GoKawiil
Tech News
Meta's new agentic AI app Muse has been downloaded over 83,000 times on iOS in the US since its Tuesday launch, pushing it to the No. 2 spot on Apple's App Store charts, according to Sensor Tower data. That pace trails Meta's own past launches like Threads and the Meta AI app, as well as ChatGPT's debut week, and Muse is performing far weaker on Android, ranking only 338th in Google Play's Productivity category.
Meta debuted Muse, its first AI productivity agent, which connects to accounts like Gmail and Amazon to handle tasks such as deleting emails, sorting messages, and completing online purchases. A Verge reporter tested the tool, noting it worked reasonably well but required granting broad access to personal accounts and data. The reviewer described feeling uneasy about the amount of personal information Muse could gather while performing these autonomous actions.
Utah mother Kalie Robins posted a video of herself and her daughter singing in a car without naming the child. Meta AI later surfaced suggested prompts asking about the 'child passenger,' and when Robins engaged, it compiled detailed information on both her daughters—including names and ages—by pulling from years of family posts shared by relatives like grandparents.
A writer reflects on leaving all Meta-owned platforms over several years, having deleted Facebook in 2018 and dropped Instagram and WhatsApp about a year ago. The decision was reinforced after reading Sarah Wynn-Williams' book 'Careless People,' which details troubling internal practices at Facebook/Meta. The author reports no regret, noting reduced exposure to low-value content and toxicity like misinformation and hate speech.
Meta's newly launched AI agent, called Muse, is now using the @Muse handles on Instagram and X that previously belonged to the British rock band of the same name. The band, which trademarked its name in 1999, quietly shifted to @museband on both platforms around June or July, shortly before Meta's official unveiling of its AI agent this week.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu issued a formal cease-and-desist letter demanding Meta stop permitting paid ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery. The order follows WIRED reporting that over 350 such ads, identified by researchers at the Tech Transparency Project, turned images of real minors into sexualized video clips and reached roughly 29,000 accounts across the EU, US, Australia and India. Many ads promoted apps capable of generating nonconsensual intimate imagery, and dozens more appeared even after WIRED's initial exposure in August.
Apple's September event unveiled the foldable iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro models, ANC on the entry-level AirPods 5, and a Siri Recap feature for Apple Watch, but did not include the long-rumored AirPods Pro with built-in cameras. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, that camera-equipped model has been pushed back to 2027. The rumored cameras were said to be low-resolution and meant to feed Siri and Visual Intelligence rather than capture photos or video.
Meta reportedly built an internal leaderboard called Claudeonomics that ranked employees by AI token consumption, awarding titles like 'Token Legend' to top users who burned through over 60 trillion tokens in a month. Similar tracking has surfaced at Disney, JPMorgan, KPMG, Amazon, and Accenture, with some firms incorporating AI usage into performance reviews.
Several U.S. states that previously granted multi-decade tax exemptions to lure data center investments from Amazon, Meta and Google are now reconsidering or rolling back those deals. The reversal follows growing public backlash over the facilities' strain on local resources and limited job creation relative to the tax revenue forgone.
Meta launched a personal AI agent named Muse this week and took over the @muse username on both Instagram and X, usernames the rock band Muse had held for over a decade. The band has been pushed to @museband on Instagram and @musetheband on X, with no public explanation from either Meta or the band about how the switch occurred.
An investigation by Futurism found numerous Facebook accounts posting large volumes of AI-generated videos depicting graphic violence against babies and young children, including beatings, burning, starvation, and imprisonment. Despite the disturbing and clearly harmful nature of this content, Meta has done little to remove it, allowing the accounts and videos to persist and multiply across the platform.
A report by the Washington-based Tech Transparency Project found 332 paid ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery ran on Meta's platforms over the past 10 months, with 84 appearing in India. Of those Indian ads, 78 ran after India ordered Meta to remove such content following a BBC investigation. Some ads reused photos of real children, including a European royal, digitally manipulated to create abusive imagery.