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 platform is testing a way for users to indicate what topics they want to see in content, beginning with Reels. Instagram said previously that this was in the works. The topics appear to be extremely specific — things like Bad Bunny, “Japanese artisan menswear,” “vintage Patek,” and so on. In other words: help Instagram improve its algorithm.
The social media giants have agreed to boot users under 16 from their platforms by the December 10th deadline, but are still voicing skepticism about the policy’s enforcement and effectiveness.
Correction: YouTube has also said it disagrees with the law, but has not said it will comply.
Reuters: Their comments represented a shift in the social media industry’s response to the law, which is being watched by lawmakers around the world as concern grows about youth mental health. Under the Australian law, platforms must take “reasonable steps” to block users aged less than 16 or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($32.5 million).
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You may look ridiculous, but the feature set is perfect for gadget nerds who love the outdoors.
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This very first-gen device raises several questions about where the next chapter of mobile computing is headed.
Bloomberg reports that Ke Yang, only just promoted to head of the team, is leaving for Meta. He was tasked with building a Siri search tool to rival ChatGPT and Gemini, and is one of a dozen or so prominent AI departures for Apple this year.
Tulloch helped launch Thinking Machines with Mira Murati, who famously left OpenAI to start her own company. Mark Zuckerberg’s attempts to buy Thinking Machines and other AI companies have been a pretty open secret. While the big swings to buy companies like Perplexity have fallen short, he has managed to steal away some high profile talent from rivals.
[The Wall Street Journal]
In an internal message seen by 404 Media, Vishal Shah, Meta’s VP of metaverse, tells workers to use AI to build products five times faster:
Imagine a world where anyone can rapidly prototype an idea, and feedback loops are measured in hours — not weeks. That’s the future we’re building.
Shah told Lowpass this week about Meta’s push to expand the metaverse to more places, like your Instagram feed.
Remember when Mark Zuckerberg got really obsessed with the Metaverse and decided we were all going to live in VR, right up until AI became the future instead? Well, good news, Meta hasn’t given up on the Metaverse yet!
gen_Eric:
I honestly thought the “metaverse” was long dead. I had no idea it still existed and was still being worked on. Figured once the VR hype died and the AI hype started, they were basically done with the “metaverse.”
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Meta’s AI translation feature initially worked with English and Spanish.
Plain old pictures are out; content is in.
If you want to buy the Meta Ray-Ban Display, you must book an appointment for an in-person demo, Meta says. Even then, Meta says that the preferred color and size you want may not be in stock. If that’s the case, you’ll be added to a waitlist.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri discovered this week that his “I’m not listening to you through your phone” T-shirt was raising a lot of questions already answered by his shirt. But real heads know that Instagram doesn’t need to listen to you, because it already knows everything anyway.
Nixel:
Yeah, we don’t listen to you… just endlessly track you across the internet building up so much data that it seems exactly like we do
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