Electric Vehicles See 32% Growth in Sales Amid Price War

EVs (Electric Vehicles) used to be considered a pipe dream, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, virtually every single major automotive company now has its fingers dipped into this specific pot. It turns out that EVs saw a 32% increase in sales over year as of the first quarter of 2023. This makes over 14% of all cars sold electric in nature, and the current trend makes it seem like they will become even more widespread than might have been the case otherwise.

The single most popular type of vehicle that is currently being sold is the battery powered EV, which represents 73% of the total. The remaining is composed of plug in hybrids, which offer an alternative to the standard battery powered variety with all things having been considered and taken into account.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Tesla has lost its status as the most popular EV company in the world. This honor now belongs to BYD, which accounted for 21.1% of sales. Tesla came in second with 16.01%, followed by Volkswagen with 6.88%. Geely and General Motors rounded off the top five list with 5.86% and 4.71% apiece.

It is predicted that EVs will cross 14.5 million units sold by the end of 2023. The US has implemented a subsidy on EVs because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up speeding up the transition to these less environmentally hazardous vehicles. That has EV sales to increase by 79% in the US alone, and it has now surpassed Germany as the second hottest market for EVs.

However, the biggest market for EVs by far is still China, which itself saw a 29% year over year growth rate even though 12% fewer passenger vehicles were sold overall. 56% of the EVs sold in the first quarter of 2023 were bought by Chinese consumers, so China’s hold over this market does not look like it will be subsiding anytime soon unless the US ramps up its growth rate even further.

H/T: Counter Point Research

Read next: Electric Vehicles Adoption and its Implications for Oil Consumption
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

ChatGPT vs. Google Translate Comparison: Which AI Chatbot is The Best Language Translator

In a head-to-head comparison between language translation services, ChatGPT has emerged as a top contender, surpassing Google Translate, Bing AI, and Google Bard. Fluent speakers of seven non-English languages participated in a blind test to evaluate the AI chatbots' translations against those of Google Translate.

While Google Translate offers quick and easy translations to over 100 languages, users are well aware of its limitations and room for improvement. Large language models like ChatGPT have the potential to revolutionize language translation, drawing from vast amounts of training data and real-time user feedback to generate coherent and human-like sentences in multiple languages.

To determine whether ChatGPT could replace Google Translate as the go-to translation service for various needs such as travel, work, and cross-border communication, a thorough evaluation was conducted by PCMag alongside Microsoft Bing and Google Bard.

Bilingual speakers were given English paragraphs to translate into their respective languages using Google Translate, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Bing. After completing the exercise, the participants were informed about which service produced each translation.

The languages tested included Polish, French, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, and Amharic. Although this study is not comprehensive and further rigorous testing is necessary for a statistically significant evaluation, the results provided valuable insights into the performance of AI models.

The selected paragraphs were carefully crafted to expose the limitations of each translation service. The first paragraph contained colloquial phrases like "blow off steam" and "Cheers!" as well as measurements in USD and miles. The second paragraph, sent only to half of the participants, included slang terms such as "hooligans" and "pop champagne."

Surprisingly, the AI chatbots—ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft Bing—outperformed Google Translate in all 12 examples sent to the participants. ChatGPT received the highest rankings overall.

According to Ana Romero, who ranked the Spanish translations, ChatGPT provided a translation that closely resembled a normal conversation. The level of formality in the key questions was consistent and the translation of "to blow off steam" was accurate.

While Google Bard was rarely successful and even suggested using Google Translate, the few times it did work, participants ranked its translations higher than Google Translate. However, all the chatbots, including ChatGPT, fell short in accurately translating currency and distance measurements, displaying inconsistencies across languages and services.

One notable weakness of Google Translate was its tendency to provide literal translations, missing out on contextual nuances. In contrast, the chatbots excelled in capturing subtleties and context. The models with larger amounts of training data and more user interactions in a specific language demonstrated a better understanding of cultural phrases and produced more appropriate translations.

ChatGPT's success can be attributed to its reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) approach, which allows for the selection of culturally appropriate responses based on user preferences. On the other hand, Google Bard and Google Translate employ different underlying technologies, with Google Translate being specifically optimized for translation tasks.

Although the chatbots offered improved translations compared to Google Translate, they were not flawless and occasionally produced awkward or inaccurate word choices. Nevertheless, they demonstrated potential for surpassing Google Translate's capabilities with further training and more data in each language.

In the test, Google Translate performed exceptionally well in Tagalog and Amharic, two languages with a relatively small population of speakers. For languages with low resources or insufficient data, the chatbots struggled to provide nuanced translations and often resorted to literal interpretations, contrary to their performance in other languages.

