On May 19, 2026, U.S. time (May 20 in Taiwan), Meta announced it would lay off 8,000 employees—about 10% of its workforce. That same day, a six-minute internal all-hands meeting recording went viral online, in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally admitted that Meta is tracking employees’ device activity to train AI models. His reasoning sent chills through listeners. The recording came from Meta’s April 30 all-hands meeting, was obtained exclusively by the independent media organization More Perfect Union, and posted on X, where it surpassed 3.2 million views in 24 hours.
Mark Zuckerberg personally admitted to using employees to train AI.
The original video was posted on X; it was essentially an audio file paired with a static image, and we have also provided a Chinese translation. However, it should be stated up front that, to date, neither Meta nor Zuckerberg himself has made any statement or comment on this recording. Whether the recording was actually made by him and whether it has been altered or fabricated using AI have not yet been confirmed. The matter has already been reported by several international media outlets; readers only need to understand what has happened so far and do not need to rush to a conclusion:
LEAKED AUDIO: In an all-hands meeting on April 30, Mark Zuckerberg tells employees that he’s training AI on them ahead of mass layoffs.
“The AI models learn from watching really smart people do things… The average intelligence of the people who are at this company is… pic.twitter.com/lt9eeJ3cwh
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 19, 2026
Chinese Translation:
From Tracking to Layoffs: The Complete AI Replacement Chain
The background of this recording begins on April 21, 2026. ReutersExclusive disclosureMeta is rolling out a new program called “Employee Device Tracking,” which begins recording employees’ mouse movements, keyboard input, and even their behavior on websites such as Google, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia, all for use as AI training data.
followed by CNBCreport Meta is tracking employees’ use of Google and LinkedIn and has confirmed that the data is being used for AI training projects. Business Insider obtained the complete internal announcement memo from Meta, revealing that the company began pushing this initiative from the top.
Three weeks later, on May 19, The New York Times reported on Meta. Will lay off 8,000 employeesciting rising AI restructuring costs. As the layoff news was announced, the recording began to spread virally on social media. In the leaked recording, Zuckerberg told Meta employees that he had been using them to train AI before the mass layoffs. This effectively formed a complete replacement chain: “AI is replacing contractors. Then employees train AI. Then AI replaces employees.”
The evidence Zuckerberg buried himself.
In this recording, Zuckerberg actually left behind several key pieces of highly damaging evidence:
First, hePersonally admitted that Meta employees are smarter than contractors., and is therefore better suited as a source of AI training data. This framing that classifies employees as “high-value training data” made many listeners feel objectified.
Second, heAdmit that the communication was deliberately concealed.When employees asked why they hadn’t been informed, he said plainly: “Communicating every detail is not in your strategic interest.” The remark was widely reposted on X and interpreted as management’s complete betrayal of employees.
Third, hePosition this project as an “experiment.”“This is, to some extent, a hypothesis. If it doesn’t work, we won’t continue; if it does, we’ll do more.” But the cost of this experiment is thousands of employees’ jobs and dignity.
The Bigger Problem: Silicon Valley’s AI Paradox
This storm is not just a problem for Meta alone; it reveals a deep contradiction within the entire Silicon Valley AI industry. On one hand, tech companies are carrying out massive layoffs and using AI to replace human labor; on the other hand, they need human data to train these AI systems. And Meta found an “innovative” method: using the employees who are about to be replaced to train the AI that will replace them.
This is not the first time Zuckerberg has sparked controversy over communication. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the content moderation disputes during the pandemic, and the privacy controversy around Threads, Meta—or rather Zuckerberg himself—has been stuck in a cycle of “act first, hide the details, then apologize after getting caught.” This time, however, his own words were recorded loud and clear.
Summary: Recordings don’t lie.
The reason this recording racked up 2 million views in 24 hours isn’t because of how massive Meta’s layoffs were, but because it struck squarely at workers’ deepest fear in the post-AI era: that your job isn’t just being taken over by AI, but that before you’re laid off, you’ll have to personally train your replacement. Zuckerberg’s own words have become the most powerful evidence in this whole story—if he really said them.
Source: KOCPC Chinese