This Data From Fiverr Suggests a Massive Increase in Freelancers in 2023

Freelancing is becoming an increasingly popular option for people looking to earn money because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up putting them in the driver’s seat. With layoffs becoming so commonplace and jobs being hard to come by, it’s no surprise that so many individuals are looking to leverage their skillsets so that they can earn more money than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that around 66% of US based workers are planning to join a freelancing platform in 2023. This data comes from a survey of around 2,000 Americans which was conducted by Fiverr, and it suggests that market competition is about to reach an all time high.

53% of the people who responded to this survey stated that they feel less secure about their financial health, and 33% of them are worried that finding a new job after getting laid off would take far too long. That might be why 73% of them are thinking of starting freelancing in 2023, with 29% also thinking of asking for a raise in order to weather the tough financial period.

56% of surveyed individuals mentioned that they want to try to save more money this year. That’s higher than the 53% that said the same last year, and what’s more is that 41% of them said that they want to invest their savings as compared to 38% last year.

38% of them also said that they wanted to save up for a big purchase which is yet another increase from the 35% that said the same in 2021. People are clearly being more responsible with their money, and freelancing can be a great way for them to get things up off the ground. The lack of sustainability in the job market is proving to be an enormous factor here, as is an increased desire for remote work options as well as flexible hours that traditional jobs usually don’t provide.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

LexisNexis shared the list of companies with the most AI patents

Artificial intelligence is considered to be the future, as it has already started to take over jobs in several tech companies, including Google and Microsoft. Several companies are racing to get AI patents for their products.

China is sweeping the floor as Tencent and Baidu, two renowned Chinese companies, hold the most AI patents, leaving U.S.-based IBM behind. Other companies, including tech giants Samsung and Microsoft, are also on the list of the most prolific AI patent holders.

The American data analysis company LexisNexis has recently shared data showing how much such companies have grown when it comes to AI-based products.

According to the data revealed by the analytical company, Tencent’s AI patents went from 711 in 2017 to over 9000 in 2021, making it the largest AI patent-holder platform. Tencent was shortly followed by Baidu, a search engine that took the numbers from 1134 in 2017 to 9504 in 2021, making it the second-largest patent holder.

As compared to the Chinese companies, the U.S.-based IBM and South Korean-based Samsung were far behind. IBM added 4422 more AI patents in 5 years, while Samuel was able to add only 3572 patent products.

The most significant performance came from Ping An, an insurance company that only had 46 patents in 2017 but, by the end of 2021, had 6410 AI patent products under its name. On the other hand, Microsoft, which ruled the list in 2017 with 4373 products, was able to add only 1448 more products. However, the company had a breakthrough when one of its mega-AI investments finally paid off as the company introduced ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based bot created by OpenAI. Furthermore, Microsoft is planning to fund the project with another ten billion dollars.

And lastly, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, also made its way onto the list of the most prolific AI patent holders. The company was able to go from 2033 patents in 2017 to 4068 patents in 2021.

The data shared by LexisNexis is based on the information collected until 2021; it can be expected that the figures might have gone up in 2022.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Here Are the Biggest Macro Threats to the Tech Industry in 2023

The macro conditions all around the world are not all that conducive to industry growth, and the tech niche has proven especially susceptible to that with all things having been considered and taken into account. Analysts working at Counterpoint Research recently highlighted which macro risks will prove to be the biggest threats to the tech world.

The ongoing economic recession topped the list, getting 71.41 points out of a maximum 100. The pandemic may have sparked inflation, but the rise in costs of living has not abated even as the pandemic has receded somewhat.

Following that we saw the rivalry between the US and China which may make trade negotiations harder than might have been the case otherwise. This rivalry got a score of 63.41 due to the US placing sanctions upon China, and coming in at number three is the energy crisis which received 58.43 points.

Emerging markets might also be a sore spot for the industry, with the turmoil going on in these markets resulting in it receiving 58.27 points. It was followed by a retreat in tech earnings which can already be seen with massive layoffs among all major tech corporations.

One thing to mention here is that the recession is a core component of most of the other macro risks that are being faced by the tech industry. The energy crisis, emerging market pains as well as many other things have been made worse than might have been the case otherwise by the recession, and it’s shaping up to a long hard year by all metrics.

China is going to be a big player that will determine whether the recession ends sooner or later. The sudden move away from Covid-Zero took many by surprise because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up indicating a lack of foresight among Chinese officials.

Also, China’s long term economic outlook is not quite as rosy as it used to be. That will definitely change the shape of the tech industry in ways that can be hard to accurately predict.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

These Personality Traits Could Make People More Susceptible to Fake News

Fake news is one of the most significant problems that the world is facing right now, but a new study in the journal “Personality and Individual Differences” revealed that people who have certain personality traits might be more susceptible to fake news than might have been the case otherwise. According to the findings, there are three types of personality traits that could make someone prone to believe fake news, namely schizotypal, paranoid and histrionic.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these personality traits can make critical thinking more of a challenge. That can lead to bearers of these personality traits forming connections that aren’t actually objective or factually correct.

