Meta’s Metaverse Workers Go AI-First - DTNS 5123

0:01This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, October 10th, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand. Today, a leaked message at Meta shows a company has high expectations, very high, around how AI is used by its workers. Yeah, they all seem to be doing this these days. I'm Jason Howell. I'm Jen Cutter. Let's start with what you need to know with a big story. All right. Meta still believes in the metaverse, so much so that the company is pushing its metaverse workforce to use AI tools to make their work five times faster. Meta's VP of metaverse, Vishal Shah, posted an internal message.

0:46It was actually obtained and shared by 404 Media that made clear that he was talking about no small changes. So his quote is, think 5x, not 5%. So he's pushing for his teams to treat AI as a very critical part of their workflow, not just a curiosity, not just, as he put it, a novelty. He's looking for his team members to use AI for tasks like rapid prototyping, bug fixes, all kinds of workflow improvements. And they have a goal of 80 % of its metaverse team using AI daily by the end of the year. And, you know, like I alluded to just like a minute ago, companies seem to be doing this a lot right now.

1:35This is the moment where AI has been exploding. Everybody has such high expectations and high hopes for it. And now the companies are saying, well, then why don't we kind of bring it into a more permanent fixture into how we do business? And Mark Zuckerberg has also spoken in recent months about company goals that really illustrate just how critical the company sees AI to its growth and goals. He has said that he expects most of the company's code to be written by AI sometime soon. Also, that new job applicants might get to use AI in coding tests. So it's kind of a big mindset shift that's happening at these large companies, especially companies that are developing a lot of these AI models that people are using.

2:25So, you know, they're working with this stuff a lot. How do you, Jen, how do you feel about an AI first mindset in companies like Meta? Would you like, would you be comfortable with that if you're a worker? You're like, okay, well, now I got to use this stuff. Well, when I first saw the story this morning, it was like, if Tom asked me to work five times faster with AI. Faster, faster. It's like, I can't, I can't imagine getting that memo. Like the memo manages not to say, hey, your employees are lazy. You need to do this or else. But it feels like the start of like, okay, is this one of those ways to do like stack ranking in a quiet way?

3:06Yeah. Yeah, it is interesting, right? You could look at it a few ways. And I think this is, God, I can't remember what I read the other day that kind of alluded to this. You know, if companies are saying AI tools make you more productive, AI tools allow one worker to do, let's say in this case, you know, just using their number. five times as much work, five times more productivity. You could go two different directions with that. You could say, all right, so we now want you to be five times more productive. Or how about you use those tools to 5x your workflow and we give you a four-day work week?

3:43You know what I mean? To go in the other direction so that the employees get a little bit of the benefit instead of what the employer sees, which is, oh, now we can squeeze even more out of these people. Let's go. Yeah. So I know people at a giant CMS who've been also told privately to like, you must use AI in your workflow and you must tell us how you are using AI in your workflow. And they are again, privately to do friends and such saying this has, it hasn't doubled their work, but it has added more to their work to correct this stuff. But they also need to show within the internal tracking that they are using it.

4:25So they feel really forced. But it was really interesting to see the new job applicants might get to slash have to use AI encoding tests because I know some game devs and web devs who have had to use AI in their interviews to show that they are capable of vibe coding and using it for prototyping and stuff. So a lot of companies are leaning on it, which interestingly, my friends who are in accounting say, absolutely not. We're not allowed to use AI. We've complained to Google to make sure that Gemini does not touch our spreadsheets. Oh, because yeah, with accounting, I mean, simple maths, I've run into things where I'm like, there's no way this could get it wrong.

5:08It's just easier for me to ask the AI to add these things up than it is for me to plunk them in manually. And it totally gets it wrong. So, So, yeah, I would absolutely agree. There are certain things you just don't use it for. And I would not feel comfortable using it for accounting purposes. But, you know, time and time again, companies right now are recognizing the moment that is kind of AI surrounding everything right now. You know, all these companies and leaders and every, you know, for whatever their reasons, see AI as the next phase of computing. And we all got to be there. And they all want to kind of it's kind of starting to be the point to where they're all one upping each other a little bit to the commitment that they have.

5:51It was just a couple of months ago that, you know, Duolingo announced its own AI first effort. They released this big post to say, hey, we are going AI first. You know, we're reducing contract workers, encouraging more AI work. And there was a lot of backlash around that. That did include people. I had friends who canceled. Yeah, canceling their subscription or their. Yeah, their subscriptions. Lots of complaints. I don't think much changed as a result. Like, I think they maybe addressed it after the fact. But I think these companies are, whether they're making bold announcements about it or not, and mind you, this meta announcement wasn't even an announcement.

