Meta

Cartoon robot engineer linking two desktop computers beneath a glowing puzzle-piece brain in a mountain workshop

Meta released Muse Spark Open on Thursday, October 15, calling it the most capable United States open-weight model to date. That is a vendor claim, and independent testing will settle it, but the release itself is the news: after focusing on its closed Muse Wonder models earlier this week, Meta has put a frontier-scale model into downloadable weights that developers can host, inspect, and adapt outside Meta's own service.

Read more about Meta's Muse Spark Open Puts an 816-Billion-Parameter Model on Two Macs

Cartoon illustration of a robot librarian organizing glowing memory orbs while assembling a complex machine in a futuristic workshop.

Meta's Superintelligence Lab released Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full on October 12, calling them its first frontier-class models. That label matters because Meta has spent more than a year rebuilding its AI effort while OpenAI and Anthropic set the pace. According to TechCrunch and Meta's own announcement, the new models are larger and more capable than the lightweight Muse Spark, with benchmark results in Meta's testing comparable to Claude Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra, and a lead on the MemoryBench test of long-term recall.

Read more about Meta Is Finally at the Frontier: Muse Wonder Bets on Memory, Not Just Scale

Cartoon illustration of a robot salesperson handing a shopping bag and a credit card to a customer inside a chat bubble with floating video play buttons.

Meta's AI now makes the ad and buys the product. At Advertising Week New York on October 6, the company showed brands how the whole funnel collapses into a chat window.

Read more about Meta's AI Ad Tools Go In-Chat: Advantage+ Video GA and Shopify Checkout at Ad Week

Cartoon illustration of a robot agent presenting a passport-style ID card to a shopkeeper at a storefront checkout while a scanner glows.

Your AI agent is about to walk into a store. Meta and Sierra want to make sure it knows how to knock.

On October 6, at Sierra Summit in San Francisco, Sierra and Meta announced the Personal Agent Protocol — PAP, an open standard for how a person's AI agent signs in to a business and gets a task done there. Sierra co-founders Bret Taylor, the former Salesforce co-CEO, and Clay Bavor published the announcement with founding partners Walmart, Stripe, Shopify, Genesys, Rocket, and Instinct.

Read more about Meta and Sierra Draft the Personal Agent Protocol, an Open Sign-In Standard for Agents

Cartoon illustration of an independent robot agent shaking free from a giant corporate hand, with a bright rocket launching behind it into the sky.

Meta tried to buy Manus for more than two billion dollars. Beijing said no. Now the agent startup has raised more than $500 million on its own terms, and the message to every founder with a hot model is clear: independence is suddenly a fundable strategy.

Read more about Manus Raises $500M+ After Beijing Unwinds Meta's $2B Takeover

Cartoon robot witnesses at a hearing table facing gavels and a stylized Lady Justice statue in a courtroom.

Four of the biggest names in AI testified under oath before the New York City Council on October 5, 2026, and one notable invitee did not show up at all.

The Council's Committee of the Whole, which includes all 51 Council members and is reserved for matters of significant citywide importance, convened at City Hall to examine the risks artificial intelligence poses to New Yorkers. According to the Council, the hearing marked the first public testimony under oath on AI risks by the leading companies building the technology.