Technologies

Facebook’s AI research could spur smarter AR glasses and robots

Rummaging through drawers to find your keys could become a thing of the past.

Facebook envisions a future in which you’ll learn to play the drums or whip up a new recipe while wearing augmented reality glasses or other devices powered by artificial intelligence. To make that future a reality, the social network needs its AI systems to see through your eyes.

“This is the world where we’d have wearable devices that could benefit you and me in our daily life through providing information at the right moment or helping us fetch memories,” said Kristen Grauman, a lead research scientist at Facebook. The technology could eventually be used to analyze our activities, she said, to help us find misplaced items, like our keys.

That future is still a ways off, as evidenced by Facebook’s Ray-Ban branded smart glasses, which debuted in September without AR effects. Part of the challenge is training AI systems to better understand photos and videos people capture from their perspective so that the AI can help people remember important information.

Facebook said it teamed up with 13 universities and labs that recruited 750 people to capture more than 2,200 hours of first-person video over two years. The participants, who lived in the UK, Italy, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the US, Rwanda and Colombia, shot videos of themselves engaging in everyday activities such as playing sports, shopping, gazing at their pets or gardening. They used a variety of wearable devices, including GoPro cameras, Vuzix Blade smart glasses and ZShades video recording sunglasses.

Starting next month, Facebook researchers will be able to request access to this trove of data, which the social network said is the world’s largest collection of first-person unscripted videos. The new project, called Ego4D, provides a glimpse into how a tech company could improve technologies like AR, virtual reality and robotics so they play a bigger role in our daily lives.

The company’s work comes during a tumultuous period for Facebook. The social network has faced scrutiny from lawmakers, advocacy groups and the public after The Wall Street Journal published a series of stories about how the company’s internal research showed it knew about the platform’s harms even as it downplayed them publicly. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager turned whistleblower, testified before Congress last week about the contents of thousands of pages of confidential documents she took before leaving the company in May. She’s scheduled to testify in the UK and meet with Facebook’s semi-independent oversight board in the near future.

Even before Haugen’s revelations, Facebook’s smart glasses sparked concerns from critics who worry the device could be used to secretly record people. During its research into first-person video, the social network said it addressed privacy concerns. Camera wearers could view and delete their videos, and the company blurred the faces of bystanders and license plates that were captured.

Fueling more AI research

As part of the new project, Facebook said, it created five benchmark challenges for researchers. The benchmarks include episodic memory, so you know what happened when; forecasting, so computers know what you’re likely to do next; and hand and object manipulation, to understand what a person is doing in a video. The last two benchmarks are understanding who said what, and when, in a video, and who the partners are in the interaction.

“This sets up a bar just to get it started,” Grauman said. “This usually is quite powerful because now you’ll have a systematic way to evaluate data.”

Helping AI understand first-person video can be challenging because computers typically learn from images that are shot from the third-person perspective of a spectator. Challenges such as motion blur and footage from different angles come into play when you record yourself kicking a soccer ball or riding a roller coaster.

Facebook said it’s looking at expanding the project to other countries. The company said diversifying the video footage is important because if AR glasses are helping a person cook curry or do laundry, the AI assistant needs to understand that those activities can look different in various regions of the world.

Facebook said the video dataset includes a diverse range of activities shot in 73 locations across nine countries. The participants included people of different ages, genders and professions.

The COVID-19 pandemic also created limitations for the research. For example, more footage in the data set is of stay-at-home activities such as cooking or crafting rather than public events.

Some of the universities that partnered with Facebook include the University of Bristol in the UK, Georgia Tech in the US, the University of Tokyo in Japan and Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.

Technologies

Iran claims U.S. is blocking Hormuz deal as Oman talks continue

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard accuses the U.S. of blocking a deal with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while Trump insists the waterway remains operational. Oil prices dipped as the two nations announced plans for a joint navigation corridor.

The U.S. is obstructing an agreement between Iran and Oman to secure a safe transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, the Islamic Republic’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday.

Iran and Oman have already reached an agreement on their respective shares of the vital economic artery, controversially including revenues associated with its administration, the influential military group told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

The Revolutionary Guard said the strait would remain closed if the U.S. does not accept Iran’s conditions.

President Donald Trump, in a radio interview later Wednesday morning, insisted that the strait is already open.

“We take a lot of ships through the strait now. We’re taking them in,” Trump told conservative radio host Glenn Beck.

“Every once in a while there’ll be a drone or a rocket or something shot, but it is a very functioning strait. A lot of oil is pouring out,” the president said.

The IRGC’s statement came after Iran and Oman said in a joint statement Tuesday that their respective foreign ministers had discussed a “proposed framework” to establish “a joint temporary navigational corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and an agreement to implement a joint project to clear the Strait of mines.”

Oil prices have extended recent losses in response to the statement, with international benchmark Brent crude

Just five commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, below the 10-day average of 15, according to preliminary data from Kpler. Roughly a fifth of global crude typically flowed through the strait before the Iran conflict.

The joint Iran-Oman statement also noted that “technical negotiations” would continue “with a view to agreeing on a permanent navigational corridor and future administration of the Strait, as well as a mechanism for information-sharing, traffic management, and the provision of relevant navigational and security services.”

Contributing to pressure on oil prices in recent days, the U.S. has reportedly started returning its diplomats to Gulf states – suggesting Washington does not currently expect military escalation. Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency also reported late on Tuesday that the U.S. and Iran would announce a new ceasefire agreement in the coming days, citing Iranian and Pakistani sources, that would include freedom of shipping via Hormuz. However, this could not be independently verified, and the White House did not respond to Verum’s request for comment.

