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Meta acquires Moltbook

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Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#291

Post by wanderingmind »

neom wrote: post #63
3rodents wrote: post #24

I thought that Moltbook was sort of a joke because it was people LARPing as agents as much as it was agents, and given that, I'm confused by this: > "The Moltbook team has given agents a way to verify their identity and connect with one another on their human's behalf," Shah says. "This establishes a registry where agents are verified and tethered to human owners." So the impetus for the acquisition was either the ve…

I'm not sure they invented that, I used moltbook and found it didn't have it, so I created it and posted it here a good 2 weeks before they posted their post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46850284 - not that I care, want credit, or think ideas are worth anything, just like I didn't invent it, they didn't invent it either. I also happened to quite like Matt so even if by chance he saw my post and thought it wa…

@dang maybe a candidate for reposting as the original posting did not get much traction

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#292

Post by potahtoputato »

kaizenb wrote: post #49

"Meta acquires Moltbook" vs "Meta hires duo behind Moltbook" The deal brings Moltbook's creators — Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr — into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)

Correct. Now just waiting for it to reach full circle and have them write a "I have joined XXXX company to make the world a better place" blog and have it reach front page of HN.

Like that malware author who recently joined OpenAI did https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47028013 or that other one who went to his hairstylist and was enlightened while having a haircut that he should join OpenAI https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46920487

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#294

Post by skeeter2020 »

xreplyai wrote: post #263
kaizenb wrote: post #49

"Meta acquires Moltbook" vs "Meta hires duo behind Moltbook" The deal brings Moltbook's creators — Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr — into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)

Thanks for breaking it down. It's not the idea, but the people!

that would at least be defensible, but unfortunately it's really just the hype & headline.

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#295

Post by skeeter2020 »

dabedee wrote: post #125
michaelcampbell wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to accuse you of using an LLM to write this with the temperature set to some absurdly high value, because on its face it sounds ridiculous. And yet, here we are.

It's hard to make this up :)

an LLM making this up would be much closer to AGI than anything else I've seen

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#296

Post by tedmiston »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #91
dabedee wrote: post #80

Meta acquired Moltbook, which is a social network for AI bots that was itself built by an AI bot, and which had a security breach so bad that literally anyone could impersonate any bot on it, and whose own creator cheerfully admitted he "didn't write one line of code" for it. This is going into Meta Superintelligence Labs, the unit they set up for Alexandr Wang, whom they hired from Scale AI roughly one year ago to,…

I want to accuse you of using an LLM to write this with the temperature set to some absurdly high value, because on its face it sounds ridiculous. And yet, here we are.

it's just a fancified key talent acquihire of people on the edge. with the amount of cash in LLMs, i expect to see more of this given the pace of innovation in that field.

the story does sound ridiculous ostensibly, but that's the press spin.

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#297

Post by [deleted] »

MainlyMortal wrote: post #149
eddythompson80 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just technical content. Just the other day I was reading a post by an employed homes guy on r/seattle. The post was about his experience of being both newly employed but still homeless. The post was full of “this is not a scheduling conflict problem, this is a structural issue with the city”, “this is not me asking for a handout, this is struggling to survive within the system” While I get that he might have…

This is exactly the type of thing I'm talking about and why I'm convinced it's about the metrics/engagement boosting. I don't believe for a second that real people are using chatgpt/others for rewording real thoughts even from another language because those phrases are not natural even in translation. You'll also notice in the original post that that it always ends with a question that encourage replies. If the origi…

[deleted]

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#298

Post by tedmiston »

phaser wrote: post #54

In Chile we have an expression that reminds me why I love my home dialect so much: "Vender humo" (to sell smoke) - not quite the same as smoke and mirrors, it conveys that someone, in a spectacular way, manages to sell something that vanishes upon reaching the hands of the buyer, like smoke.

it's high talent acquisition, the service is just a byproduct. this reads like an acquihire.

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#299

Post by tedmiston »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #77
jonnat wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People said the same thing when he paid $1B for Instagram, for it to look like a crazy bargain a couple of months later.

People also said the same thing when he poured $70Bn into the Metaverse, and they were right.

comparing an acquihire of two people by analogy to a $70B investment is a bit egregrious... this event is pocket change to big tech.

Re: Meta acquires Moltbook

#300

Post by tedmiston »

antognini wrote: post #237
hedayet wrote: post #180

Acquisition headlines can be some of the most misleading signals in the startup ecosystem, especially acqui-hires masquerading as acquisitions. The posted price rarely reflects what founders actually receive after dilution, investor preferences, and stock vesting are factored in. If you’re a founder, don’t let the acquisition narrative distract you from building a durable business.

Did Moltbook even have any investors?

    Moltbook Valuation & Funding
    Deal Type              Date         Amount Raised to Date Post-Val  Status     Stage
    2. Merger/Acquisition  10-Mar-2026  -       -               -         Announced  Startup
    1. Early Stage VC      01-Mar-2026  -       -               -         Completed  Startup
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