A Hawaii retreat, staff revolt, and weak AI: How Meta’s 60% layoffs plan came apart

Meta explored cutting some teams by up to 60% and handing their work to AI agents under a plan code-named Project OT. Hatched at Mark Zuckerberg’s Hawaii retreat, it involved two layoff waves, pods of three replacing traditional teams, and keystroke tracking to train AI models. Staff revolted, internal sentiment fell from 74% to 55%, and Meta’s own data showed the AI wasn’t delivering promised productivity gains.