Meta首席技术官安德鲁·博斯沃思承认,公司的人工智能重组“糟糕透顶”。

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Meta首席技术官安德鲁·博斯沃思承认,公司的人工智能重组“糟糕透顶”。

内容来源:https://www.wired.com/story/andrew-bosworth-meta-employees-unrest/

内容总结:

Meta高管内部发文承认AI部门转型“糟糕透顶”,承诺改善沟通与福利重振士气

据WIRED看到的内部备忘录显示,Meta首席技术官安德鲁·博斯沃思本周一在内部发文中承认,公司新成立的人工智能部门在落地执行上做得“极其糟糕”,并承诺将通过优化沟通、畅通晋升渠道、甚至改善零食供应等方式,重新点燃公司内部“更愉快”的文化氛围。

此前,WIRED曾报道Meta应用人工智能工程部门内部普遍存在不满情绪。该部门于今年3月成立,由约6500名工程师和产品经理组成,旨在改进公司的生成式AI模型。然而,员工抱怨工作内容琐碎单调,甚至有人将其形容为“古拉格”(意指如同劳改营般的压抑环境)。

博斯沃思在发文中表示,近期员工的反馈促使他宣布一系列改革。他承认:“我们损害了你们对自身专业特长和贡献将被重视、事业将得到成长、这里能让你真正发挥影响力的信任。”他还指出,管理层变动过于频繁,而战略上的快速调整(包括招聘的“繁荣/萧条”周期)让不少团队陷入困境。

此次AI团队内部动荡,是Meta在经历大规模裁员、员工监控等事件后整体士气下滑的缩影。近日,包括CEO马克·扎克伯格在内的多名高管已在内网发文,承认员工的感受并承诺做出改变。

博斯沃思在备忘录中提出多项具体措施:每位管理者的直接下属将控制在约20人以内;管理层将专注管理而非自身独立工作;员工将获得“AI辅导”工具辅助职业发展。他还在回应相关评论时自责道:“在急于推进战略大局时,我们显然在解释愿景、说明如何支持员工职业转型方面做得糟糕透顶。”

不过,博斯沃思也强调,为追求速度而将员工调至AI团队是正确的决定,并提醒员工“有时工作需要牺牲”,可能需暂时从事“并非个人最感兴趣”的项目。

与此同时,应用AI团队副总裁马希尔·萨巴在上周五晚间的内部发文中宣布,此前被强制调入团队的员工现在可以申请Meta内部其他岗位。他表示,团队初期聚焦于提升前沿AI模型的编码和代理能力,未来还可能拓展到安全、调试和产品开发等领域。萨巴还重新诠释了Meta曾引发争议的口号“快速行动,打破常规”,称新团队将“快速行动,修复向前”。

博斯沃思在备忘录中强调,Meta并不相信AI会完全取代AI员工,但表示“应当谨记‘AI不会抢走你的工作,但懂AI的人可能’这句话”。员工绩效不仅看是否使用AI,更要看是否利用AI产生了“影响力”。他还坦言,各团队在计算资源分配上将面临“艰难的权衡”,但会尽力保持透明并负责任地投资以缓解瓶颈。

为提振士气,博斯沃思承诺让公司成为“有趣且令人愉快”的工作场所。具体措施包括:改善办公室内的“微型厨房”(提供零食和饮料的休息区)、提高差旅预算以及增加社交活动开支,以便员工能有更多线下交流机会。“我希望我们能重新点燃当初加入这家公司时感受到的最好的文化。”博斯沃思写道。

中文翻译:

Meta 的一位高管周一在一份内部备忘录中告诉员工,公司在推出新人工智能部门时表现"糟糕透顶",未来将通过改善沟通、提供职业发展机会甚至增加零食等方式,着力"重燃"更加积极向上的内部文化。这份备忘录由《连线》杂志获取。

