Study Says that Using AI in Businesses Can Impact the Security of the Company as Well as Customers

Research by the University of Sunshine Coast published a paper in AI and Ethics that said the rapid use of AI by Australian companies is putting the security of many people at risk. As many companies are using AI for a lot of work, it can have serious effects on the overall environment of the workplace. These serious effects cause violation of data and loss in business because of AI manipulation. This can be intentional as well as accidental. This study also included five points that every business should check to safely use AI for their work.

A lecturer at the university, Dr. Declan Humphreys said that there is currently a race between many companies about who will implement AI more quickly but it isn’t as easy because these companies are facing many technical issues as well as moral issues. AI models like ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini etc. use a lot of data to turn into content that seems like it is created by humans. The lecturer also added that tech firms aren’t the only ones to use AI in their works but other firms like Call Centres, Supply Chain Operators, Human Resource Management, etc also want to use AI in their work as quickly as possible.

There are a lot of talks about AI taking the jobs of people but companies aren’t ready to talk about how huge cyber security issues can be if they work with AI. If they will over use AI in their companies, it means that they are over trusting and completely relying on AI and that is not right approach. Many companies are also making their own AI models or using third-party systems without considering that their data can be hacked. AI can also make bad business decisions that can impact the overall business.

The first point in the five point checklist that the study provided if any business wants to work with AI is that the AI model you are working with should be secure and ethical. Other points include trusted and fair data collection with AI, secure data storage, maintenance of AI using ethical methods and upskilling, training and managing staff properly. Dr. Humphreys said that if any business is using AI, its top priority should be privacy and security of the customers.

Image: DIW-AI-gen

Read next: Rival IQ Report: Low Brand Engagement Across Social Media Platforms
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Rival IQ Report: Low Brand Engagement Across Social Media Platforms

Social media has been sending fewer visitors to websites across many industries lately. This drop makes it hard for brands to know if their content is doing well or if the social platforms themselves are making it harder to reach and engage people.

A new report from Rival IQ offers insights into this issue. The report looks at how brands are doing on major social media apps. It uses data from over 5 million posts and more than 10 billion interactions, like likes and comments, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. The report gives a general view as well as details for specific industries.

For Facebook, the report shows that the average engagement rate for brands is 0.063%. This is a tiny increase from last year's 0.060%. Sports, influencers, higher education, and alcohol brands do better than others on Facebook. However, even the top performers only see a small part of their audience interacting with their posts. This suggests that looking at how far posts reach might be a better way to measure success, as most people on social media watch but don't interact.

The report questions if social media is as effective for marketing as people think. It suggests that brands might need to focus on other goals, like sales or getting people to sign up for emails, to really see how they are doing.

Instagram's average engagement rate has gone down to 0.43% from last year, continuing a downward trend. The competition is increasing, and changes in how users consume content are affecting how many people see and interact with brand posts.

Twitter, now known as X, has an average engagement rate of 0.029%, a slight drop from last year. The platform's focus has shifted away from helping brands get traffic. Yet, the decline in engagement isn't as big as expected.

TikTok saw a big drop in brand engagement, with the average rate falling to 5.69% per clip. Despite this, TikTok still offers a better chance for brands to reach and engage people compared to other platforms.

Rival IQ's report shows that brand engagement is low across all major social media apps. This could mean that people are less interested in brand content or that brands are struggling to connect with their audience. The actual results for a brand will depend on how well they understand and engage their audience on each platform.

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by Mahrukh Shahid via Digital Information World

Fiverr Highlights Top 5 Freelance Skills - Web Dev, Video Editing, App Dev, Social Media, AI

Most people these days are struggling to come to terms with the economic conditions that have become prevalent in the aftermath of Covid-19. As a result of the fact that this is the case, they are often turning to freelancing to help make ends meet, with 70% of Gen Z going down this route.

Perhaps the best place to get advice from if you’re considering getting some work in a freelance capacity is Fiverr, and the platform has released 5 extremely useful skills that are in high demand at this current point in time.

