Polygon

Meta launches Muse Image to court advertisers

Meta launched Muse Image, an AI image generator built by its Meta Superintelligence Labs unit (internally codenamed Mango), and made it available for free through the Meta AI app as well as integrated into Instagram Stories and WhatsApp. The model supports prompt-based generation, presets, image editing and Instagram Story effects, and Meta says it will be free for everyday use with subscription tiers for heavier usage; a Muse Video model is reported to be in development. The release includes a controversial feature that lets users tag a public Instagram profile and use that person’s photos as source material for AI edits without notifying them by default, prompting privacy concerns. Meta points to opt-out settings for this functionality, while critics point to the company’s prior privacy issues and regulatory history.

MapTap: A Daily Geography Game Like Wordle

TechCrunch published a feature on MapTap, a daily geography game available on the web and as a mobile app. Each daily puzzle presents five location-based clues where players tap on a world map; each guess is scored from 0–100, with later rounds applying multipliers so final scores are out of 1,000. The article describes MapTap’s learning-oriented gameplay, end-of-day informational blurbs about each location, and social shareable score text similar to Wordle. The author compares MapTap favorably to other geography games like Worldle and Globle, noting MapTap’s graded scoring makes stuck players less likely to give up. The piece was written by Amanda Silberling and published on TechCrunch on 2026-06-18.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Launches Twitch Livestream Series

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has launched a recurring livestream series called "Talk with the People," premiering on May 21, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. ET on Twitch. The stream will simulcast across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Bluesky, and Mamdani said it is the country's first recurring cross-platform stream hosted by an elected official. The initiative is intended to create a direct line of conversation between city government and younger audiences who increasingly consume politics via creators and live-streaming platforms. Mamdani has previously built a large social media presence and reportedly has a combined audience of over 15 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and X.