Latest news with #DanielRoberts
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin Miner IREN Hits 50 EH/s Midyear Hashrate Target, Eyes AI Expansion
Australian bitcoin (BTC) miner IREN (IREN) said it reached its midyear hashrate target of 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) installed self-mining capacity. The growth from 31 EH/s at the end of last year is anchored by IREN's 750MW site in Childress, Texas, the company formerly known as formerly Iris Energy, said in an announcement on Tuesday. Sydney-based IREN's attention is now on Horizon 1, a 50MW AI data center at Childress, which it says it set for delivery in the fourth quarter. Hashrate is a measurement of the computing power behind the Bitcoin network. The higher a company's hashrate, the higher its chances of mining new BTC and receiving the rewards that come with it. Rival CleanSpark (CLSK) also reached the milestone of 50 EH/s last month. "With 50 EH/s of mining expansion complete, we're now turning to our next frontier, leveraging the same execution discipline to scale AI infrastructure across high-growth compute markets," co-founder Daniel Roberts said in the statement. IREN's Nasdaq-listed shares closed over 4% higher at $14.57 on Monday. They were recently 4.12% lower in pre-market trading. Sign in to access your portfolio


Business Upturn
30-06-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
IREN Achieves Mid-Year Target of 50 EH/s
SYDNEY, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IREN Limited (NASDAQ: IREN) ('IREN') today announced it has reached its mid-year target of 50 EH/s installed self-mining capacity. Daniel Roberts, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of IREN, commented: 'Reaching 50 EH/s is a defining milestone and a testament to our ability to rapidly deliver complex energy and data center infrastructure. In just 30 months, we've scaled organically ~50x to become one of the world's largest and most efficient Bitcoin miners. With 50 EH/s of mining expansion complete, we're now turning to our next frontier, leveraging the same execution discipline to scale AI infrastructure across high-growth compute markets.' 50 EH/s Milestone Achieved The 50 EH/s milestone is anchored by our 750MW Childress site, now supporting 650MW of operating capacity and forming the foundation of our next phase of growth with Horizon 1, a 50MW liquid-cooled AI data center, set for delivery in Q4 2025. Childress Aug-22 Childress Apr-23 Childress May-25 Platform for Long-Term Value Creation IREN's 50 EH/s platform combines scale, efficiency and financial resilience built to endure Bitcoin cycles and market volatility: Low-cost production – $41k all-in cash cost per Bitcoin last quarter with further operating leverage expected, driven by 15 J/TH efficiency, scale, low-cost renewable energy and vertical integration. 1 – $41k all-in cash cost per Bitcoin last quarter with further operating leverage expected, driven by 15 J/TH efficiency, scale, low-cost renewable energy and vertical integration. Asymmetric upside and resilient cash flows – exposure to Bitcoin upside, with built-in downside protection from low-cost operations that can help mitigate the impact of market downturns by allowing for increased Bitcoin production as higher-cost peers exit. – exposure to Bitcoin upside, with built-in downside protection from low-cost operations that can help mitigate the impact of market downturns by allowing for increased Bitcoin production as higher-cost peers exit. Immediate revenue realization – daily Bitcoin sales avoid balance sheet exposure and tie performance to operations, not price speculation. – daily Bitcoin sales avoid balance sheet exposure and tie performance to operations, not price speculation. No near-term mining hardware capex – recent fleet refresh minimizes capital needs and maximises free cash flow. – recent fleet refresh minimizes capital needs and maximises free cash flow. Flexible capital structure – convertible notes remain only source of non-equity financing, preserving flexibility for the next phase of growth. These fundamentals provide substantial capital and capacity to accelerate our AI strategy, delivering high-performance AI infrastructure for a new wave of compute demand. Assumptions and Notes $41k all-in cash cost per Bitcoin mined reflects all direct and indirect costs for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, including total net electricity costs and other costs (employee benefits expense, professional fees, site expenses, RECs and other operating expenses excluding one-off items), divided by the number of Bitcoin mined during the same period. Illustrative Hardware Profit sensitivities reflect illustrative mining revenue less assumed net electricity costs across different Bitcoin price and network hashrate scenarios. Source: CoinWarz Bitcoin Mining Calculator. Illustrative calculations and inputs assume hardware operates at 100% uptime, 3.5c/kWh net electricity costs, 3.125 BTC block reward, 0.1 BTC transaction fees, 0.16% pool fees and 765MW power consumption. Illustrative Hardware Profit is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered projections of IREN's operating performance. Inputs are based on assumptions, including historical information, which are likely to be different in the future and users should input their own assumptions. There is no assurance that any illustrative outputs will be achieved within the timeframes presented or at all, or that mining hardware will operate at 100% uptime. The above should be read strictly in conjunction with the forward-looking statements disclaimer in this press release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or IREN's future financial or operating performance. For example, forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the Company's business strategy, expected operational and financial results, and expected increase in power capacity and hashrate. