New Lawsuit Holds Social Media Apps Accountable For Teen Addictions And Self-Harm

A new legal case has been filed in the federal court of California and it accuses social media giants of intentionally disregarding the great harm they impose on users.

From Meta’s apps to TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and more - the case says all these companies chose to intentionally disregard the dangers they pose to children and teenagers in particular.

It was last year in October when we heard more about this case and how more than two dozen complaints had been filed and that is what led to this single class action lawsuit. But now, the case has picked up the pace and we’re hearing more about it.

Among the long list of accusations, a lot of complaints have to do with the use of algorithms that drive plenty of addictive behaviors that lead to anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, and some major eating disorders that end up in self-harm.

Clearly, the documents being presented at this moment in time were never seen in the past and it’s awfully concerning how so many social media firms are treating this endeavor as one that’s linked to public relations as compared to their own platforms being a real threat to security.

This entails burying internal research that records such harms and also blocking all sorts of safety measures as they tend to decrease the engagement seen there. Lastly, they are defunding all of those teams that keep users’ mental health as a major priority as they’re not finding it profitable.

To be more specific, the suit has added that such big names in the tech world are encouraging the behavior of addicts and bypassing all kinds of parental guidance and controls in place. They’re also failing to confirm the ages of users and end up protecting against different kinds of harmful content and go about multiplying such content too.

The lawsuit is even going about directing a message to Mark Zuckerberg where it says Meta wasn’t on track in terms of succeeding in so many core topics linked to well-being. And the complaint is backed up by the likes of internal studies that Meta conducted on its own. The alarming results showed how its own platforms are huge risks to younger audiences.

But Meta disagrees and says that it is working hard at maximizing security and privacy for users on the app. They also claim to be increasing funding to ensure users' rights are safeguarded in the right manner.

H/T: Mediapost

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

OpenAI Launches The Latest GPT-4 With New Features And Performance Improvements

OpenAI appears to be on a roll ever since the launch of its ChatGPT endeavor.

And now, it’s launched a GPT-4 which is the newest version or shall we say the next-generation variant of the famous chatbot that gained viral fame.

A recently published blog post went on to detail more about how it would feature some better offerings including enhanced performance. But out of all the offerings, the biggest one that really caught our attention included the tool answering questions that combine text as well as graphics.

GPT-4 would function over a wider range of domains right now and entails so many documents with both text and pictures as well as screenshots. It has a lot of similar capabilities to the previous version that only used to deal with text-only inputs.

Moreover, it can be argued further how this new product can be further augmented using test-time procedures that were produced solely for the purpose of text-only language models.

But it’s not all fun and games. The bad news here has to do with image inputs not being available for use by the general public as it’s in the mode designated research preview. And as far as when it’s going to be up for grabs for all others, well, there’s no definite word on that.

Instead of the usual ChatGPT with the classic tone, style, verbosity, and more- developers will be getting the chance to avail the AI style and task by taking on directions seen across the system’s message. The latter allows all API users to customize the entire user’s experience within limits.

In the same way, the blog is showing off some great performance charts that showcase the mega improvements at stake. Moreover, there happens to be one case where OpenAI gives the chatbot plenty of simulated exams.

They claim to be using the most advanced tests of them all and they didn’t even make use of any form of specific training either for such exams. So the results published showed how GPT-4 did much better in terms of exam results when compared to its previous counterpart.

As can be seen with the older version of the app, this tool is again limited in terms of getting the latest data regarding various topics. And that is due to the fact that it can only go back as far as 2021.

Moreover, OpenAI claims this new version really does a great job at reducing hallucinations as compared to its previous counterparts. Yet, we can’t call it one that’s fully reliable.

For now, this new offering is only up for grabs to selected developers. They can gain access to it after signing up for it through a waitlist. Meanwhile, the general public may check this out by signing up for ChatGPT Plus which comes at a price tag of $20 each month.

