Meta is making its AI “characters” off-limits to teens as it builds special versions of characters that it says will be appropriate for teenagers. 

Over the coming weeks, Meta said it would be “temporarily pausing teens" access to existing AI characters globally.” The characters—AI-powered chatbots with different personalities that users create with Meta’s tools—will still be available for adults to engage with, Meta said.

The move, which Meta disclosed quietly on Friday in an update to an October blog post, comes just days before a trial is set to begin in New Mexico alleging that Meta’s platform has put children at risk of sexual exploitation. And it comes amid increasing scrutiny over AI’s potential effects on mental health, particularly among young or vulnerable users. Earlier this week, OpenAI said it was rolling out new age-verification technology for ChatGPT users.

Meta did not provide a timeline for when the new teen-optimized AI characters would be available, but the company told Techcrunch that the characters would be limited to talking about topics like sports and education and would include parental controls.—AO

More pain is imminent for Amazon’s white-collar workforce. As part of a push to shrink its corporate ranks by about 30,000 jobs, Amazon is expected to carry out a second round of layoffs this week, according to a report from Reuters. The cuts are anticipated to affect Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video, and human resources, though the final scope could change. Around 14,000 roles are expected to be cut, with layoffs beginning as soon as Tuesday, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the plans.

The move follows October layoffs that eliminated about 14,000 white-collar jobs, and is part of Amazon's broader effort to trim its headcount. If completed, the overall reductions would represent nearly 10% of Amazon's corporate workforce and mark the largest layoffs in the company's history—surpassing the roughly 27,000 jobs cut in 2022.

Workers affected by the October layoffs were given 90 days to find internal roles or seek other employment, a period that expires Monday. Amazon originally framed those cuts as part of the company's AI transformation, but CEO Andy Jassy subsequently said on an earnings call that the layoffs were “about culture,” driven by a desire to trim excessive bureaucracy rather than by financial pressures. –Beatrice Nolan