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A few days ago, Facebook open-sourced its artificial intelligence (AI) hardware computing design. Most people don’t know that large companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon don’t buy hardware from the usual large computer suppliers like Dell, HP, and IBM but instead design their own hardware based on commodity components. The Facebook website and all its myriad apps and subsystems persist on a cloud infrastructure constructed from tens of thousands of computers designed from scratch by Facebook’s own hardware engineers.

Facebook has released the latest version of its Global Government Request report, which reveals that content restrictions and data requests submitted by governments around the world are on the rise.

The social networking site recently summarized the main findings of its report:

Facebook has over 1.49 billion monthly active users, with people in the U.S. spending a staggering 27 hours on the social networking site every month.

The company thinks that that kind of sky-high usage and engagement gives it certain responsibilities.

“Because people interact with Facebook so often, we’re spending a lot of time thinking about how we can play a role in helping increase security literacy overall across the internet,” Facebook security product manager Melissa Luu-Van tells Business Insider.

With good number of major tech companies fielding their own brand of virtual assistant technology, Facebook is reportedly eyeing its own entry with "Moneypenny," a hybrid feature that helps users complete tasks like buying products and services online.

Being tested internally, Moneypenny, named after the James Bond franchise character who serves as M's secretary, is said to bring a human touch to modern digital assistants, reports The Information. For example, users might ask Moneypenny to research and purchase an HDTV.

Like Microsoft trying to capture a meaningful portion of the smartphone market, getting a foothold in the music streaming business is no small feat. The crowded industry is currently dominated by Spotify and Pandora, with Apple Music and Microsoft's recently-rebranded Groove trying to make names for themselves, and the competition is likely to get a lot stiffer with Facebook supposedly entering the game.

Thanks to the latest advances in computer vision, we now have machines that can pick you out of a line-up. But what if your face is hidden from view?

An experimental algorithm out of Facebook's artificial intelligence lab can recognise people in photographs even when it can't see their faces. Instead it looks for other unique characteristics like your hairdo, clothing, body shape and pose.

Joe Sullivan, the Facebook executive in charge of keeping the social network’s 1.3 billion users safe, is leaving to become Uber’s first chief security officer.

The move is a major talent grab by the $40 billion car-hailing-app company, and it comes as cofounder and CEO Travis Kalanick grapples with security concerns escalating so rapidly they threaten to slow Uber’s momentum.

A few months from now, US-based users of Facebook's Messenger app will be able to send and receive money via it for free, the company has announced on Tuesday.

The option will be available in the Android, iOS, and desktop apps, via a $ icon. "The money you send is transferred right away. It may take one to three business days to make the money available to you depending on your bank, just as it does with other deposits," the company noted.

Like it or not, Facebook has become almost ubiquitous in today's world. Most people you know, both young and old, are on there. Worse, some folks keep memories of their lives stored on the service, including precious photos that, in some cases, may not be backed up in any way. It feels safe, after all, Facebook wouldn't lose them, right? Not so fast.

Facebook, Yahoo and other technology firms announced the creation of a "ThreatExchange" to share information to help thwart cyberattacks.

"ThreatExchange is built on the existing Facebook platform infrastructure... so that partner companies can query the available threat information and also publish to all or a subset of participating organisations," the social network said in a statement.