AI Technology Is Being Used To Produce And Sell Life-Like Child Abuse Material New Alarming Report Confirms

A shocking new report is unraveling the dark truth of AI technology.

The report by the leading media outlet BBC says that AI technology is now being mishandled by pedophiles who use it to produce content featuring child abuse that looks as real as ever.

So many people are getting access to the pictures by releasing a fixed amount so they can subscribe to the mortifying offer and achieve control over accounts for various mainstream websites.

Now, top webpages such as Patreon are being accused of the ordeal, despite outlining a shocking policy featuring zero tolerance regarding such pictures across websites.

The head of Patreon was shocked to hear the news and says that such happenings are totally outrageous and stricter measures need to be adopted to stop this from taking place. So many companies were making huge sums of profits but they just were not adopting any form of a moral responsibility.

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies owned by the government are now responding to the matter by claiming child abuse of this kind cannot be taken so lightly. Therefore, regulators need to curb such incidents from taking place and keep a strict check on modern technology as AI-produced content of this kind poses a huge threat to mankind.

The report further detailed how the makers of such abusive pictures were making use of AI software like Stable Diffusion which was designed to make pictures for use in the revolutionary world of graphic design.

For those wondering how the software is able to carry out such an act, well, it’s actually quite interesting. We’re talking about the use of word prompts to design an image of one’s choice. Sadly, in this case, it has to do with explicit content featuring babies and even toddlers. And it’s just so tragic and heartbreaking to learn how police teams across the United Kingdom have already stumbled upon the content of this nature.

The news comes to us thanks to one researcher who works on a freelance basis. She stumbled across the horrifying findings and went to BBC immediately to discuss the matter through links with a charity for children.

Ever since such AI-related pictures were unveiled, there’s been a shocking growing trend in such themes across the board. And it’s not just females that they’re after but babies as well as toddlers too.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Meta Launches New Advertising Tools On WhatsApp To Help Businesses Make Money

Facebook’s parent firm is going out of its way to assist brands make the most of the rising demand in text messaging.

The company hopes to do that by rolling out a series of advertising tools on the platform that would help it capitalize on this endeavor and allow for an expansion across other markets as well.

For starters, the company says it’s setting out new options that would help enterprises on the app roll out promotions that are paid through Meta’s apps. And the best bit is, you don’t even need a Facebook account for this.

An example was provided by the company in a recent public blog post that clearly shows how such promotions would entail a CTA for the Whatsapp platform and it would help push more clients back toward the messaging platform.

This might be the best way to go about the situation and help enhance a brand’s exposure while opening up straightforward means for communication through apps that support messaging. Similarly, it’s another smart way to add push alerts for messages that pop up in the future.

Therefore, brands must now respect such means of messaging and prevent marketing through spam because that would not make any customer happy. Therefore, Meta says that’s why it has a limit in place right now in terms of how many texts a brand can release for such cases.

Moreover, it might be a great way also to create contact through direct means too while assisting clients to remain up to date on the most relevant matters linked to product trends.

Along such lines, the company is also putting out some great messages for promotional sake which would link individuals with all others that have been registered in the past.

The app claims that it’s going to be starting with that very soon and it hopes to first target the rollout to customers on the Business app. This is where a lot of small organizations will have the chance to release a personal text to respective clients such as greetings for certain occasions or an appointment reminder or any other type of update they’d like to give them.

See, the goal now is to get messages across in a more quick and more convenient manner, instead of the old-age practices of sending out similar texts to several clients. You can even personalize the messages depending on the type of sender list you curate and add in some more CTA features as well. Clearly, there’s a lot on offer here.

This would include another great way to remind shoppers and they’ll be super useful when you update them based on interaction history taking place in the past.

Clearly, direction links for communication can be super useful for obvious reasons when it comes to engagement for potential clients. Today, more and more users are shifting toward the private realm for chats so we don’t see why this wouldn’t be a hit for users across this app.

