2026-03-10
Dying to know how much they paid for this
Axios
Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook for an undisclosed sum; its creators, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, will join Meta Superintelligence Labs
Meta has acquired Moltbook, a viral social network designed for AI agents, Axios has learned. … - Meta did not disclose Moltbook's purchase price.
2026-03-02
New details on the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic; how the negotiations broke down, and a particular sticking point on AI in the cloud vs inside of edge systems. by @rossandersen.bsky.social / tip @techmeme.com
The Verge
Sources: OpenAI agreed to follow US laws that have allowed for mass surveillance in the past, and the DOD didn't budge from its demands over bulk analyzing data
On Friday evening, amidst fallout from a standoff between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced …
New details on the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic; how the negotiations broke down, and a particular sticking point on AI in the cloud vs inside of edge systems. by @rossandersen.bsky.social / tip @techmeme.com
The Atlantic
A source describes the failed Pentagon-Anthropic talks: through the end, the Pentagon wanted to use Anthropic's AI to analyze bulk data collected from Americans
Right up until the moment that Pete Hegseth moved to terminate the government's relationship with the AI company Anthropic …
2026-03-01
New details on the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic; how the negotiations broke down, and a particular sticking point on AI in the cloud vs inside of edge systems. by @rossandersen.bsky.social / tip @techmeme.com
Wall Street Journal
Sources: the Pentagon used Claude in its major air attack in Iran, hours after Trump declared that the federal government will end its use of Anthropic's tools
Within hours of declaring that the federal government will end its use of artificial-intelligence tools made by tech company Anthropic …
New details on the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic; how the negotiations broke down, and a particular sticking point on AI in the cloud vs inside of edge systems. by @rossandersen.bsky.social / tip @techmeme.com
The Atlantic
Source describes the failed Pentagon-Anthropic talks: through the end, the Pentagon wanted to use Anthropic's AI to analyze bulk data collected about Americans
Right up until the moment that Pete Hegseth moved to terminate the government's relationship with the AI company Anthropic …
2026-02-28
In a different situation, internal chats between company spokespeople showed disbelief at how Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri worried about a potential “growth hit” that would come from making accounts belonging to minors private by default. “Is he fucking nuts?” [image]
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
Meta knew what the risk was. In 2019, an internal analysis showed that 27% of the account recommendations made to people engaging in “groomer-esque” behavior belonged to minors—"We are recommending nearly 4X as many minors to groomers (nearly 2 million minors in the last 3 months)" an employee wrote [image]
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
What might this growth hit have been in material terms? One company analysis showed that teens might spend 1.9% less time on the platform by the end of a five-year period if their accounts were made private—and thereby shielded from predators—by default. The growth team advised against the change. …
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
In November 2020, certain safeguards that were in place at the time temporarily failed, leading to “thousands of minors” reporting severe interactions, which could include “extortion, sadism, and sex trafficking” — “We haven't done anything” one employee wrote. “God knows what happened to those kids” [images]
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
NEW: Documents viewed by @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @kait.bsky.social give a candid look at how Meta approaches the issue of child safety. For years, it dragged its feet on features that would help prevent groomers from targeting kids, explicitly prioritizing growth and engagement instead.
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
2026-02-27
In a different situation, internal chats between company spokespeople showed disbelief at how Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri worried about a potential “growth hit” that would come from making accounts belonging to minors private by default. “Is he fucking nuts?” [image]
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes.
NEW: Documents viewed by @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @kait.bsky.social give a candid look at how Meta approaches the issue of child safety. For years, it dragged its feet on features that would help prevent groomers from targeting kids, explicitly prioritizing growth and engagement instead.
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes.
In November 2020, certain safeguards that were in place at the time temporarily failed, leading to “thousands of minors” reporting severe interactions, which could include “extortion, sadism, and sex trafficking” — “We haven't done anything” one employee wrote. “God knows what happened to those kids” [images]
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes.
What might this growth hit have been in material terms? One company analysis showed that teens might spend 1.9% less time on the platform by the end of a five-year period if their accounts were made private—and thereby shielded from predators—by default. The growth team advised against the change. …
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes.
Meta knew what the risk was. In 2019, an internal analysis showed that 27% of the account recommendations made to people engaging in “groomer-esque” behavior belonged to minors—"We are recommending nearly 4X as many minors to groomers (nearly 2 million minors in the last 3 months)" an employee wrote [image]
The Atlantic
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals
For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes.
2026-02-25
The continuance of a pattern we've seen many times before www.pewresearch.org/internet/ 202... [image]
Pew Research Center
A survey of US teens: 57% use AI chatbots to search for info, 54% use them to do schoolwork, 47% for fun or entertainment, 12% for emotional support, and more
Just over half of U.S. teens say they have used chatbots for help with schoolwork, and 12% say they've gotten emotional support.
2026-02-14
Egregiously cynical, even by the low standards of this company: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.” But I've had no doubt that such a feature is inevitable.
New York Times
Memo: Meta considered adding facial recognition to its smart glasses during a “dynamic political environment” in the US when civil society groups are distracted
In an internal memo last year, Meta said the political tumult in the United States would distract critics from the feature's release.
2026-02-13
Egregiously cynical, even by the low standards of this company: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.” But I've had no doubt that such a feature is inevitable.
New York Times
Memo: Meta considered adding facial recognition to its smart glasses during a “dynamic political environment” in the US when civil society groups are distracted
In an internal memo last year, Meta said the political tumult in the United States would distract critics from the feature's release.
2026-01-11
Big new piece: @alexreisner.bsky.social presents the most compelling evidence yet that generative AI directly stores and reproduces training material—it does not “learn,” not really. This could have substantial legal consequences for the tech industry.
The Atlantic
Researchers say GPT 4.1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Grok 3 can reproduce long excerpts from books they were trained on when strategically prompted
On tuesday, researchers at Stanford and Yale revealed something that AI companies would prefer to keep hidden.
2026-01-10
Big new piece: @alexreisner.bsky.social presents the most compelling evidence yet that generative AI directly stores and reproduces training material—it does not “learn,” not really. This could have substantial legal consequences for the tech industry.
The Atlantic
Researchers say GPT 4.1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Grok 3 can reproduce long excerpts from books they were trained on when strategically prompted
On tuesday, researchers at Stanford and Yale revealed something that AI companies would prefer to keep hidden.