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"A challenging period."

That's how Mark Zuckerberg described in a memo what the near future will be like for Meta employees after he announced the once-impervious social media company will cut another 10,000 jobs in the months ahead.

Zuckerberg, who has been conducting a review of the business as he aims to execute on his so-called "year of efficiency," outlined key changes that will be implemented across the organization. Most importantly, from a structural standpoint, Zuckerberg said he wants to flatten the company "by removing multiple layers of management."

"This will be tough and there's no way around that," Zuckerberg said in his memo, hinting at the pain and raw emotion that will soon envelope the organization as the workforce is slashed yet again.

The cuts to the parent of Facebook,  Instagram, and WhatsApp come after it laid off about 11,000 employees in November, which at the time represented the company's first-ever workforce reduction. Coupled with the new cuts, Meta will have cut about 24% of its workforce, or one in four employees, in just about half a year.

Meta, in particular, has been battling some of the most severe headwinds in Silicon Valley. The company has had to grapple with an ever-weakening digital advertising sector amid broader economic turmoil, Apple's unforgiving new privacy policy, the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence technologies, and the seemingly unstoppable rise of TikTok.

Nevertheless, the layoff announcements have naturally sent morale at the Menlo Park-headquartered company plummeting. The latest announcement, in particular, has left already anxious employees distressed and wondering whether they might be on the chopping block in the near future. 

But Zuckerberg signaled that the sweeping changes are necessary to survive in what he characterized as a deteriorating economy that will not soon heal.

"At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years," Zuckerberg flatly warned, adding that the dim outlook had necessitated additional cuts "to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success."

A former tech CEO, who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, told me Tuesday that companies such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Twitter had hired "stupid amounts of people" in the last few years to work on "science projects." Speaking specifically of Meta, the executive said, "You just wonder what are these 100,000-some people doing? The app doesn't change much."

"These companies become hugely profitable and the CEOs think that there are all these other areas they can expand into as part of their world domination plan," the executive remarked. "And then the economy takes a turn and everyone starts to care about profitability and growth."

As a result, the tech executive said, "It's surprisingly not hard for these big tech companies to cut large numbers of people without impacting the underlying revenue engine."

For now, employees at Meta will have to wait a little longer to learn how they and their teams will be impacted. Zuckerberg indicated that the job cuts will not be complete until the end of May.

"In terms of how we should operate during this period, I encourage each of you to focus on what you can control," Zuckerberg advised. "That is, do great work and support your teammates. Our community is extremely resilient."

"Change is never easy," he added, "but I know we'll get through this and come out an even stronger company that can build better products faster and enable you to do the best work of your careers."

The bigger question moving forward is whether Meta can indeed exit this painful phase a stronger company — or will instead continue in a slow decline as its primary products reach maturation while Zuckerberg chases the hope that one day his big bet on the metaverse will materialize.

"You can cut your way to profitability in the short term," the former tech CEO said. "But you can't cut your way to growth. At some point, it's like, is this the next AOL? And I don't know when that might be."

———  BELOW THE FOLD  ———

All In on AI: The AI revolution continues to pick up steam — particularly on Tuesday with two big, but separate, announcements from OpenAI and Google. OpenAI unveiled GPT-4, the next generation of its wickedly smart ChatGPT. The new iteration of the tech is smarter (it aced a law school bar exam where the previous version failed) and is designed to be less likely to "go off the guardrails." Meanwhile, Google said that it will be soon introducing AI features into its Workspace suite of apps, such as Google Docs, Gmail, and Sheets.

🔎 Zooming in: All the change is almost certain to lead to mass societal disruption — which OpenAI President Greg Brockman acknowledged to The NYT's Cade Metz on Tuesday. "There is definitely disruption, which means some jobs go away and some new jobs get created," Brockman said. "But I think the net effect is that barriers to entry go down, and the productivity of the experts goes up." Obviously, that is best case scenario. There are far bleaker pictures being painted of an AI-dominated future, given the technology's frightening — and, frankly, unknown — powers. 

Strike at the BBC: There is more drama at the BBC.  Employees at the iconic British broadcaster "will stage their biggest strike in 13 years on Wednesday after eleventh-hour talks with management failed," Deadline's Jade Kanter reported on Tuesday. "The walkout will force coverage of the UK government’s Budget off air and heap more embarrassment on Director-General Tim Davie, who has apologized for scheduling chaos over the Gary Lineker saga," Kanter wrote. More in Kanter's story here. 

► Speaking of the BBC: Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot report via leaked communications that the BBC came under government pressure to avoid using the term "lockdown" early on in the pandemic.

The Tucker Carlson Primary: Right-wing conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson is flexing his muscle inside the Republican Party. Carlson revealed on his Fox News show this week that he had sent questionnaires to potential Republican presidential hopefuls, quizzing them on their stances on the Russia-Ukraine war — and several responded, including Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem, Greg Abbott, Tim Scott, and Chris Christie. Notably, DeSantis used the opportunity to make news, declaring that protecting Ukraine is not a key U.S. interest. As The NYT's Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman wrote, "The venue Mr. DeSantis chose for his statement on a major foreign policy question revealed almost as much as the substance of the statement itself."

🔎 Zooming in: The result of the episode? "Carlson had a chance to reinforce his view of the conflict to his audience, formalize the acquiescence of at least one leading candidate — and use his platform as a cudgel against those who disagreed," The WaPo's Philip Bump wrote Tuesday. It's also worth noting that these major Republican politicians were all seemingly OK with participating in Carlson's charade, just a week after he put his extremist politics, by way of 1/6 trutherism, on full display for the country yet again. 

Bye to ByteDance?: The leadership at TikTok "is discussing the possibility of separating" from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, amid efforts "to help address concerns about national security risks," Bloomberg's Alex Barinka and Olivia Carville reported Tuesday. The duo reported that the option, which could come in the form of a sale or IPO, is "considered a last resort." Nevertheless, the fact that it is on the table is quite notable as the app faces mounting scrutiny from lawmakers and elected officials. Barinka and Carville have the details here.

Tarantino's Final Film: The one and only Quentin Tarantino is working on what's being described as his final film, THR's Borys Kit reported Tuesday. Kit reported via sources that the iconic filmmaker has written a script that he is preparing to direct later this year. The working title? "The Movie Critic." Kit added that "logline details are being kept in a suitcase but sources describe the story as being set in late 1970s Los Angeles with a female lead at its center." More from Kit here.

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow.