Meta's employee tracking hits a wall

PLUS: Instagram is upping its streaming game

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Meta started logging its own employees’ keystrokes, mouse movements, and screenshots to train its AI, then accidentally exposed that data to the entire company.

The initiative, mandatory for most U.S. staff, captured computer usage before a permissions error left private conversations visible companywide. Meta has paused the program, but the backlash is just getting started.

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Meta pauses employee tracking program after leak

  • Instagram wants to be your next streaming service

  • Microsoft locks in 20 years of gas power

  • Stanford finds the off switch for aging joints

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

META

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta accidentally exposed employee keystroke data companywide while running a mandatory AI training program that most staff didn’t know was collecting their private conversations and performance records, Wired reports.

The details:

  • Meta launched the Model Capability Initiative (MCI) in April, logging keystrokes and mouse movements from most U.S. employees for AI training data.

  • A report was filed after employees found that collected data — including private conversations — was visible to far more workers than intended.

  • Meta classified it as a SEV 2, paused the program, and said there’s no indication that the data was improperly accessed.

  • Internal backlash was already brewing: a 1,500-person employee petition opposing the program predated the breach.

Why it matters: Meta’s employee tracking plan was already controversial before the data exposure. Now, the issue is bigger than whether the company should collect this kind of workplace data at all — it’s whether employees can trust Meta to handle it safely when they have little choice but to participate.

INSTAGRAM

Image source: Instagram

The Rundown: Instagram is making a serious play for the living room, expanding its TV app to Samsung devices while testing episodic series, long-form video, and live creator programming — formats it has never supported before.

The details:

  • The Samsung rollout extends the TV app’s reach; it had been limited to Amazon Fire TV and Google TV devices since launching last December.

  • New features include personalized channels, Stories support within the TV app, and the ability to cast Reels directly from your phone.

  • Instagram is also beginning to recruit creators to produce episodic content, serialized stories broken into one-to-three-minute installments.

  • Meta had already been testing a “Series” feature for episodic Reels on Instagram and Facebook earlier this month.

Why it matters: YouTube already overtook Netflix and other streaming services as the most-watched video provider on U.S. televisions in 2025, and Instagram is hoping creators can pull off a similar shift. If episodic and live formats gain traction, Meta starts competing for the TV attention that streamers have spent billions trying to keep.

MICROSOFT

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Chevron and Microsoft just signed a 20-year deal to build a 2.67-gigawatt gas-powered data center in the Permian Basin in West Texas, which the Wall Street Journal says could become one of the largest data centers in the U.S.

The details:

  • Chevron’s subsidiary Energy Forge One signed a 20-year PPA with Microsoft for Project Kilby, a co-located gas power and data center complex in Texas.

  • The 2K-acre Reeves County site will reportedly run on GE Vernova and Caterpillar turbines fed by Chevron’s Permian Basin gas.

  • Chevron is partnering with Joulent on development, targeting FID by the end of 2026, first power in 2028, and $10B+ in tax revenue.

  • The co-located design delivers power directly to Microsoft, limiting grid impact while giving Chevron cash flows decoupled from oil and gas price swings.

Why it matters: AI workloads are pushing tech giants to lock in decade-long energy supply deals, creating a new market for fossil fuel companies to plug directly into the data center buildout. Project Kilby marks Big Oil’s clearest bet yet that AI’s power hunger — not the energy transition — is the next growth frontier.

BIOTECH

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Stanford researchers found that blocking an aging-related protein called 15-PGDH led to the regrowth of lost knee cartilage, raising hopes for a drug that could treat osteoarthritis without joint replacement surgery.

The details:

  • Stanford blocked 15-PGDH, a protein that doubles in aging joints, and saw dramatic cartilage regrowth in mice via both injections and systemic doses.

  • It works by reprogramming existing cartilage cells: the share of cells building healthy hyaline cartilage jumped from 22% to 42% after treatment.

  • Human cartilage removed during knee replacement surgeries also showed less cartilage breakdown and new cartilage generation after one week.

  • A 15-PGDH inhibitor is already in Phase 1 clinical trials for age-related muscle weakness and has shown a safe profile in healthy volunteers.

Why it matters: Osteoarthritis affects 1 in 5 U.S. adults and costs roughly $65B in healthcare annually, yet no approved drug can slow or reverse the underlying disease. This joins a wave of regenerative approaches, including University of Colorado scientists testing a slow-release injectable that nudges cells to regrow cartilage.

QUICK HITS

Oracle said it cut about 21K jobs — 13% of its workforce — in the past year and that its growing use of AI has already replaced some roles and could drive further layoffs.

A Tesla plowed into a Texas home killing a 76-year-old woman — but the company says the driver, not Autopilot, had the pedal floored at 73 mph; NHTSA is investigating.

SpaceX has seen ~$400B wiped from its market value as its post-listing rally reversed, marking one of the largest single-day losses recorded for a public company.

WhatsApp’s CEO, Will Cathcart, is stepping down after seven years and will be replaced by Kunal Shah, founder of Indian fintech CRED.

Lucid slashed 18% of staff — around 1,500 jobs, its second major cut this year — as the struggling EV maker races to launch its first mass-market vehicle.

Claude Guillemot, who co-founded Ubisoft with his four brothers in 1986, died at 69 in a plane crash in the French resort town of La Baule

Rivian owners filed a class action suit against the EV maker, alleging it spent five years falsely promising hands-free, eyes-off driving that hasn’t yet been delivered.

Octopus Energy and CATL formed a joint venture called Swaptopus to roll out a network of battery swap stations for heavy trucks across Europe.

AI drug discovery firm Insilico Medicine signed a $2.5B deal with South Korea's SK Biopharmaceuticals to develop neuroimmune therapies using its Pharma.AI platform.

Trump signed two executive orders to accelerate U.S. quantum computing, directing federal agencies to help build a powerful research-grade quantum computer by 2028.

Italian software roll-up Bending Spoons — which owns Vimeo, AOL, and Eventbrite — is seeking to raise $1.62B in a Nasdaq IPO at a ~$19B valuation.

COMMUNITY

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

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