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Meta said on Wednesday it is acquiring Moltbook, a social network built exclusively for artificial intelligence agents to make posts and interact with each other. A takeover of the AI experiment by the parent company of Facebook and Instagram comes weeks after Moltbook attracted viral attention as an unusual Reddit-like hub for AI systems trading gossip. Meta's move reflects the tech industry's ongoing fascination with the promise of AI agents that go beyond a chatbot's capabilities in being able to act and perform tasks on a person's behalf. Meta said in a statement that Moltbook introduced novel ideas in a "rapidly developing space" and will open "new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses". Meta said it was hiring Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr. The deal's financial terms were not disclosed. In a similar move, OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, last month hired the creator of AI agent OpenClaw, formerly called Moltbot and the technology upon which Moltbook
A high-stakes dispute over military use of artificial intelligence erupted into public view this week as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth brusquely terminated the Pentagon's work with Anthropic and other government agencies, using a law designed to counter foreign supply chain threats to slap a scarlet letter on a US company. President Donald Trump and Hegseth accused rising AI star Anthropic of endangering national security after its CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company's products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones. The San Francisco-based company has vowed to sue over Hegseth's call to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk, an unprecedented move to apply a law intended to counter foreign threats to a US company. Anthropic said it would challenge what it called a legally unsound action "never before publicly applied to an American company." The looming legal battle could have huge implications on the balance of power in Big Te