SAN FRANCISCO: Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday defended massive spending on artificial intelligence that dragged down shares despite strong earnings boosted by the technology. The social networking colossus raised its capital expenditures for this year to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion without laying out exactly how that investment would translate into profit. &quot;The way to think about the investment is that we&#39;re making a bet (on) the individual things that people care about, and that people are going to be more important in the future,&quot; Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call, as analysts pressed him about the company&#39;s heavy spending on AI. He gave the example of a hot trend in &quot;agentic&quot; AI in which digital assistants handle computer tasks independently at the behest of people. &quot;There are a lot of agents out there that people are building for different things, and there aren&#39;t that many that I would want to give to my mother,&quot; Zuckerberg said. &quot;I think getting to that quality bar is something that I care about more than hitting a specific week for launching (a new product) or something like that.&quot; Zuckerberg spotlighted a new Muse Spark AI model built by Meta&#39;s nascent &quot;Superintelligence Lab,&quot; saying its technology will be put to work in Meta&#39;s offerings such as smartglasses and its advertising system. &quot;We are trying novel things,&quot; Zuckerberg said. The AI investment from the company that owns Instagram and Facebook is not directly tied to a revenue stream as with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, which sell their AI-powered cloud services to clients worldwide. Meta sent tremors on Wall Street by announcing in its earnings release that expenses at the tech giant notched up to $33.4 billion as it chases &quot;superintelligence&quot; through major infrastructure buys, and went on a hiring spree for top AI talent. Shares dropped more than 6 percent even though the company topped forecasts with a profit of $26.8 billion on revenue of $56.3 billion in the quarter. Headwinds and scrutinyAdding to investor unease about Meta, chief financial officer Susan Li told analysts Meta continues to monitor legal and regulatory &quot;headwinds&quot; in the US and Europe, including social media addiction lawsuits. &quot;We continue to see scrutiny on youth-related issues and have additional trials scheduled for this year in the US, which may ultimately result in a material loss,&quot; Li warned. A Los Angeles jury in March found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman because of an addictive design of their social media platforms, ordering the companies to pay millions of dollars in damages. The verdict hands plaintiffs in more than a thousand similar pending cases significant leverage &mdash; and signals to the tech industry that juries are prepared to hold social media companies accountable for the mental health toll of their design choices.

Americas

The social networking colossus raised its capital expenditures for this year to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion without laying out exactly how that investment would translate into profit.

Meta chief Zuckerberg doubles down on AI spending 

MADRID: Facebook owner Meta on Wednesday defended its advertising model in a 550-million-euro trial in Spain over alleged breaches of EU data protection rules brought by more than 80 Spanish media organizations.&nbsp;EU rules oblige companies to obtain users&#39; consent to create personalized advertising from their data.&nbsp;Spain&#39;s main media association AMI says the US tech giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, created &quot;unfair competition&quot; by &quot;systematically&quot; breaking the law between May 2018 and July 2023.&nbsp;The association launched a lawsuit alleging unfair competition in digital advertising sales and is seeking 551 million euros ($647 million) in compensation.&nbsp;&quot;This isn&#39;t a case that affects only AMI&#39;s outlets, it has implications for media worldwide,&quot; AMI director general Irene Lanzaco told reporters before entering the Madrid commercial court where the trial will run until Thursday.&nbsp;&quot;What&#39;s at stake is the very survival of news media, which is being threatened by the predatory behaviour of a platform like Meta, acting with no regard for our legal framework.&quot;&nbsp;Meta has denied any damage or violation of EU rules, saying in a statement sent to AFP the AMI lawsuit &quot;is not based on any evidence regarding the alleged harm.&quot;&nbsp;AMI is &quot;deliberately ignoring the evolution of the advertising industry over the past few years,&quot; Meta added.&nbsp;&quot;Meta complies with all applicable laws and has provided clear options, transparent information, and a wide range of tools for users to control their experience on our services.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#39;Huge investment&#39;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meta executives told Wednesday&#39;s hearing that user data mattered less than algorithms to generate the personalized advertising.&nbsp;&quot;We have invested a huge amount&quot; so that advertising reaches the consumer, unlike traditional media, said Beltran Seoane of Facebook Spain, responsible for relations with advertising agencies.&nbsp;Tools developed by Meta &quot;are just as important or more so than the data per se&quot;, added Facebook representative David Saez.&nbsp;Expert reports and closing arguments are expected on Thursday.&nbsp;Media groups represented by AMI include Prisa, owner of Spain&#39;s top-selling daily newspaper El Pais; Godo, publisher of the Barcelona-based daily La Vanguardia; Vocento, which publishes the conservative daily ABC; and Unidad Editorial, whose titles include El Mundo and sports daily Marca.&nbsp;Spanish radio and television stations have launched a separate lawsuit against Meta for the same reasons, seeking 160 million euros in damages.&nbsp;A similar lawsuit has also emerged in France, where around 200 media groups, including major television networks and leading newspapers, filed legal action against Meta in April.

