Four non-profit organizations have sued OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and SpaceXAI, demanding a halt to the development of models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. The plaintiffs cite California law, alleging that corporate executives warned about AI risks but continued development, and mention incidents of AI model out-of-control events.
United Airlines stated on Wednesday that due to safety risks and potential violations of federal regulations, AI agents are prohibited from booking flights for travelers. The airline noted that AI agents accessing customer personal information (including payment credentials) could expose sensitive data and may lead to unintended purchases, account changes, or misuse of frequent flyer miles. United Airlines will update its booking and ticketing policies to directly or indirectly restrict the use of unauthorized third-party personal AI agents or assistants through its digital platform, travel agencies, and aggregators.
Santosh Janardhan, Meta's Infrastructure Director and Joint Engineering Director, is expected to leave the company in early 2027. Meta is investing tens of billions of dollars in AI and data center construction, and this departure constitutes a major change in the company's management.
How the accounts differ:TechCrunch reports the departure is planned for next year, while 36Kr states it's in early 2027.
TechCrunch · AISame story · 2 outlets3535Meta informed TechCrunch that Santosh Janardhan, the company's long-term infrastructure head, will be leaving, to be replaced by Dave Brown, who joined Meta as an infrastructure vice president this year. Janardhan had originally planned to leave next year and will take on an advisory role at Meta Compute. Meta did not specify the reason for Janardhan's departure.
How the accounts differ:TechCrunch reports the departure is planned for next year, while 36Kr states it's in early 2027.
The Verge · AI6565eBay appears to have blocked AI agents, including Meta's Muse, from browsing on its platform, which is the latest hurdle in the AI agent competition. eBay had previously updated its user agreement to prohibit 'buying agents' and 'LLM-driven robots' from placing automatic orders without manual review. Retailers have varying levels of acceptance for third-party AI agents accessing their websites; Amazon has completely blocked external agents from browsing or shopping, while Shopify allows users to set up agents to purchase items from among its 1 billion products.
Meta announces plans to globally promote AI age estimation technology, which will cover millions of teenage users on Instagram, even if their birth date indicates they are adults. This technology will assist in determining users' actual age and has been rolled out to Facebook. Threads plans to start its global rollout later this year. Meta faces multiple lawsuits over alleged harm to teenagers on its platforms, and in August this year, it reached a settlement with almost all U.S. states and territories, with the total amount of the agreement reaching up to $18 billion.
NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun recently sent an apology letter to employees admitting infidelity with his wife, promising to fully commit to work and work hard to rebuild trust. The NVIDIA board has launched an independent investigation.
Chinese AI models account for 89% of global enterprise open-source model spending, with Kimi leading at 61%, DeepSeek and GLM accounting for 15% and 11% respectively; Western model Llama accounts for only 7%
TechCrunch · AI6565OpenAI has hired Senator Schumer's daughter and calls its data center a 'compute park'. After the midterm elections, tech giants are trying to repair their relationship with the Democratic Party to deal with stronger AI regulation, but more bargaining may occur at the state government level and on specific issues such as data center location.
Meta has acquired Conductor, a product that allows programmers to manage multiple AI code agents, demonstrating its continued investment in AI and its ambition to compete for the developer community.
404 MediaSame story · 2 outletsMeta announces suspension of the commercial terms update scheduled to take effect on November 20, which requires business accounts to allow Meta to use their website content as AI training data, drawing strong opposition from journalists and users. The terms, previously postponed from October 30 to November 20, have been temporarily banned by a Norwegian court, and UK regulators have launched an investigation. Meta says it will consult stakeholders and provide further updates at a later date, with existing terms continuing to be effective temporarily.
How the accounts differ:The Verge states the delay is due to global publisher opposition; 404 Media mentions artist and small business dissatisfaction and the ability for EU and UK users to object.
TechCrunch · AI6565Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick said that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections will make it very difficult for companies to build data centers, and noted that the industry 'has not explained the benefits of these investments as well as we need to.' She pointed out that the backlash against data centers - which has been a major focus during this election season - is also related to people's overall feelings about AI technology. Meta believes that if it can show how data centers benefit local communities and the values of the technology itself, it can turn around negative consumer sentiment towards AI.
The Verge · AIFeatured8080After the Democratic Party won both the Senate and House in the US midterm elections, the AI industry is facing the prospect of tighter regulation and slower data center construction, with 43 out of 44 local data center bans passed in the vote. Elected officials have promised to summon CEOs of AI companies to testify, and experts believe that Trump and the Republican Party in Congress have basically ended their efforts to ban state-level AI restrictions.
Why it matters: The midterm election results and the vote on local data center bans provide specific signals for observing the direction of US AI regulation.
The DecoderSame story · 4 outletsMeta acquires AI coding startup Conductor, which allows developers to control multiple AI coding agents simultaneously, aiming to strengthen Meta's AI developer products. Conductor CEO Charlie Holtz confirmed the transaction in a blog post but did not disclose the price.
Meta acquires AI programming startup Conductor, which develops tools that allow users to advance multiple software projects by deploying AI agents in multiple parallel workspaces. Conductor's cloud service will be shut down on November 20.
TechCrunch · AIAfter the midterm elections, Democratic control of Congress may lead to restrictions on data center construction, with nearly 80% of voters opposing the construction of data centers in their communities, and multiple states passing bans. Internal divisions within the Democratic Party and potential federal intervention pose new challenges for AI development.
