- Meta created a product advisory board six months after disbanding its responsible AI division.
- The new council, called the Meta Advisory Group, includes four white male technology executives.
- The council was established amid growing concerns about artificial intelligence surveillance.
Meta announced the creation of a product advisory board on Wednesday, six months after disbanding its Responsible AI division.
The council consisted of four men: The group said on its website that it “consults regularly” with Meta’s management about new technologies and products.
The Meta Advisory Group is made up of four executives: Patrick Collison, CEO of payments platform Stripe, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Shopify CEO Tobi Luedtke, and former Microsoft executive Charlie Songhirst. Masu.
A Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg that its members are not compensated and operate independently of the board.
The council’s announcement comes just weeks after Meta released its first-quarter earnings report, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the company would continue to make big AI investments, even if the payback will take time.
As big tech companies continue to spend billions of dollars on AI, users and industry players are concerned about governance, data privacy, ethics and safety risks as AI oversight programs have not kept up with new innovations.
This new council is reminiscent of Meta’s Responsible AI Division. The division is the group responsible for regulating the safety of the creation and deployment of the company’s artificial intelligence ventures. The group, which had around 40 employees, was disbanded in November following a series of cost-cutting measures. Also includes previous layoffs for that team.
All four members of the new council are white and come from similar technology executive backgrounds, drawing attention to the lack of gender, racial, and career diversity. Several tech investors on X highlighted the council’s lack of representativeness.
Four of the company’s 11 directors are women.
The company did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside of normal business hours. He also asked about councils made up of only men.
Introducing our new advisory group.
