| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (3754) | 8/20/2023 9:50:50 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | Meta’s Threads App to Launch Web Version as Rivalry With X Enters New Stage
A web version of the new text-first app is one of the features users have asked for and could help it compete with X after decline in usage
By Salvador Rodriguez and Meghan Bobrowsky
Wall Street Journal
Updated Aug. 20, 2023 7:58 pm ET
Users have been able to see specific Threads posts on the web but their access is limited, as the app is mostly geared for mobile phones. PHOTO: CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EFE/ZUMA PRESS
---------------------------------------
Meta Platforms plans to launch a web version of microblogging app Threads early this week, the biggest new feature to be introduced on its competitor to Elon Musk’s X.
The desktop version would address one of the biggest of a long wish list of features users have sought for Threads. The text-first social-media app appeared on track to be a smash hit out of the gate when Meta launched a bare-bones version in early July, but use of it has plunged in recent weeks.
Users have been able to see specific Threads posts on the web but their access is limited, as the app is mostly geared for mobile phones.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said on Friday on his Instagram profile, that the web version of Threads would be launching soon and is already being tested internally at Meta. People familiar with Meta’s plans said it will launch early this week, although the launch plans aren’t final and could change.
“It’s a little bit buggy right now, you don’t want it just yet,” Mosseri said. “As soon as it is ready we will share it with everybody else.”
Meta rushed to launch Threads to take advantage of the growing interest for an alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter. Threads became the fastest app to reach 100 million downloads, hitting the mark in five days.
Despite the early success, the usage of the app quickly fell off, with many users citing notable missing features, including a full web version of the service.
Meta has rolled out a handful of other new features in recent weeks, including the ability to set post notifications for accounts and view posts in a type of chronological feed.
Threads on Thursday began showing labels for state-controlled media outlets, about three weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that state-backed media accounts had hundreds of thousands of followers on the service and were posting propaganda, such as a fake video purporting to show President Biden in a store perusing books on dementia.
Time spent on the Threads app is down about 85% more than a month after its launch, according to new data from SimilarWeb, a digital data and analytics firm. At its peak, Threads had nearly 50 million daily active users worldwide a few days after launching. That number has since dropped to less than 10 million, the firm said Sunday.
X Corp., the renamed Twitter, draws approximately 363.7 million monthly active users, according to Insider Intelligence. X claimed 237.8 million daily active users in July 2022, when it reported its last quarterly earnings as a public company.
A web version of Threads would be useful for Meta in terms of promoting the service across the internet, several social-media experts said.
“A web-based version of Threads would be a significant advantage for Meta in its ongoing rivalry with X. It would give the company a wider reach, more features, and better data collection capabilities,” said Sam Saliba, a longtime Silicon Valley tech executive who was previously global brand marketing lead at Instagram and still maintains ties to people at Meta.
Besides a web version of Threads, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads earlier this month that the company is planning to launch an improved search feature for the microblogging app “in the next few weeks.” Currently, Threads users are able to search for others’ profiles but they can’t search for posts using keywords.
Mosseri reiterated that point on Friday, saying that Instagram isn’t working on building a hashtag feature for Threads because they are focused instead on search.
“We’re much more focused on the web, on search, which I think can meet a lot of the needs of hashtags,” Mosseri said.
Jeff Horwitz contributed to this article.
Write to Salvador Rodriguez at salvador.rodriguez@wsj.com and Meghan Bobrowsky at meghan.bobrowsky@wsj.com
Meta’s Threads App to Launch Web Version as Rivalry With X Enters New Stage - WSJ |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Glenn Petersen | 8/25/2023 4:30:54 AM | | | | | | Meta launches own AI code-writing tool: Code Llama
/ Meta said Code Llama will make it easier to finish code.
By Emilia David, a reporter who covers AI. Prior to joining The Verge, she covered the intersection between technology, finance, and the economy.
The Verge
Aug 24, 2023, 8:30 AM CDT|9 Comments / 9 New
Meta has released a tool called Code Llama, built on top of its Llama 2 large language model, to generate new code and debug human-written work, the company said.
