Meta introduces new AI safety alerts for Canadian families

Meta is adding new safety tools designed to help parents respond when teens may be discussing suicide or self-harm with its AI chatbot.

The company has launched features in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia that can alert parents through Instagram supervision tools when a teen’s conversations with Meta AI show possible signs of danger.

The move is part of Meta’s wider effort to improve online safety for young users. However, experts say the tools could help, but they will not solve every challenge linked to children and artificial intelligence.

Parents can receive warnings about possible risks

Under the new system, Meta AI conversations that include possible signs of self-harm will first be reviewed by artificial intelligence. If concerns remain, a human review process will follow before alerts are sent to parents.

Meta said it will choose caution when a teen’s intentions are unclear.

The company explained that some alerts may be sent even when there is no immediate danger. However, Meta said it believes early warnings are an important step while it continues improving the system.

In addition, Meta is developing a process that could connect emergency services with people who appear to be at serious risk of harming themselves.

Experts welcome action but warn about limits

Although child safety experts support stronger protections, they say the new tools have weaknesses.

Kaitlynn Mendes, a sociology professor at Western University, said the protections may not reach enough young people because they depend on parents using Instagram supervision features.

She also questioned why the safeguards are not automatically turned on for all accounts.

Meanwhile, Shauna Pomerantz, a professor of child and youth studies at Brock University, said young people often find ways around online restrictions.

She explained that teens may change their language or avoid certain words to prevent systems from detecting concerning conversations.

Therefore, experts say parents should not rely only on technology. Instead, they should continue having open conversations with young people about their online experiences.

Meta continues expanding child protection efforts

The latest update follows several other safety changes introduced by Meta in recent years.

For example, Meta AI has been designed to avoid sexual or romantic conversations with teens. It also blocks requests for content such as alcohol-related recipes.

Additionally, Facebook and Instagram already have systems that identify posts showing a possible suicide risk and can send information to emergency services. Meta said the programme led to thousands of referrals and wellness checks last year.

The company says these steps are meant to provide extra support when warning signs appear.

AI companies face growing pressure to protect children

Meta’s announcement came shortly before OpenAI shared plans to strengthen protections for younger chatbot users.

OpenAI said it plans to identify users under 18 and reduce their access to content involving graphic violence, self-harm, risky online challenges, harmful body-image messages and unsafe role-play.

However, some experts believe reducing access may not go far enough. They argue that companies should focus on preventing harmful content from appearing rather than only limiting exposure.

Safety tools are one part of a bigger solution

As AI chatbots become more common among young people, experts say technology companies, parents and lawmakers will need to work together.

The new Meta features offer another layer of support, but they are not a replacement for guidance, trust and regular conversations between families.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988, Canada’s national suicide prevention helpline.

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Meta has unveiled its first Ray-Ban smart glasses with a built-in AR display, blending iconic style with cutting-edge technology. Announced at the Meta Connect event, these glasses project crisp visuals directly onto the inside of the lens, giving users real-time translations, directions, and information about the world around them.

Ray-Ban Display: Everyday AR Made Sleek

The Ray-Ban Display is Meta’s first true attempt to bring augmented reality into daily life. Unlike the bulky Google Glass, these glasses keep the familiar Wayfarer-inspired look while hiding a compact camera, microphone, speakers, and an LED to indicate recording.

The heads-up display sits subtly below the eye line, showing text, images, video calls, and even live captions without drawing outside attention. With touch-sensitive arms, voice controls, and a neural wristband that detects hand gestures, interacting with the glasses feels natural and intuitive.

What They Can Do

These glasses sync with iOS and Android devices through Bluetooth, unlocking a wide range of features:

• Real-time translations and captions during conversations

• Step-by-step navigation with turn-by-turn guidance

• Music controls and photo/video capture with a live viewfinder

• AI-powered assistance for recipes, travel tips, or landmark insights

With six hours of mixed use per charge and up to 30 hours in the compact charging case, they are designed to last through busy days. The Ray-Ban Display launches September 30 in the U.S. for $799, with international availability starting in early 2026.

Oakley Meta Vanguard: Built for Sports

Alongside the Ray-Ban model, Meta introduced the Oakley Meta Vanguard, smart glasses aimed at athletes. These lightweight, wraparound glasses integrate cameras, microphones, and speakers, offering fitness tracking, music, and hands-free AI support during workouts.

In partnership with Garmin, the Vanguard syncs with smartwatches and bike computers to deliver real-time metrics such as speed, heart rate, and distance. Athletes can also auto-capture highlight videos from races or training sessions and share them instantly on Strava. The Oakley Meta Vanguard ships October 21 for $499.

