Meta's recently unveiled smart glasses are equipped with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, enabling them to identify objects, translate languages in real-time, and even assist with daily tasks. While many see them as a potential competitor to Apple's iPhone, some experts believe the technology could actually serve as a foundation for developing advanced robots.

In contrast, Musk focuses through Tesla on manufacturing humanoid robots, such as "Optimus," intended to perform physical tasks, including factory work and household assistance.

Jeff Cardenas, CEO of Apptronik, an American startup developing humanoid robots, stated that such robots could become personal assistants in the future, particularly for elderly individuals who require daily assistance. According to him, combining advanced artificial intelligence with robotic hardware could enable robots to learn, interact with their environment, and even understand human needs.

The competition between Zuckerberg and Musk isn't new. The two have clashed before over disagreements regarding artificial intelligence, with Musk warning about the dangers of uncontrolled AI development, while Zuckerberg advocated a more optimistic approach. Now, as both entrepreneurs invest in overlapping fields, the competition could accelerate the pace of technological development, but also raise questions about social and ethical implications.

From an Israeli perspective, these developments could impact the local high-tech industry, which already leads in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. Israeli companies like Mobileye, which develops autonomous driving technologies, Intuition Robotics, which created the social robot "Eli," or Menteerobots, which developed the humanoid Menteebot, could find new opportunities in a rapidly developing market. However, Israel still faces challenges, including a shortage of skilled AI personnel and the need for greater government investment in research and development infrastructure.

The central question is what the future will look like: Will we rely on smart glasses that help us navigate the world, or will humanoid robots become an integral part of our lives? The answer depends largely on Zuckerberg and Musk's ability to turn their visions into reality – and on society's readiness to accept them.

The post Who will control the robots? New Zuckerberg, Musk front appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

According to reports published Saturday in Forbes Australia, despite the recent plunge in Tesla stock, the company's CEO, Elon Musk, is still the richest person in the world today. Musk has held this title continuously since May 2024.

Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon, who was still in second place at the end of February, dropped to third place on the list this month, with his position taken by none other than Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Meta.

Eight out of the 10 richest people in the world are Americans, the other two citizens are French Bernard Arnault and Spanish Amancio Ortega, and half of the people on the list are Jewish. All ten of the world's richest people as of March 1, 2025, are men. Each of their fortunes is estimated at approximately $118 billion or more.

Alongside these, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has fallen off the list since October 2024 after information that reached Forbes revealed a significant reduction in his wealth. In his place, Amancio Ortega, founder and chairman of Inditex Group and owner of the Zara store chain, entered the list in ninth place.

The 10 richest people in the world as of today:

1. Elon Musk (owner of X network, CEO of Tesla)
2. Mark Zuckerberg (Jewish-American, CEO and founder of Meta)
3. Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon)
4. Larry Ellison (Jewish-American billionaire, Chief Technology Officer at Oracle Corporation)
5. Bernard Arnault (French owner of LVMH corporation)
6. Warren Buffett (Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway investment firm)
7. Larry Page (Jewish-American entrepreneur, co-founded Google with Brin)
8. Sergey Brin (Jewish-American entrepreneur, co-founded Google with Page)
9. Amancio Ortega (founder and chairman of global Inditex Group)
10. Steve Ballmer (Jewish-American, former CEO of Microsoft)

The post After Tesla stock plunge – who is the world's richest person? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The Oversight Board for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has concluded that the phrase "From the River to the Sea" is not automatically considered hate speech when used in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reported NBC News. Recommendation gives backing to Meta's policy of allowing use of phrase.

The board's ruling stemmed from three separate cases on Facebook where users included the phrase in their content. In each instance, the post was reported for violating Facebook's hate speech policies, with complainants arguing that the phrase calls for the destruction of Israel. Facebook chose not to remove the posts, a decision that was ultimately upheld by the Oversight Board.

Considering how many, many Jews and Israelis view the phrase 'From the River to the Sea,' it's clear that harm is meant by using it as a slogan.

If you didn't mean harm, you'd use a different phrase.

Meta's Oversight Board got this one very wrong.https://t.co/wkilQU9CTq

— Jeremy Goldman (@jeremarketer) September 4, 2024

"The Board finds there is no indication that the comment or the two posts broke Meta's Hate Speech rules because they do not attack Jewish or Israeli people with calls for violence or exclusion, nor do they attack a concept or institution associated with a protected characteristic that could lead to imminent violence," the board stated in its 32-page decision. "Instead, the three pieces of content contain contextual signals of solidarity with Palestinians."

One of the cases involved a post that garnered approximately 8 million views, depicting the phrase created with floating watermelon slices, a symbol often associated with pro-Palestinian activism. This post alone received 951 reports from 937 users, according to the Oversight Board.

"From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate." pic.twitter.com/2kXWHP1Jbj

— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) December 31, 2023

 The phrase "From the River to the Sea" has been a subject of controversy, particularly in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza. While Hamas leadership and some pro-Palestinian activists have used the phrase to advocate for a Palestinian state encompassing the entire region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, others argue that it represents general solidarity or a call to return to pre-1967 borders.

The Oversight Board acknowledged the phrase's multiple interpretations in its ruling. "Because the phrase does not have a single meaning, a blanket ban on content that includes the phrase, a default rule towards removal of such content, or even using it as a signal to trigger enforcement or review, would hinder protected political speech in unacceptable ways," the board concluded.

However, the decision was not unanimous. A minority of the board's 21 members dissented, arguing that following the October 7 attacks, the phrase's use "should be presumed to constitute glorification of" Hamas "unless there are clear signals to the contrary."

