Hundreds of employees in Ireland tasked with improving Meta’s artificial intelligence models have been told their jobs are at risk as the company launches new wave of layoffsaccording to documents obtained by WIRED.
The affected employees are employed by Dublin-based Covalen, which provides various content moderation and flagging services to Meta.
According to Nick Bennett, one of the people on the call, employees were informed about the layoffs during a brief video meeting on Monday afternoon and were not allowed to ask questions. “We had a pretty bad feeling [before the meeting]“It’s happened before,” he says.
An email reviewed by WIRED shows that a total of more than 700 employees could potentially lose their jobs at Covalen. About 500 are data annotators. Their task is to compare material generated by AI Meta models company rules excluding perilous and illegal content. “It’s basically about training artificial intelligence to take over our jobs,” says another Covalen employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “We take actions as the perfect decision for the AI to emulate.”
Sometimes the job involves coming up with elaborate prompts to bypass barriers designed to prevent models from serving, for example, child sexual abuse material or descriptions of suicide. “It’s quite exhausting work,” says Bennett. “You’ve been pretending to be a pedophile all day.”
Last week Meta announced plans cut one in 10 jobs as part of mass layoffs aimed at increasing company efficiency. A memo circulated by the company reportedly indicated that the layoffs were motivated by the need to raise spending on other aspects of the business. While the note didn’t mention artificial intelligence, the company recently announced plans to do so will almost double its expenses on technology. In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg he said“I think 2026 will be the year that artificial intelligence starts to radically change the way we work.” In an email reviewed by WIRED, Covalen employees were told only that the layoffs were the result of “reduced demand and operational requirements.”
In a statement, Meta spokeswoman Erica Sackin said: “[O]Over the next few years, Meta will deploy more advanced artificial intelligence systems to transform our approach to content enforcement and operations on our platforms to ensure the safety and security people expect. By doing this, we will reduce our dependence on external suppliers and strengthen our internal systems.”
The latest round of layoffs is the second staff reduction at Covalen in recent months. In November, the company announced plans to reduce employment (reportedly around 400)completed with an employee strike. According to the Communications Workers Union (CWU), which includes some Covalen staff, the number of Covalen employees in Dublin is expected to be almost halved between the two rounds of redundancies.
For affected Covalen employees, their search for modern work will be hampered by a six-month “blackout period” during which they will not be able to apply for employment with competing supplier Meta, CWU says. “You know, it’s undignified,” says a Covalen employee who asked to remain anonymous. “That’s rude.”
Covalen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trade unions representing affected workers are urging Covalen to begin negotiations on severance terms. They also hope to meet with the Irish government to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on workers in the country. “Technology companies treat workers whose work and data helped create AI as disposable,” says Christy Hoffman, secretary general of UNI Global Union. “To fight back, it is absolutely essential that workers organize and demand notifications about the introduction of AI, employment training and a plan for the future. Workers should also have the right to refuse training for AI replacements.”
However, some people affected by layoffs doubt their chances of securing stable employment in a labor market shaped in real time by artificial intelligence and deep-pocketed companies managing its development. “In reality, this is a universal battle between oppressed officials and big capital,” says Bennett. “It usually only works one way.”
Update 04/28/25 15:30 ET: This story has been updated to include Meta’s comment.