Stanford Just Released a Report on the State of AI, Here’s What You Need to Know

The ever shifting landscape of AI has forced the industry to make a lot of changes because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up having a huge impact on them. However, the speed at which these changes are occurring might make it harder to stay up to date with them than might have been the case otherwise. Stanford has just released a sprawling 386 page report that provides an overview of the current state of AI.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that one major change revealed in this report could tell us a lot about the future of AI. For the past decade, much of the work that has been done in the field of AI was largely led by academics.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, this past year has seen industry take up the slack, making it the single biggest contributor the field as of right now. This change does not look like it will be going away anytime soon, so it’s safe to assume that the future of AI largely rests with corporations with all things having been considered and taken into account.

What’s more, Americans seem to have a more negative view of AI than people in other parts of the world. Only 35% of Americans felt like the benefits of AI outweighed any harms that it might have. On the other end of the spectrum were countries like China, India and Saudi Arabia, where as many as 70% of people believed that the pros outweighed the cons as far as AI was concerned.

Additionally, this report also outlined some of the drawbacks of the rapid advancement that the field of AI has been seeing. For one thing, the energy footprint that AI consumes has increased dramatically in the span of just a single year.

Furthermore, the report also revealed that the number of controversies surrounding AI reached 260 in 2021. That is about 26 times as many incidents and controversies as were recorded back in 2012, which just goes to show that as AI grows, so too will the issues surrounding it.

However, the findings in the report did not paint all that dire of a picture. For one thing, AI is still going to introduce a multitude of efficiencies in various areas. That will help to bring the energy footprint of the overall industry down by a fairly large margin, thereby making it more sustainable from an environmentalist standpoint.

As for ethical concerns, while the increase in incidents is definitely something to take note of, the number is still fairly low. 260 incidents is barely a blip on the radar, especially when you compare it to the level of influence that AI is having.

All in all, this report reveals some useful insights that can help us to determine the direction in which AI might be headed. It will be interesting to see how things change from here on out as AI becomes an ever more crucial aspect of the world we are living in.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The Global Innovation Index Just Revealed Which Countries Are Advancing the Fastest

Even though much of the innovation around the world is occurring in developed nations, developing countries have also been making a fair bit of progress as of late. According to the Global Innovation Index which is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization every year, Botswana made the biggest leap with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The African nation has been investing in technology, trying to boost its educational system and increase entrepreneurship in the process. This has borne great fruit, with Botswana jumping 20 places in the rankings to reach 86th place.

Another African country that has made great strides is Ghana, which leapt past 17 rankings and reached the 95th spot on the list. This is followed by Saudi Arabia, with the Middle Eastern nation working hard to diversify its economy with its Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia is currently in 51st place, which represents a 15 place leap on the part of the nation.

Following this we have Bangladesh. The South Asian nation may be at just 107th place, but it has seen its rankings go up by 14 places in the past year which is a testament to the efforts that the nation is putting into developing a proper knowledge based economy.

Finally, Indonesia and Pakistan are tied in fifth place, with each nation progressing 12 places up the rankings. This puts Indonesia in 75th place overall, while Pakistan is now just behind Botswana in 86th place. Botswana has managed to surpass a number of nations like Pakistan thanks to its heavier focus on innovation.

The presence of two poor African nations and two poor South Asian nations in this list is quite telling. These countries might be able to lead the charge of innovation in the future, and that might tip the balance of power in the East’s direction for the very first time.

The rankings keep changing, and it’s not just Western developed nations that are seeing a reshuffling occur. Poorer countries are learning the ropes of developing innovative economies and they are competing with each other to drive further growth.

H/T: Statista
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

YouTube Premium Gives Users A Treat With The Launch Of Several New And Exciting Features

Whether you happen to be a new YouTube Premium user or an old one, you’re in for some good news.

The platform is giving all of its loyal fans a treat after years of providing the same old classic features and benefits. The app is getting a boost, in the form of even more endeavors for the same fee allocated to them today.

We agree that not everything would be appealing to everyone, but there would be some great options for everyone out there. Hence, we’re sure you’re going to love something from the lot that’s designed to cater to all.

Whenever YouTube is used through a browser, you get the chance to queue up content. But now, users can make use of the feature on their mobile phones too.

Those still not sure about how that works need to remember that any video that’s seen on screens that appeal to them can be put in a queue so users could watch it later.

You can avail of this while watching content or simply browsing through lists of your favorite videos. And at times, users feel it’s very helpful when there’s limited time at hand and a lot of content to benefit from.

Be it live streams or simply some toned-down ASMR content, the platform will enable users to gain more on the experience. You can enjoy anything and everything on the app altogether.

