#meta

#meta

"According to the investigations, there is possible anti-competitive conduct of an exclusive nature that arises from the application of the New WhatsApp Terms ("WhatsApp Business Solution Terms") imposed by Meta to regulate the access and offer, by providers of artificial intelligence tools, of its technologies to WhatsApp users," the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE) said. CADE said it would investigate if Meta's terms are exclusionary to competitors and unduly favor Meta AI, the company's chatbot that's offered on WhatsApp.

SAN FRANCISCO, USA - Japanese regulators last year were upset by a flood of ads for obvious scams on Facebook and Instagram. The scams ranged from fraudulent investment schemes to fake celebrity product endorsements created by artificial intelligence. Meta, owner of the two social media platforms, feared Japan would soon force it to verify the identity of all its advertisers, internal documents reviewed by Reuters show. The step would likely reduce fraud but also cost the company revenue.

The deal is sure to turn heads too. Manus and its parent company Butterfly Effect are now based in Singapore but were founded in China - a country with a fraught relationship to the U.S tech industry - and maintain operations there. Facebook's parent company will reportedly pay more than $2 billion to acquire the startup, which it hopes will bolster its own lagging AI capabilities.

Marketing products on Facebook is about to become more expensive for influencers, content creators, and companies. The social platform's parent company, Meta, informed members with business accounts that they'll have to start paying if they want to send more than two links per month to customers and followers through the site.

This summer, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg moved heaven and earth to recharge his company's lagging AI division, spending billions of dollars to poach top talent across the industry. But it sounds like he's already falling out with the man he hired to spearhead Meta's renewed AI efforts, Alexandr Wang. According to new reporting from the Financial Times, things are tense between the duo.

Internal documents show executives prioritized minimizing "revenue impact" over fully cracking down on scams, illegal gambling, pornography and other banned ads. Although Meta platforms are blocked inside China, Chinese companies are allowed to advertise to users abroad, according to Reuters. That business grew rapidly, reaching more than $18 billion in revenue in 2024-about 11% of Meta's global sales. Internal estimates showed roughly 19% of that revenue, more than $3 billion, came from prohibited or fraudulent ads.

Concord, NH - Attorney General John M. Formella and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general are calling on Meta to better enforce its own policies about pharmaceutical and wellness ads on Instagram and Facebook and take additional measures to prevent AI-generated weight loss content in ads. These ads are likely to see an uptick during the holiday season and the new year, when conversations around weight loss and appearance tend to increase.

Meta announced on Tuesday an update to its AI glasses that will allow you to better hear people talking when you're in a noisy environment. The feature will initially become available on Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN smartglasses in the U.S. and Canada, the company says. In addition, the glasses are getting another update that lets you use Spotify to play a song that matches what's in your current view.

Internet users have been buzzing ever since learning that the messages they choose to exchange with Meta's AI chatbot will be analyzed and used to personalize advertisements and recommendations across its apps and services. The topic and viral social media posts from tech influencers caused some users to enter a panic, worried that this is one example of AI being taken too far and potentially invading privacy.

It may sound like a trip through the produce aisle, but leading AI companies have something much more important on their lists. Meta, OpenAI, and Google have all relied on food-related names for their sometimes secretive plans for future AI models. Thinking with your stomach is nothing new for Silicon Valley, just look at the assortment of desserts Android assembled over the years before Google had its fill.

[Meta was] never interested in a truly open source model approach, just an open weights model approach. To really commit to open source, [it] would have to be willing to share its training data and give up control over model governance.

Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, said, "[Meta was] never interested in a truly open source model approach, just an open weights model approach. To really commit to open source, [it] would have to be willing to share its training data and give up control over model governance." Weights, he said, "are just the different knobs along the neural pathways that can be tweaked when training a model.

Meta appears to be implementing major changes within Reality Labs. This is the division responsible for metaverse activities and Quest headsets. The New York Times cites internal sources who say the company is working on a major restructuring. This could see 30 percent of the metaverse unit's budget disappear. SiliconANGLE adds that this could lead to major reorganizations within the team that develops the hardware line.