OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman Confirms AI Won't Replace Human Writers Anytime Soon

In a recent interview, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, says that he doesn't believe that AI can replace human writers. He says that he has seen many badly written content by AI on the internet and he thinks that no AI model can write similar to what a human being can. AI written content is being used in schools and workplaces and many people are concerned that their roles will be replaced by AI. Yes, many content writers have lost their jobs because their client/company has started using AI but AI cannot reach the quality level of a professional human content writer, particularly when it comes to storytelling with a personal touch.

Many writers are embracing AI, instead of being afraid of it. A writer recently wrote and illustrated a complete children’s book by using AI. Another writer also wrote 120 books using chatbots over two years. Some writers are also starting to work with AI firms to enhance their AI skills. Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring writers to write prompts for AI.

Altman says that AI is a great tool for writing, but it isn't a complete substitute for a human writer. It cannot generate quality content and needs human input to create ideas. He said that AI has to reach super intelligence to take the place of human writers. There are a lot of other issues when it comes to AI that are more worrying than this.

Sam Altman said in the interview that ChatGPT’s writing skills aren't perfect right now and a lot of work needs to be done before it can generate high-quality content. OpenAI’s GPT-4o shows better writing abilities than other LLMs but it still needs a lot more training. Altman asked a question: whether the most popular novel of 2027 will have a human writer or not? The answer is yes, absolutely. Altman added that whenever he finishes a book, he checks for the writer's name, but he won't have this feeling for AI writing. There is a connection between the writer and the readers, and AI writing cannot achieve it.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• Is Your Data Safe? Discover the Social Media Apps You Should Avoid!

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Is Your Data Safe? Discover the Social Media Apps You Should Avoid!

Researchers at Incogni looked at the top 15 social networking apps and found that these platforms severely mishandle our data and privacy. Meta's Facebook and Microsoft's LinkedIn were the worst platforms when it comes to user privacy protection. Reddit, Snapchat, and Pinterest were the platforms with the lowest risks of privacy breaches. Researchers looked at privacy risks on each platform across five categories.

The first category was data collection and retention. Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram received the worst results in this category. Another category was user control and consent. In this category, default privacy settings, privacy settings, and visibility options were analyzed. Meta’s platforms Messenger and WhatsApp were the worst in that section. TikTok was also among the worst apps in this category. There are a lot of data points these apps collect and share with third parties.

Another category was the transgression category, which means fines and data breach incidents. X, LinkedIn, and Facebook didn’t get a good score in this category, but Reddit, Telegram, Quora, and Discord received positive scores. In terms of transparency, LinkedIn and Quora were the worst, while Snapchat and YouTube were the best. Meta’s apps and YouTube were the worst apps in terms of how easy it is to understand their privacy policies and the steps required to delete an account.

The researchers say that it seems like you now need a college degree to understand social media apps’ privacy policies. Researchers also found that, in addition to complex policies, there are a lot of steps users need to take to delete an account. To delete an account on Telegram, TikTok, and Discord, you just need two clicks. But for the deletion of accounts on Meta apps and YouTube, it takes a maximum of six clicks. After you leave a platform, your data remains there for at least 180 days. The platforms that delete the data after 180 days are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Discord. Telegram deletes user data just a few days after account deletion.

In recent years, many countries have implemented laws about user data and privacy, but they are not enough. The only way these platforms will comply with the law is if violating the law becomes less profitable than complying with it. Meta has already faced many legal fines because it continues to breach user privacy. The only way users can make social media platforms safe for them is by reviewing their privacy settings and making sure they only allow apps to see information that is necessary.

Read next: Popular Education Apps Are Asking for Dangerous Permissions — Here’s What You Need to Know
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Zillow Prepares To Launch New Climate Catastrophe Alerts For Americans Through Its Maps

Climate change and global warming are very real and the effects can be seen worldwide today. This is why popular real estate platform Zillow Maps is gearing up to display climate-related catastrophe alerts to all users.

The news comes amid a devastating Hurricane Helene that ravaged Florida recently, leaving millions without power. Moreover, beachfront properties were significantly impacted and were witnessed getting washed into the ocean. This is why Zillow says it’s important to keep homeowners aware of the risks as they build up with time.

Now, Zillow plans to add data related to floods, wildfires, air quality, and more that’s linked to homes across America. Such information will solely depend on the climate risk at stake. For instance, when you look at homes prone to flooding, the page will display the frequency and depth of floods in any area.

In terms of wildfires, it would showcase how many fires took place in recent memory and also the probability of that getting impacted by the fire over the next few years.

The information will be present on the company’s map and will also be color-coded to display the different kinds of disasters so everyone can check the areas where all five risks are present at the same time. Meanwhile, it confirmed how the data would be property-specific. So that means every user can beforehand check out the risks, if any, before adding offers.

The feature will likely be rolled out on the page and iOS app by this year’s end with support for Android devices arriving during the start of 2025.

The company released a statement on this front, adding how climate risks are a huge consideration when citizens invest in property. This is why markets are only deemed healthy when buyers have the right kind of data accessible to them so they can make the right decision.

This tool is also sufficient, considering the timing of extreme weather conditions. From floods and high temperatures to wildfires and more, the tool can assist agents keep their clients informed about any risks. Be it climate change, insurance, or even factors like affordability in the long term.

This is why Zillow has collaborated with First Street to get the right predictions and provide proper risk assessment. As it is, the firm calls itself a great model for determining climate risk and financial modeling.

As per the company, studies proved that 80% of all investors always take climate risks into account before making a property purchase. This entails the growing accounts of wildfires and homeowners’ insurance that might be destroyed by hurricanes.