There are even some reports about OpenAI launching a new subscription tier that paves the way for greater levels of access.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Future of AI Might Be Too Expensive to Get To

AI based tech has been coming up for quite a long time now, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it never really reached the dizzying heights that it is currently enjoying until ChatGPT entered the scene. The AI chatbot proved that Large Language Models could be a mainstay of various industries, but it turns out that there is a significant problem that might inhibit the growth of any form of AI in the future.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that AI might be too expensive to advance as of right now. One need only look at the tale of an AI startup by the name of Latitude to understand what is going on.

Latitude created AI Dungeon, which allowed users to create fantasy stories based on some text prompts. As AI Dungeon became more and more popular, it also became more expensive than might have been the case otherwise. Eventually, Latitude ended up burning over two hundred thousand dollars a month just to keep their AI operational.

That can be a major problem because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making AI financially unsustainable in the near future. It also might give major players like Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft an unfair advantage with all things having been considered and taken into account.

ChatGPT is about to get a lot more expensive to manage as well. The AI chatbot reached the milestone of a hundred million users back in January. That means that the costs of running the AI in the month of January alone would’ve been well in excess of $40 million.

Bing is going to be even pricier. If Microsoft is serious about Bing Chat, they will need to spend an estimated $4 billion in order to make the infrastructure robust enough to handle all of the user queries without compromising on the quality of the answers that they are given. Such a price tag could very well stop innovation in its tracks.

H/T: CNBC

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The World’s Biggest NFT Marketplace Has Been Leaking Sensitive User Data

NFTs were considered to be the next big thing, but in spite of the fact that this is the case they ended up fizzling out without having all the much of an impact. It turns out that it wasn’t just money that NFT users ended up losing due to their poor investment choices. The biggest NFT marketplace out there, OpenSea, has also been leaking user data without realizing it.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there is a vulnerability in OpenSea’s source code that allowed hackers to find out the full names of anonymous users. While the vulnerability has reportedly been fixed, it will still have made users of the platform far less safe than might have been the case otherwise.

According to researchers working at Imperva, it might have been the cross-site search feature that was to blame. The feature did not limit the use of cross origin searches, and this all originated from the resizer library for each individual iFrame that the website was using with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The resizer adjusts the boundaries of the website according to the user’s device and other properties. Malicious actors sent out emails to these users so that they could discover these dimensions, and they would then cross reference them to figure out which user corresponded to which ID.

Users have had their full names along with their wallet IDs leaked. This just goes to show how lax security has been in the world of crypto, and the world of NFTs is clearly no different. Issues like this make NFTs an even more dangerous asset because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up resulting in massive financial losses that would be extremely difficult for people to get over.

OpenSea was slow to act here. It will be interesting to see if any of the victims of this fraud end up filing lawsuits against the company and speeding up the decline of NFTs.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Chrome is About to Get a Google Lens Based Search Companion

Integrating its various products and services has been a major concern for Google because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making consumers more dependent on them. It turns out that one of their premier products, the Chrome web browser, is about to get a major upgrade thanks to an upcoming integration with Google Lens in the near future.

This upgrade will offer a Search Companion to users on Google Chrome. Chrome will glean insights from Lens in order to provide more context, and that can make the user experience far better than might have been the case otherwise. This search companion will be easily accessible through the new sidebar that some users might have noted in the latest version of Chrome, and it will enable them to see trending searches among various other things.

As users make more and more searches, the Search Companion will continue to work and use previous searches to add more context to subsequent ones with all things having been considered and taken into account. For example, if you were to search for a particular smartphone and your next search includes the term “deals”, the Search Companion will be able to put two and two together for you and show you deals pertaining to that phone.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this update is quite similar to the multi-search feature on Google Lens. It will create a unique set of features that will allow users to become much more inclined to use Google Search in the future, and it will also provide Chrome with yet another edge over its rivals.

