Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Employees at Meta Platforms may soon feel like they’re spilling TMI to their employer’s MCI. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp is installing new software—reportedly dubbed Model Capability Initiative (MCI)—on its employees’ computers and workstations that will, among other things, track and capture mouse movements and keystrokes in an effort to train AI models, Reuters first reported on Tuesday. It’s all part of a broader effort to develop autonomous AI agents that can perform specific work tasks. A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company was, indeed, pushing forward with the measure. “If we’re building agents to help people com…

Soon, all businesses will be able to use Meta’s AI to power live, 24/7 customer service that can interact with customers on behalf of businesses on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Meta announced advancements in business AI—including the customer service AI agent that will make purchases and can respond to voice prompts from a user—at a conference Tuesday morning. “We are at an amazing and historic moment,” said Clara Shih, the VP of Business AI at Meta. “We are on the cusp of AI being in the hands of every consumer and every business.” Over 600 million conversations between a person and a business occur in a day on all of Meta’s social platforms. With its n…

Meta announced to employees on Thursday that the company is laying off around 10% of the company on May 20—about 8,000 employees out of its workforce of more than 78,000 will be impacted, Bloomberg first reported. The company will also close 6,000 open roles it planned to fill, according to a memo that was sent to staffers today from Meta’s chief people officer, Janella Gale. In the memo, obtained by Business Insider, Gale attributed the cuts to Meta’s “continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.” The memo did not specify what those “other investments” are, but it’s public knowledge that …

Meta has prevailed over an existential challenge to its business that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly in social networking. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued his ruling Tuesday after the historic antitrust trial wrapped up in late May. His decision follows two separate rulings that branded Google an illegal monopoly in both search and online advertising, dealing yet another regulatory blow to the tech industry that for years enjoyed nearly unbridled growth. The Federal Trade Commission “continues to insist that Meta competes with the same old rivals it has for…

Everyone has a favorite moment from Super Bowl LIX. Eagles fans likely will long cherish the decisive victory over the Chiefs. Some will discuss Kendrick Lamar’s game-changing halftime show. Me? I was happy to see Puppy Monkey Baby again. The former Mountain Dew mascot, which made its disturbing debut in 2016 and was widely hated by pretty much everyone, was part of DoorDash’s 2025 Super Bowl commercial, a spot that crammed in more corporate mascots than anyone thought possible. For some reason, that stirred some nostalgic feelings in me and I took to Facebook to post “I, for one, am THRILLED to see the return of Puppy Monkey Baby!!!” That’s when things got weird. …

Since ChatGPT sparked the generative AI revolution in November 2022, interacting with AI has felt like using a digital confession booth—private, intimate, and shielded from public view (unless you choose to share). That’s about to change dramatically with Meta’s rollout of social features in its stand-alone AI app, released last week. Those quiet queries—“What’s this embarrassing rash?” or “How can I tell my wife I don’t love her anymore?”—could soon be visible to anyone scrolling through the app’s Discover tab. If society is still grappling with how to navigate artificial intelligence, Meta’s changes risk throwing even more confusion into the mix. For tech-savvy …

Meta Platforms has been spending too aggressively on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and that will affect the tech giant’s profitability, according to a new investor note from Wall Street analyst firm MoffettNathanson. The note, published on Tuesday, points out that Meta’s stock price (Nasdaq: META) has fallen almost 20% over the past month or so, exacerbated by its most recent earnings results, which were released on October 29. MoffettNathanson has been a staunch defender of the Facebook and Instagram parent company, even when its shares have dipped in the past. But on Tuesday, analysts at the firm wrote, “we were obviously too complacent in our inv…

In a rural corner of Louisiana, Meta is building one of the world’s largest data centers, a $10 billion behemoth as big as 70 football fields that will consume more power in a day than the entire city of New Orleans at the peak of summer. While the colossal project is impossible to miss in Richland Parish, a farming community of 20,000 residents, not everything is visible, including how much the social media giant will pay toward the more than $3 billion in new electricity infrastructure needed to power the facility. Watchdogs have warned that in the rush to capitalize on the AI-driven data center boom, some states are allowing massive tech companies to direct exp…

Meta is making font design as easy as writing a prompt with its newest AI tool. On March 27, the company rolled out new features within its stand-alone Edits app for editing photos and short-form video, including “AI Style” for fonts, which lets users customize text themselves. It’s like a modern-day version of the classic WordArt style in Microsoft Word, but with AI text prompts. The feature is a bit tucked away within the “Styles” tab, but users can find it when editing text by tapping the “Restyle” icon between the icons to write and choose a font. A list of suggested prompts shows what’s possible. The loading screen shows an animated plus-sign pattern. Sug…