With this new feature, buyers will remain informed and make the best purchasing decisions without regret as new listings seen in August were mostly at risk for wildfires and flooding. So if you ask us, the company is certainly giving buyers the reassurance they need, ahead of time.

Read next: Prompt Engineering is in Demand for Small Businesses in the USA
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Prompt Engineering is in Demand for Small Businesses in the USA

As technology is evolving, new skills are needed in job marketing everyday. Prompt engineering is also one of the skills that is in demand. Prompt engineering is a skill in which you have to create prompts differently to give to AI systems so that it can help with your business. According to a survey, 27% small businesses said that prompt engineering is important as compared to 54% medium or large sized businesses.

53% of small businesses said that prompt engineering will become an important skill but 25% believe that it will become less important as AI evolves. Larger businesses are also 2.4 times more likely to use prompt engineering daily as compared to small businesses. One in 4 business owners (26%) also said that they have never used prompt engineering.

For the small business owners that have used prompt engineering, the survey by Adobe asked them about its advantages for small businesses. 46% said that prompt engineering increases their efficiency, 35% said that it enhances the quality of AI output and 33% said that it reduces the need for manual intervention. Providing a competitive edge with the use of AI technology in the right way (23%) and facilitating personalized customer experiences (19%) were also among the advantages of prompt engineering.

There were also some challenges of prompt engineering that some small businesses faced. 44% said that it requires continuous learning and updating of skills, 33% said that they are uncertain about its long term use and 24% said that it's time consuming and costly. Struggling to integrate with existing systems (23%) and finding skilled prompt engineers (22%) were also some prompt engineering challenges faced by small businesses.

Many of the small businesses are looking for hiring talented prompt engineers with 38% considering giving prompt engineering training to their current employees. 48% of small businesses have learned prompt engineering on their own. The top states looking for prompt engineers in the USA are California led by San Jose ($170,396) and San Francisco ($150,814). California is followed by New York and Washington. Las Vegas and Jacksonville are the cities with least pay for prompt engineers.

Read next: Study Shows Many Advanced AI Chatbots Would Rather Give Wrong Answers than Admit They Do Not Know the Answer
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

2024 Router Security: Only 28% Change WiFi Passwords, Down From 35% in 2022

Broadband Genie conducted their third router survey to find out if people are now aware of how they are compromising their security by not changing their router’s default settings. In the previously done surveys in 2018 and 2022, many of the people were not aware of their network security. 3045 respondents were surveyed and it was found that 52% of the users have now adjusted their router’s factory settings. The survey done in 2018 found out that 18% of the users have changed their router administrator password but it has decreased to 14% in 2024. When you leave your password at default, more people can easily access it and snoop around your data. It was also found that 72% of respondents have never changed their Wifi password. Just 28% of the users have changed their Wifi password in 2024, while 35% did so in 2022.

9 in 10 respondents (89%) also reported never changing their router firmware. This is a decrease from 2018 and 2022. If users do not update their router firmware, it can become vulnerable to nefarious actors. The challenge many people face is that the instructions to update the router firmware are mostly unclear and complicated. But once you update it, it can decrease the risks associated with leaving the router unupdated.

Even though changing the name of the network may seem a useless move, it can still serve as a security precaution. But it seems like 89% of people haven't changed their network’s name. Hackers can easily identify the router if it doesn't have a unique name. The survey also found that 75% aren't aware or haven't checked if other people are using their network. It is important to know so users can see if there is someone who is using their network without their consent.

75% of the respondents also aren't sure why they should adjust their router's settings. 18% don't know how to change the settings which is a decrease from 20% in 2022. This means that 72% respondents know how they can change their router settings to increase their security level. If you want to prevent yourself from cyber attacks, make sure to change your Wifi passwords and network names. Update your router and keep check of who's using your network.

Read next: 45% of Workers Face Data Breaches, AI Blamed for Rising Cyber Threats (infographic)
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

45% of Workers Face Data Breaches, AI Blamed for Rising Cyber Threats (infographic)

A new poll of 20K adults from all around the world conducted by Yubico found that most of the employed people have been victims of cyber attacks. According to the results of the poll, 45% of the respondents said that their personal data like email and banking information has been compromised by hacking or scamming attempts. 72% believe that scamming and phishing attempts have become more seamless and smooth, with 66% saying it is because of artificial intelligence.

The survey also found out that 50% of the respondents have been exposed to a scamming attack in the last year at their work but only 23% said that their company took measures for cyber security training for their employees. 20% reported that their personal accounts got hacked in a cyber attack attempt, which included their banking as well as email accounts.

As a result of those cyber attacks, 22% lost their money and 30% said that they don't think their personal accounts can ever be safe after that. A lot of respondents also got their personal passwords hacked or exposed (50%). 44% got their social media passwords hacked or exposed.

The reason why a lot of hacking attempts are successful is because many people believe that putting a username and password on your account can make it safe (39%). People tend to reuse these passwords which make them vulnerable to cyber attacks. 20% of the respondents reported that their company doesn't update technology frequently and only does it when it's needed. 70% say that they take extreme measures to protect information at work as compared to 63% who protect their personal information more. This is the reason why 24% of respondents always worry about someone hacking their personal account and information.

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• Study Shows Many Advanced AI Chatbots Would Rather Give Wrong Answers than Admit They Do Not Know the Answer

• Popular Education Apps Are Asking for Dangerous Permissions — Here’s What You Need to Know
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Popular Education Apps Are Asking for Dangerous Permissions — Here’s What You Need to Know

Cybernews examined 25 popular learning and education apps with millions of downloads on Google Play and found out that most of these apps can spy on users. There are many learning apps like Udemy, Coursera, Moodle and Duolingo that a lot of people use but these apps can access your private data too. Whenever users are using these apps, they should be cautious about giving app extra unnecessary permissions.

