Latest news with #Llama
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Palmer Luckey and Mark Zuckerberg ended their bitter feud to bolster Silicon Valley's new love affair with the military market
It's not the duo you might have imagined. On Thursday, as weapons startup Anduril and social media giant Meta announced a partnership to design new virtual and augmented reality devices for the U.S. military, the companies shared a photo of Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg standing side-by-side in the Meta offices—smiling! You'd never guess from the chummy photo that, just eight years ago, Zuckerberg's company (back when it was still called Facebook) very publicly fired Luckey after a donation he made to a pro-Trump group caused an uproar among staff. For Luckey, who had joined Facebook when his virtual reality startup was acquired for $2 billion, it was a gut punch that would shape his worldview for years to come (Luckey told Fortune in the fall that the termination at the 'height' of his career permanently shifted his level of trust in the people he works with), and in Silicon Valley, the episode became synonymous with tech industry bad blood. But times have changed. And the two tech entrepreneurs are apparently now ready to make up for the sake of making money—and to make America's military stronger. In so doing, Palmer and Zuck are forging the equally improbable alliance of a startup that builds killer drones and a social network founded with the mission to 'bring the world closer together.' The initial collaboration centers on what the companies are calling 'EagleEye,' where Meta and Anduril will build devices like helmets and headsets for U.S. soldiers that will have enhanced heat and thermal sensor capabilities to help detect enemies on the battlefield, as well as built-in compute and communications features to control drones. The companies have already submitted a whitepaper to one of the Army's programs in hopes of being selected for the project. If the notion of the 'Like' button's creator (and the parent company of Instagram and Threads) expanding into the lethal business of battlefield tools is hard to square, consider the scale of the opportunity. The U.S. Department of Defense has spent $156 billion on contracts in fiscal 2025 – and we're only seven months through the year. Palantir, a tech company that counts the Pentagon as a big customer, has seen its stock surge 62% so far this year. Meta's stock is up 10% year-to-date. And as Meta moves deeper into AI, the pressure to monetize its investments by scooping up some of the national defense budget will only become greater. By partnering with Anduril, Meta puts itself in a better position to sell its Llama AI models to a lucrative customer, the U.S. military; Anduril gets a partner for virtual reality capabilities (some of which, ironically, Meta obtained through its acquisition of Luckey's original startup). Meta is a different organization than the one that fired Luckey eight years ago. Once accused of stifling or censoring conservative voices on its social platforms, Meta recently disbanded its diversity and inclusion programs after Donald Trump was elected president. Zuckerberg, whose personal stylings have undergone a radical change, has made several visits to the White House and Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. The partnership between Anduril and Meta has been underway for nearly a year, Luckey said in a podcast with journalist Ashlee Vance released on Thursday. As for turning the page on an age-old rivalry that has become Silicon Valley lore, Luckey told Fortune in October that he had already made his peace with Zuckerberg by that time. 'I've already made up with Zuck. Zuck has apologized for what happened,' Luckey explained. 'The people that made that happen are all gone. All of the people—the eight people who orchestrated my ouster—don't work at Meta.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta working with Anduril on AR/VR military tech for soldiers
Meta (META) is moving beyond social media platforms and AR headsets and into the military-industrial complex. The company on Thursday announced it's teaming up with Palmer Luckey's Anduril ( to produce extended reality products for soldiers. The devices, Anduril said in a statement, will provide 'enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield.' Luckey founded Anduril in 2017 after he sold his VR headset company Oculus to Meta (then Facebook) in 2014 for $2.3 billion. The company primarily specializes in developing and deploying various forms of military drones. 'I am glad to be working with Meta once again,' Luckey said in a statement. 'Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that.' Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg began making a push into military and defense products when he opened up the company's Llama AI models for use by the government and contractors working on national defense projects. According to the companies, the new system will include an AR/VR interface that works with Anduril's Lattice analytics platform to feed soldiers information about the world around them. 'The world is entering a new era of computing that will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses and perception in ways that have never been possible before,' Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said. 'Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life.' Meta isn't the first Big Tech company to enter the military space. Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT) provide cloud services to the US military. Microsoft also turned over work on Army's own AR/VR system to Anduril in February. Microsoft will also power the company's cloud services related to "IVAS and Anduril AI technologies." Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
New York Post
8 hours ago
- Business
- New York Post
The dirty secret Big Tech doesn't want you to know: AI runs on theft
Artificial intelligence is one of the fastest-growing, most exciting industries in America. Many in the tech industry are confident that as AI continues to improve, it will become increasingly important in our everyday lives. But its growth has come at a cost — and if we're not careful, AI's expansion could end up crippling other critical sectors of the American economy. Big Tech's dirty secret is that the success of its AI tools has been almost entirely built on theft. Advertisement These companies are scraping enormous amounts of copyrighted content, without permission or compensation, to fuel their AI products — and in the process dangerously undermining content creators' businesses. Instead of paying for access to copyrighted material — everything from magazine columns to President Trump's own book 'The Art of the Deal' — most AI companies have made the conscious choice to steal it instead. Advertisement They argue that all content, even content registered for protection with the US Copyright Office, should be considered 'fair use' when used to build and operate AI models. To gather the data that powers their large language models, Big Tech companies have consistently bypassed paywalls, ignored websites' directives asking users not to copy material, and worse. Meta, for instance, used illegal Russia-based pirate site LibGen to copy the contents of at least 7.5 million books to train its Llama AI model — an egregiously unlawful, copyright-violating workaround. Advertisement Relying on questionable sources for AI training purposes poses a variety of serious problems, perhaps