Apple Fears UK Government Will Quietly Veto Tech Changes Made By Leading Companies

iPhone maker Apple is worried about the power that the UK government holds in terms of pre-approving any kind of changes in store for security features by leading tech giants.

A series of proposals for changes required for updating the 2016 IPA was discussed recently where the Home Office claimed it showed massive support for any kind of tech that was based upon privacy as the goal was to keep the nation safe.

A spokesperson for the government mentioned how they were always on the lookout to update modern technology in the best way imaginable to make sure everything remained updated at all times.

Another statement from the UK government added how there was a clear need to support innovation but if it was coming at the cost of users’ privacy then that was necessary to look at in detail as the main goal was to ensure the nation’s safety.

In cases when the government refused to make any changes for updates made by tech giants like Apple, it wouldn’t be released in other nations too as the public wouldn’t be informed about any of this.

At the moment, the country’s government is looking to make updates as they do support innovation but not at the cost of security. They have always been super clear about the support that tech innovation and privacy brings to the table which entails E2E encryption.

All such changes would be debated at the House of Lords on Wednesday as the tech giant feels it’s quite an overreach by the British Government.

It would not be wrong to mention how a host of people are all concerned about what changes people can expect to arise so soon. The goal is to secretly veto protections of users from all over the globe and stop them from giving them to clients.

Speaking to the BBC recently, the Home Office says it understands what’s going on right now and there are a series of issues like terrorism and abuse that’s at peak and it’s time that those responsible are brought to justice.

Meanwhile, the current law in place has been called out by critics as a total snoopers chart but that’s not the first time that the iPhone maker has lashed out against a host of proposals to enhance the scope.

In July of last year, we saw the leading tech firm mention how its goal was to pull out services like Facetime and iMessage from the United Kingdom instead of compromising the security of the future.

Through such law proposals, things would go above and beyond the usual iMessage and FaceTime as it entails a host of products.

During the start of January, plenty of civil liberties such as the Big Brother and Open Rights Group as well as Privacy International were out and about, showing great support as well as opposition for leading parts of the bill.

The groups mentioned how they were so worried that such changes would force technology and firms including those located abroad to keep the government aware of plans for better security and privacy. In this way, the government would put out notices to stop changes like these from taking place.

This would work to quietly but effectively convert private firms into areas of surveillance and erode security belonging to both the web and devices.

Such changes would be in line with reviews of the currently existing laws and entail a wide array of updates around data collection and making use of records about internet connection.

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Read next: New Study Shows that AI Will Help in Increasing US GDP to About $1 Trillion in Coming Years
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New Study Shows that AI Will Help in Increasing US GDP to About $1 Trillion in Coming Years

According to a study conducted by Cognizant, AI could bring a lot of change in the US economy in the coming years. It is predicted that AI could bring about $1 trillion to the US economy in the coming decade. But it’s not all, because many US workers will also lose their jobs because AI will take over those. The study took help from a model to demonstrate how AI could impact low, middle and high businesses. The first model revealed that AI is quickly taking over many businesses.

2023 was a year when companies were experimenting with AI but in the coming years, all work load will be shifted to them. 13% of the companies in the US are going to adopt the AI tech for work with in the next 3 to 4 years. This will increase up to 31% in the next four to 8 years and up to 50% in a decade. After 10 years, the AI adoption will slow down a little bit but won’t completely stop. Companies will soon adapt AI in work in the next 20 years.

The researchers studied all the tasks that run the US economy like content generation, market analysis, reports and emails. They then compared all this work to generative AI’s and found out that 90% of the jobs related to the US economy will do about 50% of their tasks with the help of AI. 52% of the jobs will be affected by work done by AI one way or another. This means that about 9% of the employees related to the US economy will lose their jobs in the next 10 years.

In the next few years, the US economy is set to change with the increase in US GDP to $1 trillion, all driven by productivity under AI tools. AI will impact different types of jobs and will take over credit analysis, computer programming, data administration and graphic designing jobs. This doesn’t mean all people will lose their jobs. The employees who possess great critical thinking and knowledge skills will be highly appreciated in the upcoming era of artificial intelligence.

Read next: CenterView Founder Highlights Critical Thinking as Key Amidst AI's Potential Skill Replication
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

CenterView Founder Highlights Critical Thinking as Key Amidst AI's Potential Skill Replication

AI is getting popular day by day, especially among young people. Many youngsters are using AI for doing their work, especially coding. But one of the New York’s top bankers say that AI wasn't made so that kids could use it for developing coding skills. It was made so the kids can learn good judgment and critical skills. The co-founder of Centerview Partners LLC, Blair Effron said that I am not sure if I have ever advised my kids that learning coding is going to be a good skill in the coming 10 years. What I advise my kids is that critical thinking and judgment skills are going to help them a lot in the next few years.