Web Development

It’s no surprise that this field commands high rates on Upwork, but it requires certain hard technical skills in order to get the number of clients that you’re likely going to be after. Problem solving and other soft skills are also rather essential, and since this is a project based type of career you need project management skills as well. The best thing to do here is to learn the basic languages and always be learning about new developments in the field

Video Editing

Video production is about to see an enormous uptick in investment, with Social Pilot estimating that it will increase to $92.3 billion in 2024 alone. 93% of marketers are doubling down on video editing in order to get better engagement for their posts on social media, with research showing that it can generate 66% more leads. It’s no surprise then that video editing is quite a useful skill to have, and that buyers on Fiverr are looking for video editors on the regular.

Mobile App Development

The mobile app industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and that means that there are more opportunities than ever to get into this space. Courses offered by Code Academy and Apple Training can be great ways to acquire the skills necessary to get into mobile app developing, and offering your skills in a freelance capacity on Fiverr will enable you to find clients and expand your portfolio.

Social Media Content and Management

It’s hard to think of a market that is booming as much as that of social media, with some estimates putting its value in 2028 at around the $255 billion dollar mark. That’s a quarter of a trillion dollars up for grabs, and with 5 billion social media users worldwide, there’s plenty of room for freelancers to get their foot in through the door.

AI Services

Anyone could’ve guessed that AI related services would make the cut, and sure enough, Fiverr agrees. AI prompt engineering, consulting, and content editing are all essential parts of the job, and some companies are going so far as to hire Chief AI Officers. A lot of experience will obviously be required, but it will be interesting to see how freelancers step in and cash in on the trend.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: 77 Million People Have Experienced Account Takeovers Here's What You Need to Know
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

77 Million People Have Experienced Account Takeovers Here's What You Need to Know

If you ever receive a friend request from someone you don’t actually know on social media, there’s a pretty good chance that this is all part of an account takeover. Back in 2021, SecurityOrg conducted a survey to determine just how many people had fallen prey to account takeovers. It turned out that 22% of the 1,000+ Americans that participated in the survey had experienced account takeovers in the past.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this proportion has now increased to 29% in the recent iteration of the same report. This basically means that 77 million people have suffered account takeovers, and 20% of these victims faced the attack over the course of the past year or so. 34% experienced it within the last month based on the findings presented in this report.

53% of account takeovers focused on social media accounts, making them the most popular targets for malicious actors operating in this space. Banking came in second with 42%, which is far higher than 32% from the previous report. Email and messaging platforms meanwhile have seen their share drop from 26% to 23%, which seems to suggest that malicious actors are changing the accounts that the prefer to target.

It bears mentioning that 70% of account takeover victims admitted that they hadn’t used unique passwords, which just goes to show how important it is to come up with something that can’t be cracked through brute force. Around 40% of account theft victims ended up facing identity theft as well, and common passwords made them more susceptible than might have been the case otherwise.

• Also read: The Massive Cost of Government Internet Shutdowns Revealed

There has also been a startling amount of growth in business account takeovers. Back in 2021, 13% of the accounts that were taken over were business accounts, and that has increased to 21% by 2024. Personal accounts have fallen from 80% to 75%, indicating that the malicious actors behind these actions are specifically targeting business profiles. Average financial losses have reached $180, but the ramifications go much further beyond just money.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

AI Scraper Battle: Website Owners Defend Against Google and OpenAI, Revealing Blockage Rates

At the center of the world wide web lies a piece of code called Robots.txt. The main function of this site is to give website owners the chance to allow or disallow major tech companies such as Google to scrape their data. Most website owners have no problem with Google using their data because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up sending traffic to their site, but AI is a different matter entirely.

We are living in the midst of what many are calling the AI wars, with all the central tech companies including Google, Microsoft and Meta throwing their hat into the ring. Many website owners are wary of their content being scraped to help train AI and LLMs, and they can use robots.txt files to prevent this from happening.

In the case of Google, the tech juggernaut launched its own tool that people can use to this end. According to data released by OriginalityAI, 10.3% of the top 1,000 websites are using this snippet, which is referred to as Google-Extended. However, in the case of OpenAI, around 32.7% of the top 1,000 websites are using the tags to prevent GPTBot from scraping any of their content whatsoever.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Google’s strength in the search engine game might have something to do with that. More sites would want to be included in any and all AI based search results that Google would compile at some point or another in the future.

