Technologies

Zuckerberg Thinks Meta Has an AI Advantage Because It Knows So Much About You

Meta’s personal superintelligence dream might come true with the help of all our user data.

Meta reported better-than-expected financial results during Wednesday’s 2025 fourth-quarter earnings call, but it was CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for Meta AI in 2026 that truly stood out. Zuckerberg said the company will be spending big to build personal superintelligence. It has one major edge over competitors — troves of personal data about me, you and everyone we know.

«We’re starting to see the promise of AI that understands our personal context, including our history, our interests, our content, and our relationships,» said Zuckerberg. «A lot of what makes agents valuable is the unique context that they can see, and we believe that Meta will be able to provide a uniquely personal experience.»

Meta’s long-term AI goal is personal superintelligence, a kind of holy grail: an artificial intelligence that’s smarter than humans, tailored to our individual experiences in products like smart glasses. To get there, the company expects capital expenditures to increase dramatically, from last year’s $72 billion to $115 to $135 billion, attributing the increase to supporting its AI labs.

That money will be spent on research in a couple of different places. Agentic AI, which is tech that can handle tasks autonomously, is one big piece of the puzzle. The personalized component is where Meta believes it has an advantage over competitors.

The company has spent years collecting, analyzing and monetizing a wealth of information from its users on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, effectively acting as a massive data broker. Its targeted advertising business model is structured around surveilling our online activity, and it’s part of what made Meta the tech titan it is today.

Personal AI is what the industry sees as the next step: chatbots, agents and other products that are relatable and customized to our individual lives and needs. As a social media giant, Meta already knows plenty about us and what we may want to see from personal AI.

That will work in tandem with the company’s plans to «merge» LLMs with the recommendation systems that build our social media feeds. «Soon, we’ll be able to understand people’s unique personal goals, and tailor feeds to show each person content that helps them improve their lives in the ways that they want,» Zuckerberg said.

Even if Meta hadn’t been collecting all our data for decades with its social media platforms, it could still have an edge. Meta AI is everywhere on Facebook and Instagram, and the company doesn’t let you opt out of model training or turn it off. (You can mute Meta AI, though.)

YouTube and LinkedIn are almost certainly helping their parent companies, Google and Microsoft, too. Yet Meta has a first-in-class, proven track record of turning personal data into products and monetization. That’s not necessarily a win for us. Meta’s previous AI integrations in WhatsApp and its plans to use AI interactions for personalizing ads sparked backlash. The battle for data privacy amid the development of data-hungry AI models is an ongoing fight.

Meta’s AI development in 2025 was studded with epic highs and lows. It made waves over the summer when it hired a series of top AI researchers, poaching some of them from other bigwigs like OpenAI and Apple. But reports of internal strife and conflicting strategies between the new hires and Meta’s existing FAIR lab quickly followed, stalling any major public releases. Meta eventually laid off hundreds of employees from its AI units. Yann LeCun, one of the foremost pioneers in AI, left his role as chief AI scientist at the end of last year.

While Meta struggled to find its footing, competitors were busy pumping out new models and innovations. Google’s most recent model, Gemini 3, showcased industry-leading reasoning abilities. OpenAI, in a bid to catch up to Google, released GPT-5.2. And Anthropic’s Claude took a turn in the sun with its easy vibe coding abilities. Google also recently released a version of personalized intelligence in Search.

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Technologies

Google’s Pixel 10A Is Coming to Japan With an Exclusive Blue Edition and Special Wallpaper

This model comes with creatively designed stickers and a special look for Pixel’s 10th anniversary.

Don’t be blue: Google is releasing an Isai blue edition of the Pixel 10A to celebrate the Android phone line’s 10th anniversary, setting it apart with its own sticker set, specialized wallpaper and custom icons. But it’ll only be available in Japan.

Announced Tuesday on the Google Japan blog, the Isai blue Pixel 10A has a dark blue look and includes bonus decorations designed in collaboration with Japan’s Heralbony art company. These include an exclusive bumper case and stickers for customization.