Most of the popular education apps ask for permissions like write and read external storage, access camera, record audio and getting accounts. The app that asks for the most sensitive permissions is the Remind app which provides communication services for schools. This app asks for a total of 12 sensitive permissions.

Another dangerous app for user privacy is Coursera which asks for 11 sensitive permissions. Questions.AI (an AI homework app) and Moodle (course and class management systems) asks for 10 sensitive permissions. ClassDojo, Gauth_AI, Simplilearn, Canvas Student, Duolingo, Udemy and Blackboard Learn all ask for more than five sensitive permissions.

Most educational apps ask for access to a camera. It is important because of the times the user needs to make in-app pictures and submit them. But this could lead to malicious actors accessing the user's camera without his permission. A total of 17 apps that were analyzed ask for access to the camera.

Coursera and Duolingo apps also ask for access to your accounts. This isn't necessary for educational apps and this means that if you give those apps that permission, they can access all of your accounts that are registered on your device. Account information has a lot of sensitive data that can identify a user's online identity. Duolingo also asks for permission to access contacts of the users. Contact information is also sensitive because it can contain private data about all of your contact and this can be used for unwanted data scraping.

• Also read: Could Hackers Be Spying on Your Phone Right Now? The Shocking Truth About SS7!

A lot of apps also read files and storage of users. They can access your files, photos, videos and documents that can contain your private information. 21 apps that were analyzed can write to your storage while 20 can read your files. PictureThis, a plan identifying app, can also access the location of where the picture was taken. Khan Academy, Questions.AI and Remind App can also request for your phone number and IMEI and if given permission, these apps can identify the device and its user. There were also ten apps that needed your microphone permission. It may be needed for the learning process like for learning language in Duolingo, but if it's exploited, it can access your sensitive and private information.

Remind app can also call and connect to Bluetooth on the user's behalf. It can also lead to privacy breaches and fraudulent scam communication. Moodle and Questions.AI can access your exact location while ClassDojo, Moodle, Questions.AI and Sololearn can access your approximate location.

To keep your data and private information safe, it is best that you review your permission requests before giving access to these apps. Only give permission only when it is necessary and give it only while using the app. If you do not handle this well, it can lead to privacy invasion and data leaks which can become a threat to you.

Read next: Study Highlights Role of Social Media and Governments in Worsening Online Information Landscape
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Digital Peek-a-Boo: New Study Says 80% of Parents Track Their Kids’ Locations And The Majority Do It Without Them Knowing

Parenting is never easy and when we think about the modern tech world of today, things keep getting more advanced.

Keeping a check on who your child is talking to and what activities they’re engaged in online and offline is quintessential. Thanks to the constantly evolving tech landscape and kids getting more tech-savvy, it’s hard for parents to keep tabs on everything.

A new survey by All About Cookies shed light on how many parents spy on their kids. And the results are quite interesting. Therefore, we’ve broken down the key findings for you below so let’s take a look!

80% of all parents are sure to track their kids’ location and a whopping 54% do it very frequently. Meanwhile, 1 in 3 do it without letting kids know about what’s going on behind the scenes.

Similarly, the results showed that 54% of all parents were busy monitoring their child’s text messages and 76% had access to their devices’ passwords. The majority of parents also spoke about catching kids engaged in activities that were not appropriate and that’s all thanks to tracking.

Also, 76% of parents state how tracking kids both on the web and offline has forced them into making better decisions. But the question remains, how exactly are parents playing digital peek-a-boo?

The survey asked parents what and how exactly they monitor their children online. Based on the survey of 1000 adults, most of them resorted to texts and messaging platforms to get a better idea of what the child was doing and with whom. Next came social media profiles, while another leading factor was keeping tabs on screen time.

Financial accounts and browsing history were next while emails and gaming history were another way to monitor their children online. Hence, we can conclude that most parents do feel tracking is necessary. They similarly felt that telling kids that they were doing it was not at all necessary and could come back to bite them as kids are smart and therefore would be mindful.

The study also showed that another key way to track kids is knowing what passwords they keep. More than 50% spoke about knowing passwords to all social media apps while 68% admitted to knowing email passwords. 76% spoke about knowing how kids’ cell phones can be unlocked.

Take a look at the charts below for more insights:

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

OpenAI On The Verge Of Raising Prices For ChatGPT Subscriptions By This Year’s End

OpenAI is looking to make ChatGPT more costly to users in the next few years.

A new report published by the New York Times shed light on some internal documents and how reports spoke about the company having plans to raise the pricing of individual subscriptions for the popular AI chatbot.

Right now, it stands at $20 per month but by the end of this year, it could go up to $22. It might not sound a lot right now but this is just the start. Prices are expected to further increase in the next couple of years. By 2029, the tech giant expects to charge a whopping $44 every month for its ChatGPT Plus.

This is certainly an aggressive move and goes to show the great pressure it has from investors to better profit margins and minimize loss. The news comes even though the firm’s monthly revenue rose to $300 million last month as reported by the NYT.

Still, the AI giant does anticipate more losses that could go up to $5B in 2024. Meanwhile, expenses such as office rent and staffing as well as AI training are said to be the main culprits.

There was a point in time when the firm’s AI tool cost it close to $700k a day. This means OpenAI might face a major blow if prices rise too fast. While the chatbot already has nearly 10M paying users each day, the survey from users hinted at how people feel the price is already too high. Therefore, the thought of a further increase might really rub a lot of users the wrong way. What do you think?

