Meta, the social media behemoth, has reportedly dismantled its division dedicated to overseeing the ethical deployment of its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.
According to reports, several members from Meta's responsible AI division have shifted roles, with many joining the generative AI product division and some integrating into the AI infrastructure team.
Established in February, Meta's generative AI team focuses on creating products capable of generating language and images, mimicking their human-made counterparts.
This move reflects the industry-wide trend of significant investment in machine learning development to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Meta, among the major tech players, has been striving to catch up with the AI boom.
This restructuring occurs as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, approaches the conclusion of its self-proclaimed "year of efficiency," a term coined by CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a February earnings call.
The efficiency-oriented period has witnessed company layoffs, team consolidations, and redistributions.
AI Safety
The emphasis on AI safety has gained prominence among industry leaders, particularly as regulatory scrutiny on potential harms of the nascent technology intensifies.
In July, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI collaborated to establish an industry group dedicated to defining safety standards as AI continues to advance.
Despite the reshuffling within the responsible AI division, team members remain committed to championing responsible AI development and use, underscoring ongoing investments in this critical area.
Meta recently unveiled two AI-powered generative models.
The first, Emu Video, leverages Meta's previous Emu model to generate video clips based on text and image inputs.
The second model, Emu Edit, focuses on image manipulation, promising greater precision in image editing.