Tag: Meta

  • Meta fires employees for leaking confidential information

    Meta fires employees for leaking confidential information

    Meta on Thursday said it had laid off 20 workers for leaking information to the media, as the social media giant faces pressure over the recent political shift of its boss Mark Zuckerberg towards US President Donald Trump.

    “We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent,” a Meta spokesperson said, confirming a story first reported in The Verge.

    “We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more,” the company added.

    “We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks.”

    The round of firings came following a recent series of reports based on Zuckerberg’s meetings with employees.

    In one meeting, first reported by The Verge, Zuckerberg told employees he would no longer be forthcoming with information because “we try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks.”

    He also warned them to “buckle up” for the coming year and said that Meta would be a productive partner with the White House.

    Tech leaders have broadly fallen in line around Trump since he won the election in November, with Zuckerberg making a particular turn towards the Republican since his return to office.

    Zuckerberg has multiplied his advances towards Trump, who last summer threatened the tech tycoon with life imprisonment after Meta excluded the president from Facebook in January 2021 for encouraging the assault on the Capitol.

    The CEO and founder has dined with the Republican on several occasions, donated to the president’s inauguration fund, eased up on content moderation, and ended Facebook’s US fact-checking program in an effort to draw closer to the new Republican leadership in Washington.

    His longtime political affairs boss was also replaced by a prominent Republican, and he named Trump ally Dana White to his board after the US election.

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    The measures align with the conservative views of the president and his allies, as well as masculinist entertainers and personalities like Elon Musk.

    On the Joe Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg complained that “a lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered” and that embracing masculine energy “is good.”

  • Meta Connect 2024: Quest 3S, Smart Glasses, and AI Advancements Revealed

    Meta Connect 2024: Quest 3S, Smart Glasses, and AI Advancements Revealed

    At Meta Connect 2024Meta Platforms Inc. introduced several cutting-edge innovations in mixed reality and artificial intelligence (AI), including the Quest 3S headsetAI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, and updated AI models.

    The announcements underscore Meta’s ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of immersive experiences and AI-driven technology.

    The newly unveiled Quest 3S headset offers an affordable upgrade for mixed reality enthusiasts, priced at $299.99. While retaining key features from the Meta Quest 3, such as hand-tracking and touch controllers, the Quest 3S delivers improved resolution at 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye.

    It offers 2.5 hours of battery life and comes with 128GB and 256GB storage options. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted the device as part of the “best family of mixed reality devices out there.”

    Zuckerberg also revealed that Meta is working closely with Microsoft to bring Windows 11 integration to mixed reality, allowing users to pair Windows PCs with Quest headsets for a seamless computing experience.

    Meta’s AI-enabled Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses received notable upgrades, including the ability to remember tasks, handle voice commands, and perform real-time language translation. These features, along with the ability to record and send voice messages using WhatsApp or Messenger, elevate the glasses as a smart companion for everyday activities.

    Additionally, Meta announced enhancements to Meta AI, its generative AI assistant. Users can now interact with the assistant across platforms like MessengerWhatsAppFacebook, and Instagram DM using voice commands.

    The AI can also interpret images shared in chats, offering explanations and even generating step-by-step instructions based on photos.

    Meta also launched its latest AI large language model, Llama 3.2, with multimodal capabilities. Designed for advanced performance, it features 11 billion and 90 billion parameter variants, capable of extracting details from images and generating text-based narratives.

    Two smaller models, with 1 billion and 3 billion parameters, were also introduced for use on mobile and edge devices.

    Furthermore, Meta unveiled Orion, a prototype of its long-awaited augmented reality (AR) glasses. Unlike mixed reality devices, Orion glasses allow users to see through transparent lenses while projecting holograms onto their field of view.

    Zuckerberg highlighted the challenges of miniaturizing the technology and confirmed the device’s development as a future consumer product.