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as 'anticipate,' 'believe,' 'may,' 'can,' 'should,' 'could,' 'might,' 'plan,' 'possible,' 'project,' 'strive,' 'budget,' 'forecast,' 'expect,' 'intend,' 'target', 'will,' 'estimate,' 'predict,' 'potential,' 'continue,' 'scheduled' or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology, but the absence of these words does not mean that statement is not forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements or information that refer to expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, performance or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause IREN's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements, including, but not limited to: Bitcoin price and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; IREN's ability to obtain additional capital on commercially reasonable terms and in a timely manner to meet its capital needs and facilitate its expansion plans; the terms of any future financing or any refinancing, restructuring or modification to the terms of any future financing, which could require IREN to comply with onerous covenants or restrictions, and its ability to service its debt obligations, any of which could restrict its business operations and adversely impact its financial condition, cash flows and results of operations; IREN's ability to successfully execute on its growth strategies and operating plans, including its ability to continue to develop its existing data center sites, design and deploy direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems, and diversify and expand into the market for high performance computing ('HPC') solutions (including the market for cloud services ('AI Cloud Services') and potential colocation services; IREN's limited experience with respect to new markets it has entered or may seek to enter, including the market for HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services); expectations with respect to the ongoing profitability, viability, operability, security, popularity and public perceptions of the Bitcoin network; expectations with respect to the profitability, viability, operability, security, popularity and public perceptions of any current and future HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services) that IREN offers; IREN's ability to secure and retain customers on commercially reasonable terms or at all, particularly as it relates to its strategy to expand into markets for HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services); IREN's ability to manage counterparty risk (including credit risk) associated with any current or future customers, including customers of its HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services) and other counterparties; the risk that any current or future customers, including customers of its HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services), or other counterparties may terminate, default on or underperform their contractual obligations; Bitcoin global hashrate fluctuations; IREN's ability to secure renewable energy, renewable energy certificates, power capacity, facilities and sites on commercially reasonable terms or at all; delays associated with, or failure to obtain or complete, permitting approvals, grid connections and other development activities customary for greenfield or brownfield infrastructure projects; IREN's reliance on power and utilities providers, third party mining pools, exchanges, banks, insurance providers and its ability to maintain relationships with such parties; expectations regarding availability and pricing of electricity; IREN's participation and ability to successfully participate in demand response products and services and other load management programs run, operated or offered by electricity network operators, regulators or electricity market operators; the availability, reliability and/or cost of electricity supply, hardware and electrical and data center infrastructure, including with respect to any electricity outages and any laws and regulations that may restrict the electricity supply available to IREN; any variance between the actual operating performance of IREN's miner hardware achieved compared to the nameplate performance including hashrate; IREN's ability to curtail its electricity consumption and/or monetize electricity depending on market conditions, including changes in Bitcoin mining economics and prevailing electricity prices; actions undertaken by electricity network and market operators, regulators, governments or communities in the regions in which IREN operates; the availability, suitability, reliability and cost of internet connections at IREN's facilities; IREN's ability to secure additional hardware, including hardware for Bitcoin mining and any current or future HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services) it offers, on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and any delays or reductions in the supply of such hardware or increases in the cost of procuring such hardware; expectations with respect to the useful life and obsolescence of hardware (including hardware for Bitcoin mining and any current or future HPC solutions (including AI Cloud Services and potential colocation services) IREN offers); delays, increases in costs or reductions in the supply of equipment used in IREN's operations including as a result of tariffs and duties, and certain equipment being in high demand due to global supply chain constraints; changing political and geopolitical conditions, including changing international trade policies and the implementation of wide-ranging, reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs and trade restrictions; IREN's ability to operate in an evolving regulatory environment; IREN's ability to successfully operate and maintain its property and infrastructure; reliability and performance of IREN's infrastructure compared to expectations; malicious attacks on IREN's