A lawsuit lodged against Meta Platforms accuses the technology giant of using AI-powered software to target people with disabilities or employees on medical leave for layoffs.
Legal experts say the legal action – likely the first of its kind against a major U.S. company – challenges the growing use of AI to help make hiring, promotion, performance and termination decisions.
The lawsuit, in Oakland, California, federal court this month, alleges Meta relied on AI-assisted systems to score and rank employees on such factors as productivity when it cut thousands of jobs this year, harming employees who missed work because of illness or to care for family members.
The 26 anonymous plaintiffs from six states were notified in May that their jobs would be eliminated on July 22. They allege the company violated federal and state anti-discrimination laws that shield workers with disabilities, who take medical leave or who are pregnant and they are seeking a preliminary ruling blocking Meta from carrying out the layoffs until they can pursue their claims in private arbitration.
Meta denied the layoffs were conducted by AI.
"These claims lack merit and are not based on facts,” the company said in a statement. “Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI."
Increasingly artificial intelligence is playing a big role in who gets hired. Now at issue is how big a role it plays in who gets fired.
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