Blair Effron is known as someone who had the largest corporate deal in the history of the US and that's why his opinion about these things matter. He said that critical thinking skills are a lot important in banking investments. And AI models do not possess these types of skills. AI is set to replace many skills but critical thinking is something it cannot replace no matter what. A Nobel Prize winner economist, Christopher Pissarides, said that new employees should look for positions that want them to use their empathetic skills, instead of skills that would be dominated by AI in the coming years.

Now the business schools are asking their students to make their own business models and review them. The business firm of Effron is responsible for arranging 12% global deals, all based on the critical skills. He said that there is no reason to believe that we cannot top the $4 trillion market of the past five years in 2024. He is sure that he can do that because of his optimism. There are going to be risks to the US economy if Donald Trump beats Joe Biden in the election. It is going to be a big downfall. He said that there should be a good relationship with allies and adversaries if you want to protect the corporate world of the US.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

ByteDance Unveils StreamVoice: AI-Powered Live Voice Conversion Raises Deepfake Concerns and Misinformation Risks

ByteDance, the renowned Chinese technology firm responsible for the popular TikTok platform, has unveiled something new for its users—StreamVoice. This tool, leveraging generative-AI technology, enables users to seamlessly alter their voices to mimic others.

As of now, StreamVoice remains inaccessible to the general public, yet its introduction underscores the noteworthy progress in AI development. The tool facilitates the effortless creation of audio and visual impersonations of public figures, commonly referred to as "deepfakes." Notable instances include the use of AI to emulate the voices of President Joe Biden and Taylor Swift, a phenomenon particularly prevalent as the 2024 election looms.

Collaborating on this groundbreaking initiative are technical researchers from ByteDance and Northwestern Polytechnical University in China. It's imperative to note that Northwestern Polytechnical University, recognized for its collaborations with the Chinese military, should not be confused with Northwestern University in the United States.

In a recently published paper, the researchers underscore StreamVoice's capacity for "real-time conversion" of a user's voice to any desired alternative, requiring only a singular instance of speech from the target voice. The output unfolds at livestreaming speed, boasting a mere 124 milliseconds of latency—a significant achievement in light of historical limitations associated with AI voice conversion technologies, traditionally effective in offline scenarios.

The researchers attribute StreamVoice's success to recent advancements in language models, enabling the creation of a tool that performs live voice conversion with high speaker similarity for both familiar and unfamiliar voices. Experiments, as detailed in the paper, emphasize the tool's efficacy in streaming speech conversion while maintaining performance comparable to non-streaming voice conversion systems.

Referring to Meta's Llama large language model, a prominent entity in the AI landscape, the paper details the utilization of the "LLaMA architecture" in constructing StreamVoice. Additionally, the researchers incorporated open-source code from Meta's AudioDec, described by Meta as a versatile "plug-and-play benchmark for audio codec applications." Training primarily on Mandarin speech datasets and a multilingual set featuring English, Finnish, and German, the researchers achieved the tool's proficiency.

Although the researchers refrain from prescribing specific use cases for StreamVoice, they acknowledge potential risks, such as the dissemination of misinformation or phone fraud. Users are encouraged to report instances of illegal voice conversion to appropriate authorities.

AI experts, cognizant of advancing technology, have long cautioned against the escalating prevalence of deepfakes. A recent incident involved a robocall deploying a deepfake of President Biden, urging people not to vote in the New Hampshire primary. Authorities are currently investigating this deceptive robocall, underscoring the urgent need for vigilance in the face of evolving AI capabilities.

Content generated using AI and reviewed by humans. Photo: DIW - AIGen

Read next: Data Shows Most Popular AI Tools in 2023, With ChatGPT Coming At Top
by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Data Shows Most Popular AI Tools in 2023, With ChatGPT Coming At Top

New AI tools are being introduced every day ever since AI became popular in 2023. There are many LLMs (Large Language Models) including text-based assistants and image-to-text generators are in use by many people now. A report by Writerbuddy shows how frequently AI tools are being used.

Without any surprise, OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the most popular AI chatbot in 2023. It was introduced to the public in November 2022, but now it is the biggest AI tool worldwide. ChatGPT had a total of 14.6 billion visits, with 60% of visits recorded from November 2022 to August 2023. Characters.AI is another AI tool that acts more as a personalized chatbot. It is also known as a dialogue agent where the users can talk with different video games, TV characters or even a psychologist. The third in the list of the most popular AI tools is QuillBot. It is a writing AI tool that users use for different writing purposes. These top three AI tools add up to about 80% of visits to any AI website.

As the top three were under the category of LLMs, an AI image generator MidJourney was the fourth most popular AI site. Hugging Face was the fifth while Google Bard was the sixth most popular AI website. The other AI tools on the list were NovelAI, CapCut, JanitorAI, and CivitAI.

• Also read: GenAI Prism: This Infographic Illuminates the Expansive Universe of Generative AI Tools

All of these AI tools tell us that the future is going to be all about artificial intelligence. Even though it has not been much time since AI has taken over, some companies are making many different AI tools. These AI tools have already recorded billions of visits. The world couldn't have imagined this wave of AI a few years ago, but AI has already surpassed all expectations. Now, we have to see what the coming years will bring to the world of AI.

