Tech
Mark Zuckerberg announces Muse Spark, the first AI model from Meta Superintelligence Labs
Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday that Meta Superintelligence Labs has reached its first major milestone: a new family of AI models called Muse, with the debut model, Spark, available now. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said that Muse Spark now powers an updated version of Meta AI, which users can access online at meta.ai or in the Meta AI app.
"Muse Spark is the first step on our scaling ladder and the first product of a ground-up overhaul of our AI efforts," a Meta announcement stated.
Spark is designed to be particularly capable in areas tied to everyday personal use — tasks like visual understanding, health, shopping, and social content. Looking ahead, Zuckerberg said Meta is building products that go beyond answering questions, toward AI that acts as agents "that do things for you."
Future AI models in the Muse lineup will also include new open-source releases.
Muse Spark is the first big product from Meta Superintelligence Labs
The announcement marks the public debut of work that has been underway — and at times turbulent — since last summer. When Zuckerberg first laid out his vision for "personal superintelligence" in a July 2025 manifesto, the ambition was an AI that helps people pursue their own goals rather than one controlled from the top down.
To build it, Meta went on one of the most aggressive hiring sprees in recent memory, personally recruiting more than 50 researchers from rivals including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and bringing in former Scale AI chief Alexandr Wang to lead its new superintelligence research group.
Then, just as quickly, Meta froze hiring altogether — citing routine budget planning — and restructured the team into four smaller units focused on research, superintelligence development, products, and infrastructure. Zuckerberg explained the pivot by saying he believes breakthrough AI work is best done by compact teams who can hold the full picture in their heads, rather than sprawling organizations.
The whiplash raised eyebrows amid broader market jitters about whether the AI boom is sustainable. An MIT study circulating at the time found the vast majority of companies deploying AI were seeing no financial return.
In his original manifesto, Zuckerberg drew a sharp philosophical line between Meta and its competitors, arguing that some AI labs want to concentrate superintelligence and pipe its output to humanity like a utility. Meta sees it differently, he said.
In Wednesday's Muse Spark announcement post, he once again framed the lab's founding goal as "putting personal superintelligence in everyone's hands" — with the underlying belief that empowering individuals, not centralizing intelligence, is how humanity moves forward.
Wednesday's Muse announcement will be the first concrete product to emerge from these multi-billion-dollar investments. (Meta allocated $72 billion in AI development in 2025 and is expected to spend up to $135 billion in 2026.)
Muse Spark: Benchmark performance
So far, Meta's Llama family of AI models has lagged far behind its rivals on AI leaderboards. Whether Spark lives up to the superintelligence branding remains to be seen, but after months of hiring drama, restructuring, and big-picture theorizing, Meta has finally put something on the table.
As Zuckerberg put it: "I'm looking forward to sharing more soon."
As part of its Muse Spark announcement, Meta Superintelligence Labs released its scores on popular AI benchmark tests such as Humanity's Last Exam (HLE), ARC AGI 2, and GPQA Diamond. These scores could not be independently verified at this time, but Meta did release information on its testing methodology for Muse Spark.
Overall, Meta reported mixed results when comparing Muse Spark to frontier models such as Claude Opus 4.6 Max, Gemini 3.1 Pro High, GPT 5.4 Xhigh, and Grok 4.2, with Muse Spark outperforming on some benchmarks and underperforming on others.
Meta released a table comparing benchmark performance for Muse Spark.
Credit: Meta
How to try Muse Spark from Meta
Muse Spark is available online now. Desktop users can access the new AI model online at meta.ai. Mobile users can also try Muse Spark in the Meta AI app. Additionally, Meta said that select users will be able to access a private API preview.
To compete with reasoning models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, Meta is also releasing a "Contemplating" mode for Muse Spark, "which orchestrates multiple agents that reason in parallel."
"This allows Muse Spark to compete with the extreme reasoning modes of frontier models such as Gemini Deep Think and GPT Pro. Contemplating mode provides significant capability improvements in challenging tasks, achieving 58% in Humanity’s Last Exam and 38% in FrontierScience Research."
Contemplating mode is not yet available; Meta said it will be released gradually at meta.ai, but did not provide a timeline for its release.
London's cybercrime unit is investigating a former Meta employee who allegedly downloaded more than 30,000 private user images from personal Facebook pages.
Police say the employee, a company engineer, allegedly designed a script that allowed his activity to go undetected by internal security systems, according to court documents reviewed by The Guardian.
The incident was discovered by the company over a year ago, Meta explained in a statement to the BBC. In addition to terminating the employee, Meta notified affected Facebook users and updated its security protocols. Meta then referred the case to the UK police, and authorities arrested the man in November.
"After discovering improper access by an employee over a year ago, we immediately terminated the individual, notified users, referred the matter to law enforcement and enhanced our security measures," the company said to the press. "We are co-operating with the ongoing investigation."