A New Era for Wearable Tech

Meta’s latest lineup signals a bold push into consumer-ready augmented reality. With everyday features packed into stylish frames, the company hopes to move AR glasses beyond novelty and into mainstream adoption.

Stay tuned to Maple Wire for the next news update.

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Cohere, the Toronto-based artificial intelligence company, has raised US$500 million while bringing in a major industry name—Joelle Pineau, former Meta AI leader and McGill professor. The funding and new hire mark a pivotal moment in the fast-changing AI landscape, where competition against giants like OpenAI and Anthropic continues to intensify.

The fresh investment pushes Cohere’s valuation to US$6.8 billion, underscoring growing investor confidence in its enterprise-first strategy.

Joelle Pineau Joins as Chief AI Officer

Pineau, who left Meta in May, will step in as Cohere’s Chief AI Officer this September. She will head Cohere Labs, the company’s research arm, while also leading efforts to expand operations from Montreal.

Her track record is impressive. At Meta, Pineau spearheaded research behind the Llama large language models, positioning her among the most respected AI experts globally. Her decision to join Cohere signals strong alignment with the company’s mission—focusing less on hype around artificial general intelligence and more on real-world solutions.

Strategic Backing from Global Investors

Cohere’s funding round drew support from existing investors like Radical Ventures, Inovia Capital, Nvidia, AMD Ventures, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures. The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan also came onboard for the first time.

The continued investor interest highlights trust in Cohere’s unique business model. Unlike competitors with costly consumer-facing chatbots, Cohere’s focus lies in offering scalable AI products for enterprises—allowing clients to manage their own infrastructure and costs.

Enterprise-First Approach Sets Cohere Apart

Founded in 2019, Cohere has always taken a different path in the AI race. Instead of building consumer chatbots, it develops enterprise-grade tools emphasizing privacy and security.

Its North platform, now widely available, helps companies draft documents, generate reports, and automate repetitive administrative work. Businesses can also create AI agents tailored to specific workflows. This targeted approach has already started attracting organizations seeking practical, secure AI integration.

Leadership Expands with Key Hires

Alongside Pineau, Cohere recently brought in Francois Chadwick, a former Uber executive, as Chief Financial Officer. According to co-founder Nick Frosst, these hires strengthen the company’s long-term vision and path toward profitability.

Frosst also emphasized that Cohere’s economics differ from those of its rivals. While OpenAI and Anthropic invest heavily in consumer chatbots, Cohere’s business customers directly fund the infrastructure, creating a sustainable growth model.

Pineau’s Vision for Responsible AI

For Pineau, the decision to join Cohere reflects both professional and personal values. She has voiced concerns about the American tech industry’s political shifts and prefers working with a team focused on responsibility and agility.

Her priorities at Cohere include tackling fundamental research challenges such as evaluating AI agents’ performance and improving interactions between different systems. By leading from Montreal and partnering with Mila, one of Canada’s top AI research hubs, she aims to reinforce Canada’s growing role in the global AI ecosystem.

Looking Ahead

Cohere’s latest funding and leadership expansion underscore its ambition to become a major player in enterprise AI. With a strong financial foundation, a world-class research lead, and an enterprise-first focus, the company is positioning itself as a serious alternative to AI giants.

Stay tuned to Maple Wire for the next big story in tech and innovation.

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Meta is stepping deeper into the wearable tech world, teaming up with Oakley and Prada to launch a new line of AI-powered smart glasses. This move marks an exciting extension of its existing partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the powerhouse behind brands like Ray-Ban and Vogue Eyewear.

The new glasses aim to blend cutting-edge technology with sleek design—offering both style and smart functionality. With Oakley targeting athletes and Prada appealing to high-end fashion lovers, Meta is clearly trying to broaden its reach in the rapidly growing wearable space.

Building on Ray-Ban’s Big Win

Meta’s second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses, launched in 2023, were a breakout success, selling over 2 million units in just over a year. Powered by Qualcomm chips, these glasses featured Meta AI, allowing users to snap photos, record videos, get instant information, and even send WhatsApp messages—all hands-free.

That success paved the way for even more ambitious plans. Now, with Oakley and Prada in the mix, Meta is looking to capture two growing markets: fitness enthusiasts and luxury shoppers.

Oakley Glasses Geared for Action

According to internal documents reviewed by CNBC, the Oakley | Meta glasses will cater to active users—think skiers, runners, and tennis players. Meta noticed that many Ray-Ban users wore the glasses during sports, so it made sense to develop a version designed specifically for that lifestyle.

