Meta
Facebook renamed itself Meta to reflect its focus on expanding the Metaverse, but its development of Facebook and Instagram, its biggest platforms, have become increasingly focused around AI. It has taken an open-source approach with its Llama large language model, while also continuing to try to unseat X with its still-new microblogging challenger Threads, and TechCrunch is covering all of its moves and updates across its many platforms.
In the conversation, Zuckerberg said there needs to be a lot of different AIs that get created to reflect people’s different interests.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the company will begin to surface AI characters made by creators through Meta AI studio on Instagram. The tests will begin in…
Just in time for the debates, Meta fixes bug impacting users’ political content settings on Instagram and Threads
Meta has fixed the bug that caused people to believe the company had adjusted their selections in a political content settings tool without their consent. The issue had impacted users…
Photographers are claiming that Meta is tagging their real photos as “Made with AI.” Meta introduced this automated tag to help people understand when what…
Apple shelved the idea of integrating Meta’s AI models over privacy concerns, report says
Days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Meta were in talks to integrate the latter’s AI models, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that the iPhone maker was not…
After a few months of testing during the general elections, Meta is making its Llama 3-powered AI chatbot available to all users in India. However, Meta AI currently only supports…
As Apple enters the AI race, it’s also looking for help from partners. During the announcement of Apple Intelligence earlier this month, Apple said it would be partnering with OpenAI…
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What does ‘open source AI’ mean, anyway?
The Open Source Initiative is trying to address the debate stirring around the notion of “open-source AI.”
Photographers say the social media giant is applying a ‘Made with AI’ label to photos they took, causing confusion for users.
The U.S. is facing an accountant shortage. Fewer first-time candidates took the CPA exam in 2022 than in 2006, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. One possible…
Meta AI removes block on election-related queries in India while Google still applies limits
Meta AI removes restrictions around answering election-related queries in India while Google is still restricting them.
Meta said today that it finally launched its much-awaited API for Threads so developers can build experiences around it.
Meta pauses plans to train AI using European users’ data, bowing to regulatory pressure
Meta has confirmed that it will pause plans to start training its AI systems using data from its users in the European Union and U.K. The move follows pushback from…
WhatsApp adds new features to the calling experience, including support for 32-person video calls
WhatsApp updated the video calling experience across devices on Thursday by introducing screen sharing with audio support and a new speaker spotlight feature. It’s also increasing the limit for video…
A recent study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, the University of Amsterdam and the AI startup Hugging Face looked at different text-analyzing AI models…
Meta is quietly rolling out a new “Communities” feature on Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The feature is designed to help organizations, schools and other private groups communicate in…
Meta rolls out Meta Verified for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia
Meta launched its Meta Verified program today along with other features, such as the ability to call large businesses and custom messages.
Last year, during the Q3 2023 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg talked about leveraging AI to have business accounts respond to customers for purchase and support queries. Today, Meta announced AI-powered…
Instagram Threads is rolling out the ability for users to signal which sort of posts they wanted to see more or less of by swiping.
The change would see Instagram becoming more like the free version of YouTube, which requires users to view ads before and in the middle of watching videos.
Yes, we’re calling it “ThreadsDeck” now. At least that’s the tag many are using to describe the new user interface for Instagram’s X competitor, Threads, which resembles the column-based format…
Spain bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook, Instagram over privacy fears
Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections.…
Tech giants form an industry group to help develop next-gen AI chip components
Microsoft, Meta, Intel, AMD and others have formed a new group to design next-gen interconnects for AI accelerator hardware.
Instagram now lets teens limit interactions to their ‘Close Friends’ group to combat harassment
Instagram is expanding the scope of its “Limits” tool specifically for teenagers that would let them restrict unwanted interactions with people.
The families of victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas are suing Activision and Meta, as well as gun manufacturer Daniel Defense. The families bringing the…
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. OpenAI announced this week that…
TechCrunch Minute: Meet Meta’s all white, all male AI advisory council
Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more) announced a new AI advisory council that’s supposed to help guide the company’s decision-making around AI…
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Meta’s new AI council is composed entirely of white men
Meanwhile, women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by irresponsible AI.
Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses now let you share images directly to your Instagram Story
Meta is updating its Ray-Ban smart glasses with new hands-free functionality, the company announced on Wednesday. Most notably, users can now share an image from their smart glasses directly to…
Microsoft’s new ‘Volumetric Apps’ for Quest headsets extend Windows apps into the 3D space
Microsoft announced on Tuesday during its annual Build conference that it’s bringing “Windows Volumetric Apps” to Meta Quest headsets. The partnership will allow Microsoft to bring Windows 365 and local…
