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Tech News
Dave Wehner, Meta's chief strategy officer and former CFO, is leaving after 14 years to join Fireworks AI as chief financial officer. Fireworks, a four-year-old AI inference and model-training platform, was valued at $17.5 billion in a July Series D round backed by Nvidia, Sequoia and others.
Snap confidentially settled a case alleging its platform caused severe psychological distress to two teenage users, following similar settlements by Meta, TikTok and YouTube in the same litigation. Separately, Google was sued this week by parents who say their child suffered a psychological crisis after interacting with the Gemini chatbot through Google Classroom.
Meta has launched Spaces, a new feature that lets users create dedicated, topic-based conversation threads with its Muse AI agents, such as a vacation planner or holiday gift tracker. These Spaces appear in a sidebar and can sync with third-party apps to automatically update information like price changes or event dates. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature on X, describing personal uses like a BBQ game and home control dashboard.
Meta has indefinitely delayed changes to its commercial terms that would have required Facebook Business account holders to allow extensive AI training on any external websites linked from their pages. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company is pausing the changes to keep engaging with stakeholders, and that existing terms remain in effect for now.
Amazon announced a new feature letting select U.S. customers text its Alexa AI assistant to search for products, add items to cart, compare prices, check order status and complete purchases using natural language. Customers can also send photos of items or outfits to find similar products, and Amazon says Alexa will learn preferences over time to suggest items. Access is currently limited, with others able to join a waitlist ahead of a broader rollout in coming weeks.
Meta is rolling out a new feature called 'spaces' to all users of its Muse AI assistant, letting people build app-like dashboards for tasks such as shopping, school schedules, music tracking or trivia games. Users create a space by describing it to Muse, can edit it through conversation or direct interaction, and can connect it to other apps so pricing, dates and other details update automatically. Spaces can be pinned to a sidebar, moved to the main tab, or scheduled to appear at certain times, and the rollout includes a specialized version of Meta's Muse Wonder AI model.
Meta is selling certified refurbished Quest 3S headsets for $255.99 through its eBay storefront using the code SAVE20TECH, valid through November 8th. The units come inspected and cleaned, include original or new accessories, and carry a two-year Allstate warranty, undercutting the headset's $349.99 retail price and its recent $300 new-condition Prime Day price.
Meta has launched a voice feature for its Muse AI agent, letting US users make phone calls or video chats with the assistant. The update offers hundreds of voice options and is now available to the general public rather than a limited test group.
WhatsApp is rolling out a new AI-powered image expansion feature, letting users expand photos beyond their original borders within the app's drawing editor using Meta AI. The tool is currently limited to select TestFlight beta testers and some users on the public iOS app, and also works with status updates.
Mark Cuban said on the Pivot podcast that Meta continues running Facebook ads using an AI-generated version of his face and voice to sell a fake diabetes cure, even as elderly victims email him asking if the product is real. He cited internal Meta documents reported by Reuters showing the company projected about $16 billion, roughly 10% of its 2024 revenue, from ads tied to scams and banned products, with Meta's own safety team estimating its platforms play a role in a third of successful U.S. scams.
Meta announced it will stop developing new features for the Quest 2 and Quest Pro, with final OS updates arriving in March 2027 and security patches continuing through the end of that year. Developers have until December 2027 to submit new apps for the devices, though existing apps can still be updated afterward. Meta says purchased apps and cross-play with the Quest 3 and Quest 3S will remain available beyond that cutoff.
Apple's annual financial filing added a risk factor warning that AI agents capable of acting autonomously could behave in 'unintended or unpredictable ways,' potentially exposing the company to lawsuits or reputational harm. The filing notes such agents can interact with systems without authorization, alter code, send communications or complete transactions without explicit direction.