X Forced To Defend Itself After Being Accused Of ‘Shadow Boosting’ Mr. Beast’s First Video On The App

The world’s most popular YouTuber Mr. Beast is famous for a reason. And that has to do with the fact that his content continues to entertain the masses. Perhaps a reason why could be linked to how large of a budget he allocates to keep his viewers engaged.

But a recent finding on X had people alleging it continues to soak up profits from Mr. Beast's first video upload by marketing it as an undisclosed advertisement. This forced Musk’s firm to step in and refute the claims that this was far from the truth. But more research into the matter shows that while it might be right, it’s still lying in terms of how data is being deceivingly displayed to the public.

upon closer inspection seems like it definitely is a non-disclosed ad

🤨 pic.twitter.com/7lcLarUBlZ

— █̶̳̘͛̄̃͒̄̃͜█̴͇̱̅͒̅█̵̻̣̝͒̈̄̈͝͝█̴̞̜̻̝͍̂̽͜█̷̢ (@SHL0MS) January 19, 2024

This past week, we saw several users on X state how the content was visible across streams with the same old advertisement disclosures found in the drop-down menu, despite this not being clearly marketed as ‘promoted content’. Meanwhile, others have gone on to speculate more on this front including the platform marketing the post to several people to try and boost the count of viewers and therefore make greater profits as it seems to be an enticing endeavor on the app.

But the platform clarified how the disclosure in question here is linked to pre-roll ads across the clip and not the video itself. So as per those claims, it is not really shadow boosting the content but we do feel it’s doing everything in its power to make the video aware to the masses. After all, making the world-famous YouTuber happy would be a huge marketing achievement of the potential for other creators in the industry.

However, all of the positives would be cut out against the negatives by not rolling out the right stats related to the new clip. This was witnessed through an exchange of words with one fan account on X, suggesting how the video gets more views on the app. Then we saw one of the company’s own workers double down on the claims, adding how these view counts are better than what’s on display here. This is because YouTube counts other view types which X may not.

But that is very unfair comparison (or at least cherry picking claim). The view count for X posts includes those counted each time it’s displayed on the users’ feed. Whether the user sees it or not, that does not matter and it’s crazy. That should not be designated as view counts because YouTube counts views when the viewer seen clips at least for the first 30 seconds.

So as you can see, the video streaming giant’s count for views is so much more indicative of the real interest taking center stage. But for X, the view count is simply the figure allocated for post impressions. And as one can imagine, it’s much less meaningful.

The X app realizes this and its employees confirm it through replies. But to boost confusing stats in this manner and give the world the impression that it performing far better than reality is wrong for so many different reasons.

It’s quite like how billionaire Elon Musk mentions stats about the app, raising eyebrows with critics for years. Many fail to understand where and how he quotes data from when their research never indicates the same.

What is even more interesting is how Musk continues to reshare the facts like he’s the only one who knows what’s going on in terms of traffic and the rest are immature critics.

You simply cannot fool the world by quoting a small fraction of the reality and expect them to accept whatever you’re saying. It’s quite a meaningless effort for obvious reasons. Maybe it will work for the time being as X takes on more small-scale advertisers but in the long term, there are plenty of problems in terms of how authentic the facts really are.

But these views don’t matter at the end of the day if there are no advertisers present to support the brand. So many leading names in the industry continue to be hesitant in terms of rolling out their campaigns here and the chances of winning those names back are not looking great right now either.

Clearly, having income from X Premium’s users’ subscriptions is far from what’s required to save the app. In case it does not begin getting its advertising business back to where it started, we might have billions in terms of user count but that won’t stop it from working at a serious loss. What do you think?

There is a lot to think about and ponder here and being dishonest with unreliable data is not going to be the right approach, we believe.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Internet Piracy Has Increased by 36% Year Over Year, Are Streaming Sites to Blame?

