- Facebook parent Meta has split up its Responsible AI division, the team dedicated to regulating the security of its artificial intelligence projects.
- Most of Responsible AI’s employees have been assigned to the generative AI product development team.
- The move comes after a series of layoffs and reassignment changes to the team this year.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends the U.S. Senate Bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on September 13, 2023.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
According to a Meta spokesperson, Meta has disbanded its Responsible AI division, the team dedicated to regulating the security of its artificial intelligence projects as they are developed and deployed.
Most members of the RAI team have been reassigned to the company’s Generative AI product division, while several others will now work on the AI infrastructure team, the spokesperson said. The news was first reported by The Information.
Founded in February, the generative AI team focuses on developing products that generate speech and images to mimic the equivalent human-created version. This came as companies across the tech industry poured money into developing machine learning to avoid falling behind in the AI race. Meta is one of the big tech companies that has been catching up since the start of the AI boom.
The RAI restructuring comes as Facebook parent company nears the end of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called its “year of efficiency” during an earnings call in February. So far there has been a flood of layoffs, team mergers and redeployments within the company.
Ensuring the safety of AI has become a stated priority of top players in the field, especially as regulators and other officials pay more attention to the potential harms of the emerging technology. In July, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI formed an industry group specifically focused on setting security standards as AI evolves.
Although RAI employees are now spread across the organization, the spokesperson noted that they will continue to support “responsible AI development and use.”
“We continue to prioritize and invest in safe and responsible AI development,” the spokesperson said.
Originally posted 2023-11-19 08:08:13.