Meta's Zuckerberg Not Liable in Lawsuits over Social Media Harm to Children

Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacts as he testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 31, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacts as he testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 31, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
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Meta's Zuckerberg Not Liable in Lawsuits over Social Media Harm to Children

Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacts as he testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 31, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacts as he testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 31, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

A federal judge said Meta Platforms (META.O), CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not personally liable in 25 lawsuits accusing his company of addicting children to social media.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California rejected accusations on Thursday that Zuckerberg directed Meta's efforts to conceal from children the serious mental health risks of using Facebook and Instagram, Reuters reported.

The plaintiffs called Meta's billionaire co-founder the "guiding spirit" behind alleged concealment efforts, saying he ignored repeated internal warnings about the risks and publicly downplayed them.

But the judge found a lack of specifics about what Zuckerberg did wrong, and said "control of corporate activity alone is insufficient" to establish liability. Her decision does not affect related claims against Meta itself.

The plaintiffs brought claims under the laws of 13 US states: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Previn Warren, a partner at Motley Rice representing the plaintiffs, said on Friday his clients will continue gathering evidence "to uncover the truth about how Big Tech has knowingly prioritized profits over the safety of our children."

The 25 lawsuits are among several hundred by children, their families and school districts seeking damages from Meta, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), Google, ByteDance's TikTok and Snap's (SNAP.N), Snapchat over social media addiction.

Dozens of US state attorneys general are pursuing similar cases against Meta, linking its social media platforms to anxiety, depression, insomnia, and interference with education and daily life.

The case is In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-md-03047.



Amazon Offers Free Computing Power to AI Researchers, Aiming to Challenge Nvidia

(FILES) This picture taken on July 4, 2022 shows the logo of Amazon, a major online shopping company, displayed at Amazon Amagasaki Fulfillent Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
(FILES) This picture taken on July 4, 2022 shows the logo of Amazon, a major online shopping company, displayed at Amazon Amagasaki Fulfillent Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
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Amazon Offers Free Computing Power to AI Researchers, Aiming to Challenge Nvidia

(FILES) This picture taken on July 4, 2022 shows the logo of Amazon, a major online shopping company, displayed at Amazon Amagasaki Fulfillent Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
(FILES) This picture taken on July 4, 2022 shows the logo of Amazon, a major online shopping company, displayed at Amazon Amagasaki Fulfillent Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Amazon.com's cloud computing unit on Tuesday said it will offer free computing power to researchers who want to use its custom artificial intelligence chips, aiming to challenge Nvidia's popularity among those researchers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) said it will offer credits to use its cloud data centers that it values at $110 million to researchers who want to tap Trainium, its chip for developing artificial intelligence models that competes with chips from Nvidia, as well as Advanced Micro Devices and Alphabet's cloud division.

AWS said researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Berkeley, are taking part in the program. The company plans to make 40,000 of the first-generation Trainium chips available for the program, Reuters reported.

The move comes as AWS, still the largest cloud computing company by sales, has seen a sharp challenge from Microsoft as software developers look to harness new types of chips for AI work. AWS is hoping to gain attention for its own AI chips by taking a different strategy than Nvidia, said Gadi Hutt, who leads business development for the AI chips at AWS.

To program Nvidia's chips, most AI developers use what is called Cuda, Nvidia's flagship software, rather than programming the chip directly. AWS instead plans to publish documentation about the most fundamental part of its chip - what is called the instruction set architecture - and let customers program the chip directly.

Hutt said the approach is aimed at luring large customers who might want to make small tweaks that could add up to big gains when using tens of thousands of chips at a time.

"Think about folks that are using infrastructure and putting hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more" toward rented computing power, Hutt said. "They would take any opportunity possible to increase performance and reduce the cost."