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Zuckerberg’s AI announcement raises privacy and toxicity red flags

Zuckerberg's AI announcement | 3D representation of Meta logos

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s AI announcement has raised major concerns, after he said that the company had more user data than was used to train ChatGPT – and would soon be using it to train its own AI systems.

The company’s plan to use Facebook and Instagram posts and comments to train a competing chatbot raises concerns about both privacy and toxicity …

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Mark Zuckerberg explains why there will be no Meta app store for iPhone in the EU

Meta Apple App Store

Many developers and tech companies didn’t react well to the changes proposed by Apple last month to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation, and Mark Zuckerberg is on that team. The Meta CEO said on Thursday that he doubts developers will opt in to the new “onerous” terms set by Apple in the EU.

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Senate hearing on social media: Zuckerberg apologises to families; bizarre racism

Senate hearing on social media

The Senate hearing on social media saw Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologise to families who hold social media responsible for children who harmed themselves, including some who took their own lives.

It also saw some bizarre racism by one senator who apparently can’t tell the difference between Singapore and China …

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Zuckerberg doubles down on saying app age verification should be Apple’s responsibility

App age verification | 'Sign here' PostIt on an iPhone

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has doubled down on his view that app age verification should be the responsibility of Apple and Google, and not social media companies.

His remarks form part of prepared testimony to Congress, as he and other social media CEOs come under fire for failing to do enough to protect their teenage app users …

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Social media CEOs testifying to congress on teen safety

Social media CEOs quizzed | Apps shown on iPhone

The timing of Meta’s announcement of new teen safety measures earlier this week likely wasn’t coincidental: Mark Zuckerberg and other social media CEOs are set to testify to Congress on the topic.

Facebook’s founder will be joined by the chief execs of TikTok, Snap, Discord and X as Congress seeks to determine whether the companies are doing enough to protect teens from harm …

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Unlink your Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger accounts – but only in Europe

Unlink your Instagram | Screenshot on smartphone resting on MacBook

Meta has announced a radical new move to comply with European antitrust requirements taking effect in March. The company will let you unlink your Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger accounts – as well as those for Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Gaming.

This means you’ll have the option of setting each up as a completely separate account, with no shared data between them …

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Ray-Ban Meta glasses convinced me to believe in smart glasses

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses

Smart glasses aren’t a new thing, in fact, they’ve been around for a long time. But over the years, companies have been working on improving them, or at least trying to make them mainstream. Meta is one of the companies trying to do this, and I decided to give the Ray-Ban Meta glasses a try to see if there’s any point in having smart glasses.

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Threads launched in EU countries; no Instagram account needed to browse

Threads launched in EU countries | App shown on smartphone next to laptop

Social network Threads has now launched in EU countries, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noting that this now opens it up to an additional 448M people. The company first teased this last week.

EU citizens will also be able to browse Threads without having to create an Instagram account – a move likely intended to placate antitrust regulators …

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Vision Pro batteries could be head-mounted, borrowing from Meta accessory

Vision Pro batteries could be head-mounted | Elite headstrap shown on Quest 2

Apple’s decision to use tethered Vision Pro batteries raised a few eyebrows when the upcoming product was announced, with the decision apparently made to reduce the weight of the headset.

However, the company was concerned that the front-heavy weight balance of the device could cause neck strain, and a new Apple patent application puts forward a potential solution – which borrows from a Meta Quest headset accessory shown above …

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Ad-free Facebook and Instagram subscription coming to Europe next month

Facebook and Instagram subscription | Mark Zuckerberg on stage with 'The future is private' changed to 'The future is €9.99/month'

A combined Facebook and Instagram subscription is coming to European users in the next few weeks, enabling an ad-free experience in both services for €9.99/month ($10.60).

Alongside this, parent company Meta has announced that it is “pausing” all advertising to under-18s at the same time, meaning they get the same privacy benefits as a paid subscription at no cost …

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Instagram may soon let you choose to see content only from verified accounts

Meta Verified | Facebook and Instagram verified accounts

Similar to what other platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram have been doing, Meta now allows users to pay to get verified and unlock some extra features on Facebook and Instagram. To convince more people to pay for the Meta Verified service, the company has reportedly been working on a new option that will let users choose to only see content from verified accounts.

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Apple Vision Pro mixed reality will make you feel bad for the Meta Quest 3

Mixed reality headset makers seem to face a choice: do it well, or do it cheap. Priced from $3500, Apple Vision Pro sure ain’t doing it cheap. The consensus from those who have tried Vision Pro, though, seems to be that the experience is technologically impressive.

Can the same be said for Meta’s new Quest 3 mixed reality headset? The $500 XR headset is only loosely defined as cheap, of course, because of Apple’s hard-to-fathom price tag. Nevertheless, is it possible to sell mixed reality for a literal fraction of Vision Pro’s price and still make the experience compelling?

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