Companies And Business - AI news 2025-07-25

Meta names Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of AI superintelligence unit

techcrunch.com • Jul 25, 2025

Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI researcher, will round out the leadership team at Meta's new AI lab....

TL;DR

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced former OpenAI researcher Shengjia Zhao as the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.

Key Takeaways:

Zhao, known for developing frontier AI models, has pioneered breakthroughs like a 'new scaling paradigm' and OpenAI's reasoning model, o1.
Meta has assembled a formidable AI leadership team to compete with OpenAI and Google, including Yann LeCun, leader of Meta's FAIR.
The company is investing heavily in cloud computing infrastructure, including a one gigawatt cluster, Prometheus, to support massive AI model training.

Meta to stop selling political ads in the EU from October

techcrunch.com • Jul 25, 2025

In response to the European Union's incoming regulation of political advertising, Meta said on Friday that it would stop selling and showing political...

TL;DR

Meta and Google will stop selling and showing political ads in the EU from October, citing the European Union's incoming regulation of political advertising as unworkable.

Key Takeaways:

The European Union's Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation introduces significant, additional obligations for companies selling ads.
The law mandates clear labeling of political advertisements, provides information about sponsors, and bans the use of certain personal data for profiling.
Meta derives the vast majority of its revenues from advertising and will either have to alter its services to offer an ad service that doesn't work for advertisers or users or stop offering such ads altogether.

Tesla is reportedly behind on its pledge to build 5,000 Optimus bots this year

techcrunch.com • Jul 25, 2025

Tesla is behind on its goal to produce at least 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots by the end of 2025....

TL;DR

Tesla is behind schedule to meet its goal of producing 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots this year, but claims to be on track to reach 1 million units within five years.

Key Takeaways:

Tesla is producing only hundreds of Optimus robots nearly eight months into 2025, far behind its earlier stated goal.
Musk has revised the timeline, hoping to reach 1 million units in less than five years, but such ambitious targets have not been met in the past.
Tesla's struggles may be connected to the company's declining overall revenue in the second quarter due to falling EV sales and other factors.

Breaking down Trump’s big gift to the AI industry

www.theverge.com • Jul 25, 2025

President Donald Trump's plan to promote America's AI dominance involves discouraging "woke AI," slashing state and federal regulations, and laying th...

TL;DR

President Trump's AI Action Plan aims to promote America's AI dominance by slashing state and federal regulations, promoting open-source AI, and expanding AI development and adoption.

Key Takeaways:

The plan recommends removing 'woke AI' or large language models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.
It encourages a 'try-first' culture for AI across American industry, including the government, healthcare, and the military.
The plan also discusses the need to train workers for in-demand roles created by AI, but critics argue that it leaves the US at risk of serious accidents and loss of human control.

Meta to stop running political ads on Facebook and Instagram in the EU

www.euractiv.com • Jul 25, 2025

Article URL: https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/meta-to-stop-running-political-ads-on-facebook-and-instagram/ Comments URL: https://news.ycomb...

TL;DR

Meta will stop running political, electoral, or social issue advertising in the EU from October, citing the bloc's transparency rules as too restrictive and burdensome.

Key Takeaways:

The EU's Regulation on the transparency of political advertising is set to take effect in October, requiring online publishers to disclose whether an ad is paid for by a political actor.
Meta's decision means that political actors will not be able to pay the company to amplify content on its social networks, although politicians will still be allowed to post content.
Google also previously announced it would stop serving political ads in the EU, citing the law's overly broad definition of 'political advertisement'.

Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature is now blocked by Brave and AdGuard

www.theverge.com • Jul 25, 2025

Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature, that automatically screenshots nearly everything on a Copilot Plus PC, is meeting resistance from app develo...

TL;DR

Brave and AdGuard have joined Signal in blocking Microsoft's AI-powered 'Recall' feature, citing privacy concerns over automatic screenshots.

Key Takeaways:

Microsoft's 'Recall' feature has been blocked by Brave, AdGuard, and Signal due to concerns over privacy infringement.
AdGuard calls 'Recall' a 'privacy concern' as 'the system could snap a screenshot of a private chat window, an online form, or something personal'.
Brave and AdGuard will let users toggle off the feature if they choose to, whereas Signal blocks it by default to protect user privacy.

How Anthropic teams use Claude Code

www.anthropic.com • Jul 25, 2025

Article URL: https://www.anthropic.com/news/how-anthropic-teams-use-claude-code Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44678535 Points: 15...

TL;DR

Anthropic teams efficiently develop and automate tasks using Claude Code, streamlining their workflows and productivity.

Key Takeaways:

Claude Code accelerates feature implementation and development velocity across various teams, including product development, data infrastructure, and security engineering.
The tool enables non-technical staff to tackle complex projects, automate tasks, and bridge skill gaps, resulting in time savings and improved productivity.
Claude Code's use cases cover various aspects, including codebase navigation, debugging, documentation synthesis, and parallel task management, showcasing its versatility and potential for widespread adoption.