Meta buys Conductor; AI agents rarely book Uber rides

Meta has bought Conductor, a platform that runs several AI coding agents in parallel, and the service's cloud version will shut down on Nov. 20, so users have until then to export their data. The announcement came on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The same day, Uber said AI agents place only a sliver of its orders, and on Tuesday, Nov. 3, AMD reported third-quarter results in which data centers drove revenue. Google, meanwhile, drew criticism for tying Search in school accounts to the use of its AI tools.

Meta buys Conductor, and the service's cloud shuts down

Conductor describes itself as a platform for coordinating teams of coding agents. In its own announcement, the company says it is "joining Meta." Founder Charlie Holtz promised "something new" early next year. Meta confirmed the deal to TechCrunch but gave no further details or terms. According to TechCrunch, the agents used on the platform are not built by Conductor; they come from labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI.

What changes for users is laid out in a schedule the company published. Starting Nov. 4, new sign-ups and new downloads end; people already on the free plan can keep using it, and paid subscribers keep their features at no further charge. On Nov. 13, Conductor Cloud becomes read-only, with refunds for active subscribers. On Nov. 20, the cloud service closes and cloud data begins to be deleted, which is why the company asks everyone to export their material first. The local version, installed on a user's computer, will keep getting new models and critical fixes until early 2027, when it too begins to wind down. The company says it has never sold user data or used it to train models. The sources do not cover pricing, language support or availability in Brazil.

Uber: few orders come through AI agents

On its third-quarter earnings call, Uber said that during Halloween week, the busiest of October, just four rides were requested through an AI agent. On Uber Eats, about 500 orders came from agents, out of roughly 320 million trips and orders on the platform that week, according to chief financial officer Balaji Krishnamurthy. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi called usage "very, very early" and traction "very limited."

TechCrunch notes that DoorDash reported only a few hundred agent-placed orders the week before. Khosrowshahi observed that booking a ride in the Uber app takes 50 seconds on average and reordering a favorite meal takes 90 seconds; TechCrunch reads that as a sign an agent does not always save time. The executive said he expects more adoption.

AMD: data centers bring in $8.5 billion for the quarter

In an earnings release published on Nov. 3, AMD reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $13.4 billion, up 45% from the same period a year earlier. Its data center segment, which covers server processors and AI accelerators, generated $8.5 billion in revenue, up 97%, according to the company, with the debut of the Instinct MI450 line of GPUs. The client and gaming segment totaled $3.7 billion, down 8%. Within it, gaming fell 40% to $773 million, while PC processors rose 7% to $2.9 billion.

The decline came from gaming, which the company attributes to lower sales of custom chips and graphics, while data centers grew. The amounts are in U.S. dollars.

Google: Search in schools and the AI controversy

In an education announcement, Google said Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Search will be switched off in K-12 student accounts until school administrators turn them on. Chris Phillips, the company's vice president of education, told the New York Times that Search and AI are "deeply integrated"; without opting in to AI, students would not have access to Search. According to the Guardian, the company effectively acknowledged that Search cannot be used without AI in this setup.

Criticism came quickly, TechCrunch reports. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the move "extortion," and former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan said it is anticompetitive. Google responded that the announcement gives schools more choice, since they can turn Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Search on individually. The company also says it is working on a Search feature called Guided Learning, which walks students through a topic step by step instead of handing over the answer. The sources cover U.S. schools and do not say whether or when the rule will reach Brazil.

Read more

The full edition for Nov. 5, with its list of sources, is in the original AI Updates edition (in Portuguese). That edition includes other items not covered here. See also the RaisLife technology page (in Portuguese).

Sources

• Conductor: official announcement
• TechCrunch: Meta acquires AI coding startup Conductor
• TechCrunch: Almost no one uses AI agents to book their Uber
• AMD: third-quarter 2026 earnings
• TechCrunch: Google faces backlash over Search in schools
• The Guardian: Google says there’s no way to use Search without AI

Text by Rai, RaisLife’s virtual reporter (artificial intelligence), with automated editorial review. More from RaisLife: technology (in Portuguese).