Meta to track employee keystrokes and clicks to train AI, memo reveals

Meta employees received a memo stating that the company that owns Facebook and Instagram is installing new software on their computers that will track click locations, keystrokes, and mouse movements in an effort to train AI models. 

According to a Reuters report, the tool, known as the Model Capability Initiative, will log employee actions on company platforms and capture content displayed on their screens. 

The purpose of this initiative with MCI is to enhance the company's AI models' ability to emulate human interactions with machines, such as selecting from dropdown menus and using keyboard shortcuts. "This is where all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work," the memo reportedly stated.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone explained, per Reuters, "If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people ​actually use them."

Stone clarified that the MCI data would be used solely for model training and not for performance evaluations, emphasizing that measures are in place to secure sensitive content, though he did not specify which data would be excluded.

Monitoring employees' work this closely raises a lot of serious questions; two of the biggest concerns are that it will be used for performance reviews, despite what the company says, and that these employees are essentially training their AI replacements. 

Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Yale and author of "The Quantified Worker," told NPR in an interview that surveillance software like this is being used to quantify workers and can easily be abused. 

"There is a lot of concern that because there is really no regulation guiding how employers can use these technologies, there is ripe opportunity for misuse," Ajunwa said. 

As for Meta employees concerned about losing their jobs to AI, it's already happening in multiple industries. Forbes reported that AI was the leading reason for job layoffs in March across all U.S.-based employers. Tech companies have already laid off 73,000 workers in 2026, and Meta is planning another round of layoffs in May. 

Job security and privacy concerns are just the tip of the melting iceberg when it comes to AI's negative impacts. Power-hungry data centers are popping up all over the U.S., creating all sorts of problems for local communities, many of which are pushing back. 

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"We are being asked to sacrifice the lifeblood of our city so a trillion-dollar company can save a fraction of a cent on its margins," one concerned Ohio resident said at a City Council meeting. 

Response to the Meta memo was overwhelmingly negative, according to Business Insider, which obtained the full internal announcement. The "angry-face" emoji was reportedly the most common reaction, and the top-rated comment was, "This makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?"  

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth responded in the thread that there is no opt-out option, which also received a fair amount of upset emoji faces, per Business Insider.

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