Hasta La Gadget!

One day after Meta rolled out its standalone AI app, Mark Zuckerberg has shared more about how the company plans to eventually monetize its generative AI assistant. During the company’s first quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg said Meta AI could one day show ads and product recommendations. He also hinted at plans for a subscription component for those who want a more “premium” version of the assistant.

“I think that there will be a large opportunity to show product recommendations or ads, as well as a premium service for people who want to unlock more compute for additional functionality or intelligence,” Zuckerberg said.

He added that for now the company is more focused on growing Meta AI’s usage. (He announced yesterday that Meta Ai had reached “almost” 1 billion monthly users.) “I expect that we’re going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we’ll really be ready to start building out the business here,” he said.

Zuckerberg’s comments — just one day after Meta introduced its standalone AI app — underscores how important the assistant is to the company. The Facebook founder has repeatedly said he wants Meta AI to be the most used AI assistant in the world, and he said on Wednesday’s call that a standalone app would be particularly important for attracting US users.

Meta’s strategy for monetizing the assistant in many ways mirrors its approach to Threads, which only just began expanding its early experiments with ads this month long after it reached hundreds of millions of users. Speaking of Threads, Zuckerberg also shared some new milestones for Threads, saying that text-based app now has 350 million monthly active users and that time spent on the platform has increased 35 percent over the last six months thanks to improvements to the company’s recommendations systems.

Later in the call, Meta’s CFO Susan Li shared that the company has also been testing its Llama model to power Threads’ recommendations and that the addition of the large language model has led to a 4 percent increase in time spent. “It remains early here, but a big focus this year will be on exploring how we can deploy this for other content types, including photos and videos,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-a-mulling-ads-and-a-premium-version-of-its-ai-assistant-mark-zuckerberg-says-225202560.html?src=rss

One day after Meta rolled out its standalone AI app, Mark Zuckerberg has shared more about how the company plans to eventually monetize its generative AI assistant. During the company’s first quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg said Meta AI could one day show ads and product recommendations. He also hinted at plans for a subscription component for those who want a more “premium” version of the assistant.

“I think that there will be a large opportunity to show product recommendations or ads, as well as a premium service for people who want to unlock more compute for additional functionality or intelligence,” Zuckerberg said.

He added that for now the company is more focused on growing Meta AI’s usage. (He announced yesterday that Meta Ai had reached “almost” 1 billion monthly users.) “I expect that we’re going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we’ll really be ready to start building out the business here,” he said.

Zuckerberg’s comments — just one day after Meta introduced its standalone AI app — underscores how important the assistant is to the company. The Facebook founder has repeatedly said he wants Meta AI to be the most used AI assistant in the world, and he said on Wednesday’s call that a standalone app would be particularly important for attracting US users.

Meta’s strategy for monetizing the assistant in many ways mirrors its approach to Threads, which only just began expanding its early experiments with ads this month long after it reached hundreds of millions of users. Speaking of Threads, Zuckerberg also shared some new milestones for Threads, saying that text-based app now has 350 million monthly active users and that time spent on the platform has increased 35 percent over the last six months thanks to improvements to the company’s recommendations systems.

Later in the call, Meta’s CFO Susan Li shared that the company has also been testing its Llama model to power Threads’ recommendations and that the addition of the large language model has led to a 4 percent increase in time spent. “It remains early here, but a big focus this year will be on exploring how we can deploy this for other content types, including photos and videos,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-a-mulling-ads-and-a-premium-version-of-its-ai-assistant-mark-zuckerberg-says-225202560.html?src=rss

One day after Meta rolled out its standalone AI app, Mark Zuckerberg has shared more about how the company plans to eventually monetize its generative AI assistant. During the company’s first quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg said Meta AI could one day show ads and product recommendations. He also hinted at plans for a subscription component for those who want a more “premium” version of the assistant.

“I think that there will be a large opportunity to show product recommendations or ads, as well as a premium service for people who want to unlock more compute for additional functionality or intelligence,” Zuckerberg said.

He added that for now the company is more focused on growing Meta AI’s usage. (He announced yesterday that Meta Ai had reached “almost” 1 billion monthly users.) “I expect that we’re going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we’ll really be ready to start building out the business here,” he said.

Zuckerberg’s comments — just one day after Meta introduced its standalone AI app — underscores how important the assistant is to the company. The Facebook founder has repeatedly said he wants Meta AI to be the most used AI assistant in the world, and he said on Wednesday’s call that a standalone app would be particularly important for attracting US users.

