TagMark Zuckerberg
Facebook Ends Fact-Checking, Moves to Community Notes Format
Top executive admits that there was "too much political bias" at Facebook, Instagram, Threads…
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook To Lighten Up on Censorship
He wants to move away from moderation and more towards a Community Notes approach
Zuck and Co Are Under Fire (Again)
Meta targeted teens, according to internal company emailsIs there any company out there who has hurt young people more than Mark Zuckerberg’s gargantuan Meta empire? A host of lawsuits and a damning report from the New York Times tells us that the massive parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp willingly pursued its addictive business model despite the evident damage its products were doing to users, particularly kids. Who remembers when Facebook launched and its promises of a more connected world? Who remembers the optimists hailing the internet as the next step in human connectivity? A mere twenty years later and the technology lords are facing an overdue reckoning. Natasha Singer writes, The state lawsuits against Meta reflect mounting concerns that teenagers and children on social media Read More ›
Is the “Threads” App a Bust?
The app originally attracted around 100 million users but has tapered off dramatically.Within the first week of its existence, “Threads,” the new Twitter-like app from the tech company Meta, saw a colossal decline in usage. The app originally attracted around 100 million users but has tapered off dramatically. Jody Cerrano reports, Zuckerberg’s statements about returning users coincide with estimates from third-party traffic analysts that reported the big dip in Threads users last week. At that time, Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm, said that Threads’ daily active users on iOS and Android were down by 20%. The company added that traffic was not the only thing affected. Time spent on the app per user also fell, according to Sensor Tower, by 50% — from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. On Monday, the analyst Similarweb reported an Read More ›
Really, a Cage Match?
Rumor has it that Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are going to fight each other (physically, not figuratively) in a cage match.Rumor has it that Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are going to fight each other (physically, not figuratively) in a cage match. Yes, you heard that right. After an online squabble, the two are purportedly interested in an actual fight. Today, the news broke that Musk has agreed to train with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre. St-Pierre offered his services to Musk in a tweet, to which Musk replied, “Okay, let’s do it.” No one really knows if this fight will actually happen, but it could. It’s ludicrous that men of such stature should be entertaining the notion of a cage match. Nonetheless, Zuckerberg is apparently trained in martial arts, and seemed open to the idea given Read More ›
Meta’s Weird New Speech AI
Scammers have already capitalized on this kind of technology. Is it a mistake for Meta to push for it?Meta has announced a new AI system called Voicebox, a text to audio translator that can mimic the voice of loved ones. All you need is a mere two seconds of authentic audio and the bot will extrapolate whole sentences in that person’s voice. Meta noted the technology will be helpful for those who are visually impaired and who want to hear messages or texts read to them in a voice they know. A blog on the Meta site reads, Like generative systems for images and text, Voicebox creates outputs in a vast variety of styles, and it can create outputs from scratch as well as modify a sample it’s given. But instead of creating a picture or a passage Read More ›
Jack Dorsey: Just Read Some Science Fiction and You’ll See Where We Are
The former Twitter CEO opens up about his thoughts on Apple's new mixed reality headsetLast week, Apple announced the Vision Pro headset, a virtual reality set that is designed to “blend” physical and digital life into a unitary experience. The headset, from all appearances, looks sleeker and less clunky that Meta’s VR headsets. Users will, for the remarkably low price of $3,499 (that was a joke) will be able to have apps appear in the room in front of them, transforming everyday environments into a “personal theater.” Not everyone is stoked about the announcement, however. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t too happy about it, for obvious reasons. He’s been trying to break ground in the VR headset game for years, now. However, Jack Dorsey, former CEO and co-founder of Twitter, raised his own concerns about the Read More ›
Media and Tech Companies Continue to Struggle
Vice reportedly is opting for bankruptcy, while Meta's metaverse floundersAccording to a report from The New York Times, Vice Media Group, the entertainment outlet, is expected to file for bankruptcy. The news arrives amid considerable downsizing in the once leading media giant. Vice has long been known for its outreach to younger audiences and popularizing itself on social media platforms. Buzzfeed also recently announced the closure of its news division. After years of edgy and “irreverant” reporting, it seems the act is over. Other major technology companies are cutting expenses and laying off employees. With Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the woes seem to amount to the failed metaverse project, which was apparently was supposed to be so groundbreaking that it merited a makeover of the company name. With its vague Read More ›
Work: The New Path to Self-Actualization
With layoffs plaguing Big Tech companies, how should employees start viewing their work?The pandemic changed the way we work, with more people opting for online or “hybrid” schedules, office buildings emptying, and boundaries between work and other aspects of life starting to get blurred. But what is the general attitude towards work in the United States? According to Simone Stolzoff, author of the forthcoming The Good Enough Job, Americans are turning to their careers like people used to turn to religion: for meaning and a sense of self-worth. This new secular religion is called “workism.” In an interview with Wired, Stolzoff said, [Workism] is treating work akin to a religious identity. It’s looking to work not just for a paycheck but also for a community, a sense of identity and purpose and Read More ›
Will AI Ever Achieve Consciousness?
