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Welcome back to AI, Tech & Money. This is Trishla Ostwal, ADWEEK’s AI reporter, filling in for Kendra Barnett while she’s off in Istanbul. I’m in New York, where summer is finally losing its grip on the city. I am also catching up with sources on a story that’s hard to avoid right now: The Trade Desk’s layoffs and what they mean for the company’s future—more on that in a minute.
In other news, Anthropic’s insiders warn AI could kill humans. Researcher Jacob Coxon resigned Tuesday, saying the people building AI believe it has the potential to kill us all by the end of the decade. You can read more of his cheery comments on X.
Onto another tech company plowing ahead with AI developments: Meta took an early step toward what CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “personal intelligence” with the launch of Muse, a personal AI agent built on the latest generation of models developed under chief AI officer Alexandr Wang. Zuckerberg, in his recent 6,500-word manifesto, touted this as the company’s key next step. Among other things, people can name their agent, build an avatar, and customize how it communicates. Meta is offering a free tier as well as two paid plans: $20 per month and $100 per month.
Muse carries no ads for now. Wang said Meta is exploring commerce opportunities that could open up new revenue streams.
Speaking of advertising, one of the industry’s most influential programmatic players just gave everyone a reason to talk about its future. The Trade Desk cut about 585 jobs on Sept. 4—roughly 15% of its global headcount. CEO Jeff Green told staff the move was a reorganization, not a response to financial trouble, and he still described the business as healthy, pointing to the company’s $1.5 billion in cash and zero debt. The same day, S&P 500 booted The Trade Desk out, effective Sept. 21, ending a run of just 14 months on the index.