Forget magical virtual worlds. In its quest to broaden the audience for virtual reality, Meta is now embracing much more familiar surroundings: Owners of Meta’s Quest VR headsets will soon be able to create digital replicas of any room in their house, and then invite others to “visit” them in those spaces. Imagine, for instance, having a spontaneous family reunion in a metaverse version of your living room – perhaps even with an avatar that looks just like you, and not a character that has escaped from a video game. “There is something very magical about scanning a space that you know, bringing someone else who knows that space into it and feeling like you’re there toget…

It’s game time for Meta’s wearables: The tech giant has bought two ad spots for its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast, including one that has Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt wreaking havoc on Kris Jenner’s art collection. The star-studded spot is part of a bigger push to bring AI-powered wearables to the masses. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the company had sold more than one million of its high-tech Ray-Bans in 2024, and hinted at plans to sell many more in the near future. “This will be a defining year that determines if we’re on a path towards many hundreds of millions and eventually billions of AI glasses,” he told investor…

For women reading this article, how old were you when you received your first sexual advance from a man? For men reading, ask any woman you know. Better yet, ask several of them. I bet their answers turn your stomach. In late September, The Guardian reported that Meta used back-to-school photos of teenage girls to advertise the Threads app to fully grown men. Girls as young as 13. These photos were posted by regular moms on Facebook and Instagram, some of whom had their profiles set to private. The photos of girls in their school uniforms appeared in-feed as advertisements resembling organic “suggested” threads posts, or were outright cross-posted without cons…

Thirteen months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Metro Mattress Corp. is set to become the latest brick-and-mortar chain to wind down operations in 2025. The New York-based bedding retailer has disclosed in a court filing that it plans to shutter its remaining stores after some 21 attempts to find a buyer or strategic partner that would have allowed it to continue. Headquartered in Syracuse, Metro Mattress had 70 locations across New York and four New England states when it sought Chapter 11 protection in September 2024. At the time, it said it planned to close roughly two dozen of those stores and refocus its efforts specifically on its New York…

Oscar-winning actors Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey have made deals with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs that will allow its artificial intelligence technology to replicate their voices. Caine said in a statement that ElevenLabs is “using innovation not to replace humanity, but to celebrate it.” “It’s not about replacing voices; it’s about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere,” said the 92-year-old British actor in a written statement. McConaughey also said he is investing in the New York-based startup and has had a relationship with it for several years. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. McConaughey said the de…

Michael Jordan is widely recognized as one of the best basketball players to ever live. In a recent interview, Jordan revealed one of the secrets to his success: His love of the game. Jordan says he loved the game so much that he made sure to have a special clause included in his contract when playing with the Chicago Bulls, one which he’s “positive” players today don’t have: the “love of the game” clause. “If I was driving with you down the street, and I see a basketball game on the side of the road, I can go play in that basketball game,” Jordan told NBC’s Mike Tirico. “And if I get hurt, my contract is still guaranteed.” Jordan went on to explain that c…

Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, will host a new weekly podcast series starting this month featuring a special guest pulled from the world of entertainment, sports, health and business. “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson” will address “everyday questions shaping our lives, relationships and the world around us,” according to a press release. IMO is slang for “in my opinion.” Some of the guests slated to speak to the former first lady and Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, include the actors Issa Rae and Keke Palmer and psychologist Dr. Orna Guralnik. Other guests include filmmakers Seth…

We often celebrate courage in its most dramatic forms: the whistleblower who risks everything, the bold innovator who disrupts an industry, or the leader who stands alone in a moment of crisis. These stories inspire us—but they can also feel out of reach. Most of us don’t face life-or-death decisions on a daily basis. Yet, every day we encounter moments that call for a different kind of courage: the courage to speak up, to question the status quo, to lead with vulnerability. This is what I call “micro-bravery”—the small, everyday acts of courage that often go unnoticed, but collectively shape the culture of an organization. While grand gestures of bravery grab h…

Thanks for the memory? The stock prices of Micron Technology Inc (Nasdaq: MU) and SanDisk Corp (Nasdaq: SNDK), two of the top publicly traded memory chip storage companies, are taking a beating this week, halting a stunning rally that began late last year. As of Thursday morning before the market opened, Micron shares were down almost 10% over the past five days, and down 3.5% overnight. SanDisk shares were down more than 4% over the previous five days, and down 4.4% overnight. The broader market, on the other hand, has been flat, with the S&P 500 up barely 0.1% over the previous five days. AI-fueled RAM memory shortage The declines are a rever…

The prices of memory chip stocks are once again on the rise as a global shortage in random access memory (RAM) continues. Over the past five days alone, the share prices of the four largest memory makers traded on U.S. markets have risen significantly. And today, those same stocks are off to another good start. Here’s what you need to know. Why is there a memory shortage? Since the latter half of 2025, analysts and industry insiders have warned of a looming memory chip shortage coming in 2026—and it’s one of the few tech predictions that have been right. This year, the world is in a full-blown memory crisis. There isn’t enough computer memory to go around…