Meta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should be “for everyone” rather than controlled by a handful of labs, but as Equity’s hosts point out, the vision comes with some asterisks.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan take a look at Glimmer, Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word manifesto, and more of the week’s headlines, from the true cost of the AI industry’s energy needs to a $250M acquisition gone very wrong.

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00:00 Intro

1:20 Would you buy a $300 cocktail robot?

3:08 Meta’s Glimmer and the “AI for everyone” pitch

8:03 Anthropic starts watermarking its writing, and users have thoughts

14:34 Amazon’s data center and its natural gas problem

16:37 The startups racing to keep the grid from melting down: Form Energy, Reservoir, and Discovered Materials

23:28 Joby Aviation buys into defense with Resonant Sciences

28:24 The $250M VideoVerse-Minute Media deal, a missing CEO, and a mess of lawsuits

32:37 Outro