Read next: Study Highlights Role of Social Media and Governments in Worsening Online Information Landscape
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Study Highlights Role of Social Media and Governments in Worsening Online Information Landscape

According to a study by the International Panel on the International Environment (IPIE), much of the information on the internet is because of social media owners, politicians and the government. The study talked about how many of the social media concerns are because of their owners as well as domestic government and politicians.

The co-founder of IPEI, Philip Howard, says that social media owners have a lot of influence on social networking platforms as they control content distribution and apply policies. This affects the quality of information on social networks. If they spread information unchecked, it can pose a great threat to the global information environment. The findings of this study were by academic researchers in the fields of computer science, social sciences and humanities.

The research didn't specify any social media platform owners but a co-author of the report stated that Elon Musk, the head of X, promotes his own posts on X. Recently, Frances Haugen, mentioned that Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta, doesn't moderate non-English content as much as English content. TikTok can also be under pressure from the Chinese government as it is from a China based company, ByteDance. TikTok’s CEO says that the platform isn't an agent of some country and Meta says it reviews content in more than 70 languages. X hasn't said anything about itself.

The one-third of respondents who were surveyed said that they are expecting the information environment to become worse in the upcoming years. Politicians are also spreading theories and misinformation for their political gain. AI generated texts, voices, images and videos are also showing a negative effect for information spread. The researchers suggest that promoting a free and independent media and implementing digital literacy campaigns can help counter this problem.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

New Law Will Give Users One-Click Unsubscribe Option With Consent Before Automatic Subscription Renewals

A new law is giving users an option that they’ve been asking for years regarding subscription renewals.

It’s not an uncommon complaint to see users struggling to unsubscribe from any online service or software. This is why California’s state governor is going one step ahead to provide citizens with the chance to unsubscribe through a mere one-click cancellation step.

The law will come into play starting in July of next year. This will force companies to provide users with the simplest means to opt out of these subscriptions. Similarly, if users did sign up for any programs online, they can cancel this without calling toll-free numbers.

This unsubscribe or cancel option cannot be difficult to spot online under the latest law. It will be easy to identify and will come in the form of a direct link inside the customer’s profile location. Moreover, it will make use of terms like click or cancel.

In cases when a client wishes to cancel subscriptions on the phone, companies will be given the chance to discuss the impact or advantages of doing that cancellation. But in cases when a client does intend to cancel, firms need to oblige and stop delaying the client’s ability to do so.

The law does force companies to get affirmative consent before taking part in automated renewals of subscriptions or conversion from free to paid towards the trial ends.

Customers have discussed their fury with these kinds of automated subscriptions and how hard it is to end them when they no longer need them. The man who sponsored this new California bill says it does not make sense why users should suffer so much. If they can get into a subscription with a click of a button then they should be allowed to exit the same way.

One tech company that continues to be criticized for canceling the subscription policies is Adobe. As mentioned by the FTC, it’s under investigation and great scrutiny over cancellation policies. These entail a huge cancellation fee and force customers to call companies over the telephone.

When this ‘Click to Cancel’ law comes into play, it’s going to make things interesting. Remember, the FTC did propose a similar concept last year around the country, and for that, it’s still waiting to get acceptance or approval on that front.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Google Maps Will Warn Users About Fake Reviews When They Search For A Business
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Maps Will Warn Users About Fake Reviews When They Search For A Business

Google Maps is on a mission to alert users whenever they come across fake reviews for any business.

The Tech giant issued a statement on this front including how it does realize how frustrating it can be to go to a venue and return disappointed. After all, many people do put so much blind trust in reviews.

Today, many users turn to Google Maps and check consumer reviews. Anyone highly praising a place is bound to be doing so to earn it more business. And if that means deceiving the masses, then so be it.

Hence, to put an end to this practice, the company is taking the step to highlight fake ones. Google is rolling out warnings for any business that might apply to this. After all, seeing a fake review is heartbreaking for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, the Android maker is under fire as it is with the UK’s CMA who recently rolled out an investigation into how the company was handling fake reviews. There was a user of the X app who saw the change first on the X app which involved a UK-based firm.

For now, the tech giant is yet to comment on the subject in terms of where this feature would be available. But as per recent reports from media outlet Search Engine Roundtable, it’s updating the relevant support pages. This would be applied everywhere around the globe.

Google says it also will rollout possible limitations on businesses that violate the Fake Engagement law. One point worth mentioning is how business profiles will now feature warnings to alert customers to be aware that fake reviews about the company have been removed.

Other restrictions temporarily will entail not getting new ratings or having any kind of reviews. Similarly, they won’t be having any existing ones unpublished. If such actions do occur, business owners will get emails from Google and therefore will be allowed to appeal such decisions.

Remember, fake reviews might arise from a company that is only trying to get better ratings. But they do come at the cost of the customer who just wanted to have a nice time but ended up wasting money and effort on fake reviews.

On the other hand, Google says that any business reporting fake reviews may not get the same warning as others because they added more effort.

Image: Mike Blumenthal / X

Read next: Analysis Shows No Specific Type of Google Ads Bidding Strategy is Best and It All Depends on Your Performance
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Analysis Shows No Specific Type of Google Ads Bidding Strategy is Best and It All Depends on Your Performance

A new Analysis by Optmyzr shows that there is no perfect way for Google bidding and most of its strategies rely on accurate conversion data, thoughtful execution and continuous testing. If someone wants to maximize their advertising performance on Google, it is important that they choose the right bidding strategies. But there are too many choices available that make the bidders confused and make it hard for them to choose one.