Read next: Meta Expands Its Verified Subscription Package To Most Regions Around The World
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

47 Percent of Tech Officers Say Theyre Prioritizing AI In Their Budgets

It appears that people who are responsibly for managing company budgets are taking note of AI because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up boosting productivity. According to a recent survey conducted by the Technology Executive Council at CNBC, 47% of technology officers said that AI is their single biggest priority in terms of spending for the next fiscal year.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that around 21% of the total company budget for tech on average is going towards AI. That is more than twice what companies are spending on Cloud Computing, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, 63% of tech officers said that cloud based computing processes will still be critical over the course of the next year.

This is marginally more than the 58% that said the same about AI, but the money is clearly going towards the latter instead of the former with all things having been considered and taken into account. Cybersecurity came in third in terms of importance, with just 42% of tech officers calling it critical.

That might be a cause for concern, since cybersecurity should be a higher priority than a cutting edge innovation like AI that still requires some time before it can take its final form. Regardless, the appeal of AI is leading many tech officers to prioritize it over cybersecurity, and it is becoming nearly as important as cloud computing with investments into this sector already surpassing it by a huge margin.

With interest rates reaching record breaking levels, 53% of executives working in the tech space said that they are looking to cut down spending. With 47% of them believing that AI will create a surplus of jobs despite making some roles obsolete, they are clearly moving as much money as possible into this niche and cutting down on investments into other areas such as cybersecurity. In a world of increasing malware and cyberattacks, only time will tell whether that is the best move.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

TikToks New Money-Making Feature For Creators Is Being Called Out As A Double-Edged Sword

Making money on social media seems to be the trend these days and we don’t see why there’s anything wrong with that.

Today, leading tech platforms are giving users the chance to come forward and showcase their creativity with fabulous content. And in return, they’re getting a huge sum of money to enable brand exposure for various audiences.

So many creators are now getting the chance to create big fan followings through content that comprises short-duration videos made in vertical designs while being posted for various people to see.

The new endeavor is called the latest creative challenge across the app and it’s reimagining how such collaborations occur and also making it so much simpler to bring together creators through big brands so as to produce ads and create more money on the app.

This new rollout on the app would give creators the chance to explore various types of ad postings that are dubbed challenges. They are allowed to put out original content ads whenever publishing content of their choice.

After the whole submission process gets complete, creators would be pinged for any changes if required. And they’ll also be allowed to appeal that too. After receiving a nod of approval, some ads will not get posted further across a creator’s profile. However, it would serve as advertisements across the app’s main Feed.

Coming down to the payment process, well, it’s not exactly a clear-cut path to follow.

All the rewards across a certain video would depend more on the likes of a few metrics such as video views and getting the right conversions. This means that despite conducting work on high-quality videos, there are chances that a creator attains no payment as a whole.

Meanwhile, another point that experts are raising on this matter has to do with the duration with which brands may run ads. It’s never mentioned across any release but it’s still a pivotal point of information worth as there are so many influencers out there who could potentially lose money.

For instance, the rate at which influencers change totally has to do with the figure of followers they entail. Moreover, what appears to be a great payment for some right now may not be the same for other followers across the board like if an influencer rises to fame overnight, it would ensure their presence is worth several times more.

Similarly, another feature worth a glance at is that longer ad runs could result in influencers charging significantly more for content being developed. Such campaigns minimalize the time taken by creators spend searching for brands.

It just reduces the autonomy that creators have related to such fee structures being charged.

To take part in such challenges, creators need to be above the minimum age limit of 18 and be in ownership of accounts that are based across the US. They’ve got nearly 50k followers and continue to follow major guidelines.

Read next: TikTok is Twice as Popular as Instagram and YouTube for Brands
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Meta Launches New Parental Supervision Tools For Its Facebook Instagram and Messenger Apps

Tech giant Meta has recently launched a series of parental control tools for its Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook apps. This entails another exciting type of parental supervision across Messenger that would block messages from unwanted users on the app.

Other than that, another safety feature would also send out reminders to teenagers that they need to take breaks because they’re been excessively using the app.

