<a href="https://bitcomme.com/dias-artificial-intelligence-chief-envisions-agent-to-agents-interactions-that-support-military-operations/" title="DIA’s artificial intelligence chief envisions ‘agent-to-agents’ interactions that support military operations”>Artificial intelligence has long been pitched as a tool that will make work faster, smarter, and less repetitive — but one Meta executive’s reported response to an employee shows workers should not expect those gains to translate into more rest.
Instead, at least in this case, the message was to expect more work
What happened?
At a July Q&A, a Meta employee asked whether productivity improvements tied to AI could help restore “Meta Days,” a discontinued program that once gave staff additional time off.
Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth scoffed at that idea.
According to Futurism, which cited Business Insider, Bosworth’s response was blunt and unlikely to defuse worker concerns about AI deployment.
“Go to your parents and ask them: Hey, like every time I get a chance to talk to my boss, ask me if I can have more days off. Ask your parents what they think of that as a career strategy,” he reportedly told the employee.
The exchange happened during a difficult stretch for the company.
Meta fired around 8,000 employees earlier this year, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in June that worker morale was plummeting.
Bosworth’s comments line up with a wider message coming from the tech industry.
On a July podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he does not “expect AI” to bring about a four-hour workweek and instead suggested people may work even harder because of the technology, per Futurism.
Why does it matter?
For many workers, the key issue may not be whether AI increases productivity but how the gains from that productivity are shared.
When tools help people complete work more quickly, some imagine that could lead to shorter schedules, added flexibility, and improved work-life balance.
Bosworth’s remarks hinted at the opposite outcome: expectations to produce more — without a commitment to share the upside with workers.
AI is spreading rapidly into offices across industries. Workers are being asked to adapt to new tools while also facing uncertainty about layoffs, performance targets, and whether efficiency gains will be used to reduce burnout or simply raise the bar.
AI has potential to improve everyday life, including by helping utilities manage the energy grid, forecast electricity demand, and better integrate wind and solar power.
But those benefits come with trade-offs.
Training and running AI systems requires large amounts of electricity and water, and rushed or poorly governed deployment can create security risks, spread misinformation, and even pass on operating costs to households in the form of higher utility bills.
