The company says its new Incognito Chat allows you to use its AI chatbot without anyone else--including Meta--being able to access your conversations. WhatsApp said on Wednesday it is launching an AI chat function known as Incognito Chat that is built to allow users to converse privately with Meta AI --such that Meta itself cannot access the questions or answers. The feature is based on WhatsApp's Private Processing scheme, which debuted a year ago and already underlies WhatsApp's existing AI features, including message summarization and composition tools. The idea of Incognito Chat is to create a way for WhatsApp to offer AI chat integration that does not conflict with the communication platform's commitment to end-to-end encryption, the privacy scheme in which only direct participants in a conversation can read messages or hear a call. Most generative AI platforms now offer some type of "incognito mode," but these features are usually designed to separate users from the questions they ask and the answers they receive rather than including a mechanism to entirely shield those questions and answers from the provider's view.

Smart glasses are'an invasion of privacy' - Meta's are selling better than ever Issues with a new wave of smart glasses seem to be piling up. Yet some of the biggest technology companies in the world are poised to sell many millions of pairs in the coming years. Women leaving the beach, going into a shop, or simply standing outside are now being approached by men usually wearing Meta's Ray-Bans, the company's smart or AI glasses, often in order to film the women's responses to casual questions or pick-up lines without their knowledge or consent. The women only find out about the videos of them after they gain traction, and often abuse, online. They have little legal recourse as photography in public is broadly considered legal.

Plus: Meta officially kills encrypted Instagram DMs, the Trump administration targets "violent left wing extremists," leaked documents reveal Russia's school for elite hackers, and more. Cramming for finals is bad enough without the platform you use to do your schoolwork suddenly shutting down. Unfortunately for countless students across the US, that's exactly what they faced on Thursday after Canvas went into "maintenance mode" following a ransomware attack on education tech firm Instructure. Hackers using the name ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, and experts say the chaos they caused shows how far these actors will go to extort their victims. Did you know that Google Chrome includes an automatic download of the Gemini Nano AI model?

Meta's AI agent plans reportedly include an OpenClaw competitor that can shop on Instagram Meta's AI agent plans reportedly include an OpenClaw competitor that can shop on Instagram Last week during Meta's earnings, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is working on new AI agents for people and businesses on the company's platform. Now, we know a bit more about what those plans entail, thanks to a new report from . The publication reports that Meta is working on an OpenClaw-inspired agent currently dubbed Hatch. It sounds like the company intends for Hatch to work within its own apps, including agentic shopping on Instagram, as well as with outside services. The company has tested Hatch on simulated versions of third-party services like DoorDash, Reddit and Outlook, according to .

To stop children from bypassing its age checks, Meta is revamping its age-verification tools with an AI system that analyzes images and videos for "visual cues," such as height and bone structure. Meta is beefing up its age-verification mechanisms with an AI system that analyzes images and videos on Instagram and Facebook for "visual cues," such as height and bone structure, to identify and delete accounts of users under the age of 13. The company announced the move amid a wave of cases in which hundreds of children have managed to evade social network access restrictions, even through simple tricks such as drawing on a mustache. The new approach is part of a series of measures Meta adopted as part of an AI-based security strategy designed to correct the limitations of traditional methods, which rely heavily on self-reported age. With this change, the company seeks to reduce the ease with which minors access platforms that, in theory, are restricted to them.

PCWorld examines whether VR gaming is declining, highlighting challenges from Meta's failed Metaverse push and lack of compelling new content. Rising AI-driven hardware costs are making Valve's upcoming Steam Frame headset potentially unaffordable, while Apple's Vision Pro lacks gaming presence. Only Valve remains committed to VR gaming among major companies, making the technology's future uncertain despite continued development efforts. Meta is looking a lot less meta lately, reportedly pivoting from the virtual reality Quest brand and the ghost of Oculus to double down on pervert glasses. After a decade of work, Sony's VR ambitions over on the PlayStation seem to have made little progress. And I've barely heard a mention of Samsung's Galaxy XR headset--allegedly the flagship launch device for Android XR--since it arrived six months ago. While the idea that Apple is abandoning its Vision Pro headset might be overblown--the company is still actively hiring for the division--Michael Simon over at Macworld tells me the platform has basically zero gaming presence for the hardware. Hope for renewed interest in VR gaming with a big injection of Cupertino branding power has evaporated. Is virtual reality gaming, to borrow a term from, cooked?

Plus: Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have all set AI spending records. In the past, getting to the North Pole involved a treacherous trip through ice many meters thick. But last year, a research vessel encountered open water and thin ice, which created an easy passage. It provided a reminder of how quickly the Arctic is changing. Now scientists are digging deep below the seabed to find out if the Arctic Ocean was ever ice-free--and what that could mean for the future of Earth's northernmost waters. Here's what they hope to discover .

Meta is under pressure to explain why it cancelled a major contract with a company it was using to train AI, shortly after some of its Kenya-based workers alleged they had to view graphic content captured by Meta smart glasses. In February, workers at the company, Sama, told two Swedish newspapers they had witnessed glasses users going to the toilet and having sex . Less than two months later, Meta ended its contract with Sama, which Sama said would result in 1,108 workers being made redundant. Meta says it's because Sama did not meet its standards, a criticism Sama rejects. A Kenyan workers' organisation alleges Meta's decision was caused by the staff speaking out.

Researchers show scammers are using AI-manipulated footage of celebrity interviews to trick users into sharing their personal data. Last week, Taylor Swift filed a trio of trademark applications to protect her image and voice. One is meant to cover a well-known photograph of the pop singer holding a pink guitar during a concert on her record-breaking Eras tour, while the two sound trademarks are for simple identifying phrases: "Hey, it's Taylor Swift" and "Hey, it's Taylor." The move comes as AI deepfakes continue to proliferate across social media. Any individual stands to have their likeness exploited in the creation of nonconsensual AI-generated material; earlier this month, an Ohio man was the first person convicted under a new federal law criminalizing "intimate" visual deceptions of this sort.

Is an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg - or any boss - a good plan? Feedback has learned that, according to reports, Meta is building an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with staff. Feedback hopes this doesn't become a trend Feedback has had a number of bosses over the years. One reorganised the company at which we worked in such a way that our job no longer existed. However, none of them was an AI.