Meta’s strategy for monetizing the assistant in many ways mirrors its approach to Threads, which only just began expanding its early experiments with ads this month long after it reached hundreds of millions of users. Speaking of Threads, Zuckerberg also shared some new milestones for Threads, saying that text-based app now has 350 million monthly active users and that time spent on the platform has increased 35 percent over the last six months thanks to improvements to the company’s recommendations systems.

Later in the call, Meta’s CFO Susan Li shared that the company has also been testing its Llama model to power Threads’ recommendations and that the addition of the large language model has led to a 4 percent increase in time spent. “It remains early here, but a big focus this year will be on exploring how we can deploy this for other content types, including photos and videos,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-a-mulling-ads-and-a-premium-version-of-its-ai-assistant-mark-zuckerberg-says-225202560.html?src=rss

Duolingo has officially announced a major shift towards becoming an AI-first company. CEO Luis von Ahn stated that AI is already reshaping work processes and emphasized the importance of adapting quickly. Drawing parallels to Duolingo’s early success with a mobile-first strategy in 2012, von Ahn noted that betting early on emerging platforms has been key to the company’s growth. With AI now seen as the next major shift, Duolingo is positioning itself to lead rather than follow.

According to the announcement, AI will not simply improve efficiency; it is central to fulfilling Duolingo’s mission of providing scalable, high-quality education. The company highlighted how AI has already enhanced its operations by replacing a previously slow, manual content creation process. Without AI, expanding their educational content to reach more learners would take decades. AI is also enabling new features, such as Video Call, bringing the company closer to offering tutoring experiences comparable to the best human instructors.

As part of this transition, Duolingo will gradually reduce reliance on contract workers for tasks that AI can handle. In addition, proficiency with AI tools will become a criterion in hiring decisions and performance reviews. Headcount increases will only be approved when automation is not a viable alternative, and most teams will launch initiatives to rethink and redesign their workflows around AI capabilities.

Despite these changes, Duolingo reassured its employees that the move is not about replacing its workforce but about empowering it. The goal is to eliminate bottlenecks and free employees from repetitive tasks so they can focus on creative problem-solving and innovation. The company committed to offering additional training, mentorship, and AI-focused tools to support employees during the transition.

Leadership acknowledged that while change can be intimidating, moving swiftly to adopt AI will better position Duolingo to achieve its goals and ensure employees remain ahead of industry trends. Although some risks and imperfections are expected, Duolingo prefers to act decisively rather than waiting for the technology to mature fully. The overall message emphasizes optimism: the integration of AI is intended to strengthen the company’s mission and enhance the work experience for its current team members.

Duolingo Will Replace Its Workforce By AI For Some Tasks

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Those who have been fortunate enough to lock in a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order will surely be counting down the days until the console arrives on June 5. Nintendo is laying the groundwork for its upcoming system with an update for the original Switch that adds support for a few key features.

One that you can start using right now is the Virtual Game Cards function. This lets you lend digital games to friends and family members who are on the same Nintendo Family Account. Nintendo says the aim here is to make it as easy to share digital games with your loved ones as letting them borrow a physical game card. A key catch here is that you need to connect to another Switch system locally to borrow a game. The Switch 2 will support this feature as well.

Next up, Nintendo has enabled cloud transfers for those who are moving to the Switch 2. Once you’ve updated your Switch software to version 20.0.0, in the System section of the settings, you should see a “System Transfer to Nintendo Switch 2” option. This will let you transfer all your data to a Switch 2 locally once you have the latest console in your possession.

There’s also the ability to send all of your transfer data to the cloud now. That could come in useful for you’re planning to sell your Nintendo Switch to help fund a purchase of a new system. You’d be able to do that immediately to help you prepare to buy your Switch 2. The main downside is that uploading transfer data to the cloud will reset the Switch to its factory settings, so maybe don’t do that just yet if you’re still planning to play it for the next month (or until you get your Switch 2).

Nintendo will store the data on its servers for one year. You can either complete the transfer to a Switch 2 in that time or cancel it and download the data back onto a Switch.

The latest Switch system update adds support for one other key feature. It’s called GameShare, and it enables local wireless multiplayer across several Switch systems. Only one person needs to own a copy of a compatible game to do this. You can’t do anything with GameShare yet, however. You’ll only be able to share games from a Switch 2, but you’ll be able to do so to Switch, Switch Lite and other Switch 2 units.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-update-adds-virtual-game-cards-and-switch-2-cloud-transfer-support-160057826.html?src=rss