While ChatGPT presents a viable alternative to Google Translate for language translation needs, it is important to note that AI models are not yet a complete substitute for human translators. As AI continues to evolve, the challenge lies in accurately measuring its performance and ensuring effective translation across diverse languages.

Google is also experimenting with search generative experiences (SGE), which offer ChatGPT-style answers to queries. However, these experiments are ongoing, and Google has not provided any information on the possibility of replacing Google Translate in the future.

As the capabilities of AI translation models progress, the ultimate goal is to develop robust and culturally sensitive models that can make the web more accessible on a global scale. The future of language translation hinges on the continual improvement of AI models and their ability to provide accurate and natural translations across different languages.



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by Ayesha Hasnain via Digital Information World

Instagram and Facebook Are Catching Up to TikTok: A Battle for Social Media Dominance

ByteDance’s short video application, TikTok, has surprised everyone with its exponential growth ever since it was released seven years ago, in 2016. With more then one billion users using the app every month, the site has found itself challenging other apps as well, including meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.

The video format of TikTok instantly beganattracting the younger generation. In order to counter the rising influence of the app, Meta introduced similar features under the name of reels on both of it’s apps, and as per the latest reports, the audiences of both sites have started to adopt reels as the user engagement figures started rising.

A survey was conducted two months ago, in which two thousand participants took part. Survey results showed that almost seventy-four percent of the Instagram audience started engaging with reels. At the end of the third quarter of 2022, the values were down at sixty-nine percent, whereas at the end of the first quarter of 2022, the figures were further down at around sixty-two percent.

On the other hand, almost sixty-five percent of the Facebook clients started to spend time on Facebook. These numbers were found to be around fifty-four percent last year in September and further down at forty-seven percent in March of the same year.

As compared to these two platforms, TikTok was unable to show any significant increase in user engagement. Last year, forty-seven percent of the participants engaged with the platform, whereas this year, the values were found to be around forty-nine percent.Not just Meta-owned platforms, but even Snapchat was able to take its user engagement figures all the way from forty-nine percent last year to sixty percent in the ongoing year.

According to Morgan Stanley, one of the research team members, with increasing monetization on these short videos by Meta, it can be expected that TikTok will face challenges as Meta-owned platforms continue their annual increment in profit.

The race for social media supremacy is heating up, with Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok each vying for users’ attention. While TikTok’s rapid ascent cannot be denied, Instagram’s and Facebook’s aggressive responses have started to pay off. Many creators who once solely focused on TikTok have expanded their presence to Instagram Reels and Facebook’s Reels.

Read next: Trust vs. Convenience Battle for Data Privacy Divides Social Media Users

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth Plummets From $118 Billion To $96.7 Billion After Meta’s Rebranding

Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth has witnessed a massive decline over the past two years. And we’re talking about a huge drop in his net worth from $118 billion to $96.7 billion.

The news arose after the rebranding of Facebook as Meta and that was to show the world how keen he was to put forward his idea of the metaverse.

After that certain moment in time, we saw his wealth fall with the figures of Meta’s shares. Thankfully, he has managed to recover that over time but you need to understand that it’s a big deal.

As soon as the rebranding of Meta was announced, it took a direct effect on his wealth as per the Billionaires Index from Bloomberg.

During the early hours of Friday, Zuckerberg’s net worth hit a staggering $96 billion, per recent stats unveiled by the Bloomberg Index.

When you consider those massive gains, you’ll see it as a huge loss, all thanks to rebranding.

Then during the latter part of last year, we saw his net worth fall to a new low and the pricing of stocks plummet. Millions were lost and it was embarrassing for the earnings report to come forward with Facebook recording its first massive user fall in history.

The year 2023 has been very hectic and we’ve seen shares during the start of this year really reach a new low. So many people have been fired and other problems were linked to regulators and also those related to the world of academics. Additionally, the issue with competition arising from tech giant Apple has really shown how Zuckerberg is not in the driving seat by any means.

Yes, Meta did unveil its much-awaited VR headset but it was overshadowed by one coming forward from tech giant Apple called Vision Pro. It was very interesting to see how Apple failed to use the term metaverse in its demonstrations. Moreover, it was on a mission to keep itself far away from the metaverse as possible and did not want anything to do with it.

A recent report from another media outlet showed how the Meta CEO was criticizing Apple. He put up the differences between both of these headsets and it was interesting what forms of differences were drawn.

Meta also went down in popularity when he told his workers that the company was interested in wanting people to work and be present in the world of VR together. Moreover, Meta claims it’s going to be taking more risks throughout the year as recent reports highlighted how it was testing a potential date for the release of its Twitter arch-rival.

