Facebook Parent Meta Breaks Up Responsible AI Team

As the world debates the value and dangers of artificial intelligence, Facebook’s parent company Meta recently announced it would disband the team responsible for the safety of its AI initiatives.

The break-up of the company’s Responsible AI team was first reported by the website The Information on Saturday and a Meta spokesperson confirmed the news to The Messenger Sunday.

The spokesperson said most of the Responsible AI team was reassigned to the Generative AI team focusing on a product similar to the AI chatbot ChatGPT, which mimics human conversation and can write brief essays and stories, and the AI infrastructure team.

Even with the team’s break-up, “we continue to prioritize and invest in safe and responsible AI development,” the Meta spokesperson said.

It’s not clear why the Responsible AI team was disbanded in the first place, but the move comes during a broad restructuring that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has referred to as a “year of efficiency” following declines in revenue.

So far the company has achieved cost-cutting goals mostly through layoffs and reassignments, according to NBC News.