Code Llama will use the same community license as Llama 2 and is free for research and commercial use.
Code Llama, Meta said, can create strings of code from prompts or complete and debug code when pointed to a specific code string. In addition to the base Code Llama model, Meta released a Python-specialized version called Code Llama-Python and another version called Code Llama-Instrct, which can understand instructions in natural language. According to Meta, each specific version of Code Llama is not interchangeable, and the company does not recommend the base Code Llama or Code Llama-Python for natural language instructions.
“Programmers are already using LLMs to assist in a variety of tasks, ranging from writing new software to debugging existing code,” Meta said in a blog post. “The goal is to make developer workflows more efficient so they can focus on the most human-centric aspects of their jobs.”
Meta claims Code Llama performed better than publicly available LLMs based on benchmark testing but did not specifically name which models it tested against. The company said Code Llama scored 53.7 percent on the code benchmark HumanEval and was able to accurately write code based on a text description.
Meta will release three sizes of Code Llama and said its smallest size fits on a single GPU for more low-latency projects.
Code generators have been helping developers work for a while now. GitHub launched Copilot in March, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, to quickly write and check code. GitHub Copilot can also rewrite old code to update it. Amazon’s AWS also has CodeWhisperer, which also writes, checks, and updates code. And yes, Google also has a code-writing tool in AlphaCode, but that isn’t out yet.
GitHub’s parent company, Microsoft, and OpenAI are being sued for allegedly violating copyright law with Copilot because the tool can reproduce licensed code.
Meta launches own AI code-writing tool: Code Llama - The Verge |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Julius Wong | 8/27/2023 9:57:29 PM | | | | | | Meta is building a space-age ‘universal language translator’
When you think of tools infused with artificial intelligence (AI) these days, it’s natural for ChatGPT and Bing Chat to spring to mind. But Facebook owner Meta wants to change that with SeamlessM4T, an AI-powered “universal language translator” that could instantly convert any language in the world into whatever output you want.
Meta describes SeamlessM4T as “the first all-in-one multilingual multimodal AI translation and transcription model.” That’s quite a mouthful, but in simple terms, it means it can convert languages in a range of different ways, such as taking speech audio and switching it into text in a different tongue.
 SOPA Images / Getty ImagesAccording to Meta, the tool’s speech recognition and translation features can work in a few different ways:
• Speech recognition for nearly 100 languages
• Speech-to-text translation for nearly 100 input and output languages
• Speech-to-speech translation for nearly 100 input languages and 36 output languages (including English)
• Text-to-text translation for nearly 100 languages
• Text-to-speech translation for nearly 100 input languages and 35 output languages (including English)
Recommended Videos
Meta says this will “allow people to communicate effortlessly through speech and text across different languages.”
Coming soon to Facebook?MetaSeamlessM4T is being released under a research license, and Meta states it’s doing this to “allow researchers and developers to build on this work.” As well as that, the metadata of the dataset that was used to train the translation model, called SeamlessAlign, is also being publicly released. This consists of “270,000 hours of mined speech and text alignments,” Meta claims.
However, Meta did not make it clear where these 270,000 hours of “mined speech” have been sourced. Concerns have been raised over the privacy implications of Meta’s work on AI chatbots, while other AI tools have already been caught stealing protected work. There will no doubt be fears that Meta could have done something similar when it trained SeamlessM4T.
There are already other translation tools like Google Translate that can convert text to text and speech to text, but Meta says its own efforts are superior. SeamlessM4T, Meta argues, “reduces errors and delays, increasing the efficiency and quality of the translation process.”
Meta has not said whether the new tool will be integrated into its apps like Facebook and Instagram, but the company did reveal that it aimed to “explore how this foundational model can enable new communication capabilities” in the future. We’ll have to see what that entails.
digitaltrends.com |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Glenn Petersen | 9/1/2023 7:52:24 PM | | | | | | Meta May Allow Instagram and Facebook Users in Europe to Pay to Avoid Ads
The subscription plan is a response to European Union policies and court rulings to restrict Meta’s data-collection practices.
