Nairobi-based data annotation firm Sama has announced that it will lay off 1,108 employees following the termination of its contract with Meta.
The company has been providing training data for artificial intelligence systems. The layoffs at this firm are expected to kick off towards the end of this month.
“As is standard in our industry, client programmes evolve, and we work closely with our partners to manage these transitions responsibly. Our immediate priority is supporting our employees through this change and ensuring continuity across our border operations,” Sama Country Lead and Vice President for Global Delivery Annepeace Alwala said.
“We recognize the significant impact on the team and the local community. We are actively working to support affected employees with care and respect. Our teams receive living wages and full benefits, and have consistently had access to comprehensive wellness resources, full medical benefits, and on-site counseling support by qualified and licensed practitioners.”
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The data firm has been providing employment for workers who provided digital services and solutions including data annotation solutions, and specialization in computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and multi-modal data for various industries.
For over ten years, the firm has been providing high-accuracy, human-in-the-loop (HITL) data annotation, validation, and training data solutions to help companies train and improve AI/machine learning models.
The company is headquartered in San Francisco. For its Nairobi base, Meta, which owns Facebook, has been its largest client, a key indication to the huge impact that the end of this contract has brought upon its workforce.