property, infrastructure or IT systems; IREN's ability to maintain in good standing the operating and other permits and licenses required for its operations and business; IREN's ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce its intellectual property rights and confidential information; any intellectual property infringement and product liability claims; whether the secular trends IREN expects to drive growth in its business materialize to the degree it expects them to, or at all; any pending or future acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures or other strategic transactions; the occurrence of any environmental, health and safety incidents at IREN's sites, and any material costs relating to environmental, health and safety requirements or liabilities; damage to IREN's property and infrastructure and the risk that any insurance IREN maintains may not fully cover all potential exposures; ongoing proceedings relating to the default by two of the Company's wholly-owned special purpose vehicles under limited recourse equipment financing facilities; ongoing securities litigation relating in part to the default, and any future litigation, claims and/or regulatory investigations, and the costs, expenses, use of resources, diversion of management time and efforts, liability and damages that may result therefrom; IREN's failure to comply with any laws including the anti-corruption laws of the United States and various international jurisdictions; any failure of IREN's compliance and risk management methods; any laws, regulations and ethical standards that may relate to IREN's business, including those that relate to Bitcoin and the Bitcoin mining industry and those that relate to any other services it offers, including laws and regulations related to data privacy, cybersecurity and the storage, use or processing of information and consumer laws; IREN's ability to attract, motivate and retain senior management and qualified employees; increased risks to IREN's global operations including, but not limited to, political instability, acts of terrorism, theft and vandalism, cyberattacks and other cybersecurity incidents and unexpected regulatory and economic sanctions changes, among other things; climate change, severe weather conditions and natural and man-made disasters that may materially adversely affect IREN's business, financial condition and results of operations; public health crises, including an outbreak of an infectious disease and any governmental or industry measures taken in response; IREN's ability to remain competitive in dynamic and rapidly evolving industries; damage to IREN's brand and reputation; our ability to remediate our existing material weakness and to establish and maintain an effective system of internal controls; expectations relating to environmental, social or governance issues or reporting; the costs of being a public company; the increased regulatory and compliance costs of IREN ceasing to be a foreign private issuer and an emerging growth company, as a result of which we will be required, among other things, to file periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms with the SEC commencing with our next fiscal year, and we will also be required to prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP rather than IFRS, and to modify certain of our policies to comply with corporate governance practices required of a U.S. domestic issuer; that we do not currently pay any cash dividends on our ordinary shares, and may not in the foreseeable future and, accordingly, your ability to achieve return on your investment in our ordinary shares will depend on appreciation, if any, in the price of our ordinary shares; and other important factors discussed under the caption 'Risk Factors' in IREN's annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on August 28, 2024 as such factors may be updated from time to time in its other filings with the SEC, accessible on the SEC's website at and the Investor Relations section of IREN's website at These and other important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any forward-looking statement that IREN makes in this press release speaks only as of the date of such statement. Except as required by law, IREN disclaims any obligation to update or revise, or to publicly announce any update or revision to, any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Non-IFRS Financial Measures This press release includes non-IFRS financial measures, including net electricity costs and illustrative annualized hardware profit. We provide these measures in addition to, and not as a substitute for, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. There are a number of limitations related to the use of non-IFRS financial measures. For example, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate these measures differently. The Company believes that these measures are important and supplement discussions and analysis of its results of operations and enhances an understanding of its operating performance. Net electricity costs are calculated as our IFRS electricity charges, demand response program revenue (included in other income) and demand response fees (included in other operating expenses). Hardware Profit is calculated as revenue less net electricity costs (excludes all other site, overhead and REC costs). About IREN IREN is a vertically integrated data center business powering the future of Bitcoin, AI and beyond utilizing 100% renewable energy. Strategically located in renewable-rich, fiber-connected regions across the U.S. and Canada, IREN's large-scale, grid-connected facilities are purpose-built for the next generation of power-dense computing applications. Power & Land Portfolio : 2,910MW of grid-connected power secured across >2,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada, with an additional multi-gigawatt development pipeline. : 2,910MW of grid-connected power secured