Meta to Charge Developers for WhatsApp AI Chatbots in Italy
Meta began charging developers for running AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Italy on February 16, 2026, after regulators in the country forced the company to allow them, according to TechCrunch. The move followed Meta's ban on third-party chatbots on WhatsApp, which took effect on January 15, 2026.
The company announced the new pricing structure on Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Meta planned to charge developers between 0.0498 and 0.0691 per message for AI responses. TechCrunch noted that this could result in significant costs for developers if users exchange thousands of queries with AI chatbots daily. Earlier in January, Meta sent notices to developers creating an exemption for Italian phone numbers. The decision to implement charges in Italy stemmed from the country's competition watchdog requesting Meta to suspend its policy in December 2025.
In other tech news, AI data labeling startup Handshake acquired data label auditing startup Cleanlab, the companies told TechCrunch. The deal, primarily an acqui-hire, added nine Cleanlab employees to Handshake's research organization, including co-founders Curtis Northcutt, Jonas Mueller, and Anish Athalye, all of whom hold PhDs in computer science from MIT. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, creator platform Patreon was in disagreement with Apple over a mandate requiring all creators to move to a subscription billing model using Apple's in-app purchase system. According to TechCrunch, Apple set a new transition deadline of November 1, 2026. Patreon stressed that Apple's lack of consistency around its changing terms has made it hard for creators to build healthy, long-term businesses. Apple initially announced the mandate in 2024, stating that Patreon risked removal from the App Store if it did not comply by November 2025. The changes will only impact 4% of creators who are still using Patreon's legacy billing models.
In the realm of AI models, a startup named Arcee AI released Trinity, a 400B-parameter open-source general-purpose foundation model. TechCrunch reported that Arcee AI claimed Trinity is among the largest open-source foundation models ever trained and released by a U.S. company. Arcee AI benchmarks for its Trinity model show it compares to Meta's Llama 4 Maverick 400B, and Z.ais GLM-4.5, a high-performing open source model from China's Tsinghua University, according to benchmark tests conducted using base models.
Finally, The Verge reported that Apple's noise-canceling AirPods 4 were available at one of their best prices to date. The AirPods 4 were described as a great budget alternative to the AirPods Pro 3, offering solid noise cancellation, sound, and wireless charging.
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