It will be interesting to see where things go from here on out, since Google is clearly able to scrape far more data than its largest competitor. Websites owners know that AI based search results might be coming soon, and if they are excluded from these results due to their use of Google-Extended, they might not be able to get the same amount of foot traffic that they used to. Google is already testing a genAI search engine, and it might be releasing it sooner rather than later.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

WhatsApp is Working on New Features for Authentication Methods Such as Face Locks and Passcodes for Chats

WhatsApp is always working to prioritize their users’ data and privacy and that’s the reason why it is the best encrypted messaging app. WhatsApp, as per WBI, is working on an update that will make the chats on WhatsApp more secure.

Fingerprint chat lock is a great feature that WhatsApp offers that makes the chats more secure from prying eyes. But this isn’t the only thing WhatsApp is offering its users. Securing the chats on WhatsApp through biometric authentication is done by two ways; Users can either hide their chats from the main chat list or enable an app lock. Enabling app lock on WhatsApp is best if you have a work phone and do not want anyone to see your chats.

In the latest WhatsApp for Beta 2.24.6.20, WABetaInfo found that app lock on WhatsApp is expanding from only biometric authentication methods. Now WhatsApp is working to add face locks and chat passcodes to let users choose whether they want their fingerprints as passwords or some other alternative ways. These kinds of authentication methods will also be used as backups for fingerprint locks.

As this feature is currently under development, it is best to not use this feature after updating the app. That is because under-developing updates are prone to clashes and that can risk your WhatsApp functionality as well as data.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

MrBeast Warns Aspiring YouTube Creators About The Huge Uncertainty Linked To The App

You might want to read on further if you haven’t heard about the YouTube exodus and how the world’s most popular video-sharing app is facing great uncertainty.

YouTube’s most successful creators, Mr.Beast is making sure wannabe creators know exactly what they’re getting into and how things might not go their way, in the end.

The warning was rolled out in which he stated how thousands of aspiring creators come with huge dreams in mind but when they don’t make it, that's devastating for them.

We’ve seen stars including MatPat and Tom Schott who were among those that took long breaks from making videos and as a consequence, the response was just not there on their return.

This left them with one decision only and that included bidding farewell to a fanbase that had been supporting them for years.

In the past, we’ve seen so many creators lodge complaints against Google regarding YouTube. This had to do with the platform demonetizing content, rolling out strikes for copyright, and even some talking about how the latter wasn’t even true. Plenty of questions were raised over the app’s algorithm changes, how it was more driven to promote the Shorts feature, and a list of other formats that weren’t as popular as the real deal.

For many, security was a major issue including how two-factor authentication was missing despite it being a serious protection necessity to keep creators safe from hacking attempts. Some even spoke about taking over channels. And on top of that, we now have AI taking over the world of video generation.

The fight to take on adblockers continues and there’s even a small sprinkling of ads dubbed misleading which find their way on this app.

So when you already have so many problems that people cannot stop talking about and then this being enriched by the likes of bittersweet reviews from superstars like MrBeast, it’s bound to be bad for the organization. Remember, MrBeast who is also known as Jimmy Donaldson is one of the world’s most popular creators with a staggering fanbase featuring 244 million subscribers throughout the main channel.

The fact that people are quitting jobs or even dropping out of school to produce content on a full-time basis means more needs to be done as a warning because that might not be the best way forward.

So as stars have mentioned in the past and keep adding today, for each person making it on the app, another might not. Hence, this is why those who have found success and fame through this platform want others to always have that in mind at all times.

The star joked about making bets on your residence across roulette could be a better decision and believe it or not, many other famous creators couldn’t help but agree to this.

Today, we’ve got creators like Thomas Frank also showcasing the opposite side and how grateful he is to have a fan base of three million. He expressed gratitude to MrBeast for showing the straight path.

They hate watching individuals purchase pricey possessions without an audience, only to come back with nothing but sheer disappointment. As MrBeast suggests, if you don’t have what it takes to get the audience to follow and subscribe with your regular camera, then what makes you think purchasing another device worth thousands would work?

That certainly seems like a logical thought there but if only the newbies and wannabies could pay heed, right?

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World