across >2,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada, with an additional multi-gigawatt development pipeline. Next-Generation Data Centers : 810MW of operating data centers underpinning three verticals: Bitcoin Mining, AI Cloud Services and AI Data Centers. : 810MW of operating data centers underpinning three verticals: Bitcoin Mining, AI Cloud Services and AI Data Centers. Bitcoin Mining : one of the world's largest and lowest-cost Bitcoin producers with 50 EH/s of installed self-mining capacity. : one of the world's largest and lowest-cost Bitcoin producers with 50 EH/s of installed self-mining capacity. AI Cloud Services : delivering high performance cloud compute to AI customers with 1,896 NVIDIA H100 & H200 GPUs. : delivering high performance cloud compute to AI customers with 1,896 NVIDIA H100 & H200 GPUs. AI Data Centers : end-to-end design, construction and operation of data center infrastructure tailored for AI workloads, with up to 50MW (IT load) liquid cooled capacity scheduled for delivery in 2025. Contacts Media Megan BolesAircover Communications+1 562 537 7131 [email protected]


Forbes
29-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
This Athlete's Reward For A Silver Medal At The Olympics? His Sponsor Dropped Him
MIRAMAR, FLORIDA - MAY 4: Daniel Roberts of USA places 2nd in 100m short hurdles at Ansin Sports ... More Complex on May 4, 2025 in Miramar, FL. (Photo by Michael Pimentel/) Coming off the best year of his track and field career—not to mention the best individual performance of his life—Daniel Roberts thought he had proved his worth in a contract year. The Greensboro, North Carolina-based professional track and field athlete was already on an option-year for Nike, which followed a successful four-year term after he secured his first major medal at a world competition in 2023. But at the end of August last year, with his contract needing to be renegotiated, Roberts was at a critical juncture. Luckily, his success spoke for itself. He didn't disappoint over the 2024 Olympic cycle, clocking a career-best 12.96 seconds for the 110 meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials, which later led to a career-defining silver medal at the Paris Olympics just over a month later. He finished the year with the third-best 110 meter hurdles time in the world. Nike could have extended him another option year. But for Roberts, who had turned 27 that November, he was also hoping they wouldn't, because it would leave the door open for his agency, Astra Partners, to negotiate a better deal with terms representative of his world-class performance in the sport. Instead, Nike dropped him entirely. 'Definitely did not play out how we wanted it to play out,' he said. Nike Drops Successful Track And Field Athlete After Olympic Medal Roberts did not disclose the binding terms for which he and his agency requested from Nike, but that is no surprise, either. Contracts for professional track and field athletes are often guarded in secrecy, only discussed – or understood fully – in circles wherein agencies can use whatever leverage they have to advocate for their clients. Roberts said track and field contracts are typically devised around four- or five-year blocks, accounting for concluding years within an Olympic or World Championship cycle. And the snub left him confused. With four to five really good years left in his legs, Roberts knows he can achieve more and continue to compete for medals at the world and Olympic level. He knows he can break 13 seconds again and be on the level of anyone in the world. So what details, exactly, were at odds during contract renegotiations? 'When you turn pro, the first thing you hear from agents or coaches or anything is, they say the most important thing is to make teams,' Roberts said. 'And I've done that every single year since I've been a pro.' Daniel Roberts' Path As A Professional Track And Field Athlete PARIS, FRANCE - AUGUST 08: Daniel Roberts of Team United States celebrates after winning the silver ... More medal after competing in Men's 110m Hurdles on day thirteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on August 08, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by) Roberts certianly had the receipts. After a Hall-of-Fame-type career at the University of Kentucky, wherein he earned back-to-back NCAA silver medals indoors and outdoors in 2019, he won a U.S. Championship just a few months later, qualifying for his first world team. In 2021, Roberts made his first Olympic team headed to Tokyo during the COVID year, and then made his next in 2022. Over those first three years, however, little mistakes hampered his outcomes, leading to zero appearances in a final. But in 2023, knowing the stakes were high and his contract was on the line, he won the U.S. Championships again and performed excellently at worlds, securing that third-place finish in 13.09. He also competed a total of 17 times on the season, earning a fair amount of prize money in the process. Last year, Roberts won the first two men's 110 meter hurdle races on the Diamond League circuit in China, traveled to Jamaica and scored another win, finished second at the Prefontaine Classic and then was in absolute command at the U.S. Olympic Trials, securing a third-place outing in the final with a career-best time of 12.96 seconds. Roberts competed often, won often and was among the world's best. What was he missing? Did he not have a big enough social media following? Roberts' Instagram carries 23K followers. 'Honestly, I don't know,' said Roberts, who added that his contract was reduced in his early years. 