By Mike Isaac and Adam Satariano
Mike Isaac reports on Meta and Silicon Valley from San Francisco. Adam Satariano reports on European technology and policy from London.
New York Times
Sept. 1, 2023
Updated 2:07 p.m. ET
Meta is considering a paid subscription service for Instagram and Facebook users in Europe. Credit...Artur Widak, Getty Images
-------------------------------------
Meta is considering paid versions of Facebook and Instagram that would have no advertising for users in the European Union, three people with knowledge of the company’s plans said, a response to regulatory scrutiny and a sign that how people experience technology in the United States and Europe may diverge because of government policy.
Those who pay for Facebook and Instagram subscriptions would not see ads in the apps, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans are confidential. That may help Meta fend off privacy concerns and other scrutiny from E.U. regulators by giving users an alternative to the company’s ad-based services, which rely on analyzing people’s data, the people said.
Meta would also continue to offer free versions of Facebook and Instagram with ads in the European Union, the people said. It is unclear how much the paid versions of the apps would cost or when the company might roll them out.
A Meta spokesman declined to comment.
For nearly 20 years, Meta’s core business has centered on offering free social networking services to users and selling advertising to companies that want to reach that audience. Providing a paid tier would be one of the most tangible examples to date of how companies are having to redesign products to comply with data privacy rules and other government policies, particularly in Europe.
In July, the European Union’s highest court effectively barred Meta from combining data collected about users across its platforms — including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — as well as from outside websites and apps, unless it received explicit consent from users. In January, the company was also fined 390 million euros by Irish regulators for forcing users to accept personalized ads as a condition of using Facebook.
The rulings stemmed from the 2018 enactment of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, or G.D.P.R., which was landmark legislation to protect people’s online data.
Meta’s openness to creating paid subscriptions shows how those living in the European Union, which comprises 27 countries and roughly 450 million people, may begin to see different versions of consumer technology products because of new laws, regulations and court rulings.
In recent weeks, as a new E.U. law called the Digital Services Act took effect to stem the flow of illicit content online, TikTok and Instagram users in the region have also been able to block personal data from being used to generate their social media feeds. Snapchat and Meta have stopped marketers from targeting teenagers ages 13 to 17 in Europe with personalized ads.
By next year, another E.U. tech-focused law, the Digital Markets Act, will take effect. That is set to force big tech platforms to change certain business practices to encourage competition and will have wide-ranging impacts, with Apple expected to allow users in the European Union to download alternatives to the App Store on iPhones and iPads for the first time.
“This shows that tech companies are complying with the E.U.’s digital regulations, suggesting that they remain beholden to governments and not the other way around,” said Anu Bradford, a Columbia University law professor and the author of “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.”
Meta, which also owns Messenger, has faced particular scrutiny from E.U. regulators. In May, the bloc fined the Silicon Valley company €1.2 billion for violating its privacy laws by sending data on European citizens back to U.S. servers for the purposes of improving the company’s advertising technology. Meta has appealed the ruling.
Meta has been fined for other violations of G.D.P.R., including a €265 million fine for a 2021 data leak. Irish regulators have also levied fines of €225 million over violations in a case involving WhatsApp, and another €17 million over a data leak.
Some Meta insiders believe that giving users the choice of opting out of an ad-based service while still having access to a paid version of Facebook or Instagram could alleviate some European regulators’ concerns, two of the people said. Even if few people choose the paid version, making such an option available could serve Meta’s interests in the region, they said.
Meta has not released its new app Threads, which is a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, in Europe because of regulatory concerns.
Europe is the second most lucrative region for Meta after North America. Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said in April that advertising in the European Union accounted for 10 percent of the company’s overall business. Meta’s revenue totaled nearly $117 billion last year.
Beyond its European challenges, Meta is trying to rejuvenate its business after global economic jitters hampered ad sales growth. It is also still pushing its vision of the immersive digital world of the metaverse, an expensive project championed by Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, which is still in its earliest days. And executives are focusing on developing artificial intelligence technologies and incorporating them into more of Meta’s products.
