Over 700 Meta AI Training Workers in Ireland Face Layoffs
More than 700 workers training Meta’s artificial intelligence systems through contractor Covalen in Ireland face potential layoffs, Wired reported.
The workers perform data annotation and AI training tasks for Meta’s AI products, according to documents reviewed by Wired. The potential layoffs would affect a large share of Covalen’s workforce dedicated to Meta’s AI operations in Ireland.
One worker described the situation as “undignified,” according to Wired’s reporting, reflecting broader frustration among contract laborers who occupy a central but often precarious role in AI development.
The potential job cuts come as major AI companies face increasing scrutiny over their reliance on large, often overseas contract workforces to perform the labor-intensive work of labeling data, rating AI outputs and training models. While AI labs invest billions in computing infrastructure and top research talent, the workers who generate the training data that makes those systems function frequently lack the job security and benefits of full-time employees.
Meta, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is among the largest AI developers in the world and has made artificial intelligence a central pillar of its corporate strategy under CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company has poured resources into its Llama family of open-weight models and AI-powered features across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The situation in Ireland mirrors patterns seen across the AI industry globally. Companies including OpenAI, Google and Anthropic rely on networks of contractors and outsourcing firms — often based in lower-cost labor markets — to handle data annotation at scale. Labor advocates and researchers have repeatedly raised concerns about pay, working conditions and job stability for these workers.
In the United States, the treatment of AI training workers has drawn attention from lawmakers and regulators. Several congressional proposals in recent years have sought to establish baseline protections for gig and contract workers in AI supply chains, though none have been enacted into law.
The potential Covalen layoffs also come at a moment when advances in AI-assisted data labeling and synthetic data generation have led some in the industry to question the long-term demand for human annotators — even as experts caution that human oversight of training data remains essential to AI safety and quality.
Neither Meta nor Covalen immediately responded to requests for comment from Wired, according to the report.