'I was definitely very much confused. I'm starting to find a rhythm. The results are there. I'm kind of expecting good things on the contract side, the financial side. It didn't turn out that way. Any pro, any young athlete in the sport, we're told: 'Get medals. Make teams.' I've done that over my six years as a pro.' EUGENE, OREGON - JULY 16: Daniel Roberts of Team United States reacts after competing in the Men's ... More 110 High Hurdles heats on day two of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 16, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by) Daniel Roberts Finds The Courage To Speak Up About His Contract Situation That idea was percolating in his mind when he saw an Instagram post from Olympic and world champion Justin Gatlin in June. Writing in the description of a post referring to a recent contract announcement from collegian and NCAA 100 meter champion Jordan Anthony, Gatlin wrote: 'Contract rules 101: Your performances got you notice … Contract money is based on your 'Future Potential.' Sponsors invested in what you can do not what you did …SO STAY HOT & GET YOUR BAG!' Roberts took issue with that assessment. 'I would agree with this for the most part,' Roberts wrote. 'Only thing I would push back on because of my personal situation right now would be the fact that these brands are about marketing above everything else. …Coming off the best year of my life, winning a silver medal at my second olympics and running sub 13 for the first time, I've been dropped from my sponsor and had to live off grants and prize money for the past six months.' Roberts didn't compete this indoor cycle, he said, because he was waiting for his contract terms to get finalized. He finally opened in April, but perhaps only because so much money was on the line: He ran in two Grand Slam Track races in Jamaica and Miami, earning a total of $45,000 in prize money after finishing fourth and fifth in the men's short hurdle series. The USATF also offers an elite athlete development grant program to help professionals continue on in their professional journeys. Roberts, who is married and someday wants to build a family of his own, knows his career will go on. The Future Ahead For Daniel Roberts In Track And Field Coached by revered hurdle coach Allen Johnson, the director of track and field at North Carolina A&T, Roberts continues to work toward this next cycle and navigate a minor injury with his achilles. 'We've talked to a couple different brands,' Roberts said. 'We're trying to see where they are at and what they want and go from there.' But the recent sting of his first major financial setback leaves him wondering about the future of the sport. He says his primary objectives with a new sponsor will be to find an organization that aligns with his values and beliefs. 'I need someone who's going to believe in me and treat me like a person. Like as a family, someone who cares and wants the best for me,' he said. 'And not just want me to be with them when I'm at the podium.' With an important qualifying window heading his way in July, Roberts heads toward his next objective: Making another U.S. team. Contract or not.


India Today
17-06-2025
- India Today
Meta says your chats with Meta AI are not private, could be seen by everyone
Meta AI app revealing your personal data? In the past few weeks, Meta's new stand-alone AI chatbot app has been subject to criticism for how it handles user conversations. Many people have shared examples of seeing posts in the Discover feed that appear highly personal and even include sensitive information. While Meta has clarified that chats with the AI chatbot are private by default and only become public when users explicitly share them, many users remain confused—or even unaware—that their questions to the bot or even personal photos can end up on the public confusion around sharing personal chats with Meta AI likely stems from the app's interface. The chatbot includes a share button. Upon clicking the app opens a preview screen which asks users to confirm the action for the chat to appear in the public Discover feed. However, the sharing process does not clearly reveal details on what gets shared, where, and with whom. And this process has certainly led some users to mistakenly publish content they assumed was result is that the Discover feed is now populated with a stream of awkward, revealing, and sometimes alarming conversations making their way into the public eye. For instance, when we checked the Discover feed, there were posts like people asking about IRCTC guidelines for spouses, personal beauty regimes, or even letters that included sensitive details. One widely circulated example features an audio recording of a man asking, 'Hey, Meta, why do some farts stink more than other farts?'—all of which are likely shared directly or Although Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts responded to the controversy by clarifying that chats with Meta AI remain private unless users choose to share them, he added, "Users have to actively tap the share or publish buttons before it shows up on the app's Discover feed." Even after tapping the share button, there is only a small note stating, 'Prompts you post are public and visible to everyone,' which doesn't explicitly say where posts will appear or what level of visibility the post will have —leading to potential have used the app, and right now it's clear that posts are only made public if shared manually. But the process isn't entirely transparent. While it doesn't automatically expose private chats, the share feature is vague enough to leave some users unsure about what they're consenting to—especially for those who log in via public Instagram profiles. There is an option for users to create a completely new while many of the shared posts appear to be trolling or memes—including an AI-generated image of a monkey taking selfies in the Himalayas—others are deeply personal, including photos which users are sharing with AI to change into different themes like comics or art. And this is raising concerns about how the app is turning into a privacy minefield.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Mark Zuckerberg has created the saddest place on the internet with Meta AI's public feed