In the study, there were some questions analyzed. The first question was what type of bidding among smart, auto or manual was the best. It was found that there was no strategy that was better than the other. A success bidding strategy depends on its execution. Another question was if bidding strategies help improve campaign strategies. It all comes down to the conversion rates on your account.

If your account has reached 50 conversions in 30 days, your bidding can be effective no matter what the type you have chosen. Accounts that have more conversions perform better even if they use manual bidding. It is also important that you do budget adjustment as budget adjustments in Smart bidding require 2-3 weeks for the performance to stabilize.

It was also found that advertisers who use manual CPC have weaker CPA, conversion rates and CTR. If advertisers choose bidding strategy targets, it can hurt their performance and bids. All of these analyses were done after reviewing Google ads bidding strategies of 14,584 accounts that spent $2500 to $5 million per month.

Read next: Survey Shows What Creators Think of Using GenAI in Content Creation and If They Are Satisfied With It or Not
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

PayPal Allows US Merchants To Purchase, Hold, And Sell Crypto Through Business Accounts

Financial giant PayPal says it’s giving US merchants the chance to purchase, hold, and even go on selling crypto directly through the platform’s business accounts.

The firm also sheds light on how it allows business account holders to send and receive any related tokens from the crypto world to blockchain accounts. The news was announced through a post published via a press release on Wednesday.

The capabilities of these business accounts are in line with the 2020 announcement regarding consumers buying and selling currency via Venmo and PayPal accounts. So many business owners have expressed a desire for similar crypto to be available to the masses.

For now, the company says it’s so excited and eager to meet demands by rolling out such an offering. This empowers many to engage with digital currencies effortlessly. In 2020, we saw the company jump into the crypto business by enabling clients to hold and sell crypto as it hoped to better share how digital currencies play.

The shift towards digital currencies is unavoidable as it brings about clear advantages of financial inclusion and more access. Similarly, it can improve the speed and resilience of such payment systems. Last but not least, it could enable governments to disburse those funds to customers at a quick pace.

The company hopes to create a strong relationship with both banks as well as regulators all over the globe. The goal is to support more digital currencies as this can play an important role in the future of finance and commerce.

Remember, PayPal first rolled out the popular dollar stablecoin dubbed PayPal USD in August. It mentioned how the coin enables clients to fund purchases through this means by selecting the option for checkouts. Similarly, it would convert any of these currencies to PayPal USD when required.

In May, the organization explained how PayPal USD is present on Solana Blockchain. This was said to be the most used currency for transfers that offer PayPal USD and make stablecoin quicker and lower in cost. This would enable it to become quicker and lower in cost, giving rise to greater control as well as flexibility.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Survey Shows What Creators Think of Using GenAI in Content Creation and If They Are Satisfied With It or Not
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Survey Shows What Creators Think of Using GenAI in Content Creation and If They Are Satisfied With It or Not

Generative AI has consumed every area of life ever since its release. It has also started redefining content creation and creativity. YouTube published a study to shed some light on how the global creator economy is using GenAI. The study can help content creators know how the trends of content creation are changing and how they can use GenAI and tech in their creative jobs to earn maximum.

The top thing most content creators are still not aware of is that GenAI has already become a part of their lives. This means that GenAI isn't coming, it's already here and has imposed itself on content creation. The survey by Radius found that 92% of the content creators are already using GenAI tools for content creation. It was also found that 74% of the respondents are aware of generative AI tools and know how to use them.

29% of the content creators say that they use generative AI tools to save their time. As trends are always changing and content creators need to evolve with trends and technology, GenAI can help simplify their tasks. A content creator said that it used to take them an hour to create a rough cut of a video. But now due to GenAI, this task takes no more than ten minutes.

89% of the respondents who were surveyed also believe that GenAI can help them with special effects production design and cinematography. 26% of creators say that the one of the top three reasons why they use GenAI tools is to create quality content. 87% of the content creators also believe that GenAI can help export their content to other countries around the world. They can build their global fanbase by using GenAI to translate, put captions and dubb their content.

Despite all of this, some content creators are confused about correct and ethical use of generative AI. 74% of content creators say that they want guidelines about posting GenAI content on social media and other video platforms. They are worried that it can be misused. But there is still optimistic approval about using GenAI and hopefully many content creators will use it in the best ways possible.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Millions Suspended! X’s First Report Under Musk Unveils Startling Changes and Policies!
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Millions Suspended! X’s First Report Under Musk Unveils Startling Changes and Policies!

X has shared its first ever transparency report ever since Elon Musk took over the platform in October (2022). It is a 15-page Global Transparency Report which covers the first six months of 2024. The report showed that there were 224 million users reported and the platform suspended 5 million users. A total of 5 million posts were taken down between January and June 2024. In the past, X used to share its transparency report twice in a year. This practice started in 2012 and continued until X was handed over to its new owner.

When Elon Musk took over X, he ceased the transparency reports of the platform saying that it is like the government bullying social media by looking at its internal data through transparency reports. But now X has changed its policies. The report by X says that the policies of X are based on human rights and freedom of speech. X also says that they have a slogan which states “Freedom of Speech, not Freedom of Reach", which means that they can restrict the reach of their posts and make the content less discoverable instead of removing it.

This transparency report by X is far shorter than previous reports by X. It briefly mentions user reporting and company action, company policies and other policies regarding child safety, harrassment, suicide and self-harm. X didn’t explain rehabilitation policies and it seems like X is more focused on suspending accounts, instead of banning them.

