Tipping the Scales 🦸⚖️

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we are covering Meta’s big play for “Superintelligence.” There’s similar vibes to October 2021 and its Metaverse bet as it repositions with big investments and big pronouncements on the future of AI. We parse out what it all means below. We also have news on a potential release date for AI Siri, the mystery of Instagram account suspensions, Bluesky’s woes, our App of the Week, Stat of the Week, and the latest from 3Advance.

🎬 Our Top Take

🦸🧠 Meta – $15B Bet on “Superintelligence” Is Just the Start

Over the last year or two, the key goal in the AI race has been AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). AGI is basically the tipping point where AI’s abilities match those of humans. However, in Silicon Valley right now, the word on everyone’s lips is “Superintelligence,” i.e., the point where AI exceeds humans in all tasks. Part of the scramble to get on this train has been precipitated by Meta’s $15B investment in Scale AI, a startup built to accelerate the development of AI applications. Scale AI will be absorbed into Meta’s new Superintelligence lab, and co-founder Alexandr Wang will reportedly join the team. Experts are divided on what this all means. Some see it as a big, bold step from Meta to get ahead of Google and OpenAI, especially by bringing Wang (who is seen as one of the world’s foremost AI visionaries). Others have said that it puts the cart before the horse: Much in the same way that Meta proclaimed it was building the Metaverse (remember that?) before we cracked mainstream VR, it is betting on Superintelligence before we’ve solved AGI. This repositioning is being reported amid Mark Zuckerberg’s frustrations with Llama 4 (or lack thereof), so only time will tell if Zuck is making a desperate gamble or is astutely getting ahead of the game. #SuperIntelligence Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Scratch

With all the talk of AI vibe coding recently, there have been some, like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who’ve claimed programming should no longer be considered an essential skill for kids. Respectfully, we disagree. Learning the basics at a young age will set kids up to understand the building blocks of an AI-powered future. We have selected Scratch – a free kids’ programming app developed in partnership with MIT – as one of the best to learn the fundamentals. What’s more, kids will learn about design, animating, logic games, problem-solving, storytelling, and more. Check out Scratch for Mac here. If the kids are a bit younger, you can try ScratchJnr for iPad here. All apps are free.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 490K Jobs

📈📉 YouTube – 2024 Figures Show Platform’s Impact on the Economy

We have covered YouTube’s economic influence in many newsletters past, but it never ceases to amaze us how integral the video-sharing platform is to the economy. In 2024 alone, the platform created 490,000 full-time jobs, adding about $55B to the US economy. It’s now almost too big to fail. #JobsTube Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

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