Meta employees’ activity at work is now being used to train the company’s AI agents. As reported by Reuters, Meta is installing a tool it calls Model Capability Initiative (MCI) on US-based employees’ computers that runs in work-related apps and websites, recording mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and occasional screenshots.
The data from this tool will be used to train the company’s AI models to get better at interacting with computers the way humans do, including automating work tasks like those Meta’s employees perform on the job. According to Reuters, the data from MCI won’t be “used for performance assessments.”
“If we’re building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them — things like mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said in a statement to The Verge. “To help, we’re launching an internal tool that will capture these kinds of inputs on certain applications to help us train our models. There are safeguards in place to protect sensitive content, and the data is not used for any other purpose.”
An internal memo from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth shared with employees on Monday announced plans to increase internal data collection, including with MCI, for Meta’s Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA). Bosworth stated that, “The vision we are building towards is one where our agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct, review and help them improve.”
According to Alex Heath’s Sources, Meta has experienced “intense internal backlash” over MCI, with one employee replying to the announcement memo saying, “This makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?” Bosworth replied with, “There is no option to opt out of this on your work provided laptop.”
Update, April 22nd: Added note about internal employee reactions to MCI.