Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, counts more than 3 billion monthly users across its family of apps. Now, it’s trying to build the next generation of services in virtual reality and the metaverse through Meta Quest headsets and Horizon Worlds — all while dealing with antitrust pressures, privacy concerns, and younger users shifting to other platforms.
The European Commission has weighed in on the November decision to block the likes of ChatGPT and Copilot from WhatsApp, and thinks it violates EU antitrust laws. It’s surprisingly fast for the organization, which called the issue “urgent” because of the risk of “irreparable” damage to competition in the nascent AI industry.
Jason Rubin became Oculus’ game studios boss in 2014, shortly after Facebook bought the company, and led VR content ever since, as well as brokering deals that might’ve led to a killer app — like Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed and more. But over a decade later, Meta’s gutting its studios. Rubin is leaving in March because “this seems like a good time.”
Sorry to Zuck-dunk two days in a row, but it’s fair to say that when the Meta CEO predicts AI is the next big thing in social media, you should take it with a grain of salt.
Guillermo Esteves:
I definitely trust the visionary that brought us the Metaverse to tell me this is the future of social media.
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With news that Meta has spent millions on an ad campaign to persuade people that having data centers in their backyard isn’t all that bad, Mark’s next move is an obvious one.
ScubaDiver:
Put one next to your house Mark! Be the change you want to see in the world.
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It follows Snap in reaching an agreement to resolve the first of several cases slated to go to trial this year about social media’s alleged harm to users, an attorney for the 19-year-old plaintiff confirmed. That leaves Meta and YouTube as defendants in the case going to jury selection today.
Patent infringement lawsuits are heating up in the world of smart glasses, with Xreal suing Viture earlier this month and Meta being sued last year over the electromyography tech in the Neural Band used to control the Meta Ray-Ban Display.
Meta has bet big on AI everything, but also has Instagram boss Adam Mosseri out there warning creators about its impact. One commenter (and occasional Verge contributor!) sums up its position nicely:
David Imel:
Meta: “We’re going to shove our AI models into everything we make so you use them as much as possible”
Meta: “AI is making it hard to tell what’s real. This is going to be a challenge for us and for you! Be careful and vigilant and try not to die”
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Ryan Payton confirmed to The Verge that he was impacted by this week’s job cuts affecting Meta’s Reality Labs division.
Aftermath previously reported that Camouflaj studio heads had been let go and that the developer is now just “a handful of employees” working on “the new user experience for upcoming hardware.”
Two individuals who were driving dump trucks to the construction site in Richland Parish, Louisiana, were arrested on Wednesday. Local law enforcement says ICE “did not enter the Meta site at any time,” but told Bloomberg that agents were sweeping for identification of workers en route to the site.
The studio, Camouflaj, hasn’t been “completely laid off,” as one Arkham series fan page reported; Camouflaj experienced layoffs but is not shutting down, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton tells The Verge. The team is now “just a handful of employees” working on “the new user experience for upcoming hardware,” former Meta employees tell Aftermath.
Update: Added Aftermath’s reporting.
Ahmad Al-Dahle, who previously led the team behind Meta’s Llama AI models, is now joining Airbnb as part of plans to revamp search and other features in its app, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tells Bloomberg:
What that means is moving away from an anonymous customer just searching, and making sure everyone’s search, everyone’s conversation is unique to them and that we take into account all prior conversations we ever had with you, all information we have.
ChatGPT and Copilot will be removed from WhatsApp in Brazil because of the terms, which go into effect on January 15th. The terms will be suspended in Brazil for now, according to a machine translation of CADE’s announcement.
Meta is excluding Italy from the ban because of an order from its antitrust watchdog.
[Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica]
Dina Powell McCormick, who previously worked as deputy national security advisor during Trump’s first administration, is joining Meta as president and vice chairman.
Mark Zuckerberg says she’ll “be involved in all of Meta’s work, with a particular focus on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta’s AI and infrastructure.”
Following Australia’s social media ban for children under 16 taking effect last month, Meta says it has now removed almost 550,000 Instagram, Facebook, and Threads accounts that it believes were run by kids under that age threshold. Despite its compliance, Meta is still voicing opposition to the law.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri says, “People stopped sharing personal moments to feed years ago,” in a New Year’s Eve post about the future of the platform as generative AI produces more realistic-looking content.
