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Big Tech Boosts AI, Cuts Jobs

The US tech giants like Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are increasing their large language model (LLM) investments as a show of their dedication to utilizing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) while cutting costs and jobs.

Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022, these businesses have put their artificial intelligence AI models on steroids to compete in the market, CNBC reported on Friday.

All the recently released quarterly reports by these tech behemoths show their efforts to increase AI productivity in the face of growing economic worries.

A significant amount of data and processing power are needed for generative AI programs to replicate human-like outputs like text, code excerpts, and computer-generated graphics.

Tech titans and AI investments

During their respective earnings calls, the CEOs of Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta all discussed their plans and monetary investments for developing and deploying AI applications.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, acknowledged the demand to produce AI products and underlined the incorporation of generative AI developments to improve search skills.

Beyond search, Google uses AI to improve ad conversion rates and fend off “toxic text.” Pichai noted ties with Nvidia for strong processors as well as cooperation between the two main AI teams, Brain and DeepMind.

Microsoft’s Teams teleconferencing system, Office program, and Bing search engine all use OpenAI’s GPT technology.

Invoking Bing’s doubled downloads following the integration of a chatbot, CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that AI will drive revenue growth and increase app penetration. Microsoft’s expenditure on sizable data centers for AI applications will demand a sizeable sum of money.

Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, showed interest in generative AI, highlighting the recent developments that provide game-changing possibilities.

Amazon plans to use its resources as one of the few businesses capable of making the necessary infrastructure investments in developing its own LLMs and creating data center chips for machine learning, despite the fact that it primarily sells access to AI technology.

Jassy noted Amazon Web Services’ aspirations to create tools for developers and enhance user experiences, including Alexa.

Along with Meta’s emphasis on the metaverse, CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the value of AI. Zuckerberg emphasized the company’s shift toward generative foundation models and its use of machine learning for suggestions.

The AI initiatives from Meta will have an impact on a variety of products, including conversation features in Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as tools for creating images for Facebook and Instagram.

In addition, Zuckerberg discussed the company’s expenditures in enlarging data centers for AI infrastructure as well as the possibilities of AI agents, such as the automation of customer service.

AI booms as tech job cuts gloom

All the major tech companies like Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are making significant investments in massive language models and artificial intelligence to improve their products and user experiences.

According to the CNBC report, these tech behemoths are investing enormous resources to be on the cutting edge of this quickly developing industry because they see the revolutionary potential of AI.

While AI generated positive media coverage, the loss of tech jobs also caused heartbreak.

According to a Crunchbase News count, 136,569 employees at IT companies with US headquarters or with a sizable US workforce have been let go in a wave of layoffs as of 2023. In 2022, public and private tech enterprises in the US cut more than 93,000 jobs.

Meta is Developing a Decentralized Text-Based Social Network Integrated with Instagram

Meta, the parent company of social media giant Facebook, is reportedly working on its own decentralized text-based social network. According to recent reports, the network is already in development under several codenames such as P92, Project 92, and Barcelona. The new network will be integrated with Instagram, and users will be able to log in to the network using their Instagram handle, according to Moneycontrol, which first reported about the project in March.

The project will be spearheaded by Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s top executive, and the “Sharing product group” that supports reels and creator-focused tools. Per a recent report by The Information, this group will also support P92. Meta has already introduced more text-based features to the Instagram ecosystem in the last several months. In December, Instagram launched “Notes,” which lets users share short statuses in DMs. And in February, Instagram introduced “Broadcast Channels” where select users can send one-way DMs to followers.

In a recent prototype shared by Alessandro Paluzzi, an Italian mobile developer who reverse engineers Instagram code to reveal internal tests, it appears that Meta is using the tagline “Instagram for your thoughts” while it continues to develop P92. “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” a spokesperson for Meta told Insider in a statement when asked about the prototype. “We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”

Meta’s new network will, in theory, compete with Twitter as well as the barrage of Twitter replacements that have emerged on the market such as Mastodon and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky. However, the biggest challenge for this new product will be to try to offset some of the weaknesses that occurred with Twitter, which was the fact that engagement time was so limited. While P92 is reported to be a decentralized network, utilizing decentralized protocols like ActivityPub (the same as Mastodon), Meta has already dabbled in Web3 technology with its NFTs on Instagram and Facebook. Those initiatives didn’t last long — within a year of testing digital collectibles, Meta abandoned the efforts. Meta’s decentralized social network could very well face the same fate.

Despite these challenges, Meta could be in a good position to take on this space, said Daniel Morgan, a senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust. “It’s not hard for them to market something like this,” Morgan told Insider, pointing to Meta’s billions of users. “It’s a better idea than a lot of other things that have come out of Meta recently,” Morgan added. “It’s a great opportunity for them to fill that void with Twitter going through such a transition.”