TechCrunch · AISame story · 4 outletsMeta has acquired Conductor, an AI programming startup that allows users to launch software projects by deploying multiple agents in parallel workspaces, Conductor's core product was launched last summer.
Meta announced the issuance of $15 billion in preferred notes in five parts, with terms ranging from 5 to 30 years, yielding 2.2 percentage points higher than U.S. Treasury bonds; earlier reports said it would also issue euro bonds.
Meta and Fourier are collaborating on the development of an humanoid robot prototype, which currently has no sales plans due to the difficulty in obtaining the required components from the US supply chain. The prototype was developed over three months, is about 1.5 meters tall, and is equipped with an NVIDIA Thor chip, considered the physical embodiment of the Muse AI model. The two companies have started developing the Max 2 prototype, but the release date has not been determined.
Apple Removes 19 Apps, as These Apps Disguised as Pet Photos, Language Learning Services Secretly Provide Deepfake Sexual Violence Features. Apple Claims Related Apps Implemented 'Post-Audit Shell Change' After Passing Review. Google Has Previously Removed Most of the Involved Apps.
Meta is shifting more resources to wearable devices and AI businesses, lowering the priority of consumer VR hardware, Reality Labs third-quarter revenue decreased by 6% to $443 million. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is prioritizing AI investment at this stage but has not completely abandoned VR. Its latest product, Meta VR Glasses, is expected to launch in spring 2027.
Alphabet launched its second Eurobond issuance this year to test investor demand. Last week's earnings report missed expectations, causing a sharp drop in stock prices and widening the yield spread of tech sector bonds. The market is concerned about the scale of AI investment impacting core business. This issuance of Eurobonds in seven tranches has maturities of 2 to 19 years, with the 2-year bond initially priced about 60 basis points above the medium-term swap rate, and the longest 19-year bond having an issuance spread of 205 to 210 basis points above the medium-term swap rate.
Meta recently partnered with Chinese company Fourier to develop a humanoid robot prototype named Max, which is approximately 1.5 meters tall, weighs about 48.1 kilograms, and is equipped with an NVIDIA Thor chip. It is considered the physical embodiment of the Muse model and is expected to handle daily household chores. The two companies have started developing the Max 2 prototype product, but the release date of Max has not been determined, and there are no sales plans.
According to Bloomberg, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle have pledged to invest more than 3 trillion US dollars in data centers and other fields in the coming years, with a total of 1.3 trillion US dollars in lease payment commitments and a total of 1.9 trillion US dollars in other procurement commitments.
Why it matters: The contract commitments of the five giants in terms of scale and scope are listed together, revealing the capital structure and recovery pressure of AI data center investments.
The Nasdaq 100 index may lose over $2 trillion in market value in October, as investors' concerns about AI investment returns deepen. Tech giants are rushing to expand their AI infrastructure and are raising spending expectations, with Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon planning massive funding, causing market unease. JPMorgan estimates that global AI infrastructure capital spending will exceed $1 trillion next year and reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.
Alphabet Inc. shares plunged on Thursday, with its five-year credit default swap (CDS) quote rising 5.3 basis points to 84 basis points, the largest increase since September 21. The company's disappointing performance earlier had heightened market concerns that its massive debt-funded artificial intelligence (AI) spending may not be recouped. Gavan Nolan, executive director of S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that if AI investments pay off, stock investors may reap huge gains, but if they worsen, bondholders will bear the losses.
Tencent and Visa announced today that they have signed a cooperation memo, which will enhance the cross-border payment experience for inbound and outbound travelers through TenPay Global and Visa Pay, and support overseas remitters in using Visa Direct to remit to WeChat Pay. The two sides will also cooperate in the fields of enterprise-level AI, agent business, and developer ecosystem, combining Tencent Cloud's AI capabilities with Visa's global network to explore opportunities in agent payments, including allowing AI agents to assist users in completing payments.
404 Media6565Meta updates its commercial terms to allow the use of user content to train AI, users in the UK and EU can object through privacy settings, but this feature may only be available in specific regions and may change at any time.
404 MediaSame story · 2 outlets6565Meta updates its business account terms allowing it to use user content to train AI, causing dissatisfaction among artists and small business owners. EU and UK users can submit objections through the Instagram interface. Meta has postponed the effective date from October 30 to November 20 and removed some allowed uses. Affected users can fill out the reason by clicking the 'Submit Objection' option in the account privacy center.
How the accounts differ:The Verge states the delay is due to global publisher opposition; 404 Media mentions artist and small business dissatisfaction and the ability for EU and UK users to object.
Rohit Patel Leaves Meta to Found Ndoc Company, Developing Native AI Office Software Aimed at Replacing Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, Integrating Tools like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Tableau, and ChatGPT Functionality to Achieve Slides, Analysis Content, and Dataset Management on a Single Interface, with Documents Exportable as .ndoc.html Format and Plans for Open Source
Goldman Sachs notes that the influence of the semiconductor sector on the price trends of various assets has exceeded that of oil prices, explaining about 54% of the asset performance divergence over the past three weeks, while oil prices only explained 2%. Investor sentiment is closely tied to tech stocks, with Goldman's risk appetite indicator moving in sync with the performance of large-cap tech stocks. After Anthropic submitted its IPO application, the Nasdaq, S&P 500, NVIDIA, Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, and South Korean stocks all rose.
