More than 700 Meta contractor workers in Ireland face possible layoffs

In short: More than 700 people working for Meta contractor Covalen in Dublin have been told their jobs are at risk, according to documents obtained by WIRED.

What happened

Workers employed by Covalen, a Dublin-based company that does work for Meta, were told in a short video meeting on Monday that layoffs may be coming. One employee told WIRED that workers were not allowed to ask questions during the call.

An email reviewed by WIRED said more than 700 Covalen employees could be affected. Around 500 of them are “data annotators,” which means they review and label material made by Meta’s AI systems so it matches Meta’s rules. You can think of it like quality checking and tagging items on a conveyor belt so the system learns what is allowed and what is not.

Some workers said the job can be distressing. They described testing whether AI safety blocks can be bypassed, including by writing prompts that try to trick the system into producing harmful or illegal content.

Covalen told employees the possible layoffs were due to “reduced demand and operational requirements,” according to the email. Meta recently said it plans to cut about one in ten jobs, and it has also signaled higher spending on AI.

Why it matters

This story highlights a less visible part of AI work, large systems still rely on many people to review content and teach the tools what to do. If these cuts go ahead, hundreds of workers may need to find new jobs, and a union says a six-month “cooldown period” could limit them from quickly moving to similar work with other Meta contractors. Unions are pushing Covalen to negotiate severance terms, and they want to talk with the Irish government about how AI is affecting jobs.

Source: Wired