Meta has previously been accused of failing to appropriately notify users of privacy policies and how their data is accessed by the company, including recent concerns about Meta AI chatbot prompts being made visible to the public.
Last month, an investigation found that offshore Meta workers in Kenya were being forced to review personal recordings taken by Meta Ray-Ban glasses wearers — videos that were being shared unbeknownst to users to train the company's AI. In January, a group of international plaintiffs and whistleblowers filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging that private WhatsApp conversations, which are end-to-end encrypted, were being accessed and analyzed by Meta employees. The company has denied the allegation.
Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.
Tech
Best Buy is giving away a Super Mario Bros. 40th anniversary collectible game case for free — how to claim
GET A FREE COLLECTIBLE GAME CASE: As of April 8, you can pick up a slick Super Mario Bros. 40th anniversary collectible game case for free at Best Buy when you purchase two select Mario titles for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
Opens in a new window
There's a lot of Mario talk lately between The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the Super Mario Bros. Wonder Switch 2 Edition release, and the 40th anniversary of the nostalgic Nintendo mascot. And Best Buy wants in on the conversation. For a limited time, the retailer is giving away free Super Mario Bros. 40th anniversary collectible game cases. Here's how you can claim yours.
There's limited quantities of these slick collectible cases, so you'll want to act semi-quickly if you want to ensure you get one. All you have to do to qualify is purchase two select Mario titles for Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 at Best Buy. Once you add two to your cart, you'll see the game case added automatically for $0 (a $20 value). It can hold 24 games and showcases photos of Mario himself over the years.
There's plenty of excellent games included in the list, including Super Mario Bros. Wonder Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park, Mario Kart World for Nintendo Switch 2, Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Nintendo Switch, and Mario Party Superstars for Nintendo Switch. Most of them are at full price, which is kind of a bummer, but we do think the majority of them are worth the money.
Regardless, this is your chance to celebrate four decades of Mario and get some sick merch to go along with it. And a free gift is a free gift!
TL;DR: Live stream Sporting CP vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free on Prime Video. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The Champions League is reaching its dramatic conclusion, with only four teams left in contention for the top prize.
Sporting CP vs. Arsenal is one of the four quarter-final matchups. Arsenal will be expected to progress into the next round, but they've shown some inconsistent form of late. They'll need to improve after losing to Southampton in the FA Cup at the weekend.
Sporting needed a stunning turnaround to progress past Bodø/Glimt in the last round. They'll need to produce another strong display in the first leg of this round if they want to move into the semi finals. It's going to be an interesting clash between two attacking sides, and you can follow all the action without spending anything.
If you want to watch Sporting CP vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Sporting CP vs. Arsenal?
Sporting CP vs. Arsenal in the Champions League kicks off at 3 p.m. ET on April 7. This fixture takes place at the Estádio José Alvalade.
How to watch Sporting CP vs. Arsenal for free
Sporting CP vs. Arsenal is available to live stream for free on Prime Video (30-day free trial).
This free stream is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can unblock Prime Video to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream Sporting CP vs. Arsenal for free by following these simple steps:
-
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
-
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
-
Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK
-
Visit Prime Video
-
Watch Sporting CP vs. Arsenal for free from anywhere in the world
Opens in a new window
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Sporting CP vs. Arsenal without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select Champions League fixtures before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for Prime Video?
ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on Prime Video, for a number of reasons:
-
Servers in 105 countries including the UK
-
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
-
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
-
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
-
Up to 10 simultaneous connections
-
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).
Watch Sporting CP vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.
Former Meta employee accused of downloading 30,000 private user images
Best Buy is giving away a Super Mario Bros. 40th anniversary collectible game case for free — how to claim
How to watch Sporting CP vs. Arsenal online for free
SEND IN THE TROOPS! At Least 5 Dead, 10 Wounded So Far in Chicago Weekend Shootings
How I Paid Off My Mortgage 10 Years Early On A Teacher’s Salary
Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle
-
Politics7 months agoSEND IN THE TROOPS! At Least 5 Dead, 10 Wounded So Far in Chicago Weekend Shootings
-
Business7 months ago
How I Paid Off My Mortgage 10 Years Early On A Teacher’s Salary
-
Politics7 months agoBlack Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle
-
Tech7 months agoGet a lifetime subscription to the “ChatGPT for investors” for under $60
-
Tech7 months agoReview: The Dreame H15 Pro CarpetFlex is the first wet/dry vacuum I liked
-
Business7 months ago
25 Low-Effort Side Hustles You Can Start This Weekend
-
Business7 months ago
9 Ways to Command a Six-Figure Salary Without a Bachelor’s
-
Tech7 months agoHow much does the Roborock Saros Z70 cost? And does it ever go on sale?