Artificial Intelligence

Meta faces a €550m trial in Spain after 80+ media outlets accused it of unfair competition and breaching EU data rules in ad sales. Meta denies wrongdoing, citing compliance, transparency, and evolving advertising industry practices.


Meta defends ads model in 550-mn-euro data protection trial

Aaron Sorkin is diving back into the world of Facebook with a &ldquo;Social Network&rdquo; follow-up featuring Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg and a newly minted Oscar winner as a whistleblower. Sony Pictures said Friday that &ldquo;The Social Reckoning&rdquo; will star Mikey Madison (&ldquo;Anora&rdquo;) as Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as then-Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz. Haugen leaked thousands of pages of internal Facebook records to the Journal, yielding a 2021 investigation known as the &ldquo;Facebook Files.&rdquo; The series of stories alleged the social media giant was prioritizing profits over safety and hiding its own research from investors and the public. Sorkin is writing and directing the &ldquo;The Social Reckoning&rdquo; which is being described not as a sequel to &ldquo;The Social Network&rdquo; but a &ldquo;companion piece.&rdquo; The studio plans to release the film in theaters in October 2026. Bill Burr has also been cast in an unspecified role. &ldquo;The Social Network,&rdquo; which Sorkin wrote, and David Fincher directed, was a critical and box office hit, earning over $226 million globally in 2010 and eight Oscar nominations and three wins. Jesse Eisenberg played Zuckerberg in the 2010 film, about the litigious origins of the social media site. Strong was recently nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in &ldquo;The Apprentice.&rdquo; Madison won best actress earlier this year.

Entertainment

Film & TV

Aaron Sorkin will write and direct The Social Reckoning, a companion to The Social Network, starring Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg and Mikey Madison as whistleblower Frances Haugen. The Sony film releases October 2026.

Mikey Madison to play Facebook whistleblower in ‘Social Network’ follow-up

Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Meta Platforms launched its first consumer-ready smart glasses with an integrated display on Wednesday, building on the success of its popular Ray-Ban smart glasses in the AI era.&nbsp;&nbsp;The company&rsquo;s CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses along with a new wristband controller at Meta&rsquo;s Connect event, despite some technical difficulties during the demonstration.&nbsp;Zuckerberg highlighted the glasses as an ideal way to achieve &ldquo;personal superintelligence&rdquo; by enabling users to stay engaged with their surroundings while accessing AI tools that apparently improve communication, memory, and senses.&nbsp;&nbsp;The new glasses feature a small digital display on the right lens for simple tasks like notifications and will be priced at $799, available in stores starting September 30.&nbsp; <img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/c4d42edf-7c68-40a2-bf05-98acb744a011.png" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Meta Platforms launched its first consumer-ready smart glasses with an integrated display on Wednesday, building on the success of its popular Ray-Ban smart glasses in the AI era. (Meta.com)"> &nbsp;The package includes a wristband that converts hand gestures into commands such as replying to texts and calls.Meta also introduced Oakley-branded Vanguard glasses designed for athletes, priced at $499. These glasses integrate with fitness platforms and offer nine hours of battery life, with availability beginning October 21. The company also refreshed its Ray-Ban glasses without displays, enhancing battery life and camera quality, priced now at $379, up from $299.&nbsp;The glasses were unveiled at Meta&rsquo;s annual Connect conference in Menlo Park, California. Although Meta has been a pioneer in smart glasses technology, it still trails competitors like OpenAI and Google in releasing advanced AI systems.&nbsp;Zuckerberg has initiated efforts to recruit top engineers from competitors and pledged substantial investments in cutting-edge AI hardware.Although analysts don&rsquo;t expect strong initial sales for the Display model, it is seen as a step toward Meta&rsquo;s future &quot;Orion&quot; glasses scheduled for 2027, a prototype of which was shown last year.&nbsp;&nbsp;Industry experts compare the new glasses to Apple&rsquo;s launch of the smartwatch as a new wearable tech category, recognizing the potential of glasses as a practical, everyday device despite the need to convince consumers of their value.&nbsp;Meanwhile, Meta faces scrutiny over its handling of child safety issues on its social media platforms, including reported controversial interactions between chatbots and children, and concerns about virtual reality&rsquo;s impact on young users.&nbsp;

Meta launches AI-powered smart glasses with gesture control

Gadgets

The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses along with a new wristband controller at Meta’s Connect event, despite some technical difficulties.

Articles tagged with "Mark Zuckerberg"

Meta chief Zuckerberg doubles down on AI spending

Meta defends ads model in 550-mn-euro data protection trial

Mikey Madison to play Facebook whistleblower in ‘Social Network’ follow-up

Meta launches AI-powered smart glasses with gesture control