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☆ Meta tried to 'build a clone of Snapchat' using data from Onavo, unsealed court documents show
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

An analytics app Meta acquired a decade ago turned into a major source of inspiration for product and business decisions, including its work to "clone" Snapchat. Rosen is Meta's chief information security officer, while Tiger was vice president of engineering until he left Meta in 2022. For several years, Onavo was key to how Meta decided to acquire, launch, and change its products, according to over a dozen court documents unsealed last week in an ongoing lawsuit. After the acquisition, Facebook found through Onavo's data on messaging apps that Snapchat was a top five mobile app and WhatsApp had begun to outpace Facebook Messenger. The company was hailed for its tech that compressed data on mobile phones, allowing apps to run in the background without eating up user data.

Persons: Guy Rosen, Roi Tiger, Rosen, Tiger, Onavo, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Schroepfer, Chris Cox, Javier Olivan, Sandberg, Olivan, Cox, Facebook's, Colin Stretch, WhatsApp, Zuckerberg, Instagram, Snapchat, Stretch, Kali Hays Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Business, Onavo, YouTube, Olivan, TechCrunch Locations: Onavo, Davos, khays@insider.com

☆ Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook execs to 'figure out' how to track encrypted usage on rival apps like Snap and YouTube, unsealed documents show
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Kali Hays | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Newly unsealed emails reveal that when Meta was still called Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg ordered his executives to find a way to learn how people were using competing apps like Snapchat, even if the information was encrypted. Advertisement"Given how quickly they're growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them," Zuckerberg wrote of Snapchat in the email. The app "doesn't (can't) decrypt data," a Facebook employee noted in an email to Zuckerberg included in a court document. While the existence of Onavo's work to track rival app usage has been reported, details of Meta's actions, the executives involved, and the surrounding communications were unreported. AdvertisementAdvertisers suing Meta said the company failed for years to disclose its use of Onavo technology to intercept rivals' analytics traffic.

Persons: Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Javier Olivan, Snapchat, Olivan, Guy Rosen, Rosen, —, Mike Schroepfer, Kali Hays Organizations: Service, Facebook, Business, Meta, Wall Street, YouTube, SSL, TechCrunch Locations: California, Onavo, khays@insider.com

☆ Climate and infrastructure startups are leaning into modularity — and investors are paying attention
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The lines between climate tech and infrastructure startups have become increasingly blurred. Investments in infrastructure startups over time. Permitting remains a massive roadblock for climate projects and modularity can be one way to "get around some of those hurdles," added Ben Wolkon, partner at MUUS Climate Partners. Modular tech can also be distributed and containerized, with some startups hoping to roll out with partners on-site. It's not just industrial startups that are going modular and distributed — it encompasses carbon capture, water filtration, food systems, and energy, said Regeneration.VC's Hoffman.

Persons: Katie Hoffman, Mike Schroepfer, Seonghoon Woo, Tim Boeltken, Sierra Peterson, Ben Wolkon, It's, Regeneration.VC's Hoffman Organizations: Business, Venture, Investments, Facebook, Gigascale, MUUS Climate Partners Locations: Paris, New York

☆ Climate tech in 2023: More grants, experienced founders, and new laws help sector to standout year
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-29 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

While much of Europe's startup ecosystem has been hobbled by the rocky macroeconomic environment and soaring interest rates, climate tech has continued to lure funds from venture capitalists. Many climate tech companies work with hardware, meaning debt financing is also an attractive non-dilutive option for working capital between funding rounds. Global private market equity and grant funding for climate tech startups is actually down – it slid 40% to $65 billion in the 12 months ending September 30, according to PwC. Some smaller climate tech companies have made cuts, including vertical farming company InFarm, which retreated from Europe and was declared bankrupt in the Netherlands. Generally, however, layoffs have been a boon for climate as big tech talent has moved into or launched climate tech startups.

Persons: —, Siobhan Brewster, Atomico, Brewster, Piotr Bukanski, Mike Schroepfer, Greg Sandoval, retrofits, Barcelona's, Balderton Capital's Magda Lukaszewicz, Stuart Ferguson, Schroepfer, Warner, Aenu's Brewster Organizations: Service, Business, Venture, Energy, Beringea, Gigascale, Sustainable Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Global, Ada Ventures Locations: London, Europe's, Ukraine, United States, Europe, Silicon, Netherlands

☆ Meta's Responsible AI team shrinks amid layoffs and restructuring, even as the company goes all-in on AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Meta in 2020 officially formed the Responsible AI (RAI) team with about 30 members of staff. Over the last year, the group's numbers have dwindled, according to five people familiar with the company and its AI work. A shrinking of the RAI team comes at a time when AI has become a global phenomenon . The Responsible AI team was restructuredJerome Pesenti, who was vice president of Meta's AI group, including the RAI team, left last summer and founded his own AI company Sizzle AI. Compliance is important work as RAI workers try to keep Meta's AI work in line with upcoming rules and regulations .

