Meta Platforms has shared additional details on its next generation of AI infrastructure. The company has designed two custom silicon chips, including one for training and running AI models and eventually powering metaverse functions like virtual reality and augmented reality. Another chip is tailored to optimize video processing. Meta publicly discussed its internal chip development last week ahead of a Thursday virtual event on AI infrastructure. The company also showcased an AI-optimized data center design and talked about phase two of deployment of its 16,000 GPU supercomputer for AI research. Read more

About 60 percent of Americans who have used Twitter in the past year report taking a break from the platform during that time, with 25 percent of them predicting they are unlikely to be using the service a year from now, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The survey of adult Twitter users was conducted March 13-19, approximately five months after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the site in October. The findings come amidst media debates as to whether Twitter is “dying,” according to Pew, which notes some high-level celebrity defections since Musk took over the social site. Read more

Netflix, which turns 26 years old this year, is looking to advertising, live events and password sharing crackdowns to power its next growth phase. The company’s 232.5 million global subscriber base makes it the world’s No. 1 paid streaming platform, a position it wants to hold, and expand, as it shifts into an era of new management under co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. At a virtual presentation at Netflix’s first Upfront Wednesday, Sarandos admitted that “we have a long way to go to build scale in advertising,” but said the company intends to focus on improving that share. Read more

At its Brandcast Upfront event, YouTube introduced the concept of 30-second unskippable ads for top-performing YouTube content on TVs, drawing comparisons to the linear commercials of old. The company is also starting to test “Pause Experiences,” which are commercials that play on TV screens when viewers pause content. YouTube touted its massive television reach, citing December Nielsen data indicating more than 150 million unique viewers of YouTube and YouTube TV on television sets in the U.S. That data allowed YouTube to claim title to America’s No. 1 most-watched streaming service on TVs. Read more

Montana has become the first state to institute an outright ban on TikTok, barring it from operating in the region and prohibiting app stores from providing downloads there. The move is opposed not only by the Chinese-owned TikTok, but by free speech advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union. The ban is set to go into effect January 1, 2024, though legal challenges could delay that implementation. Observers say the inevitable lawsuits fighting the legislation could prove instructive as relates to proposed federal TikTok bans in development in Washington. Read more