The rise of streaming was supposed to bring about an end to the age of Internet piracy because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up offering a convenient way to access content from anywhere in the world. However, it turns out that the illegal downloading of various forms of media has actually increased by as much as 13% since 2019.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there were around 125 billion site visits recorded in 2019, and this decreased to 104 billion in 2020. In spite of the fact that this is the case, a report released by Muso revealed that the number of visits reached 145 billion in 2023, which is a 36% increase from 2020.

92% of this traffic is going towards movie and TV show downloads. 11% of this traffic came from the US, with India comprising another 11%. It bears mentioning that America has seen its proportion increase by 2 percentage points since 2018, whereas India has seen a staggering 7 point increase in that timespan with all things having been considered and taken into account.

This begs the question, why is internet traffic on the rise? According to Muso, it might have something or the other to do with the saturated streaming market. There was a time when Netflix was the only streaming service out there, but nowadays, practically every single media company has launched their own service.

The sheer number of choices overwhelms consumers, with many feeling like the majority of content is locked behind paywalls that are out of reach. Subscribing to each and every service can be a prohibitively costly endeavor, and piracy seems like an easier choice in that regard.

Streaming services might need to introduce bundled packages in the future, which ironically would make streaming just a refreshed version of broadcast and cable television. Either way, the rise in piracy shows that the time to change has arrived, and the industry might not be able to survive if it doesn’t adapt.

Read next: Gamers Are More Likely to Suffer Hearing Loss, Here’s Why
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Gamers Are More Likely to Suffer Hearing Loss, Here’s Why

A new study, titled "Risk of sound-induced hearing loss from exposure to video gaming or esports: a systematic scoping review", published in BMJ health has found that gamers have an above average risk of suffering from hearing loss or tinnitus in the long term. This is the result of them playing video games for several hours at a time with the noise level being turned up far past safe levels for human beings with all things having been considered and taken into account.

According to the World Health Organization, a noise level of 80 decibels for forty hours per week is relatively safe. In spite of the fact that this is the case, any minor excess to this safe level results in an exponential increase in the likelihood of harm being done. 90 decibel sounds are only safe for four hours a week, and 95 decibels for just one hour and fifteen minutes.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the noise level in four shooting games that were analyzed as part of this study hovered between 88.5 decibels and 91.2 decibels. This is the average noise level, and gamers also experience short bursts of up to 119 decibels as well.

The duration of this exposure may result in irreversible damage to their hearing, which is why it’s so important to intervene and inform. It bears mentioning that this study is based on self reported data which goes back to the 1990s, and games weren’t the same back then. However, it’s difficult to deny that a correlation exists between extended gaming sessions and various kinds of hearing loss and tinnitus.

The way to prevent this damage is by encouraging keep volumes down to reasonable levels instead of pushing the sound to the max. We might start to see a widespread epidemic of hearing loss, especially given how loud music can get at concerts, and with gaming now also added to the mix it is more important than ever to educate people on the long term effects of noise exposure. More evidence will also need to be collected in order to verify the theories presented in the paper.

Photo: Digital Information World - AIgen

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AI Might Surpass Humans in All Tasks by 2047

The rise of AI has been so unbelievably rapid that within the span of just one year it managed to become perhaps the central topic of discussion in the world of tech as well as in day to day life. The main question that people tend to ask here is how effective AI will be at replacing humans in a wide variety of tasks. It turns out that researchers at AI Impacts tried to figure out the likelihood of this occurring in the future.

The researchers at this organization collaborated with the University of Oxford and the University of Bonn to survey 2,778 experts who have published their thoughts on AI. According to these authors, there’s a 10% chance that AI will outperform humans in every single task you can think of over the course of the next three years.

If the current trend persists, these experts say that the chances of it surpassing human beings by the year 2047 is around 50% with all things having been considered and taken into account. As for human occupations in particular, researchers concluded that there’s a 10% chance of all of them becoming automated by the year 2037.

Translating text, recognizing objects after seeing them a single time, writing basic code in Python, writing fiction that could reach the New York Times bestseller list, creating a payment processing site, and even creating large language models of their very own could become a reality. AI is advancing far more quickly than anyone could have expected, which makes it rather necessary to figure out where things might go from here.

