Andrew McCollum

Day after nuclear power vow, Meta announces largest-ever datacenter powered by fossil fuels

Louisiana facility's three natural gas turbine plants to churn out 2,262 MW

On-Prem05 Dec 2024 | 41

Fission impossible? Meta wants up to 4GW of American atomic power for AI

Facebook titan targets early 2030s for reactor deployment

Off-Prem04 Dec 2024 | 26

EU stings Meta for nearly a billion bucks over competition-trampling Facebook Marketplace

Mark Z does not like this

Personal Tech15 Nov 2024 | 27

NatWest blocks bevy of apps in clampdown on unmonitorable comms

From guidance to firm action... no more WhatsApp, Meta's Messenger, Signal, Telegram and more

Security14 Nov 2024 | 25

Continuity of CHIPS and Science Act questioned in a Trump presidency

Asia In Brief Plus: A premium minimum wage for Malaysian datacenter workers; N Koreans maybe discover spicy content; S Korea fines Meta for data misuse, and more

Systems11 Nov 2024 | 34

Meta gives nod to weaponizing Llama – but only for the good guys

Change of mind follows discovery China was playing with it uninvited?

AI + ML06 Nov 2024 | 9

Former Facebook lobbyist joins UK comms regulator as non-exec director

Updated Who better to watch the watchmen?

Networks05 Nov 2024 | 16

Meta's plan for nuclear datacenter reportedly undone by bees

Environmental and regulatory obstacles led to the cancellation of an AI bit farm, report claims

On-Prem04 Nov 2024 | 20

Meta spruiks benefits of open sourcing Llama models – to its own bottom line

It's not like Zuck needs the coin despite increased infrastructure spend, headcount, losses on VR

Off-Prem31 Oct 2024 | 10

US lawmakers push DoJ to prosecute tax prep firms for leaking taxpayer data to big tech

TaxSlayer, H&R Block, TaxAct, and Ramsey Solutions accused of sharing info with Meta and Google

Security22 Oct 2024 | 6

Meta gives Llama 3 vision, now if only it had a brain

Hands on El Reg gets its claws in multimodal models - and shows you how to use them and what they can do

AI + ML06 Oct 2024 | 37

Harvard duo hacks Meta Ray-Bans to dox strangers on sight in seconds

'You can build this in a few days – even as a very naïve developer'

Cybersecurity Month04 Oct 2024 | 115

Hyperscalers are carving up the ocean floor into private internet highways

Think tank warns of sovereignty risks from subsea cable consolidation

Networks25 Sep 2024 | 6

Amazon, Tesla, Meta considered harmful to democracy

Exploiting workers, undermining public services, exacerbating climate crisis, ITUC says

Bootnotes23 Sep 2024 | 41

WhatsApp still working on making View Once chats actually disappear for all

Updated So far it's more like View Forever

Patches18 Sep 2024 | 16

Meta back at it, harvesting Britons' public Facebook, Insta feeds for AI training

I wanna know 🎵 What you're feeling 🎵 Tell me what's on your mind

Personal Tech14 Sep 2024 | 33

Australia’s government spent the week boxing Big Tech

With social media age limits, anti-scam laws, privacy tweaks, and misinformation rules Elon Musk labelled 'fascist'

Public Sector13 Sep 2024 | 41

Big Tech: Malaysia won't let us set our own rules and that's not fair and makes us grumpy

Asia Internet Coalition asks for rethink of social media licensing law with the old 'You'll scare away investors' line – a week after AWS opened a region

Public Sector28 Aug 2024 | 22

Meta digs deep to strike geothermal power deal for its US datacenters

Teaming up with Sage Geosystems, house of Facbook plans to tap into Earth's fiery underbelly

On-Prem27 Aug 2024 | 9

Meta to boost training infra for Llama 4 tenfold, maybe deliver it next year

Sweet sweet GenAI money not yet flowing, Zuck reckons other ML efforts are paying off

AI + ML01 Aug 2024 | 4

Meta to cough up $1.4B to end fight over 'unlawful' facial recognition of friends

Everything's bigger in Texas – even the settlement deals

AI + ML30 Jul 2024 | 16

Meta's AI safety system defeated by the space bar

'Ignore previous instructions' thwarts Prompt-Guard model if you just add some good ol' ASCII code 32

AI + ML29 Jul 2024 | 57

Mistral Large 2 leaps out as a leaner, meaner rival to GPT-4-class AI models

It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it

AI + ML25 Jul 2024 | 2

Meta claims ‘world’s largest' open AI model with Llama 3.1 405B debut

Zuck says he wants to mimic Linux and go open source, kind of

AI + ML23 Jul 2024 | 11

Meta's mass layoff severance agreements illegal, says judge

You can't offer a better deal in exchange for silence, argues NLRB

Networks22 Jul 2024 | 30

Privacy warriors gripe to UK watchdog about Meta harvesting user data to train AI

Move follows Instagram and Facebook giant's decision to reverse direction in EU after protests

Security16 Jul 2024 | 10

Meta training AI models on citizen data gets a hard não from Brazil

Updated Zuckerborg's justification isn't good enough, says watchdog

AI + ML03 Jul 2024 | 4

Antitrust cops cry foul over Meta's pay-or-consent ultimatum to Europeans

Facebook, Instagram gobble up same data whether you hand over cash or not

Personal Tech01 Jul 2024 | 40

Appeals court reanimates lawsuit accusing Meta of hiring bias against US citizens

Software techie claims he was snubbed because he wasn't on an H-1B

Software27 Jun 2024 | 18

Meta, Microsoft SQL Server make strange bedfellows on a couch of cyber-pain

Opinion Yanks get food poisoning far more often than Brits. Is American IT just as sickening?