The platform says that it has also restricted 2 million accounts with child abuse media with 370,588 reports. In 2022, X also updated its reinforcement guidelines to suspend users who also engaged in CSAM content with liking, replying, sharing and bookmarking the content.

The report also shared limited data on government data requests and removals. In its 2021 report, X said that it has fielded 11,460 requests for information for 67 countries with 40.2% of them. In 2024, X reported 72,000 requests for content removal and 18,000 requests for information. At the end of the report, it was said that X is rebuilding itself and its generative AI offerings pre-election. The report shows how Elon Musk is redefining the transparency report of the platform.

Read next:

• New Survey Shows Which Countries Are Most and Least Excited About Artificial Intelligence

• Survey Shows 55% People Are Using Generative AI Instead of Traditional Search Engines for their Queries

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Survey Shows 55% People Are Using Generative AI Instead of Traditional Search Engines for their Queries

According to a survey by The Information, 77% of the respondents out of 1088 said that they are not using traditional search engines like Google for their queries, they are generative AI apps instead. This made Barry Schwartz run a poll on X to find out how many people are using generative AI tools for searching instead of traditional search engines. The results of the poll on X showed that 55% of the respondents are using generative AI or ChatGPT for their queries instead of Google.

it's happening

77% of 1,088 subscribers surveyed by @theinformation said they are using ChatGPT / conversational AI instead of Google for some queries.https://t.co/DEBOzFDJGI pic.twitter.com/a86kQcfc85

— Amir Efrati (@amir) September 19, 2024

The poll on X received 917 votes, out of which 55% votes were inclined using ChatGPT or generative AI tools for their queries. The reason why this percentage is less than the percentage from the survey by The Information is because most of Barry Schwartz’s followers on X are SEO and search marketers. So, they must use Google and traditional search engines a lot instead of generative AI.

The 77% result by The Information can also be because of their audience which is extremely niche and they could be using AI search engines for different purposes like coding or questions that Google do not care about much.

Read next: Google has Completely Disabled Cache Feature, Users Won’t be Able to Access it in Search Results
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Visa Slapped With Mega Antitrust Lawsuit For Illegal Monopoly Over Debit Network Markets

Financial services giant Visa has again entered the spotlight after receiving an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice.

The company was accused of unlawful monopoly behavior that was designed to crush competition in the debit network market. This includes attempts to hinder archrivals from flourishing such as PayPal and Square.

The case comes after several years of long investigations after bombshell disclosures were made in 2021.

A new statement was rolled out on this front by the DOJ who has the company tried long and hard to amass a huge amount of power to get money from clients that was more than necessary in a competitive market.

Hence, it’s not just the company that raised pricing but also forced merchants and banks to do the same while compromising on quality. It’s certainly a big deal because the company makes billions every year in the form of payment processing fees. And this does not include the array of other services rendered.

On average, the fees for processing payments go up to $7B and 60% of these debit transactions in America alone run on the firm’s network. Hence, the dominance taking place must be stopped to enable other competitors to flourish.

A lot of the reasons outlined for Visa’s behavior include an array of exclusion agreements that are put on banks and companies. Similarly, it has made attempts to remove competition, including those working on smaller scales and those who are startups in the fintech sector.

So many of the company’s executives feel threatened by iPhone maker Apple which it claimed is their biggest competition and threat in the market.

More details revealed how the company entered into paid agreements with competitors as a part of its efforts to hinder competition from newbies in the payment industry. As a result of these actions, it has become a monopoly.

This is why regulators have had eyes on the company for quite some time now. As per the DOJ, another similar legal case was generated in 2020 that prevented its acquisition of fintech company Plaid. The complaint argued that such behavior would wipe out a leading challenger of Visa that could hinder its monopoly practices.

As a result, both Visa and Plaid opted to scrap the plans for attempts to merge together, thanks to this lawsuit.

Image: CardMapr.nl/Unsplaash

Read next: Meta Will Not Sign EU’s AI Pact For Sharing Detailed Summaries Of Data Used To Train AI
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Meta Will Not Sign EU’s AI Pact For Sharing Detailed Summaries Of Data Used To Train AI

Tech giant Meta seems to have had enough of the stringent regulations of the EU. The company just took a bold decision by refusing to accept the AI Pact, at least for the time being.

This was first discussed in May when lawmakers spoke about a new pact that governed the use and creation of AI. The goal was to ensure AI was in check with tech giants providing detailed summaries of all the data used to train AI models.

Now, Meta has decided to opt out of the law, giving rise to a new debate in the region.

In the past month, the EC mentioned how most of the rules regarding this law will be applicable starting in August of 2026. But until that happens, a temporary pact was launched that tech giants could sign.

This would outline the important obligations of the rules enlisted.

As per Meta’s representative, the company is open to discussions and working in harmony with the EU but joining the pact right now is not on the cards. With that being said, a possible signing in the future was also possible.

We can confirm that this AI pact is actually the fifth pillar of EU legislation on this front. It is aligned with the Digital Markets Act Digital Services Acts, and even the Data Act in that part of the world.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: The Story of Alexander Wang Who Became One of the Youngest Billionaires in the World from His AI Labeling Startup, Scale AI
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google has Completely Disabled Cache Feature, Users Won’t be Able to Access it in Search Results

Google had previously announced that it will remove Google Cache completely from search results. At first, Google removed the cache link and then added the links to the Wayback Machine. Now Google has completely disabled Google Cache by disabling its direct link. If the users go directly to the Google cache by searching for it on the search bar, Google won't show anything in the results, such as this one.