In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg was among the rankings for Bloomberg’s wealthiest individuals. His rank went all the way up to putting him as a part of the richest individuals around the globe.

But he underwent a massive fall in the next few years and that’s when this tech CEO started to spend a huge chunk of 2022 out of the list of the wealthiest people from around the globe.

Read next: Revealing the Most Beloved Apps: 10% App Downloads Growth in May
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Twitter Decides To Share Revenue With Creators For Ads Seen In Tweet Replies

It appears Elon Musk’s Twitter (aka X) is all set to make a massive push in terms of monetization for creators and there are some serious considerations worth a mention.

This has to do with the fact that the tech billionaire is all set to share revenue with its own creators linked to ads seen across its tweet responses. furthermore, this is going to add a new kind of pathway so individuals can produce more funds from their respective presence across the platform. But the real details in this situation require a little bit of thought.

For starters, Elon Musk claims only his respective Blue members would be able to reap the benefits of this program. And that is aligned with the app’s strategy being used to ensure verification. The latter is a topic that a lot of people are hesitant about.

Most importantly, you will only see ads being sent out in response to the users who achieve the verification status and that would make up their funding so it can be shared with other content creators on the app.

Now a lot of controversies arise in this regard. Last time we heard, the app reduced the exposure of ads for those with the Blue subscription. But that will certainly not change the way this offering arises.

Remember, a huge concern with this getting implemented is Elon Musk’s goal of reducing ads for those paying and that may lead to a major effect on the app.

Today, on average, the revenue allocated for each user of the app in America is $12 each quarter. And you’ll be interested to learn how a major chunk of such an income would be exposure for ads.

So when you come to think of it, reducing ad exposure by 50% for Blue members means they’ll be getting $6 each quarter from simple ads.

Twitter ended up watering this news further, thanks to its classic announcement on the matter. Remember, in April, we saw the tech giant try to bring in more benefits for Blue members along the way. This resulted in a decrease in the app’s overall revenue but at the same time, it does align so well with its current figures for revenue share.

The reduction in ads for Blue subscribers certainly has nothing to do with such an update as it does not affect the count for ads put in the reply section. Clearly, there was a lot of confusion at first and the company had to do quite a bit of extra work to separate it all out.

Now, the question is what type of funds can creators of the platform expect, thanks to this new project. And the answer is disappointing because that’s how less it is.

As far as recent forecasts are concerned, the combination of fewer ads and monthly expenses for payments means we’re seeing the app bring in nearly $30 per user, each quarter.

Today, Twitter Blue has a staggering 700k subscribers, and that in turn would result in 21 million of revenue generated for every quarter on the app. Moreover, most of the ads can be seen across the newsfeed and not across the section for replies.

With that being said, let’s not forget how Blue members are more active on Twitter than the average user, and that means seeing a rise in value. So when you break it all down, you can witness where this massive block payment is arising from as it’s a huge chunk of the entire ordeal taken up by Blue members.

Read next: Twitter's Mobile Revenue Takes a Hit in May
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Revealing the Most Beloved Apps: 10% App Downloads Growth in May

With the advent of June, we find ourselves immersed in the realm of mobile app downloads, eagerly uncovering the most coveted applications that have captivated users worldwide. The lineup of the most popular apps in May exhibits some resemblances to the rankings of April, but there have been notable changes that pique our interest. Without any delay, let's delve into the specifics and uncover the intriguing shifts that have taken place.

Instagram emerged as the frontrunner in global app downloads during the month of May. App Intelligence data reveals that Instagram experienced an extraordinary surge in popularity, attracting a remarkable 49 million new users from both Google Play Store and App Store. The month-on-month growth in downloads reached an impressive 12 percent, positioning May as the second-most successful month for Instagram in terms of app downloads this year. Notably, this achievement also marks the third consecutive month that Instagram has secured the coveted top position in the app download rankings.

Following closely behind is TikTok, a rival social media platform that has been playing catch-up to Instagram since March, relinquishing its previous position of dominance. However, TikTok witnessed a remarkable resurgence in May, accumulating a notable 43 million downloads, reflecting a substantial 19 percent surge compared to April. Despite this impressive growth, TikTok still falls short of Instagram's popularity, largely due to its unavailability in the Indian market.

Although TikTok may have a slight advantage over Instagram in terms of App Store downloads, the difference between the two is not significant enough to claim the top position overall.

In general, the month of May has seen a positive trajectory for app downloads, with all the apps in the AppFigures extensive list recording growth in user downloads. However, it is worth noting that Meta's Messenger app remained unchanged in terms of its download figures. This stagnant performance may have prompted Meta to explore alternative strategies, such as the development of a Twitter clone, in an effort to regain momentum and stay competitive in the market.