Read next: Study Shows that TikTok is the Most Popular App Among Gen-Z For Using As a Search Engine
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

NSA's Secret Web: General Nakasone Unveils Controversial Data Acquisition Tactics!

• Gen. Nakasone reveals how NSA buys lots of Americans' internet data without permission for foreign intel and cybersecurity.
• Netflow data shows internet traffic details, raising privacy worries for mental health and assault survivor sites.
• Senator Wyden reveals NSA's domestic data collection, worries about agencies getting Americans' data without asking.
• ODNI urged to make spy agencies follow rules like FTC's for legal data buying and be transparent about data keeping.

The departing chief of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), General Paul Nakasone, has unveiled a revelation that raises eyebrows from privacy critics — the NSA is delving into an extensive pool of commercially available web browsing data from Americans, all without the encumbrance of obtaining a warrant. This disclosure, unveiled by Senator Ron Wyden after Nakasone's correspondence, peels back the layers on the NSA's acquisition of a diverse array of information procured from data brokers, serving purposes such as foreign intelligence, cybersecurity, and secret missions.

In Nakasone's letter, he highlighted the NSA's interest in commercially available netflow data, concentrating on the intricacies of wholly domestic internet communications and interactions involving a U.S. Internet Protocol address connecting with its overseas counterpart. Netflow data, a cloak-and-dagger trove of non-content metadata, reveals the nuances of internet traffic flow, unraveling the mysteries of network activities and spotlighting servers that may be harboring the mischief of potential hackers.

Despite the NSA's discretion regarding the specific origins of the purchased internet records, Senator Wyden voiced apprehension over the sensitivity of this internet metadata. He underscored its potential to lay bare private information linked to individuals' online ventures, encompassing visits to websites dedicated to mental health, resources for survivors of sexual assault, or telehealth providers specializing in birth control or abortion medication.

Senator Wyden, entrenched in the Senate Intelligence Committee, unearthed details about the NSA's domestic internet records collection back in March 2021. However, the disclosure couldn't see the light of day until it shed its classified status. The revelation adds a layer of complexity to the ongoing scrutiny of the U.S. intelligence community's penchant for acquiring substantial datasets from private data brokers. While this practice isn't a novel concept, the ODNI's acknowledgment in June 2023 spurred concerns about its ramifications on privacy and civil liberties.

The NSA's dependence on commercially sourced data for intelligence-gathering has thrown a legal spotlight on the agency, especially as Congress scrutinizes its surveillance powers. Senator Wyden has seized upon recent actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against data brokers like X-Mode and InMarket, viewing them as significant legal milestones. These actions spotlight concerns about government agencies procuring Americans' data without explicit consent.

The NSA contends that prevailing U.S. law doesn't tether them to obtaining a court order for commercially available information. They argue that such data is equally accessible to foreign adversaries, private entities, and the U.S. government alike. Senator Wyden advocates for the ODNI to enact a policy aligning with FTC standards for legal data sales. This would compel U.S. spy agencies to purge data that doesn't meet these standards, or if retention is imperative, inform Congress or the public.

While the NSA affirms its collection of commercially available internet netflow data, the ambiguity persists on whether the agency also dips into location databases, a practice observed in other federal government agencies. Nakasone clarified in his letter that the NSA refrains from acquiring and using location data from phones or vehicles known to be within the United States, leaving room for interpretation concerning the acquisition of commercially available data originating from non-U.S. devices. The NSA, when probed, declined to expound on Nakasone's statements.

Note: Content is generated using AI and editing by humans. Photo: DIW - AIGen

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by Unknown via Digital Information World

Will AI Create Jobs? This Staffing Agency Says Yes

The biggest concern that people tend to have whenever AI is brought up is that it might make their jobs obsolete. Gen AI is capable of writing books and screenplays, offering weather predictions and performing various other tasks that once commanded a salary. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the chief of a Zurich based staffing agency seemed to think that AI will actually create more jobs than it eliminates with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Denis Machuel is the CEO of Adecco, and he opined that the rise of AI is similar to the arrival of the internet. It might cause significant disruptions that would eliminate certain forms of employment at this current point in time, but in the long run, it will replace those jobs with new roles that require the use of AI.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that white collar jobs will be affected more than blue collar ones. Any role that involves the computing and processing of information will likely fall by the wayside, so legal and financial roles might be in jeopardy.

However, this doesn’t mean that all lawyers will be AI in the future. Problem solving and critical thinking are two things that AI hasn’t learned to do yet, at least not in the way that humans can intuitively manage. Complex legal matters will still require humans to make the right decisions, even if AI is handling the more innocuous and routine aspects of their jobs.

Adecco is playing its part by partnering with Microsoft to create a platform that can help people see what career paths they can follow through with in the age of AI. Many workers will have transferable skills for the most part, and some new skills related to AI can be learned. This process is essential because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up opening up new avenues for people whose careers have been upended by this brand new tech.

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