--------------------------------
Mike Isaac is a technology correspondent and the author of “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” a best-selling book on the dramatic rise and fall of the ride-hailing company. He regularly covers Facebook and Silicon Valley, and is based in San Francisco. More about Mike Isaac
Adam Satariano is a technology correspondent based in Europe, where his work focuses on digital policy and the intersection of technology and world affairs. More about Adam Satariano
Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times (nytimes.com) |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Glenn Petersen | 9/11/2023 8:46:57 PM | | | | | | Meta Is Developing a New, More Powerful AI System as Technology Race Escalates
Parent of Facebook and Instagram wants artificial-intelligence system to be as capable as OpenAI’s most advanced model
By Deepa Seetharaman and Tom Dotan
Wall Street Journal
Sept. 10, 2023 5:01 pm ET
Meta expects to start training the new AI system, known as a large language model, in early 2024.
PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
---------------------------------
Meta Platforms is setting its sights on OpenAI.
The parent of Facebook and Instagram is working on a new artificial-intelligence system intended to be as powerful as the most advanced model offered by OpenAI, the Microsoft -backed startup that created ChatGPT, according to people familiar with the matter. Meta aims for its new AI model, which it hopes to be ready next year, to be several times more powerful than the one it released just two months ago, dubbed Llama 2.
The planned system, details of which could still change, would help other companies to build services that produce sophisticated text, analysis and other output. It is the work of a group formed early this year by Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to accelerate development of so-called generative AI tools that can produce humanlike expressions. Meta expects to start training the new AI system, known as a large language model, in early 2024, some of the people said.
\Plans for the new model, which haven’t previously been reported, are part of Zuckerberg’s effort to assert Meta as a major force in the AI world after it fell behind rivals. Competition in the area has sharply intensified this year, spawning divergent views on everything from which business models are best to how the technology should be regulated.
The company is currently building up the data centers necessary for the job and acquiring more H100s, the most advanced of the Nvidia chips used for such AI training. While Meta joined with Microsoft to make Llama 2 available on Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform Azure, it plans to train the new model on its own infrastructure, some of the people said.
Zuckerushing for the new model, like Meta’s earlier AI offerings, to be open-sourced and thereforberg is pble freee availa for companies to build AI-powered tools.
Llama 2 was released in July. / PHOTO: ANDRE M. CHANG/ZUMA PRESS
----------------------------------
\
Zuckerberg will be among a group of top tech executives attending a summit organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Wednesday to discuss how to handle AI. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, and Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, will also be attending.
The model under development may not close the gap with Meta’s competitors.
Meta hopes it will be roughly as capable as GPT-4, which OpenAI launched in March. GPT-4 underpins OpenAI’s moneymaking initiatives such as the recently launched ChatGPT for Business tool, and the company has been courting others to build on top of the technology as it tries to cover the enormous costs for advanced AI models. Meta’s new model also likely would come out after the expected debut of Gemini, an advanced large language model being built by Google.
Meta’s open-sourced approach has certain advantages. Zuckerberg has championed open-source AI models, which are popular for their lower cost and adaptability.
There also are potential downsides to an open-source model of the power Meta aspires to, say some legal specialists. These include increased risks around use of potentially copyright-protected information and broader access to a tool whose enhanced strength can be used to generate and spread disinformation or other bad actions.
Meta’s lawyers have raised some of these concerns as part of their review of the company’s plans.
“You can’t easily predict what the system would do or its vulnerabilities—what some open source AI systems offer is a limited degree of transparency, reusability and extensibility,” said Sarah West, a former adviser to the Federal Trade Commission who is now managing director of the AI Now Institute, a research institute that has raised concerns about big companies’ control over AI.
Large language models generally get more powerful when trained on more data. The most powerful version of the Llama 2 model that Meta announced in July was trained on 70 billion parameters, a term for the variables in an AI system that is used to measure size. OpenAI hasn’t disclosed the size of GPT-4, but it is estimated to be roughly 20 times that size, at 1.5 trillion parameters. Some AI experts say there could be other methods to achieve GPT-4’s power without necessarily approaching its size.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at deepa.seetharaman@wsj.com and Tom Dotan at tom.dotan@wsj.com
Meta Is Developing a New, More Powerful AI System as Technology Race Escalates - WSJ (archive.ph) |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Julius Wong | 9/24/2023 9:47:40 AM | | | | | | META Connect preview:
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) will hold its Meta Connect live event on September 27-28.
