样的时刻,让我当初被Facebook所吸引。”

中文翻译:

Meta公司决定追踪员工按键和鼠标数据的做法在公司内部引发了强烈不满。“自私地说,我不希望自己的屏幕被监控,因为这感觉像是对我隐私的侵犯,”一名工程师在本周发布的一篇内部帖子中写道,这篇帖子被近两万名同事看到。“但放眼全局,我不希望生活在一个人类——无论是员工还是其他人——为了获取训练数据而被利用的世界里。”

这篇帖子的目的是为上周四起在公司内部流传的一份请愿书争取支持,该请愿要求终止Meta所谓的“模型能力计划”。这是一款强制性软件,Meta上月开始在美国员工的笔记本电脑上安装。据路透社报道,该工具在使用某些应用程序时会记录员工的屏幕,目的是收集“人们实际使用计算机的真实例子”,包括“鼠标移动、点击按钮和浏览下拉菜单”。Meta尚未说明这些初始数据是否产生了效果。

“我对人工智能的看法很复杂。一方面,我真的很喜欢用它来编写软件。另一方面,我对它给世界带来的影响深感不安,”这位工程师在面向程序员的内部论坛上写道。“我们正在为这项技术的使用方式以及人们将受到怎样的对待,确立什么样的规范?”

这份请愿书也被《连线》杂志看到,其中写道:“不应允许任何规模的公司通过未经同意提取员工数据用于人工智能训练来剥削员工,这不应成为常态。”

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在美国,雇主通常有相当大的自由度,可以出于安全、培训、评估和安全目的监控员工的设备。但利用这些工具来构建数据集,以训练人工智能系统在无人监督的情况下操作计算机,似乎是一种新策略——而且许多Meta员工对此感到不安。过去几年里,多家公司已加入开发智能体人工智能模型的竞赛。但在收集数据时,他们通常依靠志愿者(有时是付费的),这些志愿者愿意让自己的计算机活动被记录下来。

尽管员工抗议了数周,Meta仍决定推进其追踪工具,这已成为16名现任和前任员工最近向《连线》杂志描述的员工士气创历史新低的主要原因之一。这也是Meta英国办公室员工推动组建工会的主要动力。

“工作场所监控和训练人工智能模型是头号问题,”联合技术与联合工人工会的代表埃莉诺·佩恩说,该工会正在协助组织Meta员工。她拒绝透露寻求组建工会的员工具体人数,但称其“相当可观”且前所未有。

虽然目前只有美国员工受到监控,但英国员工对同事的处境以及该计划可能扩展的范围感到担忧。“我认为这基本上是一种信任的崩溃,”佩恩说。她补充说,英国新出台的放宽工会组建条件的法律,让员工对成功组建工会的信心大增。

在Meta位于加州和纽约的办公室,员工们在食堂和其他公共区域张贴传单,引导同事关注请愿书。两名因未获授权接受媒体采访而要求匿名的员工表示,公司已移除了一些海报,但洗手间墙上的海报似乎保留时间更久。

Meta拒绝对这一指控发表评论。

请愿书组织者呼吁Meta尊重他们“讨论、组织并倡导改善工作条件”的合法权利。截至目前,组织者拒绝透露签署人数,也拒绝说明他们是否可能采取其他法律或监管行动来对抗这一追踪计划。

这名工程师本周发布的内部帖子详细记录了其认为Meta文化在过去11年中的退化,其中大部分变化发生在过去五年。“裁员、预算削减、多年的效率至上和高压——所有这些都加剧了一种日益增长的恐惧感,”这位员工写道。他们描述了自己对工作和职场逐渐变得漠不关心,直到追踪软件的推出让他们震惊不已。

“MCI是人工智能运动的一个缩影,”这位工程师补充道。“是的,这只是在温度旋钮上转动了一小段,但它代表了人们被迫构建的那类系统。”

为了回应请愿活动面临的怀疑和恐惧,他们强调了集体行动的价值:“你的声音很重要。正是这样的时刻,让我当初被脸书所吸引。”