One thing to not here is that such personality traits are not exactly a modern invention. In spite of the fact that this is the case, access to the internet is exacerbating the tendency of individuals with these traits to obtain access to conspiracy theories that they would then immediately use to fill in the gaps with faulty logic.

The study in question involved 1,483 people, who were tested with a wide range of personality tests. They were then given a test that was meant to gauge their ability to spot misinformation pertaining to Covid-19, with 18 pieces of news being given 6 of which were factual, 6 incorrect and 6 didn’t have enough context to prove anything either way.

Participants in this study were quite prone to the Barnum effect, wherein a generalized piece of information seems like it pertains to only them rather than being a vague statement that actually applies to a number of people. This effect can be used maliciously because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making people believe things that just aren’t true.

The findings of this study are quite interesting, since they shed some light on misinformation and how it tends to spread. Access to this much information can be overwhelming, and more work needs to be done to find a solution.

Photo: Freepik
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

What’s the Most Toxic Platform on the Internet?

Gen Z is the first generation to have grown up with the internet, and that means that their lived experience could end up being markedly different from that of generations prior. ExpressVPN conducted a study that revealed what some of the most toxic platforms for children might end up being, and they surveyed 2,000 children from the US as well as the UK to better understand what was going on.

The first thing that this survey revealed was what the most common toxic online experiences for children might end up looking like. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 34% of kids who responded to this survey said that they experienced someone being rude to them. 31% said that they had seen a video that scared them and 26% said the same about scary images.

Parents seem to have a very different idea about what type of negative experiences children are having online. 59% of parents felt that online bullying was a common toxic interaction, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it came in fourth for children with only 22% reporting having gone through it.

Now, as for as the most toxic platforms online, YouTube was selected by 43% of children. YouTube tied with Roblox for first place in the UK, with both being chosen by 34% of children who participated in this survey.

With children over the age of 13 regularly using the internet for at least 45 minutes a day, exposure to this type of behavior can become more frequent than might have been the case otherwise. That might not be a lot of time, but regardless it is clearly enough to expose children to a wide range of behavior that can end up having a rather negative impact on them with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Parents must reconcile their assumptions with what their children are actually experiencing. Bullying is not as big of an issue as parents think, and there are other things that might be far more commonplace.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

What’s the Best Threat Protection Against Ransomware?

Suffering from a ransomware attack can be quite disastrous for a business because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up bringing its operations to a grinding halt. Using a threat detection and prevention system can be great for companies who are looking to fend off ransomware attacks, but which software ends up performing the best in that regard?

AV-TEST attempted to get to the bottom of that by pitting some of the most well known threat preventers against 10 separate scenarios in which ransomware could come into play. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that three software variants ended up scoring the maximum 30 points.

These were Kaspersky’s Internet Security, Microsoft Defender and PC Matic’s Application Whitelisting software. Internet Security by Bitdefender didn’t do too poorly either, as did Norton360 by NortonLifeLock both of which got 29 points apiece.

VIPRE Security was an especially poor performer with all things having been considered and taken into account. Not only was it close to the bottom of the rankings with just 27 points, it also failed to detect one of the ten attacks.

That is a real red flag, since it suggests that up to 10% of the attacks could slip through the cracks which would make this threat protection program less reliable than might have been the case otherwise. It still wasn’t at the bottom of the list though, with V3 Internet Security by AhnLab getting that dubious honor with just 24.5 points.

Each software was given a score out of 3 for how well it defended against each attack. This means that Kaspersky, Microsoft and PC Matic did perfectly in all ten scenarios, while the rest had a few gaps here of there.

VIPRE Security could have gotten a full 30 points too, but the missed attack ended up losing it 3 points. AhnLab did really poorly since even though it detected all of the attacks it failed to respond to them in an appropriate enough manner which makes it a risky choice for businesses.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

37% of Consumers Are Willing to Pay for Generative AI

Generative AI is one of the latest iterations of the cutting edge tech, and it has seen an enormous adoption rate among everyday users. A market research firm by the name of Suzy conducted a survey to see what consumers are thinking about generative AI, and this revealed that 35% of consumers are aware of most of the variants that are out there right now.

If we were to zero in on AI users, 37% of them said that they would be willing to pay for access to Chat GPT or whatever other generative AI they prefer. That’s not surprising given that 78% of people that use AI on a regular basis said that they would be upset if they lost access to their chosen tool since it’d make it harder for them to get work done than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that generative AI is already being used in a wide array of professional contexts. That seems to suggest that people are going to start using AI to earn money because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up streamlining their various processes.

Hence, it makes a lot of sense that so many AI users are willing to pay for the service. In spite of the fact that this is the case, only about half of all AI users who responded to this survey said that they’d be willing to pay for it, so the companies behind these generative AI models might have to choose between increasing their revenues and alienating their user base or going for a wider approach whilst looking for other sources of profit.

Half is still pretty good though, and Chat GPT developer Open AI has recently said that they might put the AI chatbot behind a paywall. It will be interesting to see what would happen when that occurs, since it could determine the future trajectory that the tech would go down in the long run.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World