even to US national security. Recently an online data watchdog found that many of the most popular AI chatbots have absorbed millions of articles designed to spread Russian propaganda and outright falsehoods. Now infected by a Russian disinformation network known as 'Pravda,' these chatbots, including Grok, ChatGPT and Gemini, mimic Kremlin talking points when asked about certain topics — and spread false narratives about 33% of the time. Content creators, meanwhile, face existential problems. Advertisement In addition to seeing their content stolen for training purposes, publishers are now forced to watch as Big Tech companies make billions using that stolen content in ways that directly compete with publishers' business models. With retrieval-augmented generation, in which an AI model references outside sources before responding to user inquiries, many AI products now give users real-time information, pulled directly from recently published news articles. Those same AI companies run ads against that content — generating revenue that should belong to those who invested in its creation. A user who gets all the information contained within an article directly through an AI chatbot has almost no reason to click through to the original text — much less to buy a subscription, if the item is behind a paywall. The data on this is clear: AI chatbots drive referral traffic at a 96% lower rate than traditional Google search, an already shrunken relic of the past. For every 1,000 people using an AI chatbot, fewer than four will click through to see the original source of the information they're reading. As AI replaces traditional search for many users, this drop in referral traffic will cut deeply into both subscription and advertising revenue for publishers — depriving them of the funds they need to produce the content consumers (and AI companies) rely on. Advertisement AI companies are lobbying to legitimize this behavior, but Washington should take care. Tilting the scales in Big Tech's favor will undermine centuries of intellectual-property protections that have paid tremendous dividends for the United States, giving us countless advancements — and a competitive edge on the world stage. Blessing the theft of American content would instantly erode our country's foundation as an innovation powerhouse. Advertisement The news media industry supports a balanced approach. Many publications and journalists, in fact, now use AI to better serve their customers. But it's important to develop AI products responsibly and in coordination with the creators of the content they use, with the long-term sustainability of both AI companies and creators in mind. If AI companies' theft drives creators out of business, everyone ends up worse off. To protect their work, over a dozen members of the News/Media Alliance recently sued Cohere, Inc., a growing AI company, for unauthorized use of their content. Advertisement They joined a number of other publishers, including News Corp and The New York Times, that are suing various AI companies to enforce their rights. Some in Big Tech are clearly beginning to recognize the problem with unfettered content theft. We've seen a rapid proliferation of licensing agreements, in which AI companies pay publishers to use their content, over the last year. A News/Media Alliance collective is currently licensing content at scale. Advertisement But without reinforced legal protections against content theft, bad actors will continue to exploit publishers and creators — undermining America's creative industries to further tech's own commercial interests. Danielle Coffey is president and CEO of the News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,200 publishers nationwide.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta working with Anduril on AR/VR military tech for soldiers
Meta (META) is moving beyond social media platforms and AR headsets and into the military-industrial complex. The company on Thursday announced it's teaming up with Palmer Luckey's Anduril ( to produce extended reality products for soldiers. The devices, Anduril said in a statement, will provide 'enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield.' Luckey founded Anduril in 2017 after he sold his VR headset company Oculus to Meta (then Facebook) in 2014 for $2.3 billion. The company primarily specializes in developing and deploying various forms of military drones. 'I am glad to be working with Meta once again,' Luckey said in a statement. 'Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that.' Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg began making a push into military and defense products when he opened up the company's Llama AI models for use by the government and contractors working on national defense projects. According to the companies, the new system will include an AR/VR interface that works with Anduril's Lattice analytics platform to feed soldiers information about the world around them. 'The world is entering a new era of computing that will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses and perception in ways that have never been possible before,' Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said. 'Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life.' Meta isn't the first Big Tech company to enter the military space. Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT) provide cloud services to the US military. Microsoft also turned over work on Army's own AR/VR system to Anduril in February. Microsoft will also power the company's cloud services related to "IVAS and Anduril AI technologies." Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta working with Anduril on AR/VR military tech for soldiers
Meta (META) is moving beyond social media platforms and AR headsets and into the military-industrial complex. The company on Thursday announced it's teaming up with Palmer Luckey's Anduril ( to produce extended reality products for soldiers. The devices, Anduril said in a statement, will provide 'enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield.' Luckey founded Anduril in 2017 after he sold his VR headset company Oculus to Meta (then Facebook) in 2014 for $2.3 billion. The company primarily specializes in developing and deploying various forms of military drones. 'I am glad to be working with Meta once again,' Luckey said in a statement. 'Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that.' Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg began making a push into military and defense products when he opened up the company's Llama AI models for use by the government and contractors working on national defense projects. According to the companies, the new system will include an AR/VR interface that works with Anduril's Lattice analytics platform to feed soldiers information about the world around them. 'The world is entering a new era of computing that will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses and perception in ways that have never been possible before,' Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said. 'Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life.' Meta isn't the first Big Tech company to enter the military space. Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT) provide cloud services to the US military. Microsoft also turned over work on Army's own AR/VR system to Anduril in February. Microsoft will also power the company's cloud services related to "IVAS and Anduril AI technologies." Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley.
