Category Archives: Meta

Meta Plans Major Investment In AI-Humanoid Robots

Meta

Meta is forming a new team within its Reality Labs hardware division to build robots that can assist with physical tasks, Bloomberg reported. The team will be responsible for developing humanoid robotics hardware, potentially including hardware that can perform household chores, TechCrunch reported.

Meta’s new robotics group, which will be led by Marc Whitten, driverless car start up Cruise’s former CEO, will also create robotic software and AI, according to Bloomberg’s reporting. Whitten has also had stints at Amazon, Microsoft, and Sonos, according to his LinkedIn profile.

To be clear, Meta’s plan isn’t to build a Meta-branded robot — at least not initially. Rather, Meta executive including CTO Andrew Bosworth believe the company has an opportunity to build a hardware foundation for the rest of the robotics market, per Bloomberg — similar to what Google accomplished with its Android operating system in the smartphone sector.

Gizmodo reported: Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms has moved beyond trying to connect with humans and is ready to focus on building robotic ones, according to a report from Bloomberg, Meta is planning to pour money into a new project to build AI-powered humanoid robots.

Meta reportedly plans to start the project by building a robot capable of completing household chores. But long term, it seems the company is more interested in being in the software business rather than dealing with hardware, with a focus on developing the AI that will power these machines. 

Basically Meta wants to make the brain and leave the bodies up to robotics companies. It doesn’t currently have ambitions to build its own Meta-branded bot, and has already started holding conversations with firms like Unitree Robotics and Figure AI.

The effort will be headed up March Whitten, who was serving as CEO of self-driving cars company Cruise before resigning earlier this month when parent company General Motors decided to get out of the robotaxi business.

The Verge reported: Meta is planning to design the hardware and software for humanoid robots, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources tell the outlet that a newly formed team within Meta’s Reality Labs division will start by working on “humanoid robot hardware” capable of completing household chores.

Bloomberg notes that Meta has broader goals of making “the underlying AI, sensors and software for robots that will be manufactured and sold by a range of companies. “That means the company might not make a Meta-branded robot to start. It’s in discussions with robotics companies like Unitree Robotics and Figure AI about its plans.

“The core technologies we’ve already invested in and built across Reality Labs and AI are complementary to developing the advancements needed for robotics,” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, write in a memo seen by Bloomberg. “We believe that expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs.”

In my opinion, it is too early for Meta to actually develop robots that can do your dishes or fold laundry.

Meta Platforms Soar To Record Bolstering Zuckerberg’s Spending Spree

Meta

Meta Platforms posted record revenue in the fourth quarter, aided by artificial-intelligence improvements to its ads business, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Facebook and Instagram parent reported a 21% increase in sales and $20.8 billion in net income, both ahead of analyst expectations.

Meta estimated that revenue growth would slow in the January-to-March quarter, reaching 8% to 15%, a level that would represent the lowest increase in two years. 

The company’s shares rose slightly in after-hours trading Wednesday, following a rally over the past week after it announced plans to increase spending on AI. Its capital-expenditure estimate for 2025 was roughly 70% over 2024 projections.

Meta operates a suite of AI products, including an open-source model called Llama that developers can use to create their own applications, and AI chatbots embedded in its apps. The company is also planning to create an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to its research and development projects. Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta AI to be the leading assistant in the world in 2025.

CNBC reported: Meta shares were up slightly in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat the top and the bottom.

Mark Zuckerberg said he expects 2025 to redefine the company’s relationships with governments.

“We now have a U.S. administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizes American technology winning and that will defend our values and interests abroad,” Zuckerberg told investor on a call. “I am optimistic about the progress and innovation that this can unlock.”

The company’s Meta AI chatbot surpassed 700 million monthly active users, finance chief Susan Li told analysts. That’s up from 600 million in December. Zuckerberg said he expects an AI chatbot will reach more than 1 billion users in 2025, and Meta AI is already used more than any other assistant, he said. 

Variety reported: Meta turned in a big beat for the fourth quarter of 2024, with the parent of Facebook and Instagram reporting record quarterly revenue and net profit to close out the year.

The strong results come as the company is looking ahead to a massive increase in AI-fueled capital spending in 2025 — and as Meta CEO and chairman Mark Zuckerberg has been working to win the favor of President Trump, an erstwhile antagonist of the tech giant.

Meta did not provide revenue guidance for full year 2025, saying that “we expect the investments we are making in our core business this year will give us an opportunity to continue delivering strong revenue throughout 2025.”

In my opinion, it seems like Mark Zuckerberg has big ideas for what Meta will be like in 2025.

Meta To Spend Up To $65 Billion This Year To Power Goals, Zuckerberg Says

Meta

Meta Platforms plans to spend as much as $65 billion this year to expand its AI infrastructure, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, aiming to bolster the company’s position against rivals OpenAI and Google in the race to dominate the technology., Reuters reported.

As part of the investment, Meta will ramp up hiring for artificial intelligence roles and build a more than 2-gigawatt data center that would be large enough to cover a significant part of Manhattan.

The company — among the top buyers of Nvidia’s sought-after AI chips — aims to end the year with over 1.3 million graphics professors and plans to bring about 1 GW of computing power online in 2025.

“This will be a defining year for AI,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our four products and business.”

Meta’s announcement comes just days after U.S. President Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle will form a venture called Stargate and invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the U.S.

TechCrunch reported: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company plans to significantly up it’s capital expenditures this year as it aims to keep pace with rivals in the cutthroat AI space.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Zuckerberg said that Meta expects to spend $60 billion – $80 billion on CapEx in 2025, primarily on data centers and growing the company’s AI development teams. That projected range is around double the $35 billion – $40 billion Meta spent on CapEx last year.

Zuckerberg also wrote that Meta plans to bring around one gigawatt of compute online this year, roughly the amount of power consumed by 750,000 average homes, and expects the company’s data centers to pack over 1.3 million GPUs by year-end.

NBC News reported: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that the company plans to build a massive data center in Louisiana to power its newest AI model, Llama 4, which is set to launch this year.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the company would invest more than $60 billion into AI including the data center, which he noted would be “so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan.”

“This will be the defining year for AI. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model, and we’ll build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D efforts,” Zuckerberg wrote.

In my opinion, I have concerns about how much water Meta is going to take away from people who aren’t billionaires.

Zuckerberg Makes Amends With Trump

Facebook, Meta

Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement this week that Meta would pivot its moderation policies to allow for more “free expression” was widely viewed as the company’s latest effort to appease President-elect Donald Trump, CNBC News reported.

More than any of its Silicon Valley peers, Meta has taken numerous public steps to make amends with Trump since his election victory in November.

That follows a highly contentious four years between the two during Trump’s first term in office, which ended with Facebook — similar to other social media companies — banning Trump from it’s platform.

With Meta now positioning itself to be a key player in artificial intelligence, Zuckerberg recognizes the need for White House support as his company builds data center and pursues policies that will allow it to fulfill its lofty ambitions, according to people familiar with the company’s plans who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter.

Meta declined to comment for this article.

New York Post reported: Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg parked his private jet right next to Trump Force One on Friday during a visit to Palm Beach, Florida, to meet with the incoming 47th president.

Zuckerberg, 40, was dressed up in a fitted suit and tie when he was spotted boarding his Gulfstream G650 jet at Palm Beach International Airport.

The tech titan’s jet was parked in the shadows of President-elect Donald Trump’s much larger, custom Boeing 757 aircraft, which he’ll trade in for Air Force One in less than two weeks.

Earlier in the day, the billionaire Facebook founder met with Trump at his nearby Mar-a-Lago estate, a source told the Post.

It’s at least the second time Zuckerberg has convened with Trump, 78, at Mar-a-Lago since the president-elect’s landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election.

Zuckerberg, who also held at least two private phone conversations with Trump over the summer, has sought to rehabilitate his relationship with the incoming president after his social media platforms banned him in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Benzinga reported: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has much bigger fences to mend with President-elect Donald Trump than the Silicon Valley tech giants and other billionaires who have been making the trek to Mar-a-Lago since the November elections. 

Friday’s visit, reported by The New York Post, was Zuckerberg’s second meeting with Trump since the 2024 election.

The Facebook founder’s relationship with Trump profoundly soured after Meta Platforms banned outgoing President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Meta lifted the remaining restrictions on Trump’s accounts in July.

Meta To Add Display To Ray-Bans As Race Over Smart Glasses Intensifies

Meta

Meta plans to add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses as soon as next year, as the US tech giant accelerates its plans to build lightweight headsets that can usurp the smartphone as consumers’ main computing device, Financial Times reported.

The $1.5tn social media group is planning to add a screen inside the $300 sunglasses it makes and sells in partnership with eyesore group EssilorLuxottica, according to people familiar with the plans.

The updated Ray-Bans could be released as early as the second half of 2025, the people said. The small display would be likely used to show notifications or responses from Meta’s virtual assistant.

The move comes as Meta pushes further into wearable devices and what chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hopes will be the next computing platform, as rivals such as Apple, Google, and Snap also race to develop their own similar products.

In September, Meta unveiled its augmented-reality glasses prototype Orion. According to people familiar with the matter, the company has accelerated Orion’s development following the enthusiastic response of early testers.

These people said Meta has brought forward plans to turn the device into a consumer product, though any release is still likely to be years away.

Engadget reported: It looks like Meta is preparing to add displays to its popular line of Ray-Ban smart glasses. These screens could show up in a future iteration of the device as early as next year. The likely release window is the second half of 2025.

According to folks familiar with Meta’s plans, the screens will be on the smaller side and will likely be used to display notifications or responses from Meta’s AI virtual assistant. It’s highly unlikely that the company is planning on making this a full mixed-reality device just yet.

For that, Meta has the recently-unveiled Orion AR glasses, which are still several years out. The same report indicates that the positive response to the Orion glasses has likely accelerated development and possibly ensured a commercial release. It was uncertain if those glasses would remain an in-house prototype.

9To5Mac reported: Ray-Ban Meta have been the most successful smart glasses to date, offering an appealing mix of features in a form factor which is visually indistinguishable from normal sunglasses.

So far, all of the AI functionality, notifications, and messaging features have relied on the glasses reading things to you through integrated speakers, but a new report says a future model will get a display, and that it could launch as early as next year.

Meta showed off an early prototype of its Orion AR glasses back in the summer. While they are undeniably clunky, and reputedly have a manufacturing cost of $10,000, they did provide a persuasive look at what we can one day expect in something that looks and feels more like the company’s existing smart glasses.

In my opinion, people who want to use Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses will have to wait for a while before they can purchase them.

Meta’s AI Video Editing Features Are Coming To Instagram Next Year

AI, Meta

Earlier this year, Meta previewed Movie Gen, an AI video tool that looked impressively realistic (at least in the sample clips it released.) At the time, though, Meta said it was still a research project with no immediate plans to make the features available to users, Engadget reported.

But now it seems that Movie Gen could arrive on Instagram sooner than later. Instagram’s top exec Adam Mosseri posted a short video previewing the kind of seamless AI edits that will eventually be possible, saying that the company is “hoping to bring this to Instagram next year.”

In the clip, Mosseri says that Meta is “working on some really exciting AI tools” for video creators. “You should be able to do anything you want with your videos,” he says. “You should be able to change your outfit, or change the context in which you’re sitting, or add a chain — whatever you can think of.”

The Verge reported: Instagram is planning to introduce a generative AI editing feature next year that will allow users to “change nearly any aspect of your videos.” 

The tech is powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model according to a teaser posted by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and aimed to provide creators with more tools to help transform their content and bring their ideas to life without extensive video editing or manipulation skills.

Mosseri says the feature can make adjustments using a “simple text prompt.” The announcement video includes previews of early research AI models that change Mosseri’s outfit, background environments, and even his overall appearance — in one scene transforming him into a felt puppet.

Meta unveiled its Movie Gen AI video generator in October, which promises to “preserve human identity and motion” in the videos it creates or edits. The announcement was made months after similar models from competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Adobe Firefly Video model, the latter of which is already powering beta text-to-video editing tools inside Premier Pro. 

Gizmodo reported: One common complaint about Instagram, and social media in general, is that it breeds insecurity by presenting an unrealistic impression of other people’s lives as being better than they really are — the best moments only. 

And heavy editing of physical appearances is known to contribute to body dissatisfaction even when people know what they are seeing is not the full picture. Instagram is soon going to make that situation somewhat worse by allowing users to completely transform their videos using generative AI.

In a teaser shared by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, was able to completely transform his appearance, in one shot turning himself into a felt puppet, and in another transporting Mosserri from his office to a snowy mountain range with a furry coat. In another, he was able to place a hippo behind him that jumps around and looked into the camera.

In my opinion, I think that Meta’s Movie Gen AI model might make some people who see it feel inadequate about their bodies, and will not want to put up videos of themselves.

Meta Fined $263M Over 2018 Security Breach

Meta

Meta has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) in the European Union for a Facebook security breach that affected millions of user, which the company disclosed back in September 2018, TechCrunch reported.

The penalty, issued on Tuesday by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) enforcing the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), is far from being the largest GDPR fine Meta has been hit with since the regime came into force over five years ago. Still, it is notable as its a substantial sanction for a single security incident.

The breach dates back to July 2017, when Facebook rolled out a video upload function that included a “View as” feature, which let the user see their own Facebook pages a it would be seen by another user.

On Tuesday, the Irish regulator issued its final decisions on two inquiries it had opened into the 2018 incident: One decision covers Meta’s breach notification, as the GDPR requires prompt and comprehensive reporting of major security incidents, while the other concerns rules on data protection by design and default.

The Irish Data Protection Commission fines Meta €251 million. From the press release:

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has today announced its final decisions following two inquires into Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (‘MPIL’). These own-volition inquires were launched by the DPC following a persona data breach, which was reported by MPIL in September 2018.

This data breach impacted approximately 29 million Facebook accounts globally, of which approximately 3 million were based in the EU/EEA. The categories of personal data affected included: user’s full name; email address; phone number; location; place of work; date of birth; religion; gender; posts on timelines; groups of which a user was a member; and children’s personal data. 

The breach was remedied by MPIL and its US parent company shortly after its discovery.

Reuters reported: The lead European Union data privacy regulator for Meta fined the social media giant 251 million euros ($263.5 million) on Tuesday for a 2018 Facebook security breach that affected 29 million users.

Meta notified Ireland’s Data Protection Commission at the time that cyber attackers had exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacts the “View As” feature that lets users see what their own profile looks like to someone else.

Meta remedied the breach shortly after its discovery, DPC said. Of the 29 million Facebook accounts impacted globally, about 3 million were based on the EU and European Economic Area.

The DCP is the lead EU regulator for most of the top U.S. Internet firms due to the location of their EU operations in Ireland.

In my opinion, it seems like the DCP is displeased with Meta’s inability to prevent Facebook users from being hacked by cyber attackers.