Mark Lemley, a Stanford professor and prominent Bay Area lawyer, dumped Meta as a client in its legal battle over copyrights after Zuckerberg's policy changes.

A lawyer representing Meta in a copyright case said he was dropping the company as a client due to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity.” The move comes as employees and associates of the social media company grapple with their founder’s apparent attempts to pivot rightward before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.

The AI rush has brought with it thorny questions of copyright and ownership of data as tech companies train bots like ChatGPT on existing texts, but it seems Meta largely brushed these aside as they worked to integrate such tools into Facebook and Instagram.

Meta CEO said that he could see AI evolving to the point where it can function as mid-level engineers, capable of writing code independently.

He’s able to talk about masculinity and femininity like they’re a vibe, as opposed to institutional inequalities that he is actively perpetuating and deepening with his blather,” Chemaly said. This “touchy-feely” language of “masculine energy” also “ignores the fact that his company and his sector is overwhelmingly dominated by powerful,