Meta to Acquire AI Startup • AI-Generated “Slop” • AI Hiring Race Intensifies • Perplexity AI Integrated into Bixby

🔥 HOT THIS WEEK

🧠 Meta to Acquire AI Startup Manus in Major Strategic Deal
News: Meta announced it will acquire AI startup Manus — a developer of advanced autonomous AI capabilities — in a deal valuing the company at up to $3 billion. The acquisition is aimed at integrating Manus’s generalist agent tech directly into Meta’s AI stack, signaling another shift in the tech giants’ arms race toward more powerful and autonomous AI systems.
📍 Impact: ★★★★★
Big Tech consolidation + deeper agent autonomy integration = a major industry signal.
🔗 Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/meta-acquire-chinese-startup-manus-boost-advanced-ai-features-2025-12-29/ Reuters Reuters

📈 Study Finds >20% of YouTube Videos for New Users Are Low-Quality AI Content
News: Research shows that over 20 % of videos recommended to new YouTube users are AI-generated “slop” — low-quality content driven by algorithmic optimization rather than genuine value. The trend is raising concerns about digital quality, misinformation, and economic incentives in AI-mediated media.

📍 Impact: ★★★★☆
Raises serious questions about content quality, platform AI incentives, and user experience.
🔗 Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/27/more-than-20-of-videos-shown-to-new-youtube-users-are-ai-slop-study-finds The Guardian The Guardian

🌐 China Proposes New AI Rules on Emotion-Aware Systems
News: China’s top cyber regulator issued draft rules to regulate AI systems that simulate human emotions and interaction, requiring providers to monitor usage risks, intervene against addictive behaviors, and enforce privacy safeguards — a move toward governing AI-human engagement at scale.
📍 Impact: ★★★★☆
Signals global regulatory momentum on human-centric AI risks.
🔗 Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-issues-drafts-rules-regulate-ai-with-human-like-interaction-2025-12-27/ Reuters Reuters

💼 AI Hiring Arms Race Intensifies — Massive Pay Raises in China
News: ByteDance and Tencent are reportedly offering up to 150 % salary increases and substantial bonuses to attract top AI talent — a stark contrast to 2025 layoffs in other tech sectors. This highlights the widening talent gap and strategic investments in AI capabilities.

📍 Impact: ★★★★☆
Big salary growth shows where the real AI competition for talent is happening.
🔗 Read more: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chinese-firms-bytedance-and-tencent-reportedly-offer-massive-150-percent-pay-increases-and-35-percent-bonuses-to-entice-ai-talent-salaries-and-increases-also-expected-to-balloon-in-2026 Tom’s Hardware Tom's Hardware

📱 Samsung Tests Perplexity-Powered Bixby Ahead of Galaxy S26 Launch
News: Samsung is integrating Perplexity AI into Bixby, its voice assistant, to improve complex query handling and compete more directly with Google Gemini on mobile devices — a first for dynamically AI-augmented smartphone assistants.
📍 Impact: ★★★★☆
Personal assistant AI moves into mainstream mobile hardware use.
🔗 Read more: https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-galaxy/samsung-testing-perplexity-inside-bixby-for-galaxy-s26 Android Central Android Central

🛠 TOOL OF THE WEEK — 🛠 Zenflow by Zencoder

A desktop AI orchestration layer for developers designed to bridge gaps between AI-generated code and production-ready software — promising to cut iteration issues across development workflows.

🔗 Source: December 2025 AI roundup — https://sdtimes.com/ai/december-2025-ai-updates-from-the-past-month/ SD Times

🤖 AI FOR BEGINNERS

What’s “AI-Generated Content Slop”?
This week’s research shows that a *significant portion of content platforms like YouTube are surfacing AI-produced videos that optimize for attention but provide little informational value. It’s a practical example of AI without quality guardrails, and why content literacy matters more than ever.

Why it matters:
✔ Understand how recommendation algorithms amplify AI outputs
✔ Helps beginners identify low-value AI content
✔ Supports smarter content consumption habits

😂 THIS WEEK IN MEMES