Analysis Shows Tech CEOs with Highest Average Bonuses in Five Years

The Stock Dock did an analysis on bonus payments of CEOs from different companies to find which CEO has the highest bonus payments in the last five years. According to the data, Elon Musk is at the top of the list with an average yearly bonus of