It bears mentioning that these are perhaps the most pessimistic predictions that anyone could make. Optimistic predictions have also come about, with many saying that AI will complement jobs rather than replace them entirely, but the fact of the matter is that the pessimistic outlook is no less likely than the optimistic one. Indeed, 81% of survey respondents believe that AI will be able to talk like human experts within the next 20 years, which would make the respondents themselves obsolete all in all.

Photo: Digital Information World - AIgen

Read next: The Enormous Scale of GDPR Fines for Mark Zuckerberg’s Companies Revealed
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The Enormous Scale of GDPR Fines for Mark Zuckerberg’s Companies Revealed

To date, the social media giant Meta has been penalized with a massive $2.8 billion (yes with B in USD) fine for going against the GDPR.

Meta continues to remain a favorite company by officials in the EU and they’ve been targeting the organization left and right for several violations of the GDPR.

It wouldn’t be wrong to refer to Ireland as the world’s ‘Leading Data Regulatory Authority’ that continues to impose massive fines on big technology companies in the industry who fail to follow the stringent GDPR law that came out in 2018.

Meta is a big player in the digital space and it’s been subject to legal actions for years, let’s not forget how fines worth billions have been handed over. GDPR breaches incurred by Meta have been a constant worry for Zuckerberg and from what we’re seeing right now, it’s not ending soon.

The company was penalized a massive $442 million in Sep. 2022 and then another massive one comprising $425 million was rolled out on Meta Limited in January of 2023. And as time went on, things did not get any better. It’s interesting how the Irish-based regulator has been penalizing the organization from the start of GDPR. The majority of fines that Meta has been forced to pay have arisen from here.

Remember, WhatsApp Ireland also led the pack in terms of fining the company in 2021 so we’re not quite sure what’s going on here. But one thing is certain, Meta’s got a lot to do to get back into the firm’s good books.

The Irish Data Protection Commission enforced a lion’s share record featuring 1.78 billion Euros in the past year.

Most tech firms have headquarters based in Ireland and it’s shocking how the country has been serving as the leading data privacy enforcer for so long. Fines have been hitting tech giants left and right and Meta is the hardest hit amongst them all. Now what could the reason behind all of this be?

Both Facebook and Instagram are now being called out for wrongful data processing. Their apps have breached the GDPR for most of the same reasons and many can’t help but wonder why Meta does not learn from the past.

The head for data privacy regarding cybersecurity mentioned how it appears that the country’s data regulatory body has more to do with its favorable environment than anything else. But recent reports have gone on to prove how the number of fines rolled out across the EU in the past year is mostly due to successful appeals in several jurisdictions. Many also feel this has to do with the fact that opinions have been divided regarding several decisions including the EU Data Protection Board.

In May of 2023, the company was barred from transferring data belonging to EU citizens into the US, which investigators said was a huge privacy violation. This saw cross-border penalties being implemented on the tech giant with a warning of such action to be repeated in the future. But now, we are seeing it being punished for unlawful data processing, leading to a loss worth billions.

Meta did come under fire for another leading reason. Its decision to roll ad-free subscriptions for those with Premium tiers was called out for breaching EU laws. So as you can see, failure in terms of complying with EU laws appears to be the main reason why Meta keeps being penalized.

Sources: Dlapiper Report - Enforcementtracker

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Bill Gates Urges the Richest Countries to Donate to the Global South

Bill Gates spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos recently and addressed the growing divide between the Global North and the Global South. He mentioned that the resource needs of developing countries were outstripping the resources that they are capable of generating, and as a result of the fact that this is the case, they need more help from developed nations than ever before.

It is important to note that he urged the richest countries, governments, people and companies to provide aid to these struggling nations. In the 1970s, the United Nations requested economically powerful countries to donate 0.7% of the overall income the generated each year in the form of aid, and Gates referred to this while making his statements.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, just four countries have met this criteria, namely Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg. If the Global South is to be saved, it’s imperative for more countries to join this list because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping fix some of the problems that are holding countries in this region back.