In the list of the most downloaded apps in May, data shows Facebook, WhatsApp, and CapCut solidifying their positions in the top 5. Interestingly, this lineup mirrors the identical top five apps list from April, with only a slight change in the rankings. Specifically, Facebook and TikTok have switched positions, while the others have maintained their consistency in the rankings.

CapCut, a widely recognized video editing software associated with TikTok, has maintained its position as a powerful force in the field. Recording approximately 29 million downloads in May, slightly higher than the previous month, it is clear that this pattern of popularity is on a steady incline.

Based on the insights provided by App Intelligence, it is evident that the most popular apps in May achieved a remarkable milestone by being downloaded on a staggering 298 million iOS and Android devices worldwide. This represents a notable increase of 10 percent compared to the total number of downloads recorded in April. As we embark on the summer season, there is strong anticipation for June to witness an even higher surge in app downloads, given the ongoing demand and thriving popularity of mobile applications.

In conclusion, May experienced a notable 10 percent surge in app downloads compared to April, reaching a remarkable 298 million devices worldwide. The strong demand for mobile apps is expected to persist in the coming months, highlighting the continued significance of mobile technology in our daily lives.

Read next: Mobile App Revenue Report Reveals TikTok's Monetization Dominance Over Gaming Apps
by Ayesha Hasnain via Digital Information World

Revolutionizing Ads with An Advanced Bot; Zuckerberg's Ambitious Vision for AI

During a podcast conversation with Lex Fridman, the Chief Executive Officer of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his strategy for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the company's future plans. Zuckerberg emphasized the implementation of a wide variety of Large Language Models (LLMs) customized to meet the diverse requirements of different industries and individuals. One particular area of interest is fostering companionship through AI assistants that facilitate friend connections, aid in remembering important dates like birthdays and enhance overall social engagement.

In Zuckerberg's vision for the future, AI assistants are poised to transform into multifaceted companions, playing the roles of mentors, life coaches, and cheerleaders. These virtual companions will provide invaluable support and motivation to individuals as they navigate life's challenges and seek personal growth. By harnessing the capabilities of advanced language models, Meta aims to revolutionize the way people communicate by overcoming the inherent limitations of traditional methods. With these innovative tools at their disposal, users will be empowered to articulate their thoughts and emotions more effectively, transcending the boundaries of conventional expression. Through the fusion of artificial intelligence and human interaction, Meta envisions a future where individuals can truly unlock their potential and forge deeper connections with others in a more authentic and meaningful manner.

In addition, Zuckerberg emphasized how AI can play a crucial role in streamlining business transactions. Meta's platform offers creators the opportunity to utilize AI assistants, which can aid in negotiating with brands and establishing advantageous collaborations. Meta envisions a future where ad agencies become unnecessary for brands as the company's integrated language and image models can generate customized ad units based on the brands' objectives. This approach ensures that brands reach their target audience effectively and efficiently.

Meta has established itself as a prominent player in the AI technology landscape, competing alongside industry leaders such as Microsoft and Google. However, what truly distinguishes Meta is its unwavering dedication to openness and collaboration within the field of AI development. In stark contrast to other companies that have faced scrutiny for their lack of transparency, Meta places great value on the concept of open-sourcing technology. This strategic approach is believed to cultivate an environment of innovation by granting wider access to resources and empowering the broader community to contribute their insights and feedback.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, recognizes the immense potential of community-driven training and the collaborative spirit it fosters. By embracing the principles of open-source, Meta aspires to create a nurturing ecosystem that nurtures creativity, encourages exploration, and inspires the generation of novel ideas. Through this approach, Meta envisions unlocking a wealth of innovation within the AI realm while proactively identifying and addressing potential risks and challenges that may arise. By prioritizing transparency and active community involvement, Meta seeks to establish a strong foundation for the responsible and ethical advancement of AI technologies.

Regarding concerns about AI's existential risks, Zuckerberg acknowledged the need for ongoing discussions as technology progresses. However, he emphasized that addressing immediate challenges, such as misuse of AI tools, remains crucial regardless of potential future risks.

In conclusion, Zuckerberg's vision for AI revolves around enhancing social connections and transforming advertising practices. Meta's AI assistants aim to improve users' friendships and facilitate meaningful interactions, while also revolutionizing the way businesses negotiate and advertise. As Meta continues to innovate in the AI space, Zuckerberg stresses the importance of balancing future risks with addressing present challenges and maximizing the positive impact of AI technology.



Read next: Google Provides Innovative Insights On Its Imagen Editor Tool For Text-Guided Photo Edits
by Ayesha Hasnain via Digital Information World