Whether or not this feature will utilize AI remains to be seen. Bard is Google’s main AI project right now, and it will be interesting to see if this Search Companion plays any kind of role in the leadup to the rollout of Bard to various users around the world. Once the update arrives, things will start to become clearer.

H/T: 9to5google

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ChatGPT Smashes Records: Surpasses 1 billion Visits in February 2023

The artificial intelligence based tool, ChatGPT, has surpassed a significant milestone by reaching 01 billion visits in February 2023. The achievement is a testament to the platform's increasing popularity and the growing interest in AI apps.

Chat GPT, a massive language framework created by Open AI, has been trained on a vast quantity and quality of data, making it skilled in writing human-like answers to text-based queries. The platform has gained a reputation for its exceptional performance in natural language processing and has become a go-to tool for developers, investigators, and businesses alike.

According to data released by Similar Web, a leading analytics firm, the Artificial Intelligence model has been experiencing a steady growth in visits over the past year, with a sharp uptick in February 2023. The platform recorded 1.05 billion visits, a staggering 62.5% increase from the previous month. This marks a significant milestone for Chat GPT, as it surpasses the one billion target for the first time.

Open AI has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence investigation, developing advanced AI technologies such as GPT-3, a generative language model that has been hailed as a breakthrough in natural language processing. The success of Chat GPT is a testament to the growing demand for AI-powered language frameworks that can deliver accurate and human-like answers.

The platform's success can also be attributed to its versatility, as it can be used in a variety of applications. Developers can use the platform to create chatbots, voice assistants, and other conversational AI applications. Researchers can use the platform to study language learning and generation, while businesses can use it to improve customer engagement and automate customer support.

Besides the immediate sensation of this AI model, the research also highlights that it attracts plenty of consumers to its ecosystem. The amount of consumers levels to that of Bing search engine or probably maybe more than it.

The future looks bright for Chat GPT, with Open AI continuing to invest in research and development to enhance the platform's abilities. The company has also been operating on developing new AI technologies, such as DALL-E, a neural network that develops images from textual descriptions. With the growing interest in AI-powered technologies, Chat GPT will likely continue to grow in popularity and cement its place as one of the leading AI language models.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

This Study Reveals Huge Gap Between PR Professionals and General Population

Public relations personnel are supposed to bridge the gap between the values of the company they are working for and those of the people that the company is supposed to be catering to. In spite of the fact that this is the case, a recent study has shown that there is a considerable ideological gulf between PR professionals and the general population.

According to a study conducted by New York University, it turn out that the people who are working in PR are considerably more progressive than regular, everyday folk. For example, 68% of the PR personnel that responded to this survey said that their political ideology was conservative, whereas just 26% of the general populace said the same.

Furthermore, only 25% of people who are working in PR said that they identify as Centrists, whereas 40% of regular people said that this aligns with their own personal values. 34% of normal folk went so far as to say that they are conservative, with just a meager 7% of PR professionals saying that they are conservative in their political viewpoints.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this just looks at political ideologies. Widening the lens to include stances on social issues can paint a clearer picture than might have been the case otherwise, and it turns out that the gap is even wider here.

A whopping 83% of people working in the field of public relations said that they held a progressive stance on a wide array of issues pertaining to society. In comparison, 31% of the regular population said that they were progressive, with a similar proportion, 31% to be precise, saying that they were conservative. 39% of people said that they sat somewhere in the middle of this dichotomy.

Economic issues seemed to find more common ground between PR representatives and the general populace. 51% of PR personnel said that they were progressive, with 24% of regular Americans agreeing with them. 23% of professionals in PR and 39% of regular people described themselves as economic centrists, and the proportions for conservatives were 27% and 37% respectively.

Finally, we have social issues where the divide is once again not quite as stark as what we can see in social or political ideologies. For PR personnel, 56% were progressive, 24% were centrists and 20% were conservative.

By comparison, 24% of the general population described themselves as progressive on safety issues, 38% said that they were centrists and 39% were conservative. This goes to show that PR personnel may actually be rather out of touch in many ways.

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