Meta 首席技术官安德鲁·博斯沃思的此番表态,源于《连线》上周的一篇报道,该报道揭示了应用人工智能工程部门内部广泛存在的不满情绪。Meta 于今年3月成立了这个约有6500名工程师和产品经理的部门,负责推进旨在优化公司生成式AI模型的项目。然而,员工们形容工作内容卑微琐碎,有人甚至将其描述为"古拉格"。

博斯沃思表示,正是近期收集到的员工反馈促使他宣布这些调整措施。"我们动摇了你们的信任,让你们不再确信自己的专业知识和贡献会得到重视,不再确信自己能获得成长和职业发展,也不再确信这里是一个你们能真正有所作为的地方,"博斯沃思写道。"我们打乱了原本为你们提供稳定性的管理架构,而战略的快速变化——包括招聘的'繁荣-萧条'周期——让整个团队陷入困境。"

Meta 拒绝就此报道置评。

AI 团队内部的不安情绪,是 Meta 在经历大规模裁员、员工监控及其他担忧后整体士气下滑的一个缩影。近日,包括首席执行官马克·扎克伯格在内的多位高管已发布内部信息,承认员工的感受,并承诺做出改变以回应这些关切。

在这份长篇备忘录中,长期以来被视为扎克伯格忠诚追随者的博斯沃思表示,未来员工将获得更个性化的关注。他写道,Meta 计划将每位经理的直接下属人数控制在20人左右,并尽量减少员工在重组过程中更换经理的次数。经理的主要精力将放在管理上,其次才是独立工作;员工如果愿意,还可以使用"AI 辅导"工具。


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在回应关于应用 AI 团队备忘录的一条评论时,博斯沃思自责与高管团队在匆忙聚焦更广泛的战略问题(如如何在AI编码工具市场更好地竞争)时,忽视了员工的视角。"我们在解释愿景、清晰描绘如何在这轮转型中支持员工及其职业发展、以及描述未来如何演变方面,显然做得糟糕透顶,"他写道。

不过,博斯沃思也表示,为了速度而抽调人员组建 AI 团队是正确的决定,并提醒员工他们可能需要在一个"个人暂时觉得不那么有成就感"的项目上工作,因为"有些时候,工作需要做出牺牲"。

在《连线》获取的另一份上周五晚间发布的内部帖子中,领导应用 AI 团队的公司副总裁马希尔·萨巴告诉那些被迫加入该团队的员工,如果他们能争取到其他岗位,现在可以重新在 Meta 内部担任其他职务。"我们觉得有必要利用 Meta 拥有而其他 AI 实验室所没有的优势:我们的规模和我们员工的专长,"萨巴在谈到抽调人员加入其团队的决定时说。但他写道,"展望未来,我们将回归常态,让员工有权申请自己感兴趣的岗位。"

萨巴表示,该团队最初专注于提升 Meta 前沿 AI 模型的编码和自主能力,未来也可能拓展至安全、调试和产品开发领域。

萨巴重新诠释了 Meta 那句如今臭名昭著的口号"快速行动,打破常规",称 Meta 内部新的应用 AI 团队正在"快速行动,向前修复"。萨巴表示,传统的工程路线图——通常在今年上半年和下半年开始时制定——已不再适用,因为"工作内容的演进非常动态"。

博斯沃思的备忘录强调,Meta 并不认同 AI 将完全取代 AI 工作者的观点。然而,他说:"我们应该牢记一句话:'AI 不会抢走你的工作,但懂 AI 的人可能会。'"博斯沃思表示,员工的绩效将不仅仅基于是否使用 AI,而是看他们能否利用 AI 产生"影响力"。

他补充说,在向不同团队分配可用于 AI 工具的计算资源方面,"在一段时间内会存在艰难的权衡取舍"。"我们会尽力保持透明,并负责任地进行投资以缓解瓶颈,"他写道,同时也鼓励员工上报任何问题。

此外,为提振士气,博斯沃思承诺将公司打造成一个"有趣且令人愉快"的工作场所。Meta 将"改善迷你厨房"(办公室内提供零食和饮料的休息区),并增加差旅预算和团建活动支出,以便员工能有更多面对面相处的时间。