Security24 Jun 2024 | 41

Meta warns bit flips, other hardware faults cause AI errors

It's no hallucination: '4 in 1,000 inferences inaccurate' due to this alone, depending on the setup

AI + ML21 Jun 2024 | 39

Australian billionaire wins right to sue Facebook in the US over scam ads

Andrew Forrest has spent five years railing against promos that falsely claim he's found the route to crypto riches

Personal Tech20 Jun 2024 | 78

Researchers find Meta's withdrawal of misinformation tool hard to swallow

Feature If the new system is so good, why not onboard everyone who accessed the old system?

Networks18 Jun 2024 | 41

Meta accused of trying to discredit ad researchers

As more than 70 civil society groups sign open letter slamming 'intimidation'

Personal Tech16 Jun 2024 | 35

Meta won't train AI on Euro posts after all, as watchdogs put their paws down

Facebook parent calls step forward for privacy a 'step backwards'

AI + ML14 Jun 2024 | 41

Meta will use your social media posts to train its AI. Europe gets an opt out

What's German for 'thank goodness for actually useful privacy regulations'?

AI + ML10 Jun 2024 | 22

Meta faces multiple complaints in Europe over plans to train AI on user data

Opt out, if you can, or prepare for your posts to be ingested

AI + ML06 Jun 2024 | 57

Meta algorithms push Black people more toward expensive universities, study finds

Special report Just as we saw with housing, Facebook giant's advertising system seems to treat Whites and POC differently

AI + ML04 Jun 2024 | 44

Big Tech is not much help when fighting a junta, and FOSS doesn't ride to the rescue

Opponents of Myanmar’s internet-nobbling military government don't like when Facebook asks for their real names

Security21 May 2024 | 25

Graph database shows Biden outspends Trump in social media ad war

But incumbent is mentioned a lot more in attack material

Databases17 May 2024 | 31

EU probes Meta over its provisions for protecting children

Has social media biz done enough to comply with Digital Services Act? Maybe not

Security16 May 2024 | 3

Prof asks court to protect his Unfollow Everything 2.0 extension from Facebook's ire

You've got to fight for your right to personalize

Personal Tech02 May 2024 | 47

European Commission starts formal probe of Meta over election misinformation

Europe takes action after Facebook parent withdraws monitoring tool

Security30 Apr 2024 | 15

Meta's value plummets as Zuckerberg admits AI needs more time and money

Revenues up, but is the AI hype bubble is threatening to burst?

AI + ML25 Apr 2024 | 41

Meta comms chief handed six-year Russian prison sentence for 'justifying terrorism'

Memo to Andy Stone: Don't go to Moscow for your holidays

Public Sector23 Apr 2024 | 27

Europol now latest cops to beg Big Tech to ditch E2EE

Don't bore us, get to the chorus: You need less privacy so we can protect the children

Security22 Apr 2024 | 25

Watchdog tells Dutch govt: 'Do not use Facebook if there is uncertainty about privacy'

Meta insists it's just misunderstood and it's safe to talk to citizens over FB

Security22 Apr 2024 | 9

Meta lets Llama 3 LLM out to graze, claims it can give Google and Anthropic a kicking

Plans multilingual 400 billion parameter version, but starts with more modest fare

AI + ML19 Apr 2024 | 8

EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy

Platforms should not confront users with 'binary choice' over personal data use

Security18 Apr 2024 | 73

Next-gen Meta AI chip serves up ads while sipping power

Fresh silicon won't curb Zuck's appetite for GPUs just yet

On-Prem10 Apr 2024 | 6

Lawsuit claims Meta hobbled Facebook Watch to help Netflix

Advertiser antitrust lawsuit says claimed deal with Netflix is anticompetitive

Personal Tech02 Apr 2024 | 2

No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

Comment Land of the Free has lost its way in quest for profits

Offbeat02 Apr 2024 | 77

Meta accused of snarfing people's Snapchat data via traffic decryption

I ain't afraid of no ghosts, but in this case...

Personal Tech27 Mar 2024 | 20

In-app browsers are still a privacy, security, and choice problem

Regulators reminded that longstanding concerns haven't been addressed

Applications27 Mar 2024 | 26

Meta connects Threads to the Fediverse

Doing things outside the walled garden is kinda hard, devs admit

Personal Tech22 Mar 2024 | 18

Meta, Microsoft, X, Match pledge selves to Epic battle against Apple App Store

You have my sword ... and my bow ... and my axe!

Applications21 Mar 2024 | 14