Llama Drama 🦙🎭

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the growing row over Meta’s new Llama 4 AI models. Experts claim Meta has ‘gamed’ the benchmarks for it flagship AI products, making them seem more competent than what they are. Meta denies any impropriety. We also have news on the TikTok craze that’ll make boomers shake their heads in disgust, a new email product from one of our favorite collaboration tools, the impending NotebookLM app, plus our App of the Week, and the latest news from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🦙🎭 Meta – Tech Experts Call Foul Play on AI Model’s Performance

We’ll let you in on a little editorial secret for What’s Appening: We made a decision a few months back that we would stop reporting on new AI models unless they offered something truly game-changing. It just gets a little dull to talk about bigger parameters and context windows, especially with the frequency with which new models get released. But we are covering Meta’s new Llama 4 models as our main story today. Why? Meta has reportedly been a bit loose with the truth in reporting the benchmarks (basically the AI’s performance). Both TechCrunch and The Verge have called Meta out, with the former saying the reported performance was “misleading” and the latter going a little stronger by saying it’s “gaming” the system by pretending to be better than the opposition. If you want less diplomatic analysis, developers on X have been having a field day pointing out how the products released are different from what Meta has claimed. It’s not a good look for Meta, sure, but we think it’s also linked to the pressure on these AI companies to unveil something earth-shatteringly different to their rivals. Meta’s not alone in feeling pressure. OpenAI confirmed this week it would be delaying (again) the release of GPT-5. #MetaGames Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Lingoclip

Language-learning apps can tell us a lot about using gamification for user retention. If you’ve used Duolingo, you’ll know exactly what we mean. Yet, our App of the Week takes things to another level, helping you learn a new language through music. Lingoclip is packed full of different learning modes, including the type of games you’ll find with its competitors, but the karaoke-style tutorials are a novel way of mastering a new tongue. Like Duolingo, there is a free tier, but if you want unlimited learning songs from artists like Taylor Swift, you’ll want the paid tier. It costs $3.50 per month if you pay for a year upfront. Find Lingoclip here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 1M Signups

📈📉 ChatGPT – OpenAI Reports 1 Million New Users in One Hour

Last week, we reported on the viral success of OpenAI’s new image generator, which is offered through ChatGPT (both paid and free subscribers). Well, such was the success that OpenAI announced it had added one million new users in just one hour. It is astonishing, and it confirms ChatGPT is still adding users at a tremendous pace: 100 million since December, taking the total to 400 million. It just needs to find a way for more of them to pay. #ViralSuccess Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

📣 Promos

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