Should we be worried about Instagram’s map feature? August 20, 2025 Instagram’s new location-sharing feature, dubbed ‘Instagram Map’, has been rolled out to 170m users, but a journey through the platform reveals a perplexing reality: it’s a digital ghost town. While Instagram’s parent, Meta, has billed the feature as a “new, light way to connect”, many users are finding themselves alone on the map, prompting a [...]
Brits call for VPN ban for minors to curb Online Safety Act loopholes August 20, 2025 A majority of Britons believe children under 18 should be banned from using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) following a recent surge, a survey has found. Research from YouGov found that 55 per cent of the public supports a ban for minors, while only 20 per cent think they should be allowed to use them. This [...]
Meta and Microsoft face AI earnings test July 30, 2025 Meta, the owner of Facebook, and Microsoft will post second-quarter earnings after US markets close today (Wednesday 30 July) with analysts focused squarely on how both tech titans are monetising their multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) bets. Shares in both firms have surged around 20 per cent so far this year, fuelled by investor enthusiasm around [...]
Meta: Zuckerberg’s open source gamble collides with EU regulation July 20, 2025 Meta has refused to sign the European Commission’s new AI Code of Practice, escalating tensions with Brussels just weeks before landmark regulation kicks in. The voluntary guidelines – designed to help tech giants prepare for the EU’s sweeping AI Act – were rejected outright by Meta’s global affairs chief Joel Kaplan, who warned they introduced [...]
Meta’s Llama: the strategic play behind the promise to democratise AI July 15, 2025 Meta has long promised to democratise AI, with Mark Zuckerberg frequently doubling down on his vision to make it “open and accessible” so that “everyone in the world benefits”. Yet instead, it’s been executing one of the most strategic power plays in Silicon Valley – wrapping its race for AI supremacy in the language of [...]
Meta-backed fellowship puts open source in the firing line July 11, 2025 The UK government has launched a $1 million open source AI fellowship funded by Meta through the Alan Turing Institute, inviting the nation’s top AI engineers to spend 12 months building public-sector AI tools. The scheme focuses on open-source AI models like Meta’s Llama 4 to create applications for everything from speeding up planning approvals [...]
MPs slam Online Safety Act as ‘not up to scratch’ July 11, 2025 The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) is failing to protect the public from the spread of harmful misinformation and must be urgently overhauled, MPs have warned in a damning new report. In findings published Tuesday, Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC) said the OSA – which began to take effect earlier this year – [...]
Peter Kyle hits back at claims Labour is too close to Big Tech July 9, 2025 Tech secretary Peter Kyle has hit back at criticism that the Labour government is cosying up to Big Tech, insisting he’s “doing the job” by securing the best deals for Britain. Speaking at a Google Cloud event in London on Tuesday, Kyle addressed recent reports flagging the number of meetings he’s had with US tech [...]
Meta launches UK hub for AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses July 9, 2025 Meta has opened a new £12m audio research lab in Cambridge, aimed at improving the sound capabilities of its AR and AI glasses, including the Ray-Ban Meta and the newly announced Oakley Meta. The move strengthens Meta’s focus on wearable technology that responds intelligently to users’ surroundings. The lab is built to simulate a wide [...]
Meta nabs Apple AI chief – a win for Zuckerberg or a sign of Apple’s weakness? July 8, 2025 Meta has reportedly secured another coup in the escalating race for AI dominance, poaching Apple’s head of AI models, Rooming Pang, in a deal said to be worth tens of millions of dollar a year. While Pang’s defection might be viewed as a clear win for Mark Zuckerberg’s much-hyped ‘super intelligence’ project, it also casts [...]