Google Cache has completely stopped working in the past 12 hours. This has made people discuss it on different social media apps and forums. They are discussing how even though Google has completely disabled cache, new pages can still see it temporarily.

Google Liason, Danny Sullivan, said that it's a sad thing that Google cache isn't available but it is something that needed to be done. It was one of the oldest features of Google and people back then relied on Cache when they couldn't open a page because of page loading. Now things have improved a lot so there was no need for Google Cache. Sullivan added that he thinks that Google should add cache links to internet archives within About This Result. This would allow people to see how a page changed overtime.

If someone has a Search Console, they can see what the crawler saw looking at their own page by using URL inspector. The alternatives for Google Cache are Wayback machine, URL Inspection Tool and Google’s rich result testing tool.

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• The Story of Alexander Wang Who Became One of the Youngest Billionaires in the World from His AI Labeling Startup, Scale AI
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Story of Alexander Wang Who Became One of the Youngest Billionaires in the World from His AI Labeling Startup, Scale AI

Alexander Wang, at age 27, has become one of the world’s youngest billionaires. He succeeded in doing so by having more than 100,000 employees on contracts who help him power the modern AI. His startup named Scale AI has hired workers from all over the world and these workers wrote and summarized texts as well as label images for AI to better understand human patterns. This is known as data labeling and the employees summarize news articles or write stories in Hindi to Mandarin.

This data labeling business has become so in demand by Gen AI companies that Scale AI’s revenue jumped to triple last year and now has a value of $14 billion. Wang says that his company’s importance is all due to the computing chip they are using which is developed by Nvidia. Scale AI’s office is located in San Francisco and the company hires individuals through advertising on LinkedIn and Reddit. The work is remote and most of the workers do not know that they are working for Scale AI in their initial days. The employees do their tasks on two websites known as Outlier and Remotasks on which no affiliation with Scale AI is mentioned. Projects are also given code names so the employees do not know what clients they are working for.

Many remote employees get frustrated with their jobs and quit. Sometimes they get delayed payments or hourly wages as low as $8. Some also do not produce quality content and some cheat to increase their productivity. Wang also doesn't like the way his company is working right now. He calls this work mundane and boring and has said that his company is trying to develop new software and AI products.

Scale AI has also worked for Meta and has given the company code word “Flamingo”. Last year, Meta had asked the company to create 27,000 questions and answers so they can train their AI models. When Meta received the data, it turned out that contractors had used ChatGPT to write all the responses. Upon contact with the company, Wang tried to save the project and asked its employees to rewrite everything and send it to Meta. Wang also discovered that many of the badly written data had come from Kenyans so Wang restricted all their projects to the USA and English speaking countries. But it wasn't very useful because many USA accounts were being sold to people from other countries on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Alexander Wang grew up in New Mexico and has Chinese immigrant scientist parents. He started to think of a new business start up as soon as he got in the ninth grade. In 2015, he went to MIT and chose five graduate computer science courses but he soon dropped out. He soon accepted a job offered by Eric Wu, CEO of Opendoor. Soon after, he enrolled in an AI training program by Sam Altman, now CEO of OpenAI. After a while, he started his own startup known as Scale AI.

Since Scale AI also labeled images, many car companies needed an AI company who could help them with labeling images for their car’s automated systems. They turned to Scale AI. Soon, Scale AI signed up Cruise and Tesla. Scale AI then chooses the contractors and gives them projects. The hiring process at Scale AI is simple. You get hired by applying for the job advertised by the company. The worker is then given written assignments that the model can use to learn how humans think. The writing samples are then given to clients so they can train their AI models. The worker is soon paid for his work.

Image: alexanddeer/Insta

Read next: New Survey Shows What Companies Think of AI Adoption and the Challenges They Are Facing
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Cloudflare Rolls Out New Set of AI Tools That Stops Unauthorized Scraping By AI Crawlers

Cloudflare just rolled out a new array of AI tools that provides websites the chance to prevent unauthorized scraping via AI crawlers. Another option is to force these crawlers to pay a fee to get access to data.

The issues of crawling have wreaked havoc on website owners to such an extent that they were forced to pay out of their pocket for the damages done. The issue has been on the rise since the uprising of Generative AI.

The websites will finally get a chance to get the desired value for their content instead of bots stealing material without paying any form of compensation and without taking any consent.

The company confirmed today how it will be launching new tools that make it super easy for website owners, publishers, and creators to take control back over how content is generated by these bots. Similarly, it enables these platforms to block the crawling activity and get compensation wherever they agree to pay for more access. This way, revenue on these platforms is set to increase instead of the age-old tactic of feasting for free on material.

Such AI audit tools also provide users with the chance to witness how content is accessed by others. Remember, it’s a great way to gain insights into how malicious bots used to crash land pages to get access for free. Meanwhile, AI crawlers don’t usually mean harm. They just want a lot of content for free so they can be used to train AI models in bulk quantities.

Cloudflare is a huge name in the industry. It gives rise to more security and better performance regarding optimization for pages. It confirmed that there is no single platform that is dominating in terms of website scraping activities.

It all varies by the kind of content getting scraped at any moment in time.

Meanwhile, generative AI models need huge amounts of data to work and to provide quick and accurate replies to produce images, videos, and music. Today, this AI crawling industry is huge, and big names are involved in terms of giving AI developers what they want and whenever they want. This could be in the form of voice, text, or images.

As per one research company, the web scraping industry is said to hit the 2.45 billion mark by the year 2036.

So many tech giants are making billions by training AI models using work that does not belong to them. This can be used to generate more material in cases where they compete with original material.

