Mark Zuckerberg said at Meta Connect last month that Meta AI is “on its way” toward becoming the most used generative AI assistant in the world. The company has now passed a key milestone toward that goal, with Meta AI crossing the 500 million user mark, Zuckerberg revealed during the company’s latest earnings call.
The half-billion user mark comes just a year after the social network first launched its AI assistant last year. Zuckerberg said the company still hopes to become the “most used” assistant by the end of 2024, though he never specified how the company is measuring that metric.
Meta’s assistant isn’t the only AI tool boosting the company’s business. Zuckerberg said time spent on Facebook grew 8 percent this year and 5 percent on Instagram thanks to AI improvements to its feed and video recommendations. He said advertisers are also taking advantage of the company’s AI tools, with more than 15 million ads created with generative AI last month alone. “We believe there’s a lot more to come here,” Zuckerberg said.
In addition to AI, Meta’s Threads app also continues to boom. The service now has “about 275 million” monthly users, according to Zuckerberg. “It’s seeing more than a million sign ups per day,” Zuckerberg said, adding that “engagement is also growing.”
According to a Bloomberg report, Meta is preparing for even more layoffs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a company memo that he plans to cut about five percent of his “low-performing employees.”
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and phase out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said in the memo. “We typically fire people who don’t meet expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to make more extensive performance-based reductions during this cycle.”
Overall, once layoffs are taken into account, Meta could have 10 percent fewer employees. Bloomberg suggested that the upcoming pink slips will focus on people “who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating.”
Amid the growing layoffs and layoffs, about 7,000 of Meta’s employees could leave the company in the near future. This follows a firing spree that began in late 2022 and ultimately affected more than 20,000 employees. The company also laid off 60 technical program managers earlier this month.
“A smaller organization will execute on its top priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling,” Zuckerberg said in 2024. There’s nothing more “fun and fulfilling” than living in constant fear of being fired.
Meta has had an unusual year so far. It’s only halfway through January and Zuck has already ended third-party fact checking on the Meta platform, appointed UFC CEO Dana White to Meta’s board and traveled to Mar-a-Lago to take a knee. The company also changed its “hateful content” policy to make it safer for homophobes and it was revealed that Instagram has banned common LGBTQ hashtags.