AI News roundup: Meta says AI boosting traffic to Facebook and Instagram, An AI machine that determines the quality of food and more

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Meta says buzz around AI driving traffic to Facebook and Instagram

Meta Platforms Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that AI was helping the company boost traffic to Facebook and Instagram and earn more in ad sales, as it forecast quarterly revenue well above analyst expectations.

• Meta shares surged 12% in after hours trading, adding over $50 billion to its market value and continuing a rally in tech shares that started after Google parent Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp posted strong results on Tuesday.
• The company, which has been slow to adopt AI-friendly hardware and software systems for its main business, has carried out several expensive overhauls to bolster its core business, including a massive project to upgrade AI capacity.

An AI-based machine helps detect the quality of food in Maharashtra

The machine scans the food on the plate to identify the items. It then forms an estimate of the meal's nutritional value such as the food weight, protein, calories, carbs, and even its temperature.

• An artificial intelligence-based machine is helping tribal students of a school in Maharashtra gauge whether the quality of food they are being served as part of the mid-day meals is good or not. It also tracks the BMI (body mass index) of the children regularly, looking for signs of malnutrition.
• The machine is currently installed in Todsa Ashram School in Maharashtra's Etapalli village.

Is AI the swan song for big businesses? 

Today more Americans work for big companies than for small ones. But AI could change that given how leading companies in the field like Midjourney having just 11 and OpenAI just 375 full time employees.

• Important businesses with a small number of employees will need to hire exactly the right people to oversee the larger automated and AI-managed superstructures.
• Talent selection will rise in importance as a skill, and the people in these smaller units will command very high compensation. Even if those companies do not become formal partnerships, their internal cultures will adhere more closely to those of partnerships or sports teams, with a good deal of mutual internal monitoring.