A former Facebook executive thinks so, assuming progress will eventually get us thereJohn Carmack, a former Facebook executive who famously expressed doubts over Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious metaverse project, thinks AI is “on the cusp” of simulating the human brain. Per a report from Futurism, Carmack sat down with Dallas Innovates and talked about the possibilities of AI, as well as its prime obstacle: an inconvenient thing called consciousness. Carmack said, The thing we don’t yet have is sort of the consciousness, the associative memory, the things that have a life and goals and planning. I mean, forget human brains; we don’t even have things that can act like a mouse or a cat.” Despite the far-off dream of developing consciousness in AI, Carmack thinks it’s plausible, given the great strides we’ve seen Read More ›
More Bad News for the Metaverse
Virtual reality projects are losing steam across the tech industry in the wake of layoffs and investor skepticismBig tech companies across the spectrum, including Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, are scaling back on virtual reality research and development. The technological demands of the metaverse are more advanced than CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have anticipated, and employees are feeling the impact. Microsoft recently laid off 10,000 workers, cutting funding from the lab responsible for the production of its mixed-reality “HoloLens.” The army was originally in the works to use the Microsoft lens for aids in combat and training, but the technology has since been labeled as “dangerous and poorly designed.” Meta laid off 11,000 employees last November and continues to struggle to gain interest and traction for its ambitious metaverse project. A report from Insider notes that a combination Read More ›
Twitter Gets Blasted While Meta Struggles
While Musk’s every move is being scrutinized, Zuckerberg’s struggles fall to the waysideElon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and founder of PayPal, radically reorganized Twitter in October and November, and now, is the subject of much criticism from the media. He has laid off hundreds of employees and fired the advisory board. In addition, he reinstated the formerly suspended accounts of Jordan Peterson, parody news site The Babylon Bee, and most outrageously, former president Donald Trump. A few days ago, somehow it was assumed across the Twitter sphere that the entire platform was about to implode. I started seeing people post things like, “If this is my last tweet, I’m okay with that…” Not sure what was happening, I experienced a sudden flood of similar tweets prophesying the Twitter era’s impending Read More ›
Big Layoffs Ahead for Zuckerberg’s Meta
Employee downsizing at the social media giant casts doubt on its relevancy and futureWith recent headlines highlighting Elon Musk’s Twitter, Meta’s ongoing troubles have escaped some of the limelight, but are significant, nonetheless. This past week, Mark Zuckerberg announced over 11,000 layoffs across his company, focusing on recruiting and business, according to a memo. The layoffs will affect some 13 percent of the tech giant’s 87,000 employees. Meta, due in large part to its optimistic investment in the metaverse, plummeted in value this past year, and workers are feeling the consequences. While the tech industry is seeing high personnel cuts this year, Zuckerberg did not have to hire as many people as he did, and clearly depended too much on the metaverse project for profit, which looks like it won’t be nearly Read More ›
Is Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Doomed to Fail?
