A leaked recording from an internal Meta all-hands meeting, obtained by worker advocacy outlet More Perfect Union, reveals CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitting the company tracks employees' mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and screenshots as part of a program called the 'Model Capability Initiative' (MCI).
https://twitter.com/i/status/2056842597117636890
Facing internal pushback, Zuckerberg defended the program in the recording, arguing that the industry currently relies heavily on outsourced labor for training data, but Meta's employees are, on average, far smarter than typical outsourced workers.
In his view, the daily workflow of thousands of elite engineers solving coding problems and building tools is a rare, high-quality training resource. Meta wants to use it to accelerate its models' coding abilities far beyond competitors.
Beyond writing code, the system must learn to 'use a computer' like a human. To teach AI agents complex tasks like navigating drop-down menus and using keyboard shortcuts, the most direct path is to let them watch smart people at work.
Facing accusations of covert surveillance, Zuckerberg assured employees that no human would review the recordings and that sensitive content would be stripped out before data is used. He also claimed the data would not be used for performance reviews or monitoring.
Given ongoing layoffs, many employees are uneasy about handing over personal data to train AI that could eventually replace them. Zuckerberg acknowledged that communication about the program was insufficient but stressed the need for secrecy: AI competition is fierce, and if rivals learn about this proprietary approach, they will copy it immediately.
And it's just the beginning. Zuckerberg said that if the approach proves effective, Meta will expand it company-wide, turning all high-performing employees' computer activity into AI training data.