Meta is harvesting employee code and communications to train AI that automates engineering work. TJ Walker warns this creates real risk of replacement and argues workers should build skills and leverage that machines can't easily replicate, like ownership and creative judgment.
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Ultimize. Okay. According to report from The Information, Meta Platforms is expanding the use of internal employee data, including coding activity, internal communication, and workflow patterns to train its artificial intelligence systems with the explicit goal of automating more tasks currently performed by human workers. The report cites internal documents and employees who say Meta is focused on building AI tools that can replicate the day-to-day functions of engineers and other knowledge workers, effectively reducing the need for certain roles over time. In other words, this is not just AI helping employees. This is AI studying employees. Now, let's slow this down because this is where it gets a little unsettling. If you're a Meta employee, your daily work Every line of code, every decision, every process is potentially being captured and used as training data. You're not just doing your job, you're documenting your job for a machine. Now that may sound a little creepy, but I'm joined today by my daughter because it's Take Your Daughter and Son to Work Day. Rossa, right now, you know, because I give you access to a cell phone, Your mom and dad can track that with parental controls. Well, you're 13, but imagine if you are 30 or 40 and someone is tracking every single thing you do all day long. Do you think you'd enjoy that at that point? You don't even enjoy it now, right? So that's what's troubling so many people. So it may eventually do it faster, cheaper, and without asking for stock options if the AI can do everything the Meta employees do now. Now, to be fair, there is a positive spin and it's not fake. This could eliminate repetitive work. It could make companies dramatically more efficient. I mean, I don't think there's any doubt it will do that. It could allow top performers to focus on strategy instead of execution. That's the optimistic version. That's the version that Mark Zuckerberg is selling. But the employee version, you show up Monday morning, You open your laptop and you quietly begin training your replacement so you can get fired. And this is happening at scale. I don't wanna overreact here, but if it worked there, I might occasionally open up a few highly questionable browser tabs because I don't wanna lose my job. I might wanna mess up the AI just to make sure the AI doesn't become too efficient. Maybe employees start looking at Minesweeper a little, maybe a deep dive into why pigeons might be running the global economy just to throw off the algorithm a bit. Because otherwise, what are we really doing here? We're building a system that learns from us and then outgrows us. And yes, it's always fun to take a shot at Mark Zuckerberg. He does occasionally give off strong, I've already uploaded my consciousness to the cloud vibes. But here's the more important point. This isn't one quirky CEO. This is the entire business model of modern tech. These companies are legally and financially obligated to increase efficiency and reduce cost. And if you are an employee, I hate to tell you, you are a cost. Perhaps a valuable cost, maybe a talented cost, a cost with excellent Slack etiquette, but still a cost. So no, I'm not saying wake up in a full panic every morning. That's exhausting. But I am suggesting you wake up with just enough awareness to ask, what am I doing that cannot be easily turned into training data? Where's my leverage? What do I actually own? Because the safest people in this new world are not the ones who follow systems perfectly. They're the ones who create systems or own systems or operate in areas where judgment, creativity, and trust matter more than efficiency. And here's the twist. The same AI tools being used to potentially replace you are also available to you to build your own business, your own audience, your own intellectual property. So this isn't a complete doom story. It's a wake-up story because if you're quietly doing your job and doing it really well, you might be doing it so well that the machine is already halfway to replacing you. Okay, I'm not saying in this case Zuckerberg is some evil monster. His investors are demanding that he be more efficient, cut costs, and make more money. But it is troubling for anyone who doesn't own, I would say, at least 20% of a big tech company, if you work for a tech company. I'm here joined today by my daughter, since it's Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day. I said, do you want to work for a big company and have bosses and telling you what to do, or do you want to work for your own company when you grow up? What do you think? If it's high pay. If it's high pay, you would. Okay. That is, in fact, exactly why a lot of people like working for big companies. You can get the high pay. Benefits without having to do all the stuff of a startup and the risk associated with it flopping or not raising money. But what happens if you get used to that high pay and all of a sudden they tell you by a text, hey, we don't need you anymore because an AI is doing your job. How would that make you feel? Then you gotta move back home with dad and mom, right? There's more to come. Stay tuned. Let me just throw this out there for a second. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you already have more information than most people ever act on. That's not the problem. The problem is nothing is reinforcing it tomorrow or the next day or the next day. That's why I built Ultimize, to give you something you can use repeatedly, not just hear once and forget. So if this is resonating at all, just go to ultimize.com, grab the free course, communication skills, habit building, whichever one you want, and actually start putting this stuff into practice. It's free, no downside. Just go to ultimize.com. Ultimize.