The Oakley smart glasses, expected to be priced around $360, will be more weather-resistant than their Ray-Ban counterparts. They’ll carry similar tech specs from the 2023 version but with upgrades suited for the outdoors. Meta has already teased the launch on a new Instagram page, hinting at a June 20 reveal.

Prada Partnership Adds Luxury Appeal

The Prada collaboration marks Meta’s first major push into the luxury fashion space. Although no release date has been shared yet, insiders say Prada’s iconic thick temple designs are ideal for embedding hardware like microphones and processors. That means Meta’s tech can integrate smoothly without compromising style.

Prada renewed a 10-year licensing deal with Luxottica in December 2024, covering production and global distribution for all its eyewear brands, including Miu Miu and Linea Rossa. This paves the way for Meta to bring smart features to some of the most exclusive fashion frames on the market.

Big Goals and Bigger Competition

Meta isn’t alone in the race for smart eyewear dominance. Competitors are lining up:

• Google recently teamed up with Warby Parker in a $150 million deal to launch Gemini AI-powered glasses by 2026.

• Snap has announced its sixth-generation Specs glasses, featuring lightweight augmented reality capabilities, coming in 2026.

To stay ahead, Meta is planning even more. A third-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses is expected later this year—this time with a built-in display in one lens, perfect for displaying directions, notifications, or real-time data.

A Multi-Billion Dollar Vision

Meta and Luxottica extended their partnership in September 2024 through a $5 billion agreement. This gives Meta exclusive rights to use Luxottica’s brands for its smart glasses, allowing it to scale rapidly and keep ahead of competitors.

EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri has bold goals: scale up from 2 million units sold in 2023 to 10 million pairs annually by 2026.

What This Means for You

Whether you’re a weekend warrior, fashion lover, or tech aficionado, Meta’s growing family of smart glasses now offers something for everyone. With seamless AI features and fresh brand collaborations, the next era of wearable tech is arriving—stylish, smart, and ready for the real world.

Stay tuned to Maple Wire for the latest in tech, innovation, and style that shapes tomorrow.

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Meta is reportedly eyeing a groundbreaking investment in Scale AI, a move that could reshape the artificial intelligence industry. Sources familiar with the talks suggest the investment may top $10 billion, potentially becoming one of the largest funding rounds in private tech history. Although the deal isn’t final, the scale of the conversation reflects Meta’s renewed push to dominate the AI space.

While neither Meta nor Scale AI has officially commented, the buzz around this possible investment underscores how crucial partnerships have become in the AI race. Unlike competitors like Microsoft and Amazon, Meta has relied largely on internal development. But with this move, it may be stepping out of that comfort zone in a big way.

Why Scale AI Matters in the Bigger Picture

Founded in 2016 by Alexandr Wang, Scale AI has quickly become a central player in the AI ecosystem. With clients like Microsoft and OpenAI, the company specializes in data labeling — a process essential for training machine learning models. Last year, Scale pulled in nearly $870 million in revenue and aims to surpass $2 billion in 2025.

Scale’s rapid rise stems from its ability to deliver clean, tagged datasets for training AI systems. By employing thousands of contract workers to tag images, text, and other media, Scale ensures AI models learn from high-quality data. In the booming generative AI landscape, that role has never been more critical.

A Strategic Shift for Meta’s AI Vision

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has placed AI at the heart of the company’s growth strategy. He announced earlier this year that Meta could spend up to $65 billion on AI initiatives in 2025 alone. This potential investment in Scale would be Meta’s most significant external bet in the space, signaling a shift from in-house research to high-stakes collaborations.

While companies like Microsoft have poured billions into OpenAI and offered cloud computing credits, Meta lacks a cloud platform. So, the exact structure of its potential Scale deal remains uncertain. What’s clear, though, is that Meta is aiming to make its large language model, Llama, a global standard — with over 1 billion monthly chatbot users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp already.

AI, Defense, and the Future of Collaboration

The Meta-Scale relationship extends beyond tech. Both companies are venturing into defense AI, including a joint project called Defense Llama, a military-grade adaptation of Meta’s AI platform. Scale also recently secured a U.S. Department of Defense contract to build AI agent technologies — a move it hailed as a major leap in military innovation.

Adding fuel to this synergy, Meta has partnered with defense tech firm Anduril to build AI-enabled gear for military use, including virtual-reality helmets. The approval to use Meta’s models for U.S. defense applications signals a larger ambition: becoming indispensable not just in consumer AI, but also in national security.

Stay tuned to Maple News Wire for the latest on AI investments and industry shifts.

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