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Meta Is Trying to Poach OpenAI's 'Best' With $100M Offers

At least according to OpenAI chief Sam Altman, who says his top staffers are so far staying loyal

(Newser) - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Meta is trying to lure his team members with substantial offers, including $100 million signing bonuses. The push comes as Meta invests heavily in artificial intelligence, recently spending $14 billion to acquire a major stake in the Scale AI startup. Despite the offers, Altman...

US Army Swears in Tech Execs as Lieutenant Colonels

Execs from Meta, OpenAI, Palantir to serve in Army Reserve as advisers

(Newser) - Four Silicon Valley senior executives were sworn in last week as lieutenant colonels by the US Army. The military announced in a press release that Shyam Sankar, Palantir CTO; Andrew Bosworth, Meta CTO; Kevin Weil, OpenAI's chief product officer; and Bob McGrew, OpenAI's former chief research officer, will...

In Break With Tradition, Ads Are Coming to WhatsApp

Meta says ads will appear only in the Updates section, not chats

(Newser) - WhatsApp, long known for its ad-free messaging, is about to break with tradition and introduce advertisements for the first time. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, announced that ads will soon appear in the app's Updates section, which is used by around 1.5 billion people daily, the New York ...

Meta Having Trouble Combating 'Nudify' Tools

CBS News investigation finds ads for the tools across Instagram, Facebook, Threads

(Newser) - Meta says it has removed various ads for AI tools offering to create sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of real people. A CBS News investigation found dozens of ads for the apps on Instagram's Stories feature and estimated there were "hundreds" across Meta's platforms. Some advertised...

Meta Goes Nuclear to Juice Up Its AI
AI Is Driving Big Tech Nuclear
Jun 4, 2025 6:01 AM CDT

AI Is Driving Big Tech Nuclear

Meta is latest company to secure nuclear power to meet surging artificial-intelligence demands

(Newser) - Meta has cut a 20-year deal to secure nuclear power to help meet surging demand for artificial intelligence and other computing needs at Facebook's parent company. The investment with Meta will also expand the output of a Constellation Energy nuclear plant in Illinois. The agreement announced Tuesday is just...

Fake Firm Staffed With Bots Was a 'Total Disaster'

Carnegie Mellon researchers discovered that their AI 'workers' weren't particularly good at their jobs

(Newser) - What would happen if a fake company was created from scratch, staffed completely by bots? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon wanted to know the answer, so they launched The Agent Company , a virtual simulation of a software company that put artificial intelligence "agents" from such companies as OpenAI, Google, Meta,...

Meta Exec Apologizes to Conservative Activist

Robby Starbuck is suing for $5M, claiming company's AI defamed him

(Newser) - A conservative activist got a rare, personal apology from a top Meta exec over the tech giant's AI chatbot. Robby Starbuck, a former music video producer who has gained a following on the right with his anti-DEI videos, first alleged last year that Meta's chatbot was disseminating false...

Meta Unveils ChatGPT Rival
Meta Unveils
ChatGPT Rival
Apr 30, 2025 1:30 AM CDT

Meta Unveils ChatGPT Rival

App links Facebook and Instagram accounts for personalized AI experience

(Newser) - Meta is making its move in artificial intelligence with a new standalone app that blends AI with the familiar feel of social media in the company's bid to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. The app uses Meta's Llama 4 AI system and includes a "discover" feed...

Apple, Meta Hit With Hefty Fines From Europe

Both companies were found to have breached the Digital Markets Act

(Newser) - European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of euros on Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc's digital competition rules, per the AP . The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, imposed a fine of 500 million euro, or $571 million, on Apple...

Biggest Inauguration Donor Was a Poultry Company

Pilgrim's Pride gave $5M of Trump's record $239M haul

(Newser) - President Trump not only won the 2024 election, the campaign to raise cash for his inauguration also hit the jackpot. As NBC News reports, Trump's inaugural committee raised a staggering $239 million, smashing the previous record—also held by Trump from his first inauguration—of about $107 million. Bloomberg...

