Zuckerberg says Meta's AI agents lag, and Cloudflare moves to block AI bots on ad pages

Meta's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, told employees on July 2 that the company's automated AI tools have improved more slowly than he expected over the past four months. Meta plans to spend as much as $145 billion on AI equipment and data centers this year. Zuckerberg also said a company reorganization that cut about 10 percent of staff had not gone as smoothly as planned.

Cloudflare, an internet company that handles about 20 percent of the world's web traffic, said on July 1 it will block bots that collect website content for AI training. The block will apply by default on pages that show ads, starting September 15. The company also introduced a system that pays websites when their content appears in AI answers, with early partners Ceramic.ai and You.com.

Microsoft and the Australian media company Nine Entertainment announced a deal on July 3 that lets Microsoft's Copilot AI use Nine's news articles in its answers. Copilot will show snippets, headlines, and links to the full stories from titles such as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review. Nine called it the first such agreement in Australia between Microsoft and a major news company.

The United Nations and its telecommunications agency announced a new group this week called the AI for Good Global Commission. It brings together more than 40 members, including heads of state and company leaders such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Amazon's Andy Jassy. The commission will hold its first meeting on July 8 in Geneva.