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It was April last year when a furious Mark Zuckerberg realized he'd had enough.
asserted
he → sign → enough
Meta, the tech titan he grew out of the success of Facebook and Instagram, had been scrambling to create an artificial intelligence model that could catch up with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
uncertain
that → grow → ChatGPT
But its latest offering, Llama 4, which had just been released with great fanfare, immediately fell flat with developers.
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which → release → developers
Their damning appraisals of its speed and efficiency seemed to signal Meta was out of the race.
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Meta → seem → race
Zuckerberg realized things needed to change – and fast.
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things → realize → ?
'Mark was really upset and basically lost confidence in everyone who was involved,' Yann LeCun, one of Meta's top AI gurus at the time, told The Financial Times.
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LeCun → upset → Times
It was a watershed moment and prompted a rattled Zuckerberg to throw everything at turning things around.
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It → prompt → things
He went into what he described to some as 'founder mode,' moving his desk to be closer to a reshuffled team.
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he → go → team
The company bought a $14.3 billion stake in Scale AI, effectively poaching founder Alexandr Wang to become one of his key lieutenants.
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company → buy → lieutenants
Reports of $100 million sign-on bonuses swirled as Zuckerberg sought to snag the brightest minds from competitors.
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Zuckerberg → sign → competitors
The ruthless overhaul seems to at last be yielding results.
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overhaul → seem → results
This month Meta launched Muse, an action-orientated personal agent that can purchase items for customers and book things like travel.
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that → launch → travel
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta launched Muse AI in September to great success, but some have concerns about privacy and data security
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some → launch → privacy
Muse acts as a personal agent, and can book flights and order groceries.
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Muse → act → groceries
It can gain access to text messages, emails, and passwords with user permission
It quickly became the number one app in Apple's App Store, with 2.5 million downloads and has sent Meta's stock price skyrocketing.
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price → gain → downloads
The Facebook founder has explained how he wanted to create a product that made connecting with other people easier and less time-consuming.
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connecting → explain → people
Zuckerberg brought up the example of his youngest daughter, Aurelia, who likes to bake.
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who → bring → daughter
He set up his Muse agent to send him ingredients via Instacart for a recipe to make with her every Sunday, he told Alex Heath on a podcast this month.
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he → set → podcast
'When I'm using my Muse agent, I want it to help me be a better father, a better husband, and show up better for my friends, and be able to help me connect with people,' Zuckerberg told Heath.
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Zuckerberg → use → Heath
But with the hype came renewed scrutiny.
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scrutiny → come → hype
Critics pointed to data and privacy concerns because the agent becomes more useful if a user lets it have access to personal data like text messages, emails and passwords.
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it → point → messages
Wang, Meta's AI chief, said in an interview ahead of the product's launch that the company was mindful of the risk that the agent could leak personal information or delete important emails, according to the WSJ.
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agent → say → WSJ
A Meta spokesperson told the Daily Mail that users are asked permission before the agent is allowed access to information.
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agent → tell → information
Meta hired Alexandr Wang, the CEO of Scale AI, to be its chief AI officer.
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Meta → hire → AI
Wang said ahead of Muse's launch that the company had some concerns about the risk of its agent leaking information
'
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agent → say → information
Muse was built to be safe, secure, and private.
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Muse → build → ?
Its built-in protections and user controls put people absolutely in charge of how they use it and what is shared,' the spokesperson said.
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spokesperson → build → it
Muse runs on its own dedicated computer in the cloud, meaning it does not have access to other people's agents.
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it → run → agents
Meta also said all passwords would be in a secure storage area, which Muse uses without seeing the sensitive information.
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Muse → say → information
People can also change their privacy settings at any time, and users can tell the AI agent to 'forget' specific things it no longer wants it to remember, Meta said.
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Meta → change → things
Despite that, Amazon has blocked Muse AI from shopping on its site, stating that it had not been given sufficient notice.
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it → block → notice
'We think it's fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate,' an Amazon spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
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spokesperson → think → Mail
Amazon said Muse should have the 'same obligations' as food delivery apps and restaurants that take online orders to 'ensure a safe, secure, and reliable customer experience.
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that → say → experience
'
'Agentic third-party applications, such as Muse, have the same obligations, and we've requested that Meta remove Amazon from the experience,' the spokesperson said.
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spokesperson → have → experience
Amazon said it has concerns with the way Muse captures and stores customer credentials and scrapes account data.
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Muse → say → data
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta has tried to poach his people with jaw-dropping bonuses, including claiming some Meta has disputed
Meta has launched the Muse Charm, a Tamagotchi-style keyring, in the hope of capitalizing on its recent success
When asked about Amazon's concerns, Meta did not comment.
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Meta → say → concerns
Zuckerberg showed no signs of the controversy weighing on him as he stepped out on stage this week to launch a new Tamagotchi-style keyring for Muse, which he hoped will capitalize on the hype for the app.
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he → show → app
The Muse Charm, as it is branded, features playful avatars that users can carry around and speak to without having to unlock their phone.
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users → brand → phone
The move may well raise eyebrows after Meta recently agreed to pay $18 billion over the next decade to settle a claim that its platforms were designed to cause addictions in children.
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platforms → raise → children
The company did not agree there had been any wrongdoing but agreed to limit how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram.
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teenagers → agree → Facebook
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
