HMM: Meta slashes jobs in its AI operations.

The company concluded that its long-standing AI efforts had become overly bureaucratic and hopes the reorganization will create a more agile operation, according to an internal memo seen by Axios.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang wrote in the memo.

Driving the news: Meta is cutting roughly 600 positions out of the several thousand roles within Meta’s superintelligence lab.

The cuts will affect the company’s FAIR AI research, product-related AI and AI infrastructure units, while sparing the newly formed TBD Lab unit.

U.S. employees will learn by 7am Pacific time Wednesday whether their jobs are affected, Wang said in the memo.

The company is encouraging affected employees to apply for other jobs within Meta and expects most will find another position internally.

More:

Between the lines: CEO Mark Zuckerberg grew concerned several months ago that the company’s existing AI efforts weren’t leading to needed breakthroughs or improved performance.

That conclusion led to this reorganization, the launch of TBD Labs, and the pricey hiring binge that coincided with Meta’s $15 billion investment in Scale AI and the hiring of Wang.

Meta doesn’t seem to know quite what it’s doing.