This feature will soon be up for grabs for users of Android and will rely upon the Google Meet Live sharing endeavor. Meanwhile, those with iOS devices would have the feature coming soon via the SharePlay endeavor.

The entire experience of group watching has been out there for quite some time but this time around, it’s coming to YouTube and there could be nothing better. It’s a great endeavor for people attending streamed work or glancing through conferences.

And just in case that was not enough, users are going to be given the luxury to pick up from content that they left off, thanks to the option of synced playback coming to YouTube on devices and on the browser. So no matter what method of viewing the app you require, the entire watching experience is going to be fantastic.

Brace yourselves, another feature coming forward is YouTube giving others the chance to watch content without any internet connection. And yes, it’s not something really new but it’s getting highlighted in the recent press release as the offering downloads recommendations for content while using Wi-Fi.

This way, users always have the best content lined up to watch and you can change settings to download various content along the way, ensuring the library is bombarded with fresh channels for subscriptions.

In addition to that, YouTube has plans to launch another enhanced bitrate for its iOS users comprising 1080p. It would allocate Premium subscribers the best viewing experience while watching a YouTube video. In the same way, the new feature would be more crisp and even clearer than before. This is true for content having plenty of motion and details included.

Videos involving sports that entail a lot of motion could be more pleasurable to see but there is no news on when Android users could benefit from it.

YouTube Premium has been up for grabs for quite some time now so it’s great to see it finally giving users something new and exciting to rave about. As it is, it was offering content that was ad-free and another huge bonus was downloading content that could be seen offline. Now, we’re seeing some more exciting features that are sure to have people smiling.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp Is Working On A Feature That Enables Users To Add Or Edit Contacts Without Leaving The App

WhatsApp is one platform that continues to work on introducing more features so users can attain an easy in-app experience. And now, we’re hearing about another exciting offering where users can say goodbye to app hopping when adding contacts.

Just recently, we heard about the app launching a more repositioned navigation bar. It’s quite similar to that seen on WhatsApp for iOS users. In the same way, there is talk about one of the best-encrypted messaging platforms working on a feature where users can include or edit contacts without leaving the platform.

For a while now, we saw the app for iOS users make the most of the offering but now, it appears that Android users will be doing the same as support for it was announced today.

WABetaInfo was the first to break the news about how some users of the platform are facing a new contact UI where a person may lay down parameters seen through the default feature for Contacts. For now, it’s a very limited rollout but we should be seeing it expand to more and more people in a while.

Users can store the contact details through their device’s storage like before or their respective Google account that’s paired with this. Similarly, edits may be made to any contacts that are saved on devices like before. This includes the addition of inputs to some newer fields including birthdays or email IDs through WhatsApp directly.

For many, it looks very basic in terms of being an instant messaging app. But without such endeavors, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it out a far cry. After all, who likes to switch from one place to the next between the app and users’ contacts?

And just in case you are happy to be a little curious about the feature being live across your phone, you can simply go to your contacts list on the WhatsApp platform and click the New contact tab and wait to see if any new UI pops up.

In case you are not enrolled in the beta program for WhatsApp on an Android device, this feature would be arriving very soon so please hold on tight.

On the other hand, the WhatsApp platform seems to be busy working on new voice options for the chat in groups, in addition to adding visual alterations to the attachment menu of this app.

Read next: WhatsApp users will soon be able to share statuses simultaneously on Facebook without switching the app
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

95% of Businesses Plan to Increase Cybersecurity Budgets Amidst Growing Threats

The prospect of losing valuable data is enough to give anyone sleepless nights, and the threat has been growing ever since it first came to the fore. A survey of around 1,500 cybersecurity experts and industry leaders, conducted by Splunk, revealed that they are not optimistic about the future with all things having been considered and taken into account. According to them, things are only going to get worse.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 52% of businesses have reported data breaches in the past two years alone. This is up from the 49% that was reported last year, with just 39% saying the same in the year prior. It’s not just data thefts that are besetting businesses, since malware related incidents are making it harder for them to stay up and running than might have been the case otherwise.

62% of the people that responded to this survey said that they have to shut their operations down to deal with malware around once every month. Such a proportion is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up excessively challenging for businesses to stay productive.

Once again, this statistic has seen a sharp increase in the span of a year. Back in 2022, just 54% of businesses said the same, but this has gone up by 8 point in just twelve months.

Another area where cyber attacks are hitting businesses hard has to do with finances. The rise of cybercrime and data theft is resulting in rising costs to mitigate these threats before they do great harm.

The extended downtime resulting from cyberattacks costs businesses around 2.7% of their revenue. 31% of businesses also said that this reduces the value of their stocks in the eyes of their shareholders.