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta AI is a stand-alone chatbot app. It has a public feed of people's chats — and it can be really depressing to read. It seems like some people are confused and don't know they're sharing their thoughts publicly. Meta's stand-alone AI app launched in late April, and like many people, my first thought was, "Huh?" After trying it out a little, my next thought was, "Oh no." A few weeks later, after the initial surge of curious new users, my thought is now: "Dear God." Meta AI's public stream is perhaps the most depressing feed I've come across in a long time. It's full of people sharing intimate information about themselves — things like thoughts on grief, or child custody, or financial distress. And it seems like some people aren't aware that what they're sharing will end up on a public feed. The Meta AI app is a bot more geared to casual chatting than complicated tasks like writing code or analyzing large data sets. And the part that's most different from ChatGPT or other large language models, like Google's Gemini, is Meta AI's public "Discover" feed. It shows off prompts, conversations, and image outputs from other users. Think of it like your Facebook feed, or your never-ending Instagram scroll, except on an app just for Meta AI. I'm not sure why someone would want to share some of the things I've read — nor am I sure why anyone who's not a nosy weirdo like I am would want to look at a feed of a bunch of strangers' interactions with a chatbot. And yet, people do share. Maybe they want to show off something like an image they thought was particularly cool. Back in late April, after the initial launch, Meta AI's feed was indeed mostly images. But mixed in, I noticed a few conversations that seemed more personal — someone asking about vitamin supplements for a 65-year-old woman, or for legal advice about getting fired, or for a special prayer. When I checked back on the app more recently, I was seeing even more of these personal takes — some even including a person's phone number and email address when they asked for help drafting a letter to a judge in a child custody case. Did that person mean to share that information with the world? Maybe, but I'm guessing they might have clicked the wrong button and didn't realize what they were doing. I could be wrong! Meta spokesman Daniel Roberts told me there's a multi-step process to sharing a chat history or image to Meta AI's Discovery feed. And to be clear, conversations with Meta AI aren't public by default. Like Roberts said, you have to explicitly choose to make something public by clicking "Share" and then "Post." Some other things I saw on the public feed: someone asking for help writing a poem for his wife's birthday, someone asking medical questions, someone asking for weight-loss tips. And someone who was talking to his wife who had died from cancer. Other conversations I saw: someone asking the AI to send them a reminder at the end of the month to cancel their Experian credit-monitoring subscription. One woman asked for help writing a letter to her local Elks Lodge after she said she'd been suspended for an altercation she had with another member. So, maybe some of those people wanted the world to read their AI chats. And others, maybe not. What I found even more eerie than the text and image feed was the audio feed. If a person uses the voice chat function, you can actually listen to recordings of their conversation if they're shared. At least two recordings I listened to appeared to be from people who didn't realize they had hit the audio button. One was having a conversation with a coworker about their shift schedule. Another sounded like a pocket dial: A man was having a conversation with another person, and Meta AI kept chiming in with suggestions. I found Meta AI's Discover feed depressing in a particular way — not just because some of the questions themselves were depressing. What seemed particularly dark was that some of these people seemed unaware of what they were sharing. People's real Instagram or Facebook handles are attached to their Meta AI posts. I was able to look up some of these people's real-life profiles, although I felt icky doing so. I reached out to more than 20 people whose posts I'd come across in the feed to ask them about their experience; I heard back from one, who told me that he hadn't intended to make his chat with the bot public. (He was asking for car repair advice.)Other users can reply to the posts that show up on the Meta AI Discover feed. On a few particularly personal posts, strangers warned the user that the potentially sensitive stuff they were sharing could be seen by the public. Mark Zuckerberg has said he thinks AI is super important. His company is reportedly making a huge investment in ScaleAI and could tap its CEO to lead a project with the goal of creating "superintelligence" that's smarter than a human. And yet, the consumer-facing features using Meta AI are kind of, uh, meh. There are user-generated romance chatbots on Instagram Messenger. There were the ill-fated ones voiced by celebrities (don't ask John Cena about this). Does Meta really want its AI efforts to amount to people posting — possibly accidentally — their interactions with its Meta AI bot on a public feed? In its rollout in April, Meta said the Discover feed was a "place to share and explore how others are using AI." I have to say that most of the stuff on Meta AI's Discover feed isn't grim and overly personal. Mostly, it's just silly images, mixed in with some other anodyne requests for recipes, or questions about how to even use this new technology. But I'm not convinced that this is "useful" or even "fun" to look at as a feed; it's a jumble of unrelated, random stuff, most of which actually is pretty boring. If Meta wants its users to adopt its AI like it's a useful and great thing, it's hard to square this with my awful experience on the Meta AI app. Read the original article on Business Insider