Facebook owner Meta's profits exceed expectations – BBC News

Image source, Getty ImagesBy Shiona McCallumTechnology reporterMeta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent firm, has reported a profit of $5.7bn (£4.6bn) for the first quarter of this year, surpassing expectations for a period in which many jobs were cut. It said artificial intelligence (AI) was “driving good results” across its business.Total revenue was $28.6bn, while the number of people on Facebook every month rose to just under three billion.”Our community continues to grow,” said chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.”We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster, and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long-term vision,” he said. ‘No longer behind in building AI’Meta sees “an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful,” Mr Zuckerberg told investors.While offering few details, he said that Meta was “exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visual creation tools for posts in Facebook and Instagram and ads, and over time video and multimodal experiences as well.”The company intends to commercialise its privately-run generative AI, joining Google in finding practical applications for the tech – because the industry is awash with hype around its capabilities. Meta established Facebook’s AI Research laboratory in
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