The affected workers are employed by Dublin-based Covalen, which handles various content moderation and tagging services for Meta.
The workers were informed of the layoffs during a brief video meeting Monday afternoon and were not allowed to ask questions, according to Nick Bennett, one of the employees who participated in the call. “We had a very bad feeling [before the meeting]“This has happened before,” he says.
In all, more than 700 employees will likely lose their jobs at Covalen, according to an email reviewed by WIRED. Nearly 500 are data interpreters. Their job is to verify material generated by Meta’s AI models and compare it against the company’s rules prohibiting dangerous and illegal content. “It’s basically training AI to take over our jobs,” says another Covalen employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “We take actions as the optimal decision that AI should simulate.”
Sometimes, the work involves cooking up elaborate claims to try to get past guardrails meant to prevent models from submitting child sexual abuse material, or descriptions of suicide, for example. “It’s a very stressful job,” Bennett says. “You spend your whole day pretending to be gay.”
Last week, Meta announced plans to cut one in ten jobs as part of widespread layoffs aimed at making the company more efficient. A memo distributed by the company reportedly indicated that the layoffs were driven by the need to increase spending on other aspects of the business. Although the memo did not mention artificial intelligence, the company recently announced plans to nearly double its spending on the technology. In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “I believe 2026 will be the year that AI starts to dramatically change the way we work.” In the email reviewed by WIRED, Covalen employees were told only that the layoffs were the result of “decreased demand and operational requirements.”
The latest round of layoffs marks the second time Covalen has cut headcount in recent months. In November, the company announced plans to cut jobs (reportedly numbering around 400), culminating in a workers’ strike. Between the two rounds of layoffs, the number of Kovalin employees in Dublin is on track to be cut by almost half, according to the Communications Workers Union (CWU), whose members include some Kovalin employees.
For affected Covalen workers, their search for new work will be hampered by a six-month “cooling off period,” during which they cannot apply to a competing Meta vendor, CWU claims. “It’s humiliating, you know,” says the Covalen employee who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s rude.”
Meta and Kovalin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Unions representing affected employees are pressuring Covalen to enter into negotiations over severance terms. They also hope to meet with the Irish government to discuss how AI will impact workers in the country. “Technology companies are treating the workers whose work and data helped build AI as disposable,” says Christy Hoffman, general secretary of the UNI global union. “To fight back, it is vitally important that workers organize and demand notice about the introduction of AI, employment-related training, and a plan for their future. Workers must also have the right to refuse training for AI replacements.”
But some of those stuck in layoffs are questioning their chances of securing stable work in a labor market that is being reskilled in real time by artificial intelligence and the wealthy companies driving its development. “It’s a global battle between oppressed white-collar workers and big capital, really,” Bennett says. “This usually only goes in one direction.”
