Monday, August 10, 2026

Meta Unveils New AI Model as Zuckerberg Pushes for Open-Weight Technology.

August 10, 2026 0
7.4-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Colombia, Killing at Least 111 At least 111 people have been killed and dozens of buildings have collapsed after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, according to authorities. The earthquake occurred near San José del Palmar in the Chocó region, about 400 kilometres west of the capital, Bogotá, according to the United States Geological Survey and Colombia’s geological service. The quake struck at a depth of approximately 107 kilometres. Rescue workers have been searching through collapsed buildings for people trapped beneath the rubble, while dozens of others have been injured. The tremor was felt across a wide area, including Bogotá, where residents rushed into the streets as alarms were triggered in buildings and vehicles. Colombia’s Geological Service described the earthquake as the strongest recorded in the country in the past decade. President Abelardo de la Espriella declared an emergency to speed up funding and relief efforts and said he planned to visit the affected region. “We aren’t going to leave people alone,” the president said, pledging that the government would provide assistance with full determination. The earthquake was followed by aftershocks measuring 2.8 and 4.8 magnitude. Authorities also suspended flights at airports in Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira. In Pereira, local media footage showed sections of an airport ceiling collapsing as passengers sought shelter, while residents were seen running through debris. The Chocó region, located along Colombia’s Pacific coast, is among the poorest parts of the country. Its largely rural terrain and limited road access could make rescue operations and assessments of the wider damage more difficult. In Bogotá, Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán said there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries in the capital, although some buildings had developed cracks. Colombia experiences thousands of small earthquakes each month, but quakes measuring 6.0 or higher are relatively uncommon. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake in the country’s coffee-growing region in 1999 killed more than 1,000 people. The disaster comes only weeks after powerful earthquakes struck neighbouring Venezuela, where more than 6,000 people were reported killed and hundreds of buildings destroyed.

Meta Platforms has launched a new artificial intelligence model as CEO Mark Zuckerberg renewed his call for fewer US restrictions on open-weight AI, arguing that American companies need greater freedom to compete with Chinese rivals.

The new model, called Muse Glimmer, is smaller than many leading AI systems but is designed to perform agentic tasks directly on personal computers, including Macs and PCs equipped with a single graphics card.

Zuckerberg said Meta has larger AI models in development and argued that AI technology should not be concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies.

He made the comments in a 14-page essay titled “The Future is for Everyone,” in which he warned that treating AI as inherently too dangerous could result in excessive concentration of power.

Open-weight AI models are gaining popularity because they are generally cheaper and allow users and businesses to customize their underlying components. This contrasts with closed AI systems operated under tighter control by companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

Chinese companies are increasingly competing strongly in the open-weight AI market, with models from firms including Moonshot, Alibaba and DeepSeek challenging leading US-developed systems.

Meta also plans to release the weights of Muse Spark 1.2, which the company describes as its most advanced model. The model was developed by Meta's superintelligence team as the company seeks to strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving AI industry.

Zuckerberg also called for changes to US policies covering AI training data and model distillation, a process in which the outputs of a powerful AI model are used to train a smaller system that requires significantly less computing power.

He said Meta would establish a governance system giving independent directors authority to approve safety criteria for releasing its AI models.

Zuckerberg argued that American AI companies face additional restrictions on training data compared with foreign competitors and urged policymakers to reduce what he described as unnecessary barriers to the development of open-weight AI.

Meta also announced a $1 billion fund intended to support communities affected by the expansion of data centers. Opposition to new data centers has grown in parts of the United States as technology companies invest heavily in infrastructure to support AI development.

Meta expects to spend as much as $145 billion this year on AI infrastructure.

Following the announcement, Meta shares rose nearly 3% in premarket trading on Monday, although the company's stock had fallen about 10% since the beginning of the year.
Abu Ramadan

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