All in all, around 95% of business owners said that they plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets in the coming two years. Whether or not this will be enough to keep the threat at bay remains to be seen, but businesses have no other option given the scale of the threat.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

March 2023 Social Media Ad Update: Twitter And Facebook Witness Continuous Decline As Snapchat Up 127.5%

The statistics for the March 2023 social media advertising performances for leading platforms are out. And we’ve unraveled the details for our readers below.

While some big names struck breakthrough performances, others continued to witness a decline.

Thanks to estimates from Similarweb, we’re outlining the ones that really experienced a rollercoaster performance.

Elon Musk may not be too happy with the way Twitter failed to drive huge subscription volumes this past month. But what has really opened up so many people’s eyes is the trend of YoY declines. It was off by a massive 2.6% YoY. After the end of the quarter, Twitter saw an 18% decline in ad buyer traffic. Meanwhile, Facebook experienced a similar decline comprising 4.6%.

But in terms of some serious wins, Snapchat deserves a special mention. The company witnessed a winning share against all arch-rivals. This came in the form of a 127.5% rise YoY last month and a massive 125% rise in this quarter.

Traffic monitoring for businesses and ads of leading social networks serves as indicators of how well a business is performing and that’s exactly what was done here.

The traffic directed to the Twitter platform’s ad portal went down by 18.7% but it did see an improvement of 8% from February onwards. And while tech billionaire and head of Twitter, Elon Musk did mention how keen he was to take a step back and replan Twitter’s business model far away from the likes of advertising, it’s not working out too well.

The platform’s advertising businesses are in a dire situation and Twitter Blue subscriptions rarely see too much success.

But things are not looking too great for Meta Platforms either. The firm’s business model linked to advertising across its leading Instagram and Facebook apps saw a drop in traffic comprising a 2.6% YoY decline for March. This accompanied a 1.3-point decline in traffic shares.

On the other hand, Snapchat has been seeing growth in terms of advertising purchasing traffic of nearly 127% YoY. TikTok which is the leader in terms of the popularity of apps is called out as the champion for attaining momentum in the past few years. There was a 23% YoY rise with Pinterest being up by 30.5% YoY.

• Also read: Social Engineering Attacks Increase by 135% Due to Generative AI

The gains witnessed by Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok were more dramatic than the losses seen in traffic for both Twitter and Facebook. So this kind of trend is very common when you compare sites based on a quarterly basis.

When compared to Q1 of 2022, Twitter experienced a decline of 17% while Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat were winning big.

Then February was a period of bouncing back for Twitter and others, which suggests how some advertising was developing more interest in social media apps. As a whole, TikTok witnessed the biggest month-over-month gain. And it’s interesting considering how the US continues to increase scrutiny against the platform.

The traffic share still shifted away from Facebook and we saw the engagement of firms and advertisers display signs of shrinking for traffic shares. But you can’t really put Facebook in the same league as others.

The app’s business portal is made used for purposes such as organic social media marketing. There’s more focus on things like changes in share and changes in comparison when used for measures of indication of change.

Experts predict the app may end up losing out on advertising traffic share for a while now before it gets back into the race and goes head-to-head against Twitter.

Read next: Twitter Witnesses The Most Growth In Mobile Revenue Since The Launch Of Its Blue Subscription
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp users will soon be able to share statuses simultaneously on Facebook without switching the app

WhatsApp is planning to introduce a new update that would allow its users to share their statuses on Facebook as well. As both of these platforms are owned by Meta, the new update will make things easier for Facebook and WhatsApp users.

Wabetainfo revealed that the latest feature is still in it’s early stage and that the pilot variant, which has been rolled out but whose features are not yet available for general users. The update will allow Whatsapp users to share the same status simultaneously on both platforms without leaving the application. Initially, if a user had to post the same status, they were required to shift between the applications.

By default, the feature won’t be turned on, so those who are willing to use it will be required to switch it on by going to the settings section in WhatsApp, tapping on “Privacy,” and then “Status.” From there, they can tap on the settings they want to proceed with and exit the section.

According to the preview image shared by WBI, under the status privacy section, an option to add a Facebook profile will be present. Once a profile has been added, users will be able to share their status across accounts.

Not only this, but the developers are also working to improve the user interface. Previously, WBI revelaed that WhatsApp would add a navigation bar at the bottom of the screen in order to make it more accessible for Android users, just like the one available for the iOS version. As per WABetaInfo, the platform is planning to change the edges from pointed to round corners. In addition to this, smaller margins will also be added for iOS users.

Once again, the update is still under development, hence the beta variant has yet to be released. However, it can be expected that both updates will be available in the upcoming versions.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World