Meta Connect 2024: Orion glasses, Quest 3S headset, Meta AI upgrades, Ray-Ban Meta real-time video and more

Meta Connect 2024: Orion glasses, Quest 3S headset, Meta AI upgrades, Ray-Ban Meta real-time video and more

Meta Connect 2024 is starting soon, and with it comes the expectation of reveals and updates to Meta’s latest AI model and metaverse ambitions. The developer-centric event will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during which he will likely showcase new hardware and software to support two of Meta’s big ambitions: AI and the … Read more

Meta developed a ‘neural interface’ for its next-gen AR glasses

Meta developed a ‘neural interface’ for its next-gen AR glasses

At its Meta Connect 2024 conference, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company’s developing a “neural interface” that can be used to control its prototypical Orion AR glasses. The interface, which seems inspired by devices developed by CTRL-Labs, a brain-machine interface startup Meta acquired in 2019, takes the form of a wrist-worn wearable. Wearers … Read more

Meta teases Orion, ‘the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen’

Meta teases Orion, ‘the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen’

At Wednesday’s Meta Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced what he described as Meta teases Orion, ‘the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.’ The glasses, which are notably significantly smaller than Snap’s recently announced Spectacles 5, are true AR. Orion utilize tiny projects built into the glasses temples to create a heads-up display … Read more

Early sign-ups to EU’s AI Pact include Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI — but Apple and Meta are missing

Early sign-ups to EU’s AI Pact include Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI — but Apple and Meta are missing

The European Commission has revealed a list of the first 100-plus signatories to the AI Pact — an initiative focused on getting companies to publish “voluntary pledges” on how they approach and deploy artificial intelligence. While the bloc’s legally binding risk-based AI rulebook (the AI Act) entered into force last month, it will be several … Read more

Meta acquires the Threads.com domain name

Meta acquires the Threads.com domain name

Meta has acquired the Threads.com domain name, according to Whois records of the URL that were updated on September 24. Users on domain-related forums pointed out this transfer, and TechCrunch confirmed the Whois records of Threads.com separately, which list Meta’s Instagram as the registrant. TechCrunch reached out to Meta to understand if it plans to … Read more

Audible experiments with new AI features for tailored audiobook recommendations

Audible experiments with new AI features for tailored audiobook recommendations

Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook service, continues to experiment with AI to improve audiobook discovery and offer customized recommendations. Recent tests involve AI-powered tags, which analyze customer feedback to offer tailored suggestions according to individual preferences, and topic pages that recommend tags to help you find closely related subjects. The experiments are only available to 50% … Read more

Tomasz Tunguz’s Theory Ventures bets $12M on Initia, the ‘iOS for web3’

Tomasz Tunguz’s Theory Ventures bets M on Initia, the ‘iOS for web3’

The promise of blockchain to change the world hasn’t materialized. For the most part, the technology has instead enabled people to speculate on a new asset class. A big hurdle to realizing blockchain’s full potential, web3 proponents argue, is that decentralized services are incredibly hard to build. Tomasz Tunguz, best known for his popular startup … Read more