据消息人士称,一些不愿签署请愿书的员工正在悄悄采取自己的抗议形式,推迟安装屏幕记录工具。这意味着要忍受不断弹出的提醒通知。员工们不清楚Meta会容忍这种行为多久。但在下周裁员之后,公司将减少10%的员工来尝试处理此事。

英文来源:

Meta’s decision to track employee keystrokes and mouse data is causing an uproar within the company. “Selfishly, I don't want my screen scraped because it feels like an invasion of my privacy,” wrote an engineer in an internal post seen by nearly 20,000 coworkers this week. “But zooming out, I don't want to live in a world where humans—employees or otherwise—are exploited for their training data.”
The message aimed to rally support for a petition circulating inside the company since last Thursday that demands an end to what Meta calls the Model Capability Initiative. It’s a piece of mandatory software that Meta began installing on the laptops of US employees last month. The tool records employees’ screens when using certain apps with the goal of collecting “real examples of how people actually use” computers, including “mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus,” according to Reuters. Meta has yet to say whether the initial data is paying off.
“I'm mixed on Al. On one hand, I really enjoy using it to write software. On the other hand, I'm really nervous about its impact on the world,” the engineer wrote in an internal forum for coders. “And what kind of norms are we establishing about how the technology is used, and how people are going to be treated?”
The petition, also seen by WIRED, states that “it should not be the norm that companies of any size are permitted to exploit their employees by nonconsensually extracting their data for the purposes of Al training.”
Got a Tip?
Are you a current or former Meta employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at peard33.24.

In the US, employers generally have wide latitude to monitor workers’ devices for security, training, evaluation, and safety purposes. But using these tools to build datasets that instruct AI systems on navigating computers without human supervision appears to be a new tactic—and one that doesn’t sit right with many Meta workers. Over the past few years, several companies have jumped into the race to develop agentic AI models. But when gathering data, they have typically tapped volunteers, sometimes paid, who are willing to have their computer activity recorded.
Meta’s decision to move forward with its tracking tool despite weeks of protest from employees has become one of the leading reasons for what 16 current and former employees recently described to WIRED as record-low morale. It’s also the leading driver of an employee unionization effort at Meta’s UK offices.
“The workplace surveillance and training AI models is the number one thing,” says Eleanor Payne, a representative of United Tech and Allied Workers, which is helping organize Meta employees. She declined to specify the number of employees seeking to form a labor union but called it “significant” and unprecedented.
While only US employees are currently subjected to tracking, UK employees are concerned for their colleagues and the potential for expansion of the program. “I think of it pretty much as a breakdown of trust,” Payne says. New laws that eased unionization in the UK have encouraged employees about the chances of success, she adds.
In Meta offices in California and New York, workers have been posting flyers in cafeterias and other communal areas pointing colleagues to the petition. Two employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, say the company has removed some posters, with those on bathroom walls seemingly staying up longer.
Meta declined to comment on the allegation.
Petition organizers have called on Meta to respect their legal right “to discuss, organize, and advocate for better working conditions.” So far, organizers have declined to comment on the number of signatories and whether they may pursue other legal or regulatory actions to push back on the tracking program.
The engineer’s internal post this week chronicled what they believe to be a degradation in Meta’s culture over the past 11 years, with much of the shift happening in the past five. “Layoffs, budget cuts, years of efficiency and intensity—all of it contributed to a growing sense of dread,” the employee wrote. They described growing apathetic about their work and workplace, until the rollout of the tracking software stunned them.
“MCI is a microcosm for the Al movement,” the engineer added. “Yes, it's just a small turn of the temperature knob, but it's representative of the types of systems that people will be compelled to build.”
They addressed skepticism and fear about the petition drive by underscoring the value of collective action: “Your voice matters. Moments like this are why I was drawn to Facebook in the first place.”
Some workers reluctant to sign the petition are quietly staging their own form of protest by delaying installation of the screen recording tool, sources say. It means dealing with a nagging notification. How long Meta will accept the maneuver is unclear to employees. But after layoffs hit next week, the company will have 10 percent fewer people to try and wrangle.

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