The tech company will give consumers a preview of the Meta Quest 3 VR headset, which was formerly known as the Oculus Quest 3. Indications are that a new Qualcomm ( QCOM) Snapdragon chip will make the Quest 3 headset the company's most powerful ever and improve the highest resolution display by close to 30%. The Quest 3 is expected to arrive with redesigned Touch Plus controllers and hand-tracking support.
Meta Platforms is also expected to update on its AI plans. During the company's Q2 earnings, Mark Zuckerberg said Meta was building a number of new AI-powered products, some of which could act as assistants, coaches, and interact with businesses. The Meta Connect AI reveals could also include a formal announcement of new AI chatbots with different personalities, details around Meta's GenAI Agent opportunity, and use cases for Meta's GenAI Ad Tools & Features.
While shares of Meta Platforms ( META) turned lower during the Meta Connect event last year, several analysts have called it potential positive share price catalyst this time around the metaverse block. |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Glenn Petersen | 9/29/2023 4:57:36 AM | | | | | | Meta introduces ChatGPT competitor, AI tools amid industry arms race
Meta AI will allow users to search WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram using artificial intelligence
By Naomi Nix
The Washington Post
Updated September 27, 2023 at 3:11 p.m. EDT|
Published September 27, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. EDT
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Meta on Wednesday launched a conversational chatbot that will allow users to search its social media networks using artificial intelligence — an attempt to compete with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT amid an industry-wide boom in generative AI.
Meta said the conversational assistant, Meta AI — which will populate WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram — relies on one of its large language models and a partnership with Microsoft’s search engine Bing. The company is also launching AI-backed photo creation tools and 28 AI-powered chatbots, played by celebrities and cultural icons such as Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner and Naomi Osaka.
“Meta AI is your basic assistant that you can talk to like a person,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a keynote address at the company’s Connect developers conference.
Meta has long been a powerhouse of artificial intelligence research. Behind the scenes, the technology powers countless features: from the algorithms that surface viral content on its social networks to the systems that flag toxic content. But as Google and OpenAI have pushed out advanced chatbots and other stand-alone AI-products, Meta appeared to be falling behind.
“They haven’t really gotten credit as being seen as an AI winner,” Bernstein senior internet analyst Mark Shmulik said this week. Though the company has excelled at “building foundational models … it’s just unclear what their commercial strategy there looks like,” he added.
Now, Meta is seeking to change that perception, introducing a fleet of AI tools throughout its products.
Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta’s strategy involves creating different AI products for different uses, as opposed to a single flagship chatbot. He added that Meta’s conversational bots aren’t intended to just convey information — they’re meant to be entertaining.
“I think this is going to transform the way that people use all of our products,” Zuckerberg said.
The new assistant will have limited availability in the United States. Meta also expects to bring the new assistant to Ray-Ban Meta, the newest version of its smart glasses and its newly released Quest 3 headsets.
The company said Meta AI will be able to help users answer questions in real time. For instance, users who are on a hike in Santa Cruz, Calif., can ask the tool for other locations to explore, according to the company. Meta AI will also be able to drum up creative images from text-based prompts.
New features on Instagram will let users create AI-generated images. One of these tools, Restyle, enables people to transform their photos into new styles, including making them look like they were painted with watercolors. Another, Backdrop, can change the scene or background of an image based on a text prompt such as “Put me in front of a sublime aurora borealis” or “surrounded by puppies,” the company said.
Celebrity-driven chatbots are intended to give users the impression they are talking to familiar people about their interests on Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Meta’s announcements arrive in a crowded arena, as other tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI battle for dominance in generative AI — a technology that has captivated Silicon Valley. On Monday, OpenAI announced it was enabling users to talk with its ChatGPT chatbot. That same day, Amazon said it had signed a deal to invest up to $4 billion in the AI start-up Anthropic.
