#zuckerberg

Meta Drops an Open Model You Can Actually Run on Your Own PC

Meta pushed out a new downloadable AI model this week, and for once it's not locked behind some cloud subscription. The thing runs on a regular personal computer, which honestly makes it the most interesting model release of the month for people who don't want their data floating through someone else's servers. Zuckerberg paired it with a 6,500-word manifesto about AI spreading American values — a lot of words, sure, but the model itself is the part worth paying attention to.

To be fair, saying it runs on a PC is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Don't picture it matching the top-tier cloud models head to head. Picture a local assistant that's genuinely yours, no monthly bill, no rate limits, and no terms-of-service hovering over your prompts. For DIY types and tinkerers, that trade-off is real. For anyone expecting frontier-benchmark magic, it's not that.

Musk's $16.8B Texas Fab Isn't About Cars

SpaceX and Tesla announced a $16.8 billion AI chip plant in Texas — a 100-million-square-foot complex that will make, package, and test chips for Optimus robots, Cybercabs, and orbital data centers. That's not a typo. A hundred million square feet is a small city of silicon. The stated goal is narrowing a looming supply gap and adding over 3,000 jobs to U.S. chip production.

Here's where I get a little skeptical. Musk has a habit of announcing enormous infrastructure projects with ambitious timelines, and follow-through has been mixed. The money and the square footage are real enough on paper, but between the permitting, the equipment, and the actual yield ramp, this is a years-long slog, not a headline. Worth watching, worth tempering expectations.

Apple Watch: The Rethink Is Real, But It's a Rumor

Reports are circulating that Apple is exploring a shake-up of the Apple Watch — a round display model, a screenless fitness tracker band, and ceramic cases. Some of this is genuinely fresh ground for Cupertino, which has been stubbornly square-faced for a decade.

Unverified industry rumor, for reference only.

My gut on the round watch: it's the kind of thing that photographs beautifully and frustrates in daily use. Round faces are a nightmare for list-based UIs, and Apple's watchOS is built around exactly that. A screenless fitness band, though? That I'm actually curious about — a low-key tracker that doesn't demand your attention is something a lot of people keep asking for.

Quick Hits

- Amazon's new West Texas data center is being powered by a dedicated gas plant that could become one of the single largest greenhouse-gas sources in the country — 7.65 GW from 35 turbines, mostly off the grid. - OpenAI says it slowed development on parts of its Astra model over cybersecurity concerns. Slowing an AI model for security is rare and worth applauding, even if it smells a little like preemptive PR. - Microsoft Edge is killing Manifest V2, which cuts off uBlock Origin and older ad blockers — same move Chrome made, and just as annoying. - South Korea's July chip exports jumped 179% on memory pricing and AI demand. The memory crunch is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that number.

Closing Thoughts

The thread running through all of this is compute — who makes it, who owns it, and who gets to run it locally. Meta's open model is the counterweight to the mega-fabs and the trillion-dollar cloud buildouts. That tension is the most interesting story in tech right now, and it's not even close.

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay nearly $1 billion following a 2023 lawsuit filed by the state’s attorneys, marking the first time a state has successfully sued the social media giant over child safety issues. Judge Bryan Biedscheid labeled the company a “public nuisance” akin to pollution “that must be abated” after finding that Meta repeatedly violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices…

The New York Times

By Eli Tan

Aug. 6, 2026

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million and make changes to the way young people can use its platforms, the largest financial penalty yet against the tech giant in its ongoing legal battles over social media harm and addiction.

The ruling, issued late Thursday, was in addition to $375 million that Meta was ordered to pay in the same case in March, when a jury found that the company misled users about the safety of its platforms and enabled the sexual exploitation of young people.

The $567 million will go toward a fund to remedy damages caused by the company, including money for treatment of young people who have been harmed by social media.

“Although Meta is not alone in this regard, its social media platforms are a significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico’s youth established by the substantial evidence in this case,” Judge Bryan Biedscheid, of State District Court in Santa Fe, wrote in the ruling.

Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said in statement that the company disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal.

“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,” he said. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

As part of the changes ordered in the judge’s ruling, Meta is prohibited in New Mexico from sending push notifications to the accounts of underage users on Instagram and Facebook between the hours of 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. It also must limit the amount of time those users spend on its platforms to no more than 90 hours a month.

Meta is facing thousands of lawsuits across the country filed by teenagers, school districts and attorneys general claiming that its platforms, and features like infinite scroll, caused widespread harm. New Mexico was the first of dozens of states to take on the tech giant in court, and the company heads to a trial later this month in Oakland, Calif., to take on a case filed by attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.

“For years, Meta knew its platforms were harming New Mexico’s kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and it chose engagement and profit over their safety,” said the state attorney general, Raúl Torrez. “Today, Meta is paying for that choice.”

In the latest national news, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has taken a strong stand against Meta over the temporary removal of a Facebook video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Committee chairman Nishikant Dubey said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg should personally apologise for the incident, warning that the company could face the loss of its safe harbour protection if it fails to do so.

Why the parliamentary panel objected

The controversy stems from the temporary removal of a Facebook video in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about action against examination paper leaks. According to the committee, the video remained unavailable on Facebook for nearly five hours before it was restored.

Meta representatives reportedly told the panel that the removal happened because of an algorithmic or technical error and expressed regret over the incident. However, committee members said the explanation was not sufficient given the significance of the Prime Minister's official communication.

Demand for a personal apology

The issue has also attracted global attention, making it one of the top international news headlines in Hindi as debates continue over social media accountability and content moderation. After a meeting that lasted more than three hours, Dubey said the matter could not end with a routine explanation from company officials.

According to him, the apology should come directly from Zuckerberg. He also argued that if such an apology is not made, the government should consider withdrawing Meta's protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, commonly known as the safe harbour provision. This legal protection shields intermediaries from liability for third-party content if they comply with certain legal obligations.

Meta asked to submit written response

The parliamentary panel has reportedly directed Meta to submit a detailed written explanation within 10 days. Members also questioned company officials about how the content was removed, who authorised the decision, and what safeguards are being introduced to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The discussion also included broader concerns about content moderation, platform transparency, and the functioning of recommendation algorithms.

Debate over platform accountability

The incident has renewed the debate over the responsibilities of large technology companies operating in India. While some lawmakers called for stronger accountability and legal consequences, others stressed that social media platforms must also protect free expression and maintain transparent moderation policies.