Mark Zuckerberg Teases Wearable Tech with Neural Interface in Facebook Post

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York, Oct. 25, 2019. (AP)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York, Oct. 25, 2019. (AP)
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Mark Zuckerberg Teases Wearable Tech with Neural Interface in Facebook Post

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York, Oct. 25, 2019. (AP)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York, Oct. 25, 2019. (AP)

Meta Platforms Inc's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, on Wednesday teased a new smart glasses project with EssilorLuxottica, posting a photo of the eyewear company's chairman sporting a prototype of a neural interface wristband - designed for directing other devices.

"Here Leonardo is using a prototype of our neural interface EMG wristband that will eventually let you control your glasses and other devices," Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook, referring to EssilorLuxottica's chairman, Leonardo Del Vecchio. He closed his message with a smiley-face emoji wearing sunglasses.

Facebook - which changed its name to Meta Platforms in October - said in a blog post last year that it planned to develop a wristband that would control augmented reality glasses, allowing users to interact with a virtual world using finger movements.
Zuckerberg was in Milan to discuss plans for new smart glasses with the eyewear company, he said.

Tech companies Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google have piled in to the wearable tech business, developing augmented reality glasses in a bet they could one day replace mobile phones. Google also embraced fitness tracking technology by acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion.

In 2020, EssilorLuxottica and Meta Platforms announced a multiyear collaboration to develop smart glasses. They currently sell frames like the classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer model that are embedded with technology, allowing the wearer to take photos and listen to music and calls, starting at $299.



Reddit Sues AI Giant Anthropic Over Content Use

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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Reddit Sues AI Giant Anthropic Over Content Use

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Social media outlet Reddit filed a lawsuit Wednesday against artificial intelligence company Anthropic, accusing the startup of illegally scraping millions of user comments to train its Claude chatbot without permission or compensation.

The lawsuit in a California state court represents the latest front in the growing battle between content providers and AI companies over the use of data to train increasingly sophisticated language models that power the generative AI revolution.

Anthropic, valued at $61.5 billion and heavily backed by Amazon, was founded in 2021 by former executives from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.

The company, known for its Claude chatbot and AI models, positions itself as focused on AI safety and responsible development.

"This case is about the two faces of Anthropic: the public face that attempts to ingratiate itself into the consumer's consciousness with claims of righteousness and respect for boundaries and the law, and the private face that ignores any rules that interfere with its attempts to further line its pockets," the suit said.

According to the complaint, Anthropic has been training its models on Reddit content since at least December 2021, with CEO Dario Amodei co-authoring research papers that specifically identified high-quality content for data training.

The lawsuit alleges that despite Anthropic's public claims that it had blocked its bots from accessing Reddit, the company's automated systems continued to harvest Reddit's servers more than 100,000 times in subsequent months.

Reddit is seeking monetary damages and a court injunction to force Anthropic to comply with its user agreement terms. The company has requested a jury trial.

In an email to AFP, Anthropic said "We disagree with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously."

Reddit has entered into licensing agreements with other AI giants including Google and OpenAI, which allow those companies to use Reddit content under terms that protect user privacy and provide compensation to the platform.

Those deals have helped lift Reddit's share price since it went public in 2024.

Reddit shares closed up more than six percent on Wednesday following news of the lawsuit.

Musicians, book authors, visual artists and news publications have sued the various AI companies that used their data without permission or payment.

AI companies generally defend their practices by claiming fair use, arguing that training AI on large datasets fundamentally changes the original content and is necessary for innovation.

Though most of these lawsuits are still in early stages, their outcomes could have a profound effect on the shape of the AI industry.