Meta is reducing its workforce by several hundred individuals across various teams, including sales, recruitment, and the Reality Labs sector, as reported by The Information and Bloomberg.

The reductions will affect staff in the U.S. and various global markets. Some affected employees will be presented with alternative positions or relocation options to stay with the organization, according to Bloomberg.

“Departments across Meta routinely undergo restructuring or changes to position themselves optimally for achieving their objectives,” stated a Meta representative in an email to TechCrunch. “When feasible, we are locating other opportunities for employees whose roles might be affected.”

The reductions will involve fewer than 1,000 employees. At the close of 2025, Meta had almost 79,000 employees.

These layoffs occur as Meta invests billions into AI. The company anticipates reaching an all-time high in capital expenditures this year, estimated between $115 billion and $135 billion.

This marks the second instance in 2026 in which Meta has downsized its workforce. In January, Meta let go of 10% of its personnel in the Reality Labs sector. The New York Times noted that these cuts impacted approximately 1,000 employees out of a total of around 15,000 in Reality Labs.

There’s major news unfolding today for those developing apps. No, it doesn’t involve reduced App Store commissions. Instead, Apple revealed on Wednesday a notable upgrade to its App Store Connect service, which serves as the platform for developers to launch, oversee, and monitor their apps’ performance across the company’s various platforms.

The updates introduce over 100 new metrics for tracking in areas such as monetization and subscription data, along with additional metrics aimed at aiding developers in comprehending their apps’ in-app purchase performance and the effectiveness of their offers.

Numerous third-party services already provide insights into app performance, including broader app intelligence platforms like Sensor Tower and Appfigures, as well as those focusing specifically on subscription app developers, such as RevenueCat. Nevertheless, the edge of the new App Store Connect metrics is that they are the sole metrics grounded in Apple’s own data — rather than estimates.

Included in the new offerings are enhanced subscription reports that can also be exported via an API, enabling developers to assess their apps’ performance while offline, or to integrate Apple’s data into their own systems.

Developers will also gain deeper insights into their users by analyzing behaviors related to aspects like download dates, sources, offer start dates, and more. This will allow developers to observe how a specific group of users interacted with the app over a given timeframe, such as comparing results from two different regional expansions, for example.

Moreover, new peer group benchmarks have been introduced, enabling developers to see how they measure up against their competitors in terms of download-to-paid conversions and revenue per download.

Apple emphasizes that aggregated cohort data is utilized to safeguard user privacy, and it employs additional differential privacy methods to protect the performance data of individual developers.

As developers examine their chosen metrics in App Store Connect, they can utilize new filters to further refine their data. Apple states that developers can implement up to seven filters simultaneously.

Additionally, the company has launched a new App Store Analytics Guide located in the Help section of App Store Connect to assist developers in formulating data-driven strategies and to enhance their understanding of the App Store’s tools and features.

While one might argue that App Store Connect was in need of an update, the timing of this rollout merits attention. With AI rapidly increasing its capabilities — particularly regarding AI agents that can act on behalf of users — there are discussions suggesting that the conventional app store model may soon be outdated. The CEO of smartphone manufacturer Nothing recently speculated that mobile apps might eventually vanish, as the internet becomes populated with AI agents.

However, Apple is seeking to establish a path where AI enhances its profitable App Store ecosystem, rather than undermining it. According to Bloomberg, the company is set to introduce an AI-empowered Siri at its forthcoming developer conference this June, which can perform tasks within apps.

The surge of new data center initiatives across the U.S. has sparked increasing opposition against the infrastructure supporting AI. Two prominent legislators are now advocating for a prohibition on all new data centers exceeding a peak power load of 20 megawatts.

Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York are unveiling joint legislation in their respective legislative bodies today that would pause these projects until Congress implements thorough AI regulations.

Sanders’ office highlights statements from various technology leaders who have expressed their anxieties regarding AI and called for tighter controls or suspensions on its advancement. These figures include Elon Musk (who has remarked, “AI is far more dangerous than nukes. So why do we have no regulatory oversight?”), Google DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton.

A March Pew Research survey revealed that a majority of Americans feel more apprehensive than thrilled about AI, with only 10% of respondents indicating their excitement surpasses their worries. Nonetheless, substantial political contributions from AI firms and concerns over falling behind in an AI arms race with China may complicate the passage of such legislation.

This proposed legislation could be viewed as an initial proposal for how AI regulation might be structured. The two legislators aim for the U.S. government to assess and approve AI models before their deployment, establish safeguards against job loss due to AI, curtail the ecological impact of data infrastructures, and mandate union labor for their construction. They also aim to ban the export of advanced chips to nations lacking comparable regulations — which currently includes most countries.