Meta is losing loads of money, putting the whole metaverse project into questionOver the last two years, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has poured millions of dollars into his immersive metaverse project, which he believes represents the future of digital technology. We’ve seen ad campaigns for the Meta virtual reality headsets, a total rebranding of Zuckerberg’s company, and an unquestioned optimism about the efficacy and popularity of online life. But the company Meta is losing money. Lots of it. Zuckerberg pledged to spend $10 billion a year towards the metaverse over the next decade, showing how committed he is to achieving his vision. The company, however, plummeted this past year, losing approximately $600 billion of its market value. People simply aren’t investing in it as Zuckerberg anticipated, and even certain Meta executives doubt Read More ›
The Danger of Deepfakes (and Deepcake)
In a metaverse world dominated by AI, life and art is in danger of being eclipsedMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other optimistic futurists think the metaverse is our collective future. We will exist in virtual nonexistence. We will eat, shop, worship, communicate, and marry in the metaverse. This is where progress is taking us. So, we’d best go along for the ride if we don’t want to get left behind. But “living” in a metaverse may be much more complicated than you might think. The question of identity, and who has the power to distribute identities at will, haunts the metaverse project, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution. In September, a Russian deepfake company called “Deepcake” (the name strangely makes me hungry for dessert) pasted the face of Bruce Willis on a Read More ›
Zuckerberg’s New Meta Pummeled by Stock Market
Meta (Facebook reimagined) faces a gauntlet of challenges only months after Zuckerberg announced his new "metaverse" initiativeLast October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be undergoing a major facelift to become Meta. The Facebook platform we all know and love would remain as is, but Meta would become Facebook’s parent company with a primary focus of developing the “metaverse,” an immersive online experience that Zuckerberg called “the next frontier” of the internet. But Meta is off to a rough start. Facebook’s parent company shed more than $230 billion in market value Thursday, a one-day loss that is the biggest ever for a U.S. company and increases pressure on a stock market long powered by technology shares…. The Facebook parent company surprised investors with a deeper-than-expected decline in profit and a downbeat outlook. The company Read More ›
Facebook and Google Face Big Legal Challenges
The FTC, dozens of states, and private citizens are coming after the big tech companies for antitrust violationsHow has 2022 begun for our favorite Big Tech companies? With a good chunk of lawsuits. As technology companies grow bigger, they face bigger legal challenges. Here’s a brief rundown of a few such challenges Facebook and Google face in the courts in this new year: FTC Antitrust Lawsuit Against Facebook Moves Forward Let’s begin at the federal level. Last June, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia tossed out a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenging Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. According to Boasberg, the FTC failed to adequately show that Facebook holds a monopoly. Not to be dissuaded, the FTC re-filed with an amended complaint in August. Last Read More ›
If Facebook Kills Holly, Shouldn’t Zuckerberg Take the Stand?
When social media is associated with suicide, legislators must ponder what to do next(This article by Karl D. Stephan originally appeared at Engineering Ethics Blog (15 December 2021) under the title “Will Facebook kill Holly?” and is reprinted with permission.) I have to be careful about how I write today’s column. I do not want to betray any trusts. But on the other hand, a topic that up to now has been an abstraction for me has become personal. A statistic has turned into someone I know by only two degrees of separation. To protect anonymity, I have changed names and some details of what I will write here. But I assure you that what I am going to write is based on facts as personally told to me yesterday by someone I Read More ›
Facebook’s…Er, Meta’s Instagram Problem
Despite employee-recommended solutions, Facebook has largely turned a blind eye to the harms their own algorithms have caused in teenage girls using InstagramThe Wall Street Journal’s series of articles based on leaked internal documents from Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) gave us a peek inside the company’s business model, including what the company knew about Instagram’s harmful mental health effects on teen girls.* Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, provided thousands of pages of internal documents and Slack conversations to the Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Horwitz, and has since made the documents available to other media outlets. Gizmodo is working with a group of experts to make the documents public, which can be viewed here. On October 5th, Haugen testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Facebook’s lack of transparency regarding the harms of its platforms. The full testimony can be seen in the video below. Haugen Read More ›