Meta follows a cohort of start-ups and major companies creating personality-driven chatbots designed to offer companionship and entertainment along with information. Earlier this year, the ephemeral message-sharing app Snapchat launched My AI, a chatbot designed to give users recommendations on everything from their cars to planning a wedding. The company has started experimenting with integrating sponsored links in the chatbot’s conversations with users.
Last year, two former Google employees launched Character. AI — a chatbot that allows users to start conversations with impersonations of Sherlock Holmes or Albert Einstein. In its first five months, the company said users have sent more than 2 billion messages and spend on average more than hours daily, according to the company.
Shmulik said the action makes “perfect sense” as a way to make Meta’s social media networks more engaging.
“When you look at some of the engagement metrics around it — people are really spending a lot of time, you know, talking to, like, Einstein,” said Shmulik, who cited Character. Ai and Snapchat as models. “There clearly is some appetite to kind of talk to characters.”
Over the past year, Meta’s AI investments have had an uneven reception. In August 2022, Meta released BlenderBot 3, an AI chatbot that was quickly ridiculed for spewing bigoted tirades and conspiracy theories. Just three months later, ChatGPT’s debut gained mainstream appeal for its sophisticated conversational skills.
This public image was on display in May, when the White House summoned the CEOs of four top AI companies to talk about policy with Vice President Harris. Notably missing:Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Later that month, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on AI oversight that included leaders from OpenAI and IBM — but not Meta.
Shortly after the White House meeting, Meta announced it was launching AI Sandbox, which enables marketers to use AI to create a range of text and visual options for their social media ads. The company has also been testing an internal productivity assistant known as Metamates and a generative-AI-based tool to enable users to modify photos via a text prompt and share them on their Instagram Stories.
But Meta’s open source approach, allowing companies and researchers to alter the source code, has come under fire from regulators and activists who argue giving away technology opens the door for misuse. Last month, Tristan Harris, the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, told members of Congress that his team had easily stripped Meta’s large language model of its safety controls, allowing it to tell users how to develop a biological weapon. (Zuckerberg retorted that anyone can find that information on the internet, The Washington Post has reported.)
Meta has also been pushing back against the doomsday scenarios from some prominent AI leaders such as Google’s former chief AI researcher Demis Hassabis, who say the tech is advancing so quickly that it might surpass human intelligence. President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg and others have urged regulators to move cautiously, arguing that those existential threats are hypothetical.
Even if Meta overcomes regulatory hurdles, the company will still have to figure out how to make money off its AI research. The company has been recovering from a tough post-pandemic economic slump. Sluggish growth in the e-commerce market and new privacy rules prompted the tech giant to lay off more than 20,000 workers since November as part of a larger effort to flatten the workforce and increase efficiency.
But since the beginning of the year, Meta’s stock has risen more than 140 percent, thanks to improvements in the digital advertising market, the company’s job cuts and the growing popularity of its TikTok competitor Reels.
“When your core business is doing well you’re afforded more leeway to do some of these longer-term, more out-there type of initiatives,” Shmulik said. “Whereas if the core business is challenged, you know, you don’t get a lot of leash or runway.”
Meta debuts chatbots to compete against Google, Microsoft in AI technology - The Washington Post (archive.ph) |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Glenn Petersen | 10/24/2023 1:59:40 PM | | | | | | Meta sued by 42 attorneys general alleging Facebook, Instagram features are addictive
October 24, 2023
Lauren Feiner @LAUREN_FEINER
CNBC.com
KEY POINTS
- A bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general is suing Meta, alleging features on Facebook and Instagram are addictive and are aimed at kids and teens.
- The lawsuits demonstrate the broad bipartisan interest in protecting kids and teens from online harm.
- Meta designed its Facebook and Instagram products to keep young users on them for longer and repeatedly coming back, the attorneys general allege.
A bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general is suing Meta, alleging that features on its Facebook and Instagram social media platforms are addictive and are aimed at kids and teens, the group announced Tuesday. The support from so many state attorneys general of different political backgrounds indicates a significant legal challenge to Meta’s business.
Meta is now facing multiple lawsuits on this issue in several districts. Attorneys general from 33 states filed a federal suit against Meta in the Northern District of California, while nine additional attorneys general are filing in their own states, according to a press release from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. Besides New York, the states that filed the federal suit include California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin.
The lawsuits are another demonstration of the bipartisan priority state law enforcers have placed on protecting kids and teens from online harm.
It’s also not the first time a broad coalition of state attorneys general have teamed up to go after Meta. In 2020, 48 states and territories sued the company on antitrust grounds, alongside a separate complaint from the Federal Trade Commission.
Meta designed its Facebook and Instagram products to keep young users on them for longer and repeatedly coming back, the attorneys general allege. According to the federal complaint, Meta did this via the design of its algorithms, copious alerts, notifications and so-called infinite scroll through platform feeds. The company also includes features that the AGs allege negatively impact teens’ mental health through social comparison or promoting body dysmorphia, such as “likes” or photo filters.
The federal suit also accuses Meta of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by collecting personal data on users under 13 without parental consent.
The states are seeking an end to what they see as Meta’s harmful practices, as well as penalties and restitution.
Meta was well aware of the negative effects its design could have on its young users, the attorneys general allege.
“While Meta has publicly denied and downplayed these harmful effects, it cannot credibly plead ignorance,” James’ office wrote in a press release. “Meta’s own internal research documents show its awareness that its products harm young users. Indeed, internal studies that Meta commissioned — and kept private until they were leaked by a whistleblower and publicly reported — reveal that Meta has known for years about these serious harms associated with young users’ time spent on its platforms.”
Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen caused an uproar among lawmakers and parents in 2021 after leaking internal documents from the company that revealed internal research on its products. One set of documents about Instagram’s impact on teens found that “thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” The Wall Street Journal reported before Haugen made her identity known. Following the report, Instagram said it was working on ways to pull users away from dwelling on negative topics.
“It should have been the practice of Meta to alert people that they were dealing with a dangerous, potentially addictive product before they started using it,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb told CNBC in a phone interview. Schwalb is among the attorneys general who filed an individual suit against Meta alleging it violated the district’s consumer protection law.
“We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path.”
Several of the practices the attorneys general focus on for Meta are similar to those exercised by other social media businesses, such as designing algorithms to keep users engaged.
Schwalb said that while he doesn’t think Meta is the only company trying to keep users’ attention with its features, “they do it very, very effectively and to the great detriment of millions of young people and tens of thousands of young people here in the District.”
“All human beings are susceptible to FOMO,” Schwalb said, referring to the fear of missing out. “But particularly 12- to 14-, 15-, 16-year-old kids. They’re the ones who are really worried about missing out. All of that is part of the built-in DNA that Meta uses to keep people hooked.”
The broad coalition of bipartisan attorneys general underscores the wide-ranging interest from law enforcers on both sides of the aisle in consumer protection issues like this one. President Joe Biden has also made it a point to discuss the priority of protecting kids’ safety and mental health online in his State of the Union.
“I think when you find an issue like this, it’s a good opportunity for AGs to link arms across party [lines] to try to make America a safer place,” Schwalb said.
Meta sued by 42 AGs for addictive features targeting kids (cnbc.com) |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (3763) | 10/26/2023 6:07:55 AM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | Meta beats on top and bottom lines as digital ad recovery pushes revenue up 23%
PUBLISHED WED, OCT 25 202312:00 PM EDT
UPDATED WED, OCT 25 20239:46 PM EDT
Jonathan Vanian @JONATHANVANIAN
CNBC.com
KEY POINTS
- Meta reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter as revenue increased 23%, the fastest rate of growth since 2021.
- For the fourth quarter, Meta said it expects revenue of $36.5 billion to $40 billion.
- Net income rose 164% from a year earlier to $11.58 billion in the quarter.
Meta reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter as revenue increased 23%, the fastest rate of growth since 2021.
