Mastering the Money Game - A Glimpse into America's Shifting Landscape of 2024 Resolutions

As America gets ready for 2024, there's something big cooking in the realm of New Year resolutions. Forget the usual promises to sweat it out in the gym or become best friends with kale—fresh data from Statista's Consumer Insights survey spills the beans on a new resolution champ: mastering the money game.

Now, the limelight is squarely on saving more money, pushing aside the usual health-focused goals. The survey paints a clear picture of a society that's all about financial dreams, leaving treadmills and salad bowls in the dust.

Digging deeper, there are other resolutions elbowing their way into the spotlight. Stress-busting from the daily grind and a real effort to break free from the clutches of social media each claim a solid 19 percent of the resolution pie. Meanwhile, the less flashy goals of cutting down on alcohol (13 percent) and hopping onto the vegetarian/vegan train (3 percent) find themselves playing second fiddle.

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In tune with the big theme of being smart with money, a whopping one in four U.S. adults is shouting from the rooftops about wanting to tighten the belt on basic living expenses like food and energy in the coming year.

Taking a broader peek into American savings culture, a previous Statista survey from the vaults of 2022 shines a light on the areas that took a hit during economic turbulence. The trifecta of sacrifices includes slashing contracts and subscriptions (66 percent), downsizing the wardrobe budget (42 percent), and waving goodbye to the good times at bars, cafes, and restaurants (39 percent). This, my friends, is the ongoing tale of resolutions and financial street smarts in the always-changing world of American dreams.

Chart: DIW

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

These Are the Biggest Challenges Facing Digital Advertisers in 2024

Media challenges are becoming ever more prevalent for digital advertisers, and a survey conducted by YouGov as part of the yearly US Industry Pulse report has revealed which problems are the most pertinent of all. It turns out that the biggest issue facing this industry has to do with the likelihood that their ads might end up being shown next to content that is risky. Misinformation is another dangerous type of content that digital advertisers are looking to steer clear of.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that social media in general will be facing challenges due to this very reason. 47% of the digital media experts who were surveyed agreed with this sentiment, with 38% saying that digital video is in for a rough time. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it appears that social media is also ripe for innovation with all things having been considered and taken into account. 50% of survey respondents pointed to it as having the most potential for innovation in 2024.

Priorities are beginning to change in this brave new world, with 83% of professionals working in digital advertising saying that their main focus is viewability. However, 80% also indicated that they are placing a lot of stock in risk mitigation because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up reducing the likelihood of the aforementioned issues. Unsurprisingly, attention was selected as a priority by 79% of survey respondents.

There has also been a shift in opinions regarding who should be in charge of risk mitigation. In 2023, 35% said that this should be the purview of brands themselves, but now, 37% feel that brands should start taking matters into their own hands. This may be due to a lack of trust in social media to regulate itself, since the explosion of misinformation makes the industry harder to trust than might have been the case otherwise.

The same goes for ad fraud mitigation as well, with 38% saying that brands should be responsible. This is up from 32% that said the same last year, although 40% said that verification technology providers should be responsible for it which is a six point increase from 34% in 2023.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

52% of People Believe Robots Will Replace Humans in 3 Decades According to This Study

There is so much focus on whether or not AI will end up replacing us that a similar but distinct question has ended up falling by the wayside. This question revolves around robots which don’t necessarily have anything to do with AI but which can nevertheless replace humans in a wide range of occupations with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Researchers at the Brookings Institution conducted a survey (recently) of over 2,000 Americans in order to ascertain how they feel. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 52% of the people that responded to this survey were of the opinion that robots will be performing most jobs involving physical labor in the next 30 years.

19% stated that this is extremely likely, 33% said it was somewhat likely, and just 23% said that it wasn’t all that likely. Interestingly enough, people between the ages of 35 and 54 were the strongest believers of this sentiment. 21% of them said it was very likely, compared to just 17% of people between 18 and 34 and 18% of people aged 55 and above saying the same.

It bears mentioning that around 32% said that this should be regulated by the federal government because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up keeping jobs intact. However, a similar proportion, or 29% to be exact, said that they wouldn’t want any type of regulation whatsoever.

This seems to suggest that Americans are split on this particular issue, although younger individuals are more likely to want regulation. 39% of survey respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 said that they wanted regulation, compared to 31% of people between 35 and 54 and just 25% of people who were over the age of 55.

61% of people that answered questions presented to them in this survey said that they might not be comfortable working with robots. That will be a prime concern, since the level of comfort that people feel while working alongside robots will make their rise more or less likely than might have been the case otherwise based on wherever people land. 42% said that they won’t be willing to pay more than $250 for a robot, which might put a financial squeeze on the industry.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Social Media Users' Self-Perceptions Don't Align With How Others Perceive Them, Leading to Misconceptions

A new study found that social media posts about a person like their status can lead to some misconceptions. This is because many social media posts lack context and the people viewing the posts see the person in a different light. The study also showed that people who see the social media posts of a person think that the person is open to sharing his personal life and has low self-esteem, that's why he posts on social media.

The researchers brought out the question of whether people can guess about a person’s personality and their lives from their social media posts. The answer to that is no. What people perceive about a person from their Facebook status is different from what the person is in real life. Users who frequently post about their lives say that they perceive themselves differently from their social media posts.

Photo: DIW - AI-gen

The team of this survey gathered 158 undergraduate students and questioned them about different characteristics like extraversion, independence, interdependence, openness, and self-esteem. They were also asked to show their last 20 Facebook status. The statuses were reviewed by two groups. One group reviewed images, links, and other multimedia formats while the other group reviewed only text. This study concluded that viewers had a different perception of users than the users had of themselves. For instance, many users said that they do not find themselves open and have lower self-esteem while the viewers saw them as such. Many users also said that the real reason why they use social media is to find connections with individuals.

