Meta

In a significant development within the artificial intelligence landscape, Indian-origin AI researcher Trapit Bansal has departed OpenAI to join Meta’s newly formed superintelligence unit. An IIT Kanpur alumnus with advanced degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Bansal is recognized as a key contributor to reinforcement learning at OpenAI. Meta’s aggressive talent acquisition reflects its strategic push to regain leadership in AI amid recent challenges.

Meta’s pursuit of AI dominance accelerates as the company recruits top talent and invests heavily in AI research, underscoring its ambition to lead in the emerging field of superintelligence. Recent reports indicate that Meta has hired Trapit Bansal, a former OpenAI researcher, to join its new superintelligence team. This move follows Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in AI data labeling firm Scale AI and the hiring of Alexandr Wang, Scale's former CEO, to lead the initiative.

n a significant leadership transition, Meta has named Arun Srinivas as the new Managing Director and Head of India operations. The announcement follows the recent exit of Shivnath Thukral, the company’s former Vice President and Head of Public Policy. Srinivas will assume his new role beginning July 1, 2025, and report directly to Sandhya Devanathan, who now oversees Meta’s operations across India and Southeast Asia.

Meta has taken a definitive step toward monetizing WhatsApp by introducing advertisements within its Status feature—mirroring Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories. The ads, which appear in the "Updates" tab, mark a notable shift in WhatsApp’s user experience, particularly since its original founders opposed any form of advertising. In addition, Meta will start displaying promoted channels under the Explore section, allowing users to subscribe for exclusive updates.

A new 2025 study by analytics firm Apteco has reignited the global conversation on digital privacy, revealing that leading mobile apps continue to collect vast amounts of personal information. Topping the list are Meta's social platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—followed by LinkedIn, Amazon Alexa, and YouTube. Using Apple’s “Data Linked to You” privacy labels as a benchmark, the report outlines the extent to which these apps gather data ranging from precise location and search history to payment details and personal identifiers.

WhatsApp, the popular messaging platform owned by Meta, is rolling out a new software update on June 1, 2025, which will significantly impact a wide array of older smartphones. With a minimum operating system requirement now set for iOS 15.1 and Android 5.1, WhatsApp will cease to function on devices that fall short of these standards. This shift, initially set for May 5 but delayed for user preparation, will affect a variety of devices, including older models of iPhones and Android smartphones.

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has predicted that within the next 12 to 18 months, artificial intelligence will take over the majority of the coding process for the company's Llama project. Zuckerberg envisions AI progressing beyond simple auto-completion, achieving capabilities such as running tests, identifying bugs, and writing high-quality code autonomously. This transformation is part of Meta’s broader strategy to integrate AI deeply into its development processes, with AI-powered coding agents at the heart of the initiative.