The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that in April, Meta employees learned that 8,000 would be laid off on May 20 as part of a shift toward artificial intelligence. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe reports that recently, another 7,000 were reassigned to new AI efforts. On Wednesday, layoffs began in Singapore at 4 a.m. local time, with notifications sent to workers in Britain, the United States and elsewhere throughout the morning. Many workers exchanged somber messages and checked the internal directory to identify who was laid off. On Meta's internal forums, hundreds reacted with salad emojis as a way to say "salute." At least one recently hired employee was among those cut. Meta's offices were mostly empty Wednesday after HR head Janelle Gale advised employees to work from home. Flyers urging a halt to a new employee data tracking program were visible, according to eight employees. Some searched for snacks and laptop chargers in case they lost their jobs by the week's end, with workers speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation. The turmoil at Meta offers an up-close look at layoffs in the AI age. Job cuts at tech companies in the name of the fast-evolving technology have gathered steam.