Meta | TechCrunch

Meta is tagging real photos as ‘Made with AI,’ say photographers

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:25:11 +0000

Photographers say the social media giant is applying a ‘Made with AI’ label to photos they took, causing confusion for users.

Materia looks to make accountants more efficient with AI

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:06:39 +0000

The U.S. is facing an accountant shortage. Fewer first-time candidates took the CPA exam in 2022 than in 2006, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. One possible reason people aren’t as interested in the field is the large amount of drudge work involved: Accountants have to rifle through large amounts of unstructured […]

Meta AI removes block on election-related queries in India while Google still applies limits

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:23:21 +0000

Meta AI removes restrictions around answering election-related queries in India while Google is still restricting them.

Threads finally launches its API for developers

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 07:12:11 +0000

Meta said today that it finally launched its much-awaited API for Threads so developers can build experiences around it.

Meta pauses plans to train AI using European users’ data, bowing to regulatory pressure

Paul Sawers — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:33:47 +0000

Meta has confirmed that it will pause plans to start training its AI systems using data from its users in the European Union and U.K. The move follows pushback from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), Meta’s lead regulator in the EU, which is acting on behalf of several data protection authorities across the bloc. […]

WhatsApp adds new features to the calling experience, including support for 32-person video calls

Jagmeet Singh — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 15:54:57 +0000

WhatsApp updated the video calling experience across devices on Thursday by introducing screen sharing with audio support and a new speaker spotlight feature. It’s also increasing the limit for video call participants to up to 32 people. In August last year, WhatsApp introduced screen-sharing support for video calls. The instant messaging app has now enhanced […]

Meta quietly rolls out Communities on Messenger

Aisha Malik — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:52:38 +0000

Meta is quietly rolling out a new “Communities” feature on Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The feature is designed to help organizations, schools and other private groups communicate in a more organized and structured way. Meta introduced Communities on WhatsApp back in 2022. The feature lets people connect with others without needing an associated […]

Meta rolls out Meta Verified for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:49:49 +0000

Meta launched its Meta Verified program today along with other features, such as the ability to call large businesses and custom messages.

Meta adds AI-powered features to WhatsApp Business app

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:48:17 +0000

Last year, during the Q3 2023 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg talked about leveraging AI to have business accounts respond to customers for purchase and support queries. Today, Meta announced AI-powered features for WhatsApp Business apps, such as helping with the creation of click-to-WhatsApp ads and generating responses to frequent customer messages. Mark Zuckerberg announced these […]

You can now customize your For You feed on Threads using swipes

Sarah Perez — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 20:38:18 +0000

Instagram Threads is rolling out the ability for users to signal which sort of posts they wanted to see more or less of by swiping.

Instagram confirms test of ‘unskippable’ ads

Sarah Perez — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:49:11 +0000

The change would see Instagram becoming more like the free version of YouTube, which requires users to view ads before and in the middle of watching videos.

‘ThreadsDeck’ arrived just in time for the Trump verdict

Sarah Perez — Fri, 31 May 2024 16:46:13 +0000

Yes, we’re calling it “ThreadsDeck” now. At least that’s the tag many are using to describe the new user interface for Instagram’s X competitor, Threads, which resembles the column-based format of Twitter’s old app TweetDeck (now X Pro). Two weeks after first testing the functionality that allows Threads users to pin columns to the home […]

Spain bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook, Instagram over privacy fears

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 31 May 2024 10:52:42 +0000

Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections. The local data protection authority, the AEPD, has used emergency powers to protect local users’ privacy. Meta confirmed to TechCrunch it has complied with the […]

Tech giants form an industry group to help develop next-gen AI chip components

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 30 May 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Microsoft, Meta, Intel, AMD and others have formed a new group to design next-gen interconnects for AI accelerator hardware.

Instagram now lets teens limit interactions to their ‘Close Friends’ group to combat harassment

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 30 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Instagram is expanding the scope of its "Limits" tool specifically for teenagers that would let them restrict unwanted interactions with people.

Families of Uvalde shooting victims sue Activision and Meta

Anthony Ha — Sun, 26 May 2024 16:58:25 +0000

The families of victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas are suing Activision and Meta, as well as gun manufacturer Daniel Defense. The families bringing the lawsuits are represented by attorney Josh Koskoff, who previously won a settlement from Remington for the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims. The suit against […]

Scarlett Johansson brought receipts to the OpenAI controversy

Cody Corrall — Sat, 25 May 2024 20:15:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. OpenAI announced this week that it’s removing Sky, one of the voices used by its new GPT-4o model, after users found it sounded eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson’s AI character […]

Meta’s new AI council is composed entirely of white men

Dominic-Madori Davis, Amanda Silberling, Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 22 May 2024 21:37:23 +0000

Meanwhile, women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by irresponsible AI.

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses now let you share images directly to your Instagram Story

Aisha Malik — Wed, 22 May 2024 15:17:17 +0000

Meta is updating its Ray-Ban smart glasses with new hands-free functionality, the company announced on Wednesday. Most notably, users can now share an image from their smart glasses directly to their Instagram Story without needing to take out their phone. After you take a photo with the smart glasses, you can say, “Hey Meta, share […]

Microsoft’s new ‘Volumetric Apps’ for Quest headsets extend Windows apps into the 3D space

Aisha Malik — Tue, 21 May 2024 19:20:36 +0000

Microsoft announced on Tuesday during its annual Build conference that it’s bringing “Windows Volumetric Apps” to Meta Quest headsets. The partnership will allow Microsoft to bring Windows 365 and local PC connectivity to Quest headsets, enabling developers to extend their apps into the 3D space. “We’re deepening our partnership with Meta to make Windows a […]