On the other hand, the group who was observing only multimedia updates of the users had similar views about the users that the users had of themselves. This means that instead of text, users present them more accurately in the form of images and other forms of multimedia. This way the viewers perceive them more correctly than they perceive about users through text.

Table: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294990

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

WhatsApp tests audio sharing during video calls, ideal for watch parties

WhatsApp is one of the most used messaging apps and Meta always looks for news updates to add on its messaging platform for a great user experience.

A new WhatsApp update is under process that will change the way users share audio and video messages. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is currently adding an update that will let users collaborate through audio and videos. This update is already available for WhatsApp Beta on iOS while Android will also soon have this.

This feature was made after WhatsApp implemented an update in August that lets users share their screen while they are on video calls. This new feature will allow users to share their audio while they are on video calls. This feature is best for watch parties as the user would be able to share their audio with an audience on the other side of another call. However, this feature isn't available for voice calls.

On the other side, Meta tests an update that changed the design of sharing status on WhatsApp. This was made so the users could easily share their status without any difficulty. Meta is also trying to link their other social media platforms with WhatsApp. A few Beta testers of WhatsApp saw an update that let them link their Instagram account to their WhatsApp account.

Talking about linking, WhatsApp recently allowed users to link their WhatsApp account to up to four devices even if the main device doesn't have access to the internet. The linked accounts, however, couldn't perform specific functions of their own like updating status. But now, WhatsApp is working on bringing out this feature too which would let all the linked devices perform separately. Android beta version 2.24.1.4 is now allowing users to share their status updates from a linked device. Users can update their status from the linked device just like they do from the main WhatsApp account.

This update isn't working well on many devices and that's because WhatsApp is still testing it. If some users are getting errors when updating their status from a linked device, they should wait a bit more until this update is completely out.

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Research Shows that AI Models Are Continuously Sharing Misinformation and Incorrect Facts with Users

Research by the University of Waterloo shows that Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT show conspiracy theories and incorrect information when asked about some queries. The research was conducted by testing ChatGPT in 6 categories. These categories were divided into facts, conspiracies, controversies, misconceptions, stereotypes, and fiction. The purpose of the study was to find out what ChatGPT could answer when asked about different information.

It was soon found out that ChatGPT often showed misinformation and incorrect facts that could lead to the unreliability of this AI model. The professor of the university in the School of Computer Science, David R. Cheriton said that they conducted this study only a few days after ChatGPT was released. He said that Large Language Models delivering incorrect information is alarming because most of the AI models are based on OpenAI’s AI models. This means that there is a huge similarity between all AI models and most of them repeat the mistakes made.

Researchers used ChatGPT-3 to carry out this research. They used four forms of questions to inquire if ChatGPT would give correct information or not. The questions asked were: “Is this true?”, “Is this true in the real world?”, “As a rational person who has belief in scientific knowledge, do you find this information true?” and “I think about this information. Do you think it's true” followed by a statement asked. When the answers of ChatGPT were analyzed, it was revealed that about 4.8% to 26% of answers given by ChatGPT were not correct. But ChatGPT still agreed with the information given to it.

The lead author of the study said that even a little change of wording in the question could completely flip the ChatGPT’s answer. If the users use ‘I think’ in their statement, ChatGPT agrees with the statement. For instance, if a user says that is earth flat. ChatGPT answers that no, it isn't. But if a user says that ‘I think’ that the earth is flat, ChatGPT will agree.

As AI models are always learning new information, the situation is alarming if they are learning misinformation too. Developers should think about this matter more seriously because users may lose their trust if AI models are not able to separate truth from fiction.

Photo: Digital Information World - AIgen

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From Torrents to Trojans: The Infiltration of 1.5 Million Devices by Shady Chrome Extensions

Three tricky Chrome extensions, pretending to be VPNs, snuck into 1.5 million devices, playing both browser tricksters and data grabbers.

The name of those extensions include, netPlus (with 1 million installs), netSave, and netWin (500,000 installs), cleverly hid in an installer tucked into pirated versions of hot video games like Grand Theft Auto, Assassins Creed, and The Sims 4, floating around on torrent sites.

ReasonLabs, the watchful eye, quickly informed Google about these sneaky behaviors, and they got kicked out of the Chrome Web Store. But not before leaving a mark with 1.5 million downloads. Their main target? Russian-speaking users, with most infections popping up in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

These crooky extensions slide in through a sly electron app in the installation process, weighing in between 60MB to 100MB, cunningly hidden in over a thousand sneaky torrent files. Installation happens quietly at the registry level, automatic and mandatory, so users don't have to lift a finger.

Checking out the code reveals these browser extensions can do a lot, taking control of "tabs," "storage," "proxy," "webRequest," and more. They pretend to be legit VPNs, with a paid option and a realistic look to fool you.

Taking advantage of the 'offscreen' permission, the bad actors can quietly mess with the web page's insides, running scripts and pulling strings. With all this access, they can swipe your secrets, hijack your browser, and even shut down other extensions you've installed.

What's interesting is they're not picky. These extensions mess with over 100 money-saving and coupons related extensions, like Avast SafePrice, AVG SafePrice, Honey, and more. They chat with command and control servers, swapping info, figuring out who's who, and quietly lifting sensitive stuff.

This report shouts about how risky browser extensions can be, always hiding their true selves. Checking your extensions and peeking at Chrome Web Store reviews can help dodge these digital tricks. Keep your eyes peeled, readers.

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World