"我希望我们能重燃当初加入 Meta 时最美好的那份文化,"博斯沃思写道。

英文来源:

Meta did an “atrocious” job of rolling out a new artificial intelligence division and will aim to “rekindle” a more cheerful internal culture through better communication, career growth, and even snacks, a top executive told employees on Monday in an internal post seen by WIRED.
The comments made by Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, follow reporting by WIRED last week that revealed widespread dissatisfaction within the Applied AI engineering unit. Meta formed the division of about 6,500 engineers and product managers in March to work on projects aimed at improving the company’s generative AI models. But what workers described as the menial nature of the work prompted one to describe it as “a gulag.”
Bosworth cited recent employee feedback as shaping the changes he was announcing. “We’ve undermined the trust you have that your specific expertise and contribution will be valued, that you will grow and advance your career, and that this will be a place where you can actually have an impact,” Bosworth wrote. “We shook up the management structure that was providing you stability while rapid changes in strategy, including the boom/bust cycle of hiring, left entire teams in the lurch.”
Meta declined to comment for this story.
The unrest inside the AI team is part of a broader downward swing in morale at Meta in the wake of mass layoffs, worker surveillance, and other concerns among employees. In recent days, several executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have posted internal messages acknowledging employees’ feelings and vowing to make changes to address them.
In his lengthy memo, Bosworth, long seen as a Zuckerberg loyalist, said that employees would receive more personalized attention going forward. Meta plans to cap managers at about 20 direct reports each, he wrote, and will try to limit the number of times employees switch to new managers as part of restructurings. Managers would be focused primarily on managing and secondarily on independent work, and workers would have access to “AI coaching” tools should they decide to use them.
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Responding to a comment on his memo about the Applied AI team, Bosworth blamed himself and fellow executives for losing sight of employees’ perspective while rushing to focus on broader strategy issues, such as better competing in the market for AI coding tools. “We obviously did an atrocious job explaining the vision, giving people a clear picture of how we would support them and their careers in the shift, and painting a picture of how it would change over time,” he wrote.
However, Bosworth also suggested that drafting people onto the AI team in the name of speed was the correct call, and he reminded employees that they may need to work on a project they “don’t find as personally fulfilling for a while” because “there are going to be times where the work requires sacrifice.”
In a separate post from late last Friday seen by WIRED, Maher Saba, a vice president leading the Applied AI team, told employees who were forced to join that they would be now allowed to take other roles within Meta if they are able to secure them. “We felt it was necessary to leverage what Meta has that those other [AI] labs don’t: our scale and our people’s expertise,” Saba said of the decision to draft people onto his team. But, “moving forward, we are returning to business as usual and giving people the agency to apply to roles that interest them,” Saba wrote.
Saba said the group, which is initially focused on projects to increase the coding and agentic capabilities of Meta’s frontier AI models, could also expand to address security, debugging, and product development.
Recasting Meta’s now-infamous motto of “move fast and break things,” Saba said the new Applied AI team within Meta is “moving fast and fixing forward.” Traditional engineering roadmaps, typically laid out at the start of the first and second halves of the year, no longer apply, Saba said, because “the work evolves so dynamically.”
Bosworth’s memo emphasized that Meta doesn’t subscribe to the belief that AI will fully replace AI workers. However, he said, “We should heed the saying, ‘AI won’t take your job but someone who knows AI might.’” Employees’ performance will be based not on just using AI, but having an “impact” with it, Bosworth said.
He added that there would be “tough trade-offs for a while” around the amount of compute available to different teams to make use of AI tools. “We will do our best to be transparent and invest responsibly to alleviate bottlenecks,” he wrote, while also encouraging employees to escalate any issues.
And, in an attempt to boost morale, Bosworth vowed to make the company a “fun and enjoyable” place to work. Meta will be “improving microkitchens,” which are break areas within offices with snacks and drinks, and increasing travel budgets as well as spending on social events, so that employees can spend time together in person.
“I hope we can rekindle the best of the culture we joined,” Bosworth wrote.

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