Meta’s plan for AI personas on Facebook

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Meta just announced plans to integrate AI-generated profiles across its platforms, complete with bios, photos, and the power to create content.

But as social media giants race to implement AI characters, are we witnessing the birth of digital NPCs, or the death of authentic social interaction? Let’s get into it…

In today’s AI rundown:

• Meta unveils AI personas on Facebook

• AI hiring surge hits record levels in 2024

• Create a real-time screen-understanding AI

• AI reveals hidden secret in famous painting

• 6 latest AI tools & 5 latest AI jobs

• More AI & tech news

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

🤖 Meta unveils AI personas on Facebook

The Rundown: Meta just announced its ambitious push into AI-generated profiles and characters, with plans to integrate these AI personas across Facebook and other platforms as a part of a significant engagement strategy.

The small print:

• Meta’s VP of product revealed AI profiles will exist alongside regular accounts, complete with bios, profile pictures, and content generation abilities.

• The corporate has already launched trial AI character creation tools which have produced a whole bunch of hundreds of characters, though most remain private.

• Latest text-to-video generate software is planned to permit creators to insert themselves into AI-created videos.

• Experts have warned about potential risks, citing the necessity for robust safeguards to stop the technology from being weaponized and spreading false narratives.

Why it matters: Meta’s aggressive push to make use of AI for engagement has already sparked controversy, but the corporate’s long-term strategy may very well be focused on gathering training data for AI-driven “NPC” characters in virtual reality. Questions across the authenticity of AI-generated content will likely be a growing trend in 2025.

TOGETHER WITH ARTISAN

🦾 Stop Hiring Humans – Try an AI BDR As a substitute

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• Coaches your sales pitch and drafts emails & LinkedIn messages

• Researches 300M+ B2B prospects, including Local Businesses and E-Commerce

• Automates lead enrichment with 10+ data sources including social media scraping and website visitor identification

• Backed by Y Combinator and others

Book a demo today and join a whole bunch of firms boosting revenue with Ava.

AI & THE WORKFORCE

💼 AI hiring surge hits record levels in 2024

The Rundown: ZoomInfo just published latest data on the state of AI within the workforce, revealing dramatic growth in AI-focused roles across industries and skill levels over the past several years.

The small print:

• AI-related C-suite positions have surged 428% since 2022, while VP roles increased by 199% and director positions grew by 197%.

• Engineering and development roles dominate the AI job landscape, forming the biggest category of latest positions.

• Generative AI job titles, while only 3% of total AI positions, have experienced a 250x increase since late 2022.

• The talent rush spans industries, with over 10,875 latest AI leadership roles created in Q2 2024 alone — triple the number from Q2 2022.

Why it matters: The expansion data in AI hiring signals a significant shift in how firms approach adoption. Orgs are restructuring leadership to place AI on the core of their strategy — and with an increasingly competitive AI talent landscape, firms that fail to construct strong AI teams now could also be playing catch-up within the years ahead.

AI TRAINING

👀 Create a real-time screen-understanding AI

The Rundown: Google’s latest ‘Stream Real-Time’ feature lets users interact with research papers naturally, getting quick explanations for complex concepts, equations, and diagrams.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Google AI Studio and find Stream Realtime within the sidebar.

2. Select “Share your screen” to display your research paper.

3. Ask questions naturally about any part you do not understand.

4. Get immediate, clear explanations of complex concepts, diagrams, and formulas.

Go deeper: To learn learn how to get essentially the most out of Gemini’s Stream feature, join us for tomorrow’s live workshop at The Rundown University (more details below)!

THE RUNDOWN UNIVERSITY

🧠 Workshop: Learn, Work, and Research Faster with Gemini

The Rundown: We’re hosting a 45-minute session with Dr. Alvaro Cintas (The Rundown’s AI Professor) on learn how to get essentially the most out of Gemini’s Stream Realtime feature.

Join us this Friday at 1 PM PST to find out about:

• How Gemini’s real-time screen sharing works and what it means for learning latest software

• Using the feature as a hands-on tutor for tackling complex tools and workflows

• Leveraging Gemini as a research assistant for immediate insights and contextual help

In case you’re a member of The Rundown University, you’ll be able to RSVP and add the event here.

In case you’re not a member, you’ll be able to still attend the workshop with a free 1-month trial to The Rundown University here.

ART & AI

🎨 AI reveals hidden secret in famous painting

The Rundown: Scientists just confirmed a long-suspected art world mystery using AI evaluation — Raphael’s famous Madonna della Rosa wasn’t painted entirely by the Renaissance master himself.

The small print:

• Researchers trained an AI system using authenticated Raphael paintings to acknowledge his unique style right down to microscopic brushstroke patterns and color techniques.

• The AI system, built on Microsoft’s ResNet50 framework, demonstrated a 98% accuracy in identifying Raphael’s real works.

• While many of the painting matched Raphael’s style, the AI evaluation revealed St. Joseph’s face was likely painted by one other artist (possibly his talented pupil Giulio Romano).

• Art historians have long noted that St. Joseph’s face appeared less refined than other figures, and this technological evaluation now supports their suspicions.

Why it matters: This breakthrough demonstrates how AI can complement art historians’ expertise, offering latest tools for authenticating and understanding centuries-old masterpieces. Beyond solving mysteries, this tech could assist in things like art conservation, forgery detection, historical research and more.

NEW TOOLS & JOBS

Trending AI Tools

• ☎️ Easy AI – A phone app that makes calls in your behalf to make reservations, book appointments, and more

• 🎮 Instant3d – Transform 2D images into ready-to-use 3D models for Blender and Unity immediately

• 📄 Monkt – Convert any document or webpage into AI-ready structured Markdown or JSON

• 📝 Erayaha.AI – Review contracts for hidden risks and financial impacts directly in Word and Google Docs with AI assistance

• 🤖 Lecca.io – Create custom AI agents that automate tasks across web, phone, email and calendar using your chosen LLM

• 📲 Automaticall – Automate sales calls with AI that follow your script and connect directly together with your CRM or website

Latest AI Job Opportunities

• 🌏 Weights & Biases – Account Executive, Enterprise (APAC)

• 🔬 Scale AI – SEAL Research Scientist, Frontier Risk Evaluations

• 🩺 Hippocratic AI – Clinical Customer Success Executive

• 🔎 xAI – Software Engineer (Search & Retrieval)

• 🤖 Meta – Research Scientist Intern, Generative AI Algorithms (PhD)

QUICK HITS

IRS deployed AI tools to detect fraud patterns and analyze financial data as criminals increasingly use artificial intelligence for stylish schemes.

KoBold Metals raised $537M in a Series C funding round at a whopping $2.96B valuation to speed up AI-powered critical minerals exploration and mining operations.

Hundreds of individuals gathered in Birmingham for a non-existent Latest 12 months’s Eve fireworks display after being misled by AI-generated blog posts and social media, despite police warnings that no event was planned.

CSIC researchers developed a “molecular lantern” probe that uses light and AI to detect brain changes without genetic modifications.

OpenAI missed its self-imposed 2025 deadline to deliver Media Manager, a promised tool for creators to regulate their content in AI training data.

Defence contractors prepare for acquisition spree in AI, drone, and space technologies as money reserves approach $50B by 2026.

THAT’S A WRAP

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, and Alvaro—aka The Rundown Team