6:28It was a memo to employees that got leaked, right? So meta is apparently being in some ways, I guess, cautious about kind of revealing all of its plans around how it wants to lean on AI. But I kind of think they're all working in this direction. It's just, are they being upfront about it or are they being cautious? Well, I know in gaming, a new game company got kind of blasted and had to release a statement online when they said that. So it was Sackbird and they said like, yes, no, no, no. Our logo was totally designed by a human, but AI may have been used in mangling it in other things on our website.

7:06A few pixels, just a couple of pixels. Just ignore the fact that the feet are completely different, but like it started with a human, we swear. But of course now everyone's looking sideways at anything they may create in the future. So like they have that risk of using it without disclosing because now we're thinking, okay, what else haven't they disclosed? Yeah. Yeah. Disclosure is a big, big, big part of this. I'm also curious to know what this actually means for Meta's own vision of the metaverse, right? Because like it wasn't that long ago, Facebook changed its company name to Meta. And at that time anyways, Metaverse was the next big thing.

7:44Apparently, Meta still believes it's a thing. I don't know if it believes it's the next big thing or does it? I don't know what that means. I don't know. My brain still puts Metaverse in the money pit category. Yeah, mine too, kind of. Yeah, I could see maybe somewhere down the line things make more sense, but I don't see that vision coming to me very clearly right now. But maybe that's Meta's long-term goal is, yeah, you know what? You're not going to see it clearly now. We know, though, that in the future you will. That's the bet they're making, I guess. DTNS is made possible by you, the listener.

8:22Thanks to Paul Thiessen, Ali Sanjabi, AB Puppy. Welcome to our new patron, Molly. And we got some raises from Karsten and Mirrors of Time. Thank you so very much. Good to have you here, Molly. And thank you for the raises. There's more we need to know today. Let's get to the briefs. Apple has raised its maximum bug bounty payout to$2 million for its most critical exploit chains that could target spyware on the iPhone. Apple is also offering extra rewards totaling$5 million for hacks that bypass lockdown mode along with bugs found in its beta software. New expanded categories include WebKit and wireless proximity exploits that use any kind of radio.

9:08The changes to the program will go into effect November 2025. Apple is also reportedly about to restructure leadership as COO Jeff Williams prepares for retirement. Eddie Cue is expected to oversee health and fitness divisions. Craig Federighi will lead the WatchOS team. John Ternus will lead the Apple Watch hardware team. And Soompul Desai will be in charge of all health and fitness teams as he reports to Cue. Apple has declined to comment on the Bloomberg report by Mark Gurman that reported on these upcoming changes, but Mark Gurman has a really good hit right here. Oh, yeah. It's almost the case where when Mark Nerman releases a report, you know it's actually happening.

9:51So even though Apple isn't addressing this directly right now, these are some pretty major changes, big restructuring. And wow, that's an insane payout,$2 million for discovering these bugs. of, I was going to say only Apple, but that's just not true. A lot of other companies could probably pull this off. But Apple for certain, it doesn't surprise me at all that they're willing to offer that much for their phone. Yeah. Cause you can have all the most brilliant guys in the universe working on this. But if you put like the world to work for you. Yes, I know. It's a wonderful strategy. Lockdown mode.

10:31Lockdown mode is really important for people who need it. It's like, That is something that you need to know works. So we might see some very fun slash terrifying research being presented at hacking conferences in the future. Yeah, with a big payout, no less. The Financial Times reports that China's customs officials have deployed enforcement teams to major ports to inspect data center hardware that's being brought into the country. The teams are focusing on NVIDIA's H2O and RTX 6000D chips, which are designed specifically to comply with U.S. export controls. The inspections are coordinated with the Cyberspace Administration of China.

11:13They're designed to prevent smuggling. And this actually follows an expansion of export restrictions on rare earth minerals that are used in chip manufacturing. China clearly playing hardball with the trade negotiations with the U.S. I mean, it's hardball slash tennis because it keeps going over the net back and forth from one to the other. So tennis ball. No, I don't know what the merging of those two sports is. Never mind. Yeah. NVIDIA's release statement saying like, yeah, no, no, no. Like we swear that the people who you all think are helping smuggle these chips are not doing that. They're just doing totally normal business things.

11:57But all of this stuff is also early. There are going to be more developments in possibly the near future. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has labeled Google Search as having strategic market status. What does that mean? It means the UK sees Google as playing a dominant role in search and online ads, and this will give the regulator the ability to apply stricter rules and promote fair competition. It does not come with any immediate changes to change, but does highlight the likelihood of future requirements. Google's AI-focused search features like AI overviews and AI mode are included in the designation, but Gemini AI isn't included for the time being.

