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Meta has confirmed that around 600 employees from its Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) were laid off this week , marking one of the most significant shake-ups within its artificial intelligence division. The move was confirmed by Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, who addressed the decision in a memo shared with employees. In his message, Wang emphasized that the restructuring aims to make the AI division more agile and efficient. "By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact," he wrote. A push toward “personal superintelligence” Meta’s MSL unit was established in June as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious push toward developing what he calls “personal superintelligence.” This concept envisions AI systems that not only assist users but could eventually surpass human capabilities in reasoning and creativity. Since its creation, MSL has become o...

Apple has introduced its latest generation of MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro devices, all powered by the new M5 chip . These upgraded models promise significant performance improvements compared to their predecessors. The new MacBook Pro lineup starts at $1,599, while the 11-inch iPad Pro begins at $999. The latest Apple Vision Pro headset, now featuring a Dual Knit Band, starts at $3,499. Customers can already preorder these devices, with official sales starting on October 22. M5 chip delivers major performance boost Apple claims that the M5 chip offers up to four times the peak compute performance compared with the M4. This advancement positions the new devices to handle more demanding AI workloads and professional applications. “M5 delivers a huge boost to AI workloads,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. Stable pricing despite trade concerns Despite market speculation about potential price increases tied to former President Dona...

China’s National University of Defense Technology, in collaboration with Midea Group, has introduced an innovative system called "HumanoidExo" . This technology features a wearable suit that records a person’s full-body motion, allowing humanoid robots to learn directly from human movements. Humanoids typically lose balance because their training data often comes from videos or computer simulations. HumanoidExo addresses this issue by capturing precise, real-time human motion through wearable sensors. “A significant bottleneck in humanoid policy learning is the acquisition of large-scale, diverse datasets, as collecting reliable real-world data remains both difficult and cost-prohibitive,” the researchers noted in their paper. How the HumanoidExo system works The wearable suit in the "HumanoidExo" system tracks seven arm joints and synchronizes them with the robot’s movements. It also uses wrist-mounted motion sensors and a LiDAR scanner on the back to measure ...