Meta Lets Workers Be Human for Half an Hour, Then Back Into the Machine

Meta is adjusting its controversial Model Capability Initiative, which tracks employees’ mouse movements and keystrokes for AI training, by allowing workers to pause monitoring for up to 30 minutes when handling personal matters. Only a small subset of employees will be allowed to fully opt out, mainly remote workers with bandwidth issues or those dealing with sensitive material. Despite internal protests, Meta leadership insists the data is not used for surveillance but to teach AI how “smart people use computers.” The program remains widely mandatory, raising ongoing concerns about workplace privacy and the future expansion of such tracking.

Editor’s note: Meta generously grants its employees a whole 30 minutes of humanity before turning them back into raw material for AI training. Truly heartwarming. If Orwell were alive today, he’d probably be taking notes for his next novel. In any normal democratic society, freedom is measured in rights and values, but at Meta it’s measured in minutes.
No matter what excuses the company’s leadership comes up with, I can’t stop thinking about the people working under constant scrutiny that borders on psychological pressure. Something in this picture is fundamentally wrong, and it’s certainly not leading us toward a better future.

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