12:42Now, this is something that's been going on for over a year of the CMA researching this to make sure that they were going to get it right in their first designation of strategic market status. And they're basically saying, look, we don't have anything for you right now, but be on alert because probably things are coming. So, and you know what? Google's pretty used to that by now, or at least they should be. It seems like they're getting it from every direction right now. Yeah. Speaking of Google, Google has revealed that more than 100 companies were likely affected by a major hacking campaign targeting Oracle suite of business products.

13:20The attack saw, quote, mass amounts of customer data, end quote, stolen. That's according to Google and reportedly began three months ago. Google associates, sorry, the attack with the CLOP group. It's CL0P, so CLOP or CL0P, but I doubt it's that. A hacking group with a long list of previous attacks under its belt. CLOP members have not mentioned on its own involvement, but have made claims recently unrelated that Oracle had, quote, bugged up their core product. So we know that Oracle is on their radar. Maybe this, you know, illustrates and is evidence that they are behind it. But we just really don't know any specific information right now.

14:07Yeah. Every major company always loves saying like, no, no, no, no, no. I know headlines say that we got hacked, but we didn't get hacked. A third party or a second party did. Same with Discord, saying, no, no, no, no, no. Third party supports the one who let all of your data go out. Yeah, yeah. Instagram is working on a dedicated TV app, according to CEO Adam Aseri, while speaking at the Bloomberg Screen Time Conference. He shared that the app is still in the exploratory phase and does not have a launch date at this time. This comes at a time when Instagram is also testing making Reels the default home tab in its mobile app for select users, illustrating Instagram's evolution from a photo first platform to a short form video product that competes directly with TikTok, which does feel a little more real than the previous Facebook pivot to video.

15:03Yeah. I mean, so, okay. So Instagram on TV, I mean, I guess like I've witnessed my, my daughters watch YouTube on our TV set and half the time it's not, you know, landscape video that they're watching there. They're firmly in the shorts mode and YouTube has it all done up in a way that it fills the screen with other things. Even though it's vertical on a horizontal plane, there's a little area for comments and stuff. So I'm envisioning that makes sense. It kind of sounds silly at first to think of vertical video on a big screen, but it's not like it hasn't happened before. And it kind of makes a lot of sense.

15:42Instagram has really kind of changed a lot from a user perspective on how users are using the platform. It is not just photo first anymore. It's so much of what you get on Instagram now are the short form vertical videos. And so this makes sense to me. Yeah, no, it's interesting to hear people who cast that stuff on TV because I tend to use like a web browser on TV and not cast directly. And I find the YouTube app on my TV a little frustrating. So I would hope that Instagram has enough knowledge of prior art to make that a little more simple and straightforward. Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll see. Don't know when, though.

16:19We don't have a date. The Sora app for iOS continues to climb the App Store charts. As of today, it's being reported that it hit one million downloads in less than five days after release. Now, according to Bill Peebles, who heads the Sora team at OpenAI, that's even faster than ChatGPT hitting the same milestone, although he did not share how long it took for ChatGPT to hit that. It's made him more impressive, though, when you consider the fact that Sora requires invites and is only targeting North America. Considering it's such a hot commodity, that places it firmly in the sights of people looking to capitalize on that success by releasing copycat apps in the App Store.

17:05And app figures noted more than a dozen fake Sora-branded apps that were somehow, I don't know how this happens, but they were able to pass through Apple's app review process. Fake apps also appearing in the Google Play Store. That's despite the fact that there is no official Android app for Sora currently. We're still waiting for that as an Android user. Many of those apps have since been removed, but I think this is just a nice word of caution. If you plan on installing the Sora app on your own device, be sure that it's the official one coming from OpenAI and not a duplicate or a copycat. Yeah, I remember when Flappy Bird, to go way back, was like a really big duplicated app.

17:52But that one felt a little like safer, quote unquote, than all of these fake apps that tend slightly towards the malicious. So it's a little disappointing. This stuff gets through, especially because for Apple and such, like you pay to get on here. And there's a review process. How did you miss that? It's so interesting. Yeah, I'm super curious. Just out of curiosity. This is not like some little app that's being copied. This is huge. Right. from one of the biggest technology companies, you know, in 2025. Like, I don't know how that happens, but, you know, it does apparently. Microsoft Copilot on Windows now lets users create Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files with one-click export options surfacing from the chat interface.

