Meta’s AI optimism, with a huge asterisk

TL;DR: Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out his dream for the agentic future with a one-minute ad: “Call us optimists. Call us dreamers. Just as we’ve always done, we’re betting on people.” The ad scrolls through a montage of happy human moments, set to the David Bowie song “Five Years”—which just so happens to be about the end of the world. But for Meta, “betting on people” has looked different in practice.

Here are the contradictions so far this year:

• Meta told staff in April it would cut 10% of its workforce—about 8,000 jobs—and scrap 6,000 open roles to offset AI spending.
• As for the workers who stayed: Roughly 6,500 engineers were reassigned to a new AI unit. Just a few months later, many described themselves as “draftees,” with one calling the team “literally the gulag,” per Wired.
• Also in April, Meta said it would start logging US staffers’ clicks and keystrokes for AI training data—but then scaled back its plan in June following weeks of backlash from employees.
• Dozens of employees sued the company this month over claims that it used AI tools to rank worker performance without making exceptions for those who were on leave. (A Meta spokesperson said the claims lack merit.)
• Instagram acknowledged the “creep problem” the Meta glasses have created and said it will remove videos of those harassing strangers in public—but didn’t say how it’ll enforce the ban. Meta is also reportedly testing always-on “super sensing” glasses that capture continuously and may even drop the recording light that tells people when they’re on.
• A new Facebook Verified badge, announced today, aims to prove a human is behind a Marketplace listing—on a platform (and now, a standalone Seller app) where Meta AI can write the listing, set the price, and answer questions.

Chasing TikTok (again): Amid the announcements is another move nobody asked for—Facebook will test a “reimagined experience” that takes users straight into full-screen video when they open the app. It’s also considering changes that sound suspiciously similar to it just becoming TikTok.

Bottom line: If Meta wants people to buy into this latest ad—a Herculean feat considering it landed at 96 out of 100 on a 2026 reputation poll (just four spots above Spirit Airlines, which has the excuse of being dead)—it will have to start aligning its products with its message. —LC