Persons: it's, Mark Zuckerberg's, Meta, Zuckerberg, They're, Jerome Pesenti, Mike Schroepfer, Andrew, Boz, Bosworth, Pesenti, Esteban Arcaute, Kali Hays Organizations: Meta, RAI, Facebook, Social, Twitter Locations: khays@insider.com, @hayskali

☆ The strange, improbable rise of Mark Zuckerberg 3.0
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

In early July, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the latest and perhaps most consequential product in Meta's history: a new model of Mark Zuckerberg. Silicon Valley Zuck was a husband and father with a legacy to build and protect at all costs. Silicon Valley Zuck was suddenly faced with something he'd never dealt with before, shrinking revenue. Still clinging to his persona as Silicon Valley Zuck, Zuckerberg engaged in an all-out media blitz to hawk his vision for the metaverse. They were the sort of people Harvard Zuck would have scoffed at and Silicon Valley Zuck would have gently ignored.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg, Clark Kent, TikTok, Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Schroepfer, Wall, McKinsey Zuck, Rogan, Meta, Harvard Zuck, —, Priscilla Chan, Ray's, pullover, Harvard Zuck —, Dianna, Mick, McDougall, Paul Sakuma, Zuckerberg's, Apple, Facebook, he'd, That's, Frances Haugen, Chris Cox, Zuck, Zach Gibson, Meta's, Sandberg, Marne Levine, who'd, Javier Olivan, he's, bode, Bain, Maher Saba, Lori Goler, He's, He'd, Katie Harbath, it's, Andrew Bosworth, Bosworth, Mark Zuckerberg McKinsey Zuck, Mark Shmulik, Bernstein, Augustus, Julius Caesar, Kali Hays Organizations: Meta, Menlo, Harvard, Apple, McKinsey, Business, Facebook, Cambridge, Capitol, Labs, Menlo Park, Q, Bain & Company, Reality Labs, Wall, Mark Zuckerberg McKinsey, Phillips Exeter Academy, Tech, Twitter Locations: California, Hawaii, United States, Davos, Silicon, contrition, Meta, verbiage, Harvard, Rome

☆ Former Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer launches climate investment firm: 'We need business' to solve climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former Facebook chief technical officer Mike Schroepfer is launching a climate venture capital investment firm, Gigascale Capital, on Tuesday. He told CNBC he is personally motivated to fight climate change and believes this is an inflection point in the industry. As Schroepfer started speaking with the community of climate change innovators and entrepreneurs, he was being asked how to hire, how to scale companies and how to solve technical problems. In addition to his philanthropic climate work, Schroepfer invested in more than a dozen climate startups as an angel investor, he said. That combination of growing demand, or market preparedness, and a bubbling pool of innovation, or technological preparedness, activated Schroepfer's "spidey sense," he said.

☆ Meta technology chief Bosworth implies company has lost focus
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Bosworth's post landed just days before Meta's fourth-quarter earnings report, which is to be released after the bell on Wednesday. The Facebook parent company is expected to report its third consecutive quarterly sales drop, with analysts projecting another decline in the first quarter. Bosworth was promoted to the top tech post in 2021, replacing Mike Schroepfer, who had been with the company since 2008. While he acknowledged that he doesn't miss startup life, "I do miss the profound sense of focus," Bosworth wrote. In contrast, using nonprofits as an example, he noted that in the early days of the company employees would ask Zuckerberg to support a group or cause.

☆ Here’s who Elon Musk could pick to be Twitter’s next CEO
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk may soon be on the lookout for a new chief executive to run Twitter. There is no successor.”If Musk were to look for a new Twitter CEO, he’d likely have many willing takers. Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder, CEO of Block and friend to Musk, has previously said he would not return to run the social network. The most obvious potential candidates for a new Twitter CEO are the Musk lieutenants who have been helping to run the company since his takeover. Who is insane enough to run twitter?!?

☆ Facebook vrea să dezvolte o inteligență artificială care să își amintească totul pentru tine
▼ + stars: | 2020-08-24 | by ( ) independent.md time to read: +2 min

Distribuiti mai departe...44 SharesFacebook a anunțat vineri dezvoltarea unei Inteligențe Artificiale care ar putea fi implementată pe viitor pe ochelari inteligenți și care va putea ajuta utilizatorii să își găsească cheile pierdute, să identifice un telefon care sună în interior, într-o cameră îndepărtată, sau să știe dacă deja ai adăugat ingredientele necesare într-o prăjitură, scrie CNN. Pe scurt, vrea să perfecționeze Inteligența Artificială care îți poate perfecționa propria memorie. „Dacă putem construi aceste sisteme, acestea vă pot ajuta să vă amintiți părțile importante din viața voastră”, a declarat Schroepfer pentru CNN. Și pentru a transforma aceste sisteme de Inteligență Artficială într-un fel de mașină de memorie prevăzută de Schroepfer, va trebui să purtați o pereche de ochelari inteligenți. „La sfârșitul zilei, speranța noastră este ca acești ochelari să ofere oamenilor superputeri”, a mai spus Schroepfer.

Persons: Mike Schroepfer, Schroepfer Organizations: Facebook, CNN

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