Meta Developing Artificial Intelligence Chief Executive Officer Agents

What Happened?

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Meta is currently developing an AI CEO agent program. The new AI CEO prototype is expected to access information much faster than the traditional process of going through multiple teams and staff, as traditional CEO’s do every day. Meta may not be alone in seeking to replace senior executives with AI programs.

At the India AI Impact Summit last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that AI will eventually be able to do a better job of running companies than human CEOs. The name of the new AI CEO agent program at Meta is not yet publicly known.

Why it Matters

The move by Meta to develop an AI program capable of performing the duties of senior executives continues the evolution of AI programs from simple to complex tasks. Initially, AI programs were designed to perform simple tasks such as taking orders in a drive-through window at a restaurant, but as the programs were refined and improved, the goals became more challenging. If an AI program could perform management functions, it would threaten an entire range of white-collar jobs currently held by people.

The initial reports on the Meta project are that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is trying to develop an AI program that will help him perform CEO duties and not replace him entirely. But for an AI to be able to do that effectively, it would need to be able to grasp things like strategic thinking, long-term planning, and personnel management. Once those capabilities were in place, it would be a shorter step to transition such a program from CEO assistant to full-time CEO. 

AI programs have already begun replacing human workers at major corporations, leading to a phenomenon where those firms continue to grow operations and revenue but with fewer employees. During the economic boom times of the 1950s, which many Americans still consider to be the gold standard for national prosperity and achievement, when major firms grew larger, they always added more jobs along the way. Under those conditions, when the economy grew, so did the workforce. 

But now the trend has been reversed, with firms growing bigger while reducing the number of employees on their payrolls. That means today, when the economy grows, the workforce shrinks, a phenomenon which has puzzled American society because everyone still expects the norms from previous generations, such as the 1950s, to apply. 

How it Affects You

If Meta is able to successfully create an AI program that can perform management or CEO duties on its own, then the trend of growing productivity while decreasing workers is likely to not only continue but to accelerate. Leadership agents could threaten the jobs of managers, and currently, management roles account for nearly a third of total jobs in the U.S. economy. 

While AI has been replacing human workers and larger firms, it is also driving the need for new roles, so AI may also be creating new jobs and not just eliminating old ones.