Following Meta’s upbeat first-quarter earnings call on April 26, Morgan said that he sees a “fresh start” for Meta on the horizon — and P92 “is part of this new chapter.” “This could be another leg to the Meta story in terms of monetizing subscribers,” Morgan said. “They’re trying to monetize reels, that’s their next big leg. This new product — Barcelona, whatever you want to call it — there’s definitely an appetite for it.”

In conclusion, Meta’s new decentralized text-based social network integrated with Instagram is a promising opportunity for the company to expand its reach and fill the void created by Twitter’s recent transition. However, the success of this product will depend on whether it can overcome the engagement limitations of Twitter and sustain its decentralized protocols. Nonetheless, with billions of users at its disposal, Meta has the potential to create another success story with P92.

Mark Zuckerberg: Meta ‘No Longer Behind’ On AI, Aims To Develop ‘AI Agents’ For Billions.

Meta reported Monday its first quarter report for 2023, which showed $28.6 billion in revenue. In its statement, the company also announced that Facebook broke its record of daily active users, which stood at 2.04 billion on average for March 2023, an increase of 4% year-over-year.

Happy news for the tech behemoth, this comes after the company incurred massive losses in its Metaverse investments. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors in an earnings call yesterday that he won’t dump the company’s Metaverse plans to make a pivot into the artificial intelligence (AI) space but that he sees both of them working in tandem.

Stating that the company’s focus will be on expanding its initiatives in AI, Meta is expecting that its capital expenditure will be in the range of $30-33 billion in the second quarter of 2023. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “We are no longer behind in building our AI infrastructure.”

Meta’s quarterly profit decreased 24% from last year

The company also launched its very own artificial intelligence (AI) language model called Large Language Model Meta AI (LLaMA) in February.

In an earnings call with the investors, Zuckerberg further said, “We’re exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visual creation tools for posts in Facebook and Instagram and ads, and over time video and multi-modal experiences as well.

I expect that these tools will be valuable for everyone, from regular people to creators to businesses. For example, I expect that a lot of interest in AI agents for business messaging and customer support will come once we nail that experience. Over time, this will extend to our work on the Metaverse, too, where people will much more easily be able to create avatars, objects, worlds, and code to tie all of them together.”

This comes after the company laid off over 10,000 employees in a bid to “pursue greater efficiency and to realign our business and strategic priorities.”

Meta conducted three rounds of layoffs, across all its companies and apps, in a span of five months. The company will be spending $1 billion in severance packages and other costs, of which $523 million have been realized in the first quarter of 2023.

“We had a good quarter, and our community continues to grow,” said Zuckerberg. “Our AI work is driving good results across our apps and business. We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long-term vision.”

Meta’s Third Round Of Layoffs Targets Technical Roles

Roughly a month after announcing plans to eliminate approximately 10,000 jobs, Meta has begun to scale back its staffing levels.

On April 19, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp confirmed to multiple news outlets, including CNN, that layoffs have begun.

While it remains unclear how many employees are affected, members of the tech giant’s sustainability, well-being, user experience, news feed, and messaging teams, shared on social media that they had been let go.

“I woke up this morning to the unfortunate news that I was one of the many laid-off from Meta today,” Teresa Jimenez, a business program manager at Facebook, wrote on Linkedin.

“While I am certainly disappointed, I’m also feeling extremely grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside some of the most talented individuals for almost three years!”

The latest round of job cuts comes just months after the company laid off more than 11,000 workers in November. According to reports, Meta employed a global workforce of approximately 86,000 people at the end of 2022.

Impact on Canadian staff

Meta didn’t disclose how many Canadian employees are affected by the latest round of cuts. During the tech giant’s mass layoff in November, several staff members shared on social media that they had been let go. According to LinkedIn, the company has more than 1,000 workers in Canada.

Major tech layoffs continue

The latest reduction at Meta comes after several major North American tech companies announced sweeping layoffs in 2023. Big names, including Amazon, Kyndryl, Alphabet, Dell, Clearco, Hootsuite, and Microsoft, are significantly scaling back their staffing levels as they continue to navigate challenging economic conditions.

Termination agreements for Meta employees

In Canada, non-unionized employees at Meta are owed full severance pay when they lose their jobs due to downsizing or corporate restructuring. This includes individuals working full-time, part-time, or hourly in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. Severance can be as much as 24 months’ pay, depending on a number of factors.

Facebook Likely Owes You Money And This is How You Can Check If You’re Eligible

Thousands of Facebook users could be eligible for a cut of a $725 million class action lawsuit settlement. Here’s how to see if you’re due a payout from Meta.

If you’re a millennial, you probably used Facebook between 24 May, 2007, and 22 December, 2022 – right?