Meta, responding to the ruling, stated, "We welcome the board's review of our guidance on this matter. While all of our policies are developed with safety in mind, we know they come with global challenges, and we regularly seek input from experts outside Meta, including the Oversight Board."

The decision comes amid ongoing controversies surrounding Meta's content moderation policies related to the Israel-Hamas war. Human Rights Watch has accused the company of censoring pro-Palestinian voices, while others have claimed that Meta has suppressed pro-Israel content.

The Oversight Board, created by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2019, serves as an independent body to review content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram. Its rulings are generally binding on Meta-owned platforms.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) has slammed Meta's Oversight Board for its view that the phrase "From the River to the Sea" should not lead to content removal because it does "not break Meta's rules on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals."

"'From the River to the Sea' is a slogan created with the sole vision of destroying the national homeland of the Jewish people," CEO of CAM Sacha Roytman Dratwa said. "It is genocidal in intent and meaning, and is not a legitimate political or ideological vision, because it targets the one Jewish State and its inhabitants for destruction."

The post 'From the River to the Sea': Meta policy gets OK appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg caused a stir on social media Wednesday by revealing an imposing statue of his wife, Priscilla Chan, on Instagram. The towering sculpture, standing approximately 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall, was commissioned by the Facebook founder as a tribute to what he described as "the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)

Crafted by New York-based artist Daniel Arsham, the statue features a striking silver and blue color scheme. The piece, which appears to be situated in a residential garden beneath a tree, depicts Chan with a flowing silver garment draped over and behind a teal-colored figure.

The unveiling quickly captured the internet's attention, with users drawing comparisons to characters from the film "Avatar" and playfully commenting on Zuckerberg's reputation as a devoted husband. Chan herself responded to her husband's Instagram post with a lighthearted comment: "The more of me the better?" accompanied by a heart emoji.

In the shared image, the real-life Chan is seen standing beside her statuesque counterpart, sipping from a mug that matches the light blue hue of the sculpture. The juxtaposition of the living Chan with her larger-than-life likeness added to the buzz surrounding the piece.

While Zuckerberg cited Roman traditions as inspiration for the commission, experts note that statues in ancient Rome often served to honor deceased loved ones or "to refer to significant relatives and to make meaningful associations," according to the National Museums Liverpool.

Zuckerberg and Chan, who tied the knot in 2012, are parents to three daughters. The couple's relationship has often been a subject of public interest, given Zuckerberg's high-profile role in the tech industry.

The post Meta's Zuckerberg unveils striking statue of wife appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A former Meta engineer on Tuesday accused the company of bias in its handling of content related to the war in Gaza, claiming in a lawsuit that Meta fired him for trying to help fix bugs causing the suppression of Palestinian Instagram posts.

Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who had been on Meta's machine learning team since 2021, sued the social media giant in a California state court for discrimination, wrongful termination, and other wrongdoing over his February dismissal.

In the complaint, Hamad accused Meta of a pattern of bias against Palestinians, saying the company deleted internal employee communications that mentioned the deaths of their relatives in Gaza and conducted investigations into their use of the Palestinian flag emoji. According to the lawsuit, the company launched no such investigations for employees posting Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar contexts.

Hamad's claims reflect long-standing criticisms by human rights groups over Meta's performance moderating the content posted to its platforms about Israel and the Palestinian territories, including in an external investigation the company commissioned in 2021.

Since the outbreak of war last year, the company has faced accusations that it was suppressing expressions of support for Palestinians living amid the war. Nearly 200 Meta employees raised similar concerns in an open letter to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders earlier this year.

Hamad said his firing appeared to stem from an incident in December involving an emergency procedure designed to troubleshoot severe problems with the company's platforms, known within Meta as a SEV or "site event." He had noted procedural irregularities in the handling of a SEV related to restrictions on content posted by Palestinian Instagram personalities that prevented the posts from appearing in searches and feeds, the complaint said. In one case, the complaint alleged, he found that a short video posted by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza had been misclassified as pornographic even though it showed a destroyed building in Gaza.

Hamad said he received conflicting guidance from other employees about the status of the SEV and whether he was authorized to help resolve it. However, he had worked on similarly sensitive SEVs before, including ones related to Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine. He said his manager later confirmed in writing that the SEV was part of his job function.

The next month, after a Meta representative told him he was the subject of an investigation, Hamad filed an internal discrimination complaint and days later was fired, he said. Hamad said Meta told him he was fired for violating a policy barring employees from working on issues with accounts of people they know personally, referring to Azaiza, the photojournalist. Hamad said he had no personal connection to Azaiza.

The post Former Meta engineer sues for wrongful termination over Palestinian content appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A lot has been said about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his view on Judaism throughout the years, but a recent interview with his wife, Priscilla Chan, sheds light on the traditions they keep, including a weekly Shabbat family dinner. 

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Chan said that she and Zuckerberg raise their two daughters, five-year-old Maxima and four-year-old August, as Jewish. Every Friday night the family hosts friends for Friday night dinner in which Chan – who is Chinese by heritage – serves kosher food alongside Asian dishes. 

She also described the family's bedtime ritual, which involves Zuckerberg reciting a Jewish prayer with the two daughters in Mandarin and teaching them how to code despite their young age. Asked if they plan to give the daughters access to social media, Chan is very clear: "Not until they are 13, because that's the rule."

In her interview, Chan also shared how she met Zuckerberg while studying at Harvard and their diverging backgrounds. While Zuckerberg grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in upstate New York, her parents fled Vietnam in the 1970s and worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Chan also spoke of the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation she and her husband set up through which they plan to donate 99% of their wealth.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Mark Zuckerberg's daughters keep Jewish faith with bedtime prayer in Mandarin appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.