Gates also proposed that developing countries should be asked what their main areas of focus are, such as education, health and nutrition, or anything else that they are prioritizing at this current point in time. His final point was that more innovation was required in order to fix the many issues plaguing the Global South, such as malaria and agricultural issues.

One of his final points was that agricultural productivity needed to be optimized in order to feed growing populations. In his view, the amount of innovation in this space was orders of magnitude lower than what it should’ve been, and that might be where the first wave of innovation should go. Gates’s statements came during a panel at Davos, but it remains to be seen whether they have any type of impact whatsoever on the manner in which the wealthiest institutions distribute their wealth.

Photo: Bloomberg Live / YT

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US Justice Department And FTC Enter Power Struggle As Both Wish To Investigate Microsoft’s Relationship With OpenAI

The American Justice Department and the FTC have both been raising serious concerns related to software giant Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI.

Seeing the company invest millions and grow quite close to the ChatGPT maker was already on many people’s minds in terms of how that could serve to eliminate competition in today’s market.

Now, we’re getting to hear so much more on this front including how a power struggle has been attained by both the DOJ and the FTC in terms of who gets to scrutinize the companies.

The report comes to us thanks to media outlet Politico who added recently how both of these agencies were excited to start the rounds of investigation and why Microsoft is so keen on being involved with the AI firm. They hoped to better gauge what sort of competition this could have in today’s AI industry which continues to flourish as we speak.

A lot of antitrust behavior was noted too and now, neither plan on giving up jurisdiction on this front was said to create major hurdles and roadblocks that lead to a formal investigation arising right now.

The crux of the matter appears to be the huge number of investments made by Microsoft in the recent past. It all began when they rolled out the first set of funding in 2019 and this continued for the next couple of years. The software giant also combined services from OpenAI into its own Bing search engine as well as Microsoft Office to get better and more useful products.

One interview had the CEO of OpenAI speak about how the collaboration between both tech giants is more than solid. He hoped that the company would continue to invest in the firm. However, this raised serious concerns in terms of serving as unfair advantages for both enterprises, especially when it comes down to LLMs.

In the past, we saw both regulatory bodies avoiding overlapping investigations so that peace would be maintained. We also saw how they attained handshake agreements to split both organizations up so that they could continue with antitrust investigations of the big names in the industry.

This meant Meta’s Facebook and Amazon would be allocated to FTC while Google and Apple would be sent in the DOJ’s direction.

Recently, one investigation by Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard overtook but they entered into an agreement about not leveraging that for future legal negotiations.

But a rep for Microsoft denied that statement and mentioned it during a December statement from the software giant’s President Brad Smith who detailed more on the front.

He says that since the year 2019, OpenAI has held great personal and business relationships with the software giant, and that has paved the way for more innovation in the world of AI. This includes more room for competition to take center stage. This helped to preserve independence for both firms along the way too, he added.

But the only thing which altered so far is that the software giant would be taking on the role of non-voting observer during the company’s Board meetings. In case you didn’t know, that’s a very differnet approach when you compare it to the acquisition like that of Android maker Google who purchased DeepMind in the United Kingdom. They hope to work side by side with the CMA to give them all the data that they need on this front.

For now, we know that the scrutiny of both tech giants and their much-talked-about partnership will remain under scrutiny. Moreover, the CMA added in December of 2023 how it hoped to give more chances to all parties keen on submitting comments to the regulator. This would have to do with whether the Microsoft-OpenAI collaboration would give rise to a possible merger or not.

From the looks of it, this is the most serious concern of most investigators today as that could really wipe out major competing firms working on a smaller scale but trying to attract the masses with the same goal as OpenAI.

So as you can see, it’s quite a tricky situation, and wouldn’t be wrong to dub this as a sticky mess.

Photo: Digital Information World - AIgen/HumanEdited

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