If so, Facebook likely owes you some cash. But be prepared to submit a claim to get your hands on this free money.

Recently, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, agreed to settle a long-contested class action lawsuit regarding personal data privacy on the social media platform.

In 2018 it was revealed that Meta had ‘improperly shared users’ information with Cambridge Analytica’.

In the heavily-documented trial, it was also concluded that Meta failed to ‘sufficiently monitor’ data access rules.

While Meta didn’t quite admit to its wrongdoing, the company instead agreed that a $725 million settlement was the ‘best’ way to navigate the heavy charges.

Around 250-280 million Facebook users could be eligible for money. Credit: The Bold Bureau / Alamy Stock Photo

Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby Luce said a settlement was ‘in the best interest of [Meta’s] community and shareholders’.

Now that the settlement has been confirmed, it’s thought that around 250-280 million Facebook users will be eligible to receive a payment from Meta.

So – how do you get free cash from the settlement?

First, head to the portal to submit claims and submit yours before 25 August, 2023.

On the form, you will need to fill out a couple of questions about Facebook accounts, and also confirm you logged onto the site between 24, May, 2007, and 22, December, 2022.

Meta will pay out $725 million to Facebook users. Credit: Meta.

The deadline to opt out of the settlement and retain the rights to sue Facebook separately is 26 July, 2023.

So if you change your mind and want to go at it alone, there’s still time to delete your claim.

After submitting, your eligibility will be evaluated. If you’re successful, then the payout you receive will be depended on two things – the number of claims submitted and Facebook account longevity.

Essentially, the more people that submit a claim the less money there is to go around. Unfortunately, putting your Facebook claim in early will not allow you to procure more funds.

Users must submit a claim by 25 August, 2023. Credit: mundissima / Alamy Stock Photo

Secondly, if you’ve had your Facebook account for a long time, you’re likely to receive more money.

The settlement is due to distribute ‘points’ for every month a claimant has had an active Facebook account.

So, if you’ve been on the social media site since 24 May, 2007, you’ll potentially receive a hefty load of points.

According to SF Gate, these points will help split the money between claimants.

One last thing – you have to be a US citizen to claim a slice of the $725 million class action law settlement.

Users from countries such as the UK are apparently not eligible for payment as they have not been damaged by the data leak.

What do we lose if the metaverse fails?

The concept of the metaverse has been around for a while now, but it was Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement last year that brought it to the forefront of public consciousness. With the rebranding of Facebook as Meta, it became clear that the company had big plans for the metaverse, and the rest of the world took notice.

Initially, the interest in the metaverse was intense. Companies across all sectors were eager to invest in this new world and give us a glimpse of what they had in store. From fashion labels to tech giants, everyone wanted to be a part of the metaverse.

However, as time has gone on, the hype around the metaverse has died down somewhat. Many questions remain about what the metaverse will look like, how it will function, and who will be the ones to build it. And while it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new world, it’s important to consider what we stand to lose if the metaverse fails to live up to expectations.

One of the biggest potential losses if the metaverse fails is the opportunity for a more immersive and inclusive online experience. With the metaverse, there is the potential for a world that is more than just a collection of websites and social media platforms. Instead, it could be a fully realized digital world where users can interact with each other and with digital objects in real-time. If the metaverse fails to deliver on this promise, we will miss out on the chance to create a more dynamic and engaging online experience.

Another potential loss if the metaverse fails is the chance to redefine the way we work and socialize. As more and more people work remotely, the metaverse could offer a way for people to connect and collaborate in ways that are more engaging and productive than traditional video conferencing tools. Similarly, the metaverse could offer a way for people to socialize and connect in a way that goes beyond the limitations of current social media platforms. If the metaverse fails, we will miss out on the opportunity to create a new way of working and socializing that could be more fulfilling and effective than what we have now.

Finally, if the metaverse fails, we will miss out on the economic opportunities that it could bring. The metaverse has the potential to create an entirely new economy based on digital goods and services. From virtual real estate to digital clothing, there are countless opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to create value in this new world. If the metaverse fails to materialize, we will miss out on the chance to participate in this new economy and create new jobs and industries.

In conclusion, the metaverse represents a tantalizing vision of a new digital world, but there are still many questions about what it will look like and how it will function. However, if the metaverse fails to live up to its promise, we will miss out on the chance to create a more immersive, inclusive, and dynamic online experience, to redefine the way we work and socialize, and to participate in a new digital economy. As such, it’s important that we continue to explore and invest in the metaverse, even as we acknowledge the risks and uncertainties that come with any new frontier.

Meta unveils image-analyzing Al

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has recently introduced a new AI model named “Segment Anything,” which has the ability to identify objects within images. The main objective of this initiative is to advance research in segmentation and offer more general image and video understanding. Segmentation is a crucial technique that allows the identification of pixels in an image that belong to a specific object.

