Meta explored 60% team cuts in two waves before staff revolt forced a retreat
A hot potato: Meta set out to reorganize much of its workforce around AI at the beginning of this year, betting that agents could help the company move faster while reducing the need for larger teams. The company went ahead with 10% workforce cuts in May but ultimately dropped plans for a broader round of layoffs after its AI workplace "overhaul" ran into employee resistance and technical problems.
Two-hour daily caps, forced "pauses," and a midnight lockout are coming to teen accounts. Skeptics say it doesn't go far enough
Winners & losers: Meta has agreed to pay as much as $18 billion and overhaul how minors use Instagram and Facebook, settling a lawsuit that accused the company of designing its platforms to addict children. Court filings and a Meta blog post confirmed the deal this morning. The agreement ends a trial that began August 18 in Oakland, and was expected to run through early October. It also means Mark Zuckerberg won't have to take the stand as planned. Instagram head Adam Mosseri had already testified before the settlement landed.
Ripple effect: Never one to miss an opportunity to jump on a bandwagon (or steal someone else's idea), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has directed a small team to create a prediction market app. The big difference is that it won't use actual money for trades – though that could change at some point.
Tech leaders love predicting the future. Sometimes they nail it, sometimes they miss spectacularly, and sometimes they leave behind quotes that only get better with age.
Any lingering hope for affordable gaming GPUs just took another hit
Editor's take: AMD and Meta have joined the growing circus of reciprocal dealsBig Tech is using to bootstrap what it hopes will become a self-sustaining "AI economy." Under a new multi-year agreement, the two companies will closely align their technology roadmaps – though AMD's role comes with strings attached, including hitting specific performance targets in the stock market.
"Building a free society requires that we aim to empower people as much as possible"
Forward-looking: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has articulated his ambitions for artificial intelligence in a sweeping blog post, calling for a future where personal superintelligence becomes a driving force for individual empowerment instead of widespread job automation.