Such supervision features are going to be up for grabs across Meta’s Family Center. And if you happen to be located in the region of Canada, the US, and the UK- then such tools would be available for you sooner than others.

Tools like these are designed to allow guardians to witness both enhanced security as well as privacy in the settings. This would entail a list of changes across users’ list of contacts on their respective Messenger app and the amount of time taken on every single app.

Meanwhile, guardians would be getting more notifications regarding when teenagers report an individual they feel might be a nuisance. But for that to occur, the child needs to allow the notification to arise explicitly.

Parents will also be given the chance to search for settings including who can send texts to friends, their friend’s friends, or not even anyone involved. Similarly, they’ll be given the chance to see who may witness their stories as well. Such guardians would be notified immediately when or if any change in the settings tab was made or not.

In the last couple of years, a few Instagram users have taken out multiple steps to restrict interactions with teenagers that might be taking place with unknown individuals.

As a part of the latest move in this regard, the firm would request individuals that aren’t connected to someone, in particular, to reach out via invites and ask for the possibility of an interaction to occur.

Instagram mentioned how such invites are based solely on text only and this way, senders can put out a single one at any given time.

On the other hand, Facebook’s parent firm is also launching more control features to limit excessive usage and encourage others to take huge breaks if and when scrolling the app for too long.

During the start of this year, we saw the firm launch a ‘Quiet Mode’ feature that enabled users to put a limit on alerts as well as auto-replies for Direct Messages when and if taking breaks. At such moments in time, it’s going to be up for grabs to those in Australia, the US, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland.

Today, the firm admits that the new Quiet Mode feature has been launched all around the globe.

For a while now, we’ve also been seeing Instagram busy with its own trials linked to taking breaks as it feels intermittent pauses are a health strategy to stop users from getting addicted to social media.

It arises in the form of a nudge after back-to-back usage for a designated period of time. So seeing Meta expand on this very feature and roll it on Facebook every 20 minutes is smart. In addition to that, the firm would be notifying teenagers who watch Reels during the later hours of the night to shut the app when the limit has been crossed.

We also know about the tech giant sent out notices to users on Instagram that ask them to enable guardians to oversee their activities for safety reasons. Therefore, parents would be given the chance to view in a mutual manner with accounts that teens follow and vice versa.

Read next: TikTok is Twice as Popular as Instagram and YouTube for Brands
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

TikTok is Twice as Popular as Instagram and YouTube for Brands

TikTok’s stunning rise to the top of the social media food chain has upset the delicate balance of the industry, and it has also forced its competitors to try to copy some of its features. Instagram’s answer to TikTok’s short form content was the introduction of Reels, and YouTube launched Shorts not long after. In spite of the fact that this is the case, TikTok continues to be far more popular than its competitors.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that brands used TikTok twice as often as they do Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. This comes from a study conducted by Social Insider, and it makes it clear that TikTok is still winning this race, although Instagram and YouTube also have unique benefits that make them more useful than might have been the case otherwise.

If you were to take a look at watch rates, Instagram comes out on top. Such a benefit can be useful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing brands to get more eyes on their content.

However, TikTok wins out in practically every other category. For example, the Chinese social media app took the top spot in terms of engagement, and short videos posted on the platform get twice as many comments as YouTube and Instagram as well with all things having been considered and taken into account.

On TikTok, you can expect to get an engagement rate of about 5.53%. This is considerable higher than the 4.36% engagement rate on Instagram Reels, which in turn is superior to YouTube Shorts offering just 3.8% engagement on average.

A large chunk of TikTok’s success can be attributed to one factor: the virality of its content. Regardless of the size of your channel, TikTok’s unique algorithm makes it so that any type of content can end up going viral practically overnight, and this is launched many influencers to a level of stardom that would’ve been hard to come by had they been operating on any other platform.

However, this does not mean that Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are without their own merits. As has already been mentioned, Reels provide a watch rate that surpasses even TikTok’s potential. As for YouTube, posting Shorts can be a useful discovery tool. Many Shorts are posted on the homepage, and if a user were to click on this recommendation, this would be factored into the long form content that the algorithm would end up showing to them.