Meta believes that their initiative will democratize segmentation and make it more accessible to various applications such as analyzing scientific imagery and editing photos. With this new AI model, Meta aims to expand the possibilities of image and video processing, and accelerate research in the field of computer vision.

Today we're releasing the Segment Anything Model (SAM) — a step toward the first foundation model for image segmentation.

SAM is capable of one-click segmentation of any object from any photo or video + zero-shot transfer to other segmentation tasks ➡️ https://t.co/qYUoePrWVi pic.twitter.com/zX4Rxb5Yfo
— Meta AI (@MetaAI) April 5, 2023

Meta has recently launched a new project that is set to revolutionize the computer vision space. Usually, it requires technical expertise and access to AI-trained infrastructure to create an accurate segmentation model for specific tasks. However, under the new project, Meta has released its general Segment Anything Model (SAM) and its Segment Anything 1-Billion mask dataset (SA-1B), which aim to enable a broad set of applications and foster further research into foundation models for computer vision.

SAM covers a broad set of uses and can be even used for underwater photos. It can improve creative applications such as extracting image parts for collages or video editing. It could also be used to boost scientific studies of natural occurrences on earth or even in space. The SA-1B dataset is available for research purposes, and SAM is available under a permissive open-license framework.

Meta’s goal was to build a foundation model for image segmentation that is promptable, trained on diverse data, and can adapt to specific tasks, much like how prompting is used in natural language processing models. However, the segmentation data needed to train such a model is not readily available online or elsewhere, unlike images, videos, and text.

To solve this problem, Meta developed a general, promptable segmentation model and used it to create a segmentation dataset of unprecedented scale. The SA-1B dataset is the largest to date, containing more than 1.1 billion segmentation masks collected on about 11 million licensed and privacy-preserving images.

Earlier, there were two classes of approaches to solve any segmentation problem: interactive segmentation that required a person to guide the method, and automatic segmentation that needed substantial amounts of manually annotated objects to train. “Neither approach provided a general, fully automatic approach to segmentation,” Meta said.

Meta collected the SA-1B data using SAM. “Annotators used SAM to interactively annotate images, and then the newly annotated data was used to update SAM in turn. We repeated this cycle many times to iteratively improve both the model and dataset.”

Meta’s new project is expected to have a profound impact on computer vision, enabling a broad set of applications and further research into foundation models for computer vision. Meta believes the possibilities are broad, and they are excited by the many potential use cases they haven’t even imagined yet.

Al Images Showing Mark Zuckerberg Walking The Ramp Take Internet By Storm

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is generally seen in a regular attire of t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers; it’s a little different to see him wearing a designer Louis Vuitton outfit and also walking on the ramp. But the artificial technology has made it possible, causing a lot of confusion among internet users because the images appear very real.

It would be challenging to distinguish the fake images produced by AI from real ones since they are so uncannily realistic. Zuckerberg can be seen maintaining the flawless expression that models frequently sport during the rampwalk.

It’s not the first time artificial intelligence (AI) images have swept the internet. Many of the expert artists who have employed this technology have produced sometimes unimaginable images.

Meta Launches Tools to Segregate Ads from Harmful Content

Meta Platforms Inc said on Thursday it is now rolling out a long-promised system for advertisers to determine where their ads are shown, responding to their demands to distance their marketing from controversial posts on Facebook and Instagram.

The system offers advertisers three risk levels they can select for their ad placements, with the most conservative option excluding placements above or below posts with sensitive content like weapons depictions, sexual innuendo and political debates.

Meta also will provide a report via advertising measurement firm Zefr showing Facebook advertisers the precise content that appeared near their ads and how it was categorized.

Marketers have long advocated for greater control over where their ads appear online, complaining that big social media companies do too little to prevent ads from showing alongside hate speech, fake news and other offensive content.

The issue came to a head in July 2020, when thousands of brands joined a boycott of Facebook amid anti-racism protests in the United States.

Under a deal brokered several months later, the company, now called Meta, agreed to develop tools to “better manage advertising adjacency,” among other concessions.

Samantha Stetson, Meta’s vice president for Client Council and Industry Trade Relations, said she expected Meta to introduce more granular controls over time so advertisers could specify their preferences around different social issues.

Stetson also said early tests showed no significant change in performance or price for ads placed using more restrictive settings, adding that those involved in the tests were “pleasantly surprised.”

However, she cautioned that the pricing dynamic could change, given the auction-based nature of Meta’s ads system and the reduction in inventory associated with any restrictions.

The controls will be available initially in English- and Spanish-speaking markets, with plans to expand them to other regions – and to the company’s Reels, Stories and video ad formats – later this year.