The stock initially rose in extended trading after the report, but then reversed course and fell more than 3% following cautionary comments from finance chief Susan Li about potential ad softness tied to the Middle East conflict.
Here are the key numbers:
- Earnings per share: $4.39 vs. $3.63 expected by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv
- Revenue: $34.15 billion vs. $33.56 billion expected by LSEG
Investors are also looking at user numbers:
- Daily active users (DAUs): 2.09 billion vs. 2.07 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Monthly active users (MAUs): 3.05 billion vs. 3.05 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Average revenue per user (ARPU): $11.23 vs. $11.05 expected, according to StreetAccount
Meta is seeing faster growth in its core digital ads business as clients rebound from a tough 2022, when revenue dropped for three straight quarters. Sales jumped from $27.71 billion a year earlier. Net income rose 164% to $11.58 billion, or $4.39 a share, from $4.4 billion, or $1.64 a share, a year earlier.
Meta’s business is outperforming competitors. Google parent Alphabet said in its earnings report Tuesday that ad revenue increased about 9.5%, while smaller rival Snap reported revenue growth of 5%.
A big part of Meta’s reacceleration appears to be because it is furthest along in terms of improving the effectiveness of its online ads following Apple’s iOS privacy changes in 2021, which made it hard for app developers to target users. Meta has pointed to its hefty investments in artificial intelligence as a key technology that has helped it land retailers looking to serve customers targeted promotions.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the earnings call that so far this year, the company has seen a 7% increase in time spent on Facebook and a 6% bump on Instagram “as a result of our recommendation improvements.”
Susan Li, Meta’s finance chief, told analysts on the call that online commerce was the biggest contributor to year-over-year growth in ad revenue, followed by consumer packaged goods and gaming.
However, Li said the company widened its revenue guidance range for the fourth quarter because of unpredictability in the Middle East due to the Israel-Hamas war.
“We have observed softer ads in the beginning of the fourth quarter, correlating with the start of the conflict, which is captured in our Q4 revenue outlook,” Li said on the call. “It’s hard for us to attribute demand softness directly to any specific geopolitical event.”
Meta said it expects revenue of $36.5 billion to $40 billion in the current quarter. Analysts were expecting sales for the quarter of $38.85 billion, according to LSEG. At the midpoint of the range, growth in the quarter will be about 19% higher from a year earlier.
Meta said expenses for 2023 will be in the range between $87 billion and $89 billion, which is down from its previous forecast of $88 billion to $91 billion. Expenses for 2024 will fall in the range between $94 billion and $99 billion.
“In terms of investment priorities, AI will be our biggest investment area in 2024, both in engineering and computer resources,” Zuckerberg said on the call.
Meta’s Reality Labs division, which focuses on virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, racked up $3.74 billion in operating losses for the quarter. It has now lost close to $25 billion since the start of last year — that’s after releasing its Quest 3 headset and other new products.
“I’m proud of the work our teams have done to advance AI and mixed reality with the launch of Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and our AI studio,” Zuckerberg said.
The company said it expects Reality Labs’ operating losses “to increase meaningfully year-over-year due to our ongoing product development efforts in augmented reality/virtual reality and our investments to further scale our ecosystem.”
Meta has 66,185 employees as of Sept. 30, which is a 24% year-over-year decrease. The company said “a substantial majority of the employees” who were part of its major cost-cutting efforts are no longer included in its headcount.
“Beginning in 2022, we initiated several measures to pursue greater efficiency and to realign our business and strategic priorities,” Meta said in its earnings release. “As of September 30, 2023, we have substantially completed planned employee layoffs while continuing to assess facilities consolidation and data center restructuring initiatives.”
Total costs and expenses declined 7% from a year earlier to $20.4 billion, underscoring Zuckerberg’s “ year of efficiency” declaration in February, when he emphasized the need for a slimmer and more nimble workforce.
Meta’s stock price is up about 150% this year, the second-best performer in the S&P 500, behind only AI chipmaker Nvidia
Meta Q3 earnings report 2023 (cnbc.com)0 |
| | Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| |