This can be a great way to boost subscribers, which just goes to show that purely looking at metrics can often lead to you losing sight of the big picture. Each of these platforms bring something valuable to the table, and brands and creators alike need to diversify their presence so that they cover YouTube, Instagram as well as TikTok.

One thing that bears mentioning is the value of authenticity. Brands need to humanize their content in order to get the level of engagement that they are after, otherwise users and viewers will fail to respond to it the right way.

Read next: What’s the Best AI Chatbot? This Study Might Hold the Answer
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Unleashing Apate: The Cutting-Edge Chatbot Taking on Phone Call Scammers

An Australian team of cybersecurity specialists from Macquarie University is currently working on the creation of a chatbot called Apate with the aim of countering scammers who make unsolicited phone calls. Apate has been specifically designed to imitate human behavior and effectively involve scammers in extensive conversations, ultimately resulting in the wastage of their time and a subsequent decrease in the overall success rate of their fraudulent activities. Professor Dali Kaafar, who heads the project, is of the firm belief that by disrupting the business models adopted by scammers, it will inherently become increasingly challenging for them to generate profits from their illicit operations.

The idea for the initiative arose when Kaafar received an unsolicited call and effectively prolonged the conversation for a substantial duration, entertaining his children over lunch. This encounter sparked the concept of automating the procedure utilizing Natural Language Processing, with the objective of creating a computerized chatbot capable of engaging scammers in authentic dialogues. Hence, Apate was conceived, drawing inspiration from the Greek goddess associated with trickery.

Apate integrates advanced technology similar to ChatGPT and employs voice cloning techniques to develop a persuasive virtual persona capable of participating in lengthy discussions with scammers. Extensive training of the chatbot has been conducted using genuine scam interactions encompassing phone calls, emails, and social media messages. This training enables Apate to generate responses that closely resemble human behavior when engaging scammers. The research team at Macquarie University is actively conducting tests, utilizing a prototype, where Apate assumes diverse personalities to interact with actual scam calls.

To attract scam calls, the team has strategically exposed "dirty" numbers across the internet by placing them in spam apps or publishing them on web pages. This increases the likelihood of receiving scam calls, providing ample opportunities for Apate to engage with scammers.

The purpose of Apate is to tie up scammers, wasting their time and resources, while also serving as a deterrent to their fraudulent activities. By engaging scammers in lengthy conversations that lead to dead ends, the chatbot disrupts their business model and makes it more challenging for them to profit from their scams.

The development of Apate represents an innovative approach to tackling phone call scams. While individuals have previously taken pleasure in pranking scammers and wasting their time, the automated nature of Apate streamlines the process and enables more efficient interactions. By leveraging Natural Language Processing and voice cloning, the chatbot creates a realistic conversational experience that can be sustained over extended periods.

As technology continues to evolve, initiatives like Apate offer promising solutions in the ongoing fight against scammers. The chatbot serves as an example of how advancements in artificial intelligence can be harnessed to combat cyber threats and protect individuals from falling victim to fraudulent schemes. With ongoing testing and refinement, Apate has the potential to become a valuable tool in the battle against phone call scammers, ultimately making it more difficult for them to succeed in their illicit activities.

In conclusion, the creation of the Apate chatbot by the cybersecurity team at Macquarie University presents a novel and innovative approach to combatting phone call scams. By impersonating a human and engaging scammers in extended conversations, Apate effectively wastes their time and resources while acting as a deterrent to their fraudulent activities. Through its advanced technology, including Natural Language Processing and voice cloning, the chatbot is capable of generating human-like responses, creating a realistic and sustained interaction. The ongoing development and testing of Apate signify a significant step forward in the ongoing battle against scammers, demonstrating the potential for artificial intelligence to play a crucial role in safeguarding individuals from falling prey to fraudulent schemes. As technology continues to advance, solutions like Apate offer promising avenues to disrupt scammers' business models and make it increasingly difficult for them to succeed in their illicit endeavors.

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by Ayesha Hasnain via Digital Information World