18:38Users can also connect directly to Gmail and Outlook accounts, and linking those accounts is opt-in for users. The update is available to Windows Insiders first with a wider rollout coming soon.

19:15Well, you're probably a little disappointed about that. Well, you now have another chance to get them. And this time you're almost assured to get them if you act now. Microsoft hadn't planned to sell them initially, but something must have changed because you can buy them for$79.95 from the company's online store. The shoes include six familiar XP-inspired gibbets. Those are the little things that you can attach to the toe holes, you know, things like files and a clippy, that sort of stuff. And the bundle also includes an XP-themed drawstring backpack so you can really go all out on your XP fandom.

19:49The shoes are, of course, as a reminder, a celebration of Microsoft's 50th anniversary. And this is a limited time offer, so act now. All right. So I don't know what Crocs usually cost these days, but this definitely feels like more. Yeah, that's a good question as I vamp while I do a quick Google search. I mean, 50, 70, 60, 80, I guess it's right around the same price. That's a wider range of Croc prices than I remember when they launched. But Microsoft's so good at this. Do you remember they're like Christmas sweaters? I always get so jealous of the sweaters I see from Microsoft employees. Yes, me too.

20:32Those are pretty. Speaking of pretty, would you like a snazzy gift for a coworker or colleague? Not Crocs, sorry. Something like that still in the development stage. We have dozens of existing ideas at dailytechnewshow.com slash store. Grab a mug, t-shirt, or a mouse pad with our new DTNS logo. They're great gifts and a great way to support the show.

21:00We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today, Jochen has another use case for live translation with AirPods. Jochen writes, I work for a Japanese company and visit the headquarters in Japan regularly. While some colleagues speak good English, others not so much. We tried using translation apps or a dedicated translation device, but it's not very conversational. In meetings, the Japanese colleagues also tend to have more in-depth, bracket-hidden, conversations in Japanese with each other and only present the important summary to us English speakers. I think the capabilities in the new AirPods or similar devices will make meetings more effective, as shown in remote-only meetings with Microsoft Teams' premium live translation feature.

21:48I already have several executives asking about this, showcasing Apple ad reach, but also the broader interest in those kind of tools. I will try out later this month and also see how it works in a more informal setting with a group of people and a lot of background noise. The infamous after work dinners. Love the show. Well, I hope Joe Chen gives us an update on how this works for them. because there's a part of me that's like, man, I don't know about using these things in high kind of importance scenarios like a work meeting. I don't know. I think my hesitation just stems from the fact that I haven't used them very much for anything.

22:29And so it's hard to see using them in a scenario where you better get things right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, I've used translation tools like when doing meetings abroad and also just testing with friends and stuff. And yet they are extremely formal. Now, Japanese is also a very formal language when you are speaking in business terms. But even in Toronto, I have seen people use the apps back and forth when like someone's asking for help for how to get somewhere or having any kind of language barrier issue and just sometimes having fun on TTC. So I do see this becoming more common and translation, I don't want to call it a solved problem because like things are still being worked on.

23:10But translation is one thing where I feel a little more confident using AI, but I haven't used the real-time stuff yet. And I'm looking forward to that and Joe Chen's report back. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's the real-time stuff that I have a little bit of hesitation with. I've used it a lot in the browser to translate a website or take something that I'm working on and what would this be in another language, things like that. Very informal. So I'm very curious to hear how that how that goes for Joe Chen. What are you thinking about if you have insight into this story, or maybe you have a story to share on that very topic?

23:43Share it with us feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com. Thanks again to Joe Chen for contributing to today's show. And thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron at patreon.com slash DTNS.

24:03This week's episodes of Daily Tech News Show were created by the following amazing people. Host, producer, writer, Tom Merritt. Host, writer, Jason Howell. That's me. Co-host, Sarah Lane. Co-host, Rob Dunwood. Co-host, Jen Cutter. Producer, Anthony Lemos. Producer, Roger Chang. Editor, Hammond Chamberlain. Editor, Victor Vognott. Science correspondent, Dr. Nikki Ackermans, social media producer and moderator, Zoe Detterding, Our Amazing Mods, Beatmaster, W. Scottus1, BioCow, Captain Kipper, Steve Guadarama, Paul Reese, Matthew J. Stevens, aka GadgetVirtuoso, J.D. Galloway, Mod and video hosting by Dan Christensen, music provided by Martin Bell and Dan Luters, art by Len Peralta, Acast ad support from Tatiana Matias.

24:54Patreon support from Bobby Wagner and our guests this week, Andy Beach and Dara Whelan. And thank you to all our patrons who make the show possible.

25:11The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.