In a world like that, this is unacceptable and has gone on for far too long. This is why creators are expressing outrage over the matter. Hence, Cloudflare going one step further to help others in this regard is certainly a positive step welcomed for obvious reasons.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: TikTok Redesigns Subscription Monetization To Eligible Creators In Selected Regions
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

TikTok Redesigns Subscription Monetization To Eligible Creators In Selected Regions

TikTok just confirmed the launch of its new and improved subscription monetization feature for creators. The company says only those creators who come under its eligibility criteria can benefit.

However, only a selected number of regions were outlined including Brazil, Spain, the UK, Indonesia, Germany, South Korea, the US, and then Japan. The company spoke about how it hopes to expand this to several markets in the next few weeks.

The official launch comes after the company spoke about the renaming of LIVE Subscription monetization instead of the old monetization feature. The great part is that it will include non-live creators.

The subscription is the company’s reply to Patreon that allows sharing exclusive content to those paying users. The platform is also competing with other arch-rivals in the industry giving creators more benefits. This includes Instagram and YouTube. Both apps are favorites among the creator ecosystem as they provide growth in earnings through more access and perks.

The expansion will provide more paying users with exclusive benefits that entail better content and perks. What’s interesting is how three separate tiers are up for grabs at different pricing plans. Every single one of them will give exclusive perks for a fee charged every month.

Subscribers can attain exclusive content in the form of more live streaming, videos, and notes that regular users cannot access. They will also get communication channels such as the popular Sub-Space. The latter is the name reserved for a location where creators interact with subscribers.

Subscribers will similarly get special stickers that they can use for LIVE sessions and amongst those include badges. Such things pop up against their names on profiles and inside the comments section.

Creators will also be giving out custom perks that are designed for the community space. One spokesperson for the platform says in an email that customized benefits will be up for grabs and creators can choose what they want from a long list. Common examples provided are Discord roles, BTS videos, shoutouts, and requests for performance.

To access this new Subscription offering, the eligibility criteria must be met. Creators need to be 18 in age and have 10k followers with 100k views on videos. Meanwhile, their creator accounts should have a good standing tag to benefit.

Image: TikTok

Read next: New Survey Shows What Companies Think of AI Adoption and the Challenges They Are Facing
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New Survey Shows What Companies Think of AI Adoption and the Challenges They Are Facing

Generative AI has become much more than what it was two years ago and is now an important part of many enterprises and businesses. Writer collaborated with Dimensional Research to conduct a survey amongst business enterprises to find out what business leaders think of adoption of AI and what they think of its impact. The survey was done among 501 respondents from five continents who are all related to AI fields in their jobs. The companies these employees belonged to were enterprise organizations having 1000 to 10,000 employees. 65% of the employees surveyed were from IT operations in tech industries.

The results of the survey found that 96% of the companies think that AI is a key enabler, with 82% of the companies expecting rapid growth in their industries because of adoption of AI. Companies say that AI is a key enabler for them because it drives efficiency (72%), saves their time (68%), reduces costs (58%) and improves quality (44%). The top business areas for generative AI are IT operational (65%), customer support (64%), security (54%), marketing (50%) and training (46%).

68% of the companies say that they have more than three teams who are using generative AI. 97% of the companies said in the survey that they expect their new teams to begin using generative AI in the next two years. 31% said that they want their training teams to start using generative AI, 29% said customer support and HR, 27% said marketing and 25% said sales teams should start using generative AI.

95% of the companies said that AI needs enhanced security measures with 94% concerned about data protection with AI applications. Data control and access were the most needed controls for generative AI. Due to security concerns, 78% companies are using in-house or home grown generative AI. 52% of the companies said that their teams are using third-party AI solutions to make in-house AI. 43% are using commercial and 38% are using open-source AI solutions. 88% of the companies say that it takes 6 months or longer to have an in-house AI application operating perfectly.

Only 17% of companies rate AI accuracy as high while 61% claim that they have faced accuracy issues with their in-house AI models. Most companies say that their in-house AI projects are mediocre and sometimes the worst. There's also a shortage in AI experts, with only 10% of the respondents claiming to have high confidence in their AI skills. 63% have moderate confidence while 4% have absolutely no confidence in their AI skills.

The survey also asked the companies which capabilities in AI solutions they highly prefer in commercial settings. The top answers were security controls (69%), followed by data governance (65%) and high quality (57%). This survey shows all the challenges businesses are facing when it comes to AI. There are some factors that need to be crossed when it comes to AI adoption and if a company succeeds to implement all those factors, the generative AI use in the company becomes easy.

Read next: Google AI Overviews Show Up More on Signed In Accounts than on Signed Out Accounts
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Data Center Surge: USA Tops Global List with 5,388 Centers, AI Adoption Fuels Growth

In a world fueled by technology, data centers are everywhere. They store, process, and move the information that runs our lives. We rely on them, but managing their impact has become a growing challenge for governments worldwide.

According to the estimates by Cloudscene, there are currently 11,800 operational data centers and the USA has most of them. There are 5,388 data centers in the USA alone as of March 2024. This makes the USA the house of 45% of the total data centers in this world. Germany has the second most data centers (512), followed by China (499) and Canada (366).

France comes at sixth position with 316 data centers listed and Australia at seventh with 307 data centers. The Netherlands (297), Russia (251) and Japan (219) are also the top ten countries with most data centers. These rankings about data centers around the world do not cover the size and capacity of data centers. This could mean that some countries have less data centers but have higher storage capacities. Statistics show that data centers are going to increase with the adoption of AI around the world.

Read next: Experts Believe that Using Blue Light Glasses Cannot Help You With Your Eye Problems But Adopting Some Simple Habits Can
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World