Zuckerberg Testifies After Both Sides Signal Strategy

Meta contends it has competition, FTC says it effectively doesn't in the personal social networking market

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg led off the antitrust trial Monday that could force him to break up Meta, facing the task of convincing a federal court that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp did not make his $1.4 trillion company a social media monopoly. The Meta CEO was the first person...

Meta's Empire Could Crumble in FTC Showdown
New Court Fight
Has Huge Stakes
for Zuckerberg
the rundown
Apr 14, 2025 9:45 AM CDT

New Court Fight Has Huge Stakes for Zuckerberg

Meta's antitrust trial begins Monday in Washington

(Newser) - The Federal Trade Commission is taking Meta to court. In a trial beginning Monday, the US government will argue that the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp broke competition laws in acquiring the latter two apps in 2012 and 2014, respectively. More:
  • The case: It began in December 2020 during
...

Meta Tried to Silence Author, but Her Memoir Is a Bestseller

Careless People author Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former Facebook exec

(Newser) - A tell-all memoir from a former Facebook exec has become a best-seller despite—or perhaps partly because of—Meta's effort to block promotion of it. Sarah Wynn-Williams' Careless People has topped the New York Times ' nonfiction bestseller chart and will be fourth on the Sunday Times chart in...

'Error' Floods Instagram Reels With Violent Content

Meta says glitch was unrelated to changes in moderation policy

(Newser) - People's Instagram Reels feeds were flooded with violent content this week in what Meta says was a glitch unrelated to changes in its content moderation policies. A Wall Street Journal reporter's feed showed "scores of videos of people being shot, mangled by machinery, and ejected from theme...

Jesse Eisenberg Wants to Cut His Link to Zuckerberg

Social Network actor played Meta CEO but doesn't want to be 'associated with somebody like that'

(Newser) - Jesse Eisenberg may have played Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg on the big screen in 2010's The Social Network, but any link beyond that isn't something Eisenberg is keen on. "I haven't been following [Zuckerberg's] life trajectory, partly because I don't want to think of...

Zuckerberg Tells Meta Employees to 'Buckle Up'

He defends working with Trump administration in all-hands employee meeting

(Newser) - "We try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks," Mark Zuckerberg said at an all-hands Meta meeting Thursday, according to details leaked to multiple outlets. According to a recording obtained by the Washington Post , the Meta CEO said the company's values haven'...

Meta Will Pay $25M to Settle Trump Lawsuit

President sued after Facebook, Instagram accounts were suspended in 2021

(Newser) - Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to President Trump to settle a lawsuit he filed in response to being kicked off the company's platforms the day after the Capitol riot. The company confirmed the settlement to the Wall Street Journal . Sources tell the AP that the settlement includes...

Suddenly Following Trump on Social Media? Here's Why

White House-controlled accounts were automatically transferred, along with followers

(Newser) - Social media is full of claims that Meta forced Facebook and Instagram users to follow President Trump. "Full dictatorship incoming," one Reddit user warned, per USA Today . But these claims are false, according to fact-checking site Snopes and other media outlets. The social media accounts for the US...

Meta Firing Its 5% 'Lowest Performers'
Meta Is Laying Off Thousands
Jan 15, 2025 7:45 AM CST

Meta Is Laying Off Thousands

3.6K employees representing the 'lowest performers' will be out

(Newser) - Meta plans to fire thousands of workers who represent the 5% "lowest performers" across its 72,000-strong global workforce. Anticipating an "intense year," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday he wants "the best people on our teams" and opted to "move out low-performers faster" than the...

What Meta's Big Policy Change Might Mean
Meta's
Fact-Checker
Shift Has Big
Implications
the rundown
Jan 8, 2025 8:59 AM CST

Meta's Fact-Checker Shift Has Big Implications

And they might be most pronounced outside the US

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that Meta was doing away with fact-checkers on Facebook, a sweeping policy shift with huge implications. A look at reaction from around the political spectrum:
  • About time: The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal calls Zuckerberg's message a "mea culpa for the
...

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