In mid-March, Meta said that its “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads, up from 650 million downloads as of early December 2024. On Tuesday at its inaugural LlamaCon developer conference, Meta revealed that figure has reached 1.2 billion downloads. “We have thousands of developers contributing tens of thousands of derivative models being downloaded […]
Amazon’s first 27 internet satellites launch to space
The first 27 satellites in Amazon’s effort to create a space-based internet network have finally made it to orbit, paving the way for the company to attempt to compete with Elon Musk’s well-established Starlink service. A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off late Monday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in […]
A Tesla board member actually bought some stock
Tesla board member and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia acquired about 4,000 shares of the automaker’s stock, a purchase that has a value of about $1 million and change, according to a regulatory filing. That’s not a significant stock purchase, and certainly not for the billionaire board member, as Electrek noted in its reporting. It’s notable […]
Meta previews an API for its Llama AI models
At its inaugural LlamaCon AI developer conference on Tuesday, Meta announced an API for its Llama series of AI models: the Llama API. Available in limited preview, the Llama API lets developers explore and experiment with products powered by different Llama models, per Meta. Paired with Meta’s SDKs, it allows developers to build Llama-driven services, […]
Google launches AI tools for practicing languages through personalized lessons
Google on Tuesday is releasing three new AI experiments aimed at helping people learn to speak a new language in a more personalized way. While the experiments are still in the early stages, it’s possible that the company is looking to take on Duolingo with the help of Gemini, Google’s multimodal large language model. The […]
Google Wallet to add support for digital IDs in more states
Google announced on Tuesday that digital IDs are coming to more states and services in Google Wallet. The company also shared that Wallet is getting a way to privately verify age, and that the app is expanding to 50 more countries. Residents in Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia will soon be able to […]
Google’s NotebookLM expands its AI podcast feature to more languages
Google’s AI-based note-taking and research assistant NotebookLM is making its Audio Overviews feature available in 76 new languages, the company announced on Tuesday. Audio Overviews launched last year to give users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared with NotebookLM, such as course readings or legal […]
Meta launches a standalone AI app to compete with ChatGPT
After integrating Meta AI into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, Meta is rolling out a standalone AI app. Unveiled at Meta’s LlamaCon event on Tuesday, this app allows users to access Meta AI in a standalone app, similar to the ChatGPT app and other AI assistant apps. To win over users, Meta is trying to […]
Meta needs to win over AI developers at its first LlamaCon
On Tuesday, Meta is hosting its first-ever LlamaCon AI developer conference at its Menlo Park headquarters, where the company will try to pitch developers on building applications with its open Llama AI models. Just a year ago, that wasn’t a hard sell. However, in recent months, Meta has struggled to keep up with both “open” […]
Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail
The ruling, which has yet to take effect, was ordered under India’s online blocking laws.