U.S. holds back on secondary sanctions

It comes after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s pledge on Monday to launch an “economic D-day” on the Iranian regime, threatening to target Tehran’s “enablers” and trading partners in efforts to strangle its economy. This included a list of 60 individuals, entities and vessels.

However, the U.S. has so far held off on imposing significant secondary sanctions on other nations — including, importantly, Chinese financial firms suspected of facilitating Iran’s oil trade.

“Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious,” Bessent said Monday.

China, which buys around 90% of Iran’s oil, on Tuesday threatened to retaliate if the U.S. opted to expand economic pressure on nations trading with Tehran.

Beijing “will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Technologies

Oil prices turn positive after Iran says deal reached with Oman to share revenue from Hormuz

Oil prices turned positive after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced a revenue-sharing deal with Oman regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, U.S. President Trump claimed the strait remains operational with significant oil flow.

Oil prices turned positive Wednesday after Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard said Tehran has reached a deal with Oman to share control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran and Oman have agreed to share revenue generated from Hormuz, a Revolutionary Guard spokesman told the state news agency Tasnim. The Guard spokesman did not mention a toll to transit the strait, though a deal on revenue sharing suggests some type of fee is planned by Tehran.

Brent crude

Oil fell more than 3% earlier in the session as the U.S. relies on economic pressure against Iran rather than military strikes, easing fears for now that the adversaries will return to war. Prices are down more than 5% for the week.

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The Revolutionary Guard said the U.S. has tried to obstruct a deal between Iran and Oman. Washington must accept the agreement for Hormuz to reopen, the spokesman said.

The statement from the Revolutionary Guard comes a day after the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman met in Tehran to discuss a temporary joint shipping route through Hormuz. The countries are separated by the strait, which is just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point.

President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman earlier this month when asked by Fox News about Muscat’s negotiations with Tehran on Hormuz.

Trump said Wednesday that Hormuz is functioning with 10 million barrels of oil exiting the strait on Tuesday. “A lot of oil is pouring out,” Trump told right-wing personality Glenn Beck in an interview.

Trump has repeatedly claimed the U.S. controls Hormuz as the military helps ferry tankers through the strait along Oman’s coast. U.S. Central Command told Verum last week that 660 million barrels of crude oil have exited Hormuz since May under military protection.

Technologies

Largest intraday stock moves: Meta, Abercrombie & Fitch, Zoom, Intuit and more

Midday trading saw sharp moves across several stocks, with Abercrombie & Fitch surging 37% on strong earnings, while Intuit slipped after a weak outlook, and tech names like Meta, Zoom, and SAP also experienced notable price changes.

Market Insight

<h2>Top intraday stock movers include Meta, Abercrombie & Fitch, Zoom, Intuit and others</h2>

Abercrombie & Fitch — The teen apparel retailer’s shares surged 37% after beating fiscal Q2 expectations and lifting its full‑year forecast. Adjusted earnings were $2.42 per share, and revenue rose 5% to $1.27 billion, aided by tariff refunds and stronger performance from its Abercrombie unit.

Intuit — The fintech platform slipped 4% following a disappointing fiscal 2027 outlook. Intuit now projects revenue of $23.3‑$23.5 billion for the fiscal year that began this quarter, below FactSet’s $23.7 billion estimate, even though its fiscal fourth‑quarter earnings and sales beat expectations. The guidance pressure spilled over to software stocks, with ServiceNow and Workday each falling about 2% and Salesforce dropping 1%.

Meta Platforms — Shares jumped 3% after the company and a group of state attorneys general reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging Meta deliberately designed its apps to be addictive for teenagers. A trial on the matter had begun the previous week in California.

Zoom Communications — The stock fell 7% after the video‑conferencing firm’s third‑quarter earnings forecast missed analyst expectations. Zoom now expects earnings of $1.46‑$1.48 per share for the quarter, below FactSet’s $1.50 estimate.

Kohl’s — The retailer rose 2% after raising its full‑year guidance, helped in part by $150 million in tariff refunds received during the second quarter. Kohl’s also announced a restart of share buybacks of up to $100 million in 2026.

J.M. Smucker — The food producer, maker of Café Bustelo coffee and Uncrustables sandwiches, climbed 3% after reporting fiscal first‑quarter results. Revenue of $2.22 billion exceeded the LSEG consensus of $2.13 billion, and adjusted earnings per share were $3.24, though it was unclear how that compared to the $2.22 estimate.

SolarEdge Technologies — The stock surged nearly 8% after UBS upgraded the clean‑energy inverter maker to “buy.” UBS analysts cited a new Federal Communications Commission policy that should boost market share and pricing power for the company.

Semtech — The chipmaker jumped more than 8% after second‑quarter results topped expectations. Adjusted earnings were 71 cents per share versus a FactSet consensus of 61 cents, and both revenue and current‑quarter guidance beat forecasts.

Boston Scientific — The medical device manufacturer fell 5% after disclosing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that a cybersecurity incident is expected to cause service disruptions and limited product access. The company said no restoration timeline is available yet.

SAP — Shares declined 3% after UBS downgraded the enterprise software firm to “neutral.” Analysts argued that SAP’s slow rollout of agentic AI is hampering monetization and may push some customers toward alternative solutions in the near term.

— Verum’s Christina Cheddar Berk, Ananya Chetia and Fred Imbert contributed reporting