This edition of the Pixel 10A will arrive in Japan on May 20, following the April 14 release of the Pixel 10A in its original colors of lavender, berry, fog and obsidian. The Isai blue model costs 94,900 yen, which roughly translates to $595, and includes 256GB of storage.

This makes it slightly less expensive than the US model’s 256GB edition, but it comes with a number of fun extras at no additional cost.

Google’s creation of a country-specific model for Japan may also reflect strong sales in that market. In 2023, the IDC analytics firm (via 9to5Google) reported that the Pixel 7 series accounted for 10.7% of the country’s market share, a 527% increase from 2022.

Technologies

Can’t Wait for New Emoji? Here’s How to Create Your Own on iPhone

Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones can create custom emoji in a few easy steps.

Apple brought new emoji to all iPhones when the company released iOS 26.4 on March 24. The new emoji include «🫍» orca, «🫪» distorted face and «🫈» hairy creature — or as we might normally call it, Sasquatch. According to Emojipedia, there are 3,953 emoji with more on the way, including a pickle. But there’s no emoji for a dog wearing pajamas, a plate with burgers and fries and many other things. But if you have Genmoji on your iPhone you can create these emoji and many more.

Apple released iOS 18.2 in 2024 and the company introduced its own emoji generator, called Genmoji, to Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones at that time. The Unicode Standard, a universal character encoding standard, is responsible for creating new emoji, and approved emoji are added to all devices once a year. With Genmoji, you don’t have to wait for new emoji to appear on your iPhone each year. You can just create them as you need them.

Read on to learn how to use Genmoji on iPhone to create your own custom emoji. Just note that only iPhones with Apple Intelligence, like the iPhone 17 lineup, can use Genmoji at this time.

Note: The new emoji may not display correctly for Apple users whose devices aren’t on a 26.4 software version.

How to make custom emoji

1. Open Messages and go into a chat.
2. Tap the plus (+) button next to your text box.
3. Tap Genmoji.

You can then type a description of an emoji into the text box near the bottom of your screen and tap the check mark on your keyboard to enter that description into Genmoji. You can also tap different suggestions and themes that are right above the text box. And with iOS 26 or later, you can also combine and use emoji to create others rather than describing a new emoji or using suggestions.

Your iPhone will generate a series of new emoji for you to pick from according to your description, and you can swipe through these new emoji. When you find the one you want, tap Add in the top right corner of your screen and the new emoji will be available to use as an emoji, tapback or a sticker. Now you don’t have to wait for the Unicode Standard to propose, create and bring new emoji to devices.

For more iOS news, here’s what to know about iOS 26.4 and iOS 26.3. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.

Technologies

Save Over 20% on This Handy 10,000-mAh Anker Nano Power Bank

Keep your devices charged on the go with this Anker Nano power bank, now down to just $46.

We’ve just spotted the Anker Nano 45-watt portable power bank for just $46 at Amazon right now. This saves you $14 — a 23% discount on its list price. Though it’s $6 more than the lowest-ever price we saw during Black Friday, it’s still a solid discount when you take the rising cost of tech accessories into account. It also matches the lowest price we’ve seen in 2026. It comes in four colors: black, green, pink and white. They’re all on sale for the same price.

This Anker Nano portable charger weighs approximately 8.2 ounces and measures a compact 3.21×1.99×1.42 inches. Despite its small size, it has a retractable cable and supports fast charging in compatible Apple, Samsung, Google Pixel and other smartphones. It also has a large 10,000-mAh capacity and a smart display so you always know how much juice is left in your power bank.

The Nano can charge an iPhone 17 to up to 50% battery in an estimated 20 minutes, and is powerful enough to charge tablets and laptops. Need to charge your devices while charging your power bank? You can do so safely thanks to pass-through charging so you’ll never have to go without battery life.

We’ve also compiled a list of the best power banks for iPhones and for Android, in case this deal isn’t quite a fit for you.

Why this deal matters

If you travel, have a long commute time or are otherwise always on the go, a portable charger can help you keep your devices fully powered. This 45-watt Anker Nano power bank is compact, includes a loop that lets you keep track of it easily and has a built-in cable so you don’t have to keep up with extra cords. Amazon’s $14 discount makes this a solid deal for anyone looking for a compact power bank.