Meta's Applied AI team faces record-low morale and multi-billion cost crisis

https://preview.redd.it/5kckmj4kjf7h1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=9566f7c61943d4385418014ea8d0eabc943d28bd Meta is facing a severe internal cost crisis and employee rebellion in its newly formed Applied AI unit. An internal memo to 6,000 workers warned that internal AI usage could cost billions by 2026, forcing the company to introduce an AI Gateway dashboard and plan strict token budgets. The crisis escalated after Meta made AI usage a core metric in performance reviews, prompting employees to engage in "tokenmaxxing." Staffers used an internal leaderboard called "Claudeonomics" to artificially inflate consumption, burning 73.7 trillion tokens in just over 30 days. Meanwhile, engineers drafted into the 6,500-member Applied AI unit are rebelling against menial data-generation tasks, calling it a "gulag." Tensions boiled over during a meeting when an engineer disrupted the stream, yelling expletives and calling for the AI director to be fired. Source: [https://the-decoder.com/meta-shifts-from-tokenmaxxing-to-token-managing-as-internal-ai-costs-reportedly-hit-billions/](https://the-decoder.com/meta-shifts-from-tokenmaxxing-to-token-managing-as-internal-ai-costs-reportedly-hit-billions/)