When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2024, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games, and no gimmicks, The New York Times reported.

For years, that is what WhatsApp’s two billion users — many of them in Brazil, India, and other countries around the world — got. They chatted with friends and family unencumbered by advertising and other features found on social media. 

On Monday, WhatsApp said it would start showing ads inside its app for the first time. The promotions will appear only in an era of the app called Updates, which is used by around 1.5 billion people a day. WhatsApp will collect some data on users to target the ads, such as location and the devices default language, but it will not touch the contents of messages or whom users speak with. The company added that it has no plans to place ads in chats and personal messages.

“Thinking through the lens of privacy was incredibly important for how we though about bringing in these features to market,” said Nikila Srinivasan, a vice president of product management at WhatsApp. “Your personal message, calls and statuses, they will remain end-to-end encrypted.

CNBC reported: It WhatsApp, marking a major change for an app whose founders shunned advertising.

Meta announced Monday that businesses will now be ablate run so-called status ads on WhatsApp that prompt users to interact with the advertisers via the app’s messaging features. The ads will only be shown to users within WhatsApp’s “Updates” tab to separate the promotions from people’s personal conversations. Additionally, Meta will begin monitoring WhatsApp’s Channels feature through search ads and subscriptions.

The debut of ads on the messaging app represents a significant step in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plants make WhatsApp “the next chapter” in his company’s history, as he told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in 2022. The move to monetize WhatsApp also comes amid Meta’s high-profile antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission over the company’s blockbuster acquisitions of the messaging app and Instagram.

BBC reported: WhatsApp is launching three new ad features in a global roll-out across the messaging app.

The Meta-owned platform says that new ads will not be shown in the same place as people’s private chats, nor will the contents of their messages – which are encrypted – be used to decide which ads to display.

WhatsApp will instead use the country, city and language of the user, as well as how they interact with other ads and which channels they follow, to drive suggested content.

But people who have chosen to link their WhatsApp account to Facebook or Instagram will see more personalized ads.

Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang told employees in a memo on Thursday that he’s leaving for Meta, confirming reports from earlier in the week about his departure and a large investment from the social networking company, CNBC reported.

Meta is pumping $.14 billion into Scale AI as part of the deal, and will have a 49% stake in the artificial intelligence startup, but will not have any voting power, a Scale AI spokesperson said.

“As you’ve probably gathered from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost,” Wang wrote in the memo that he shared on X. “In this instance, that cost is my departure. It has been the absolute greatest pleasure of my life to serve as your CEO.”

Scale AI is promoting Jason Droege, the chief strategy officer, to the CEO role. Droege was previously a venture partner at Benchmark and an Uber vice president.

The Verge reported: Meta is paying $14.3 billion to acquire 49 percent of Scale AI and hire its CEO Alexandr Wang to revamp its troubled AI efforts.

As part of the deal, Wang will report directly to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and remain on Scale’s board of directors, both companies announced on Thursday. Sources say Wang will lead a new AI lab at Meta tasked with building “superintelligence.” Meta spokesperson Ashley Zandy says the company “will share more about this effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks.”

Zuckerberg has been actively recruiting a new team of researchers from rival forms to join Wang’s team, according to people familiar with the matter and other press reports. The Meta founder has reached out to potential recruits directly — usually via a cold email or WhatsApp message — and lured some of them away from companies like Google with seven-and eight-figure compensation packages.

This year, Scale signed a deal with the Department of Defense for a first-of-its-kind AI agent program for US military planning. Since then, it has expanded its business with other governments, recently inking a five-year deal to provide AI tools to Qatar. The company’s work with governments in Asia and Europe could result in a sizable portion of its overall sales.

TechCrunch reported: Data-labeling company Scale AI confirmed on Friday that it has received a “significant” investment from Meta that values the startup at $29 billion. The startup also said its co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang is stepping down from his role to join Meta and help the bigger company with its AI work.

Reports indicate that Meta invested about $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the startup, which produces and labels data that’s used to train the large language models that underpin a significant portion of generative AI development.

Meta confirmed the investment. “Meta has finalized our strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI. As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexander Wang will join Meta to work on our super intelligence efforts. We will share more about this effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks,” a spokesperson for Meta told TechCrunch.

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 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.