A Meta employee stunned colleagues by hijacking a company-wide livestream and launching into an expletive-filled tirade against a senior executive.

The extraordinary outburst unfolded during an internal presentation attended by thousands of employees and quickly became the latest sign of mounting frustration within Meta's rapidly expanding artificial intelligence operations.

According to Wired, the employee interrupted the livestream with a rant about 'being the company's b****' before urging those running the presentation to contact a Meta AI executive and 'tell him that he's a piece of s***.'

The disruption left at least one presenter visibly shocked. A witness told the publication that one of the meeting leaders buried their face in their hands before attempting to regain control of the call.

After asking participants to mute themselves, the presenters resumed the technical discussion, though workers then filled the chat with comments about the meeting's unexpectedly 'spicy' opening moments.

The dramatic interruption comes as tensions continue to simmer inside Meta's Applied AI division, a unit established earlier this year to support the company's increasingly ambitious artificial intelligence initiatives.

The organization, which includes roughly 6,500 engineers and product managers, was created to assist researchers working under Meta's AI programs. 

But several employees who spoke to Wired described widespread dissatisfaction with both the structure of the group and the work they have been assigned.

One worker painted a bleak picture of life inside the division.

'It's literally the gulag,' the employee said. 'You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week.'

Employees told the outlet that many of their assignments involve creating testing materials and coding challenges designed to evaluate and improve AI systems.

While some acknowledged the work was important, they argued it bears little resemblance to the type of software development and product-building roles they originally joined Meta to perform.

One employee said workers are often tasked with generating complex programming problems that AI models can attempt to solve, helping researchers train and evaluate new systems.

Another employee described the work as largely routine and lacking creativity, saying it did not fully utilize the skills they were hired for.

According to Wired, one worker estimated that 'almost all' employees in the unit are unhappy, while another said bluntly: 'Most people find the work soul-crushing.'

Some employees have even begun referring to themselves as 'draftees,' according to the report, because engineers selected for Applied AI reportedly have little choice but to join the division or leave the company altogether.

The frustration extends beyond a single department.

Several current and former employees said that Meta's broader AI reorganization has created significant stress across multiple teams, including Instagram and data center engineering operations.

The company has undergone substantial restructuring as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg pushes aggressively into artificial intelligence development in an increasingly competitive race against rivals.

The upheaval reportedly intensified following workforce reductions that affected approximately 10 percent of the company, or about 8,000 employees, last month.

Employee anger has also been fueled by a controversial workplace monitoring initiative.

More than 1,600 employees have signed a petition objecting to a company program that tracks certain workplace activity, including clicks and keystrokes, to help generate AI training data.

Meta has since modified the program, allowing workers to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes and seek specific exemptions.

The strains were publicly acknowledged by senior leadership this week.

During an all-hands Instagram meeting, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox reportedly addressed what employees had endured during months of rapid change.

According to a recording obtained by Wired, Cox described recent conditions as both 'difficult' and 'brutal.'

He compared employees' experience to 'running a marathon in the middle of a hailstorm and then, like, your teammate gets replaced and then we're recording you.'

'It's like what the f***,' Cox said, drawing laughter from employees before repeating the phrase. 'It is like what the f***.'

Cox also urged a more measured view of artificial intelligence amid the intense industry hype.

'It is neither god, nor is it the devil,' he said. 'And it's nowhere near as good as you think it is, and it is nowhere near as bad as you think it is. And it changes every week … and it doesn't know what day of the week it is.'

The growing unrest prompted Zuckerberg himself to address employee concerns in an internal memo obtained by Wired..

The Meta chief acknowledged that the restructuring process had not gone smoothly.

'Given the complexity of these changes, we've made mistakes and will almost certainly make more,' Zuckerberg wrote.

'As we navigate this period, I'm also focused on providing as much stability going forward as possible.'

Zuckerberg reiterated that Meta does not plan additional mass layoffs this year and outlined measures intended to improve morale, including reducing management spans, increasing budgets for team gatherings and restoring assigned desks for many workers.

The chief executive also defended the importance of Applied AI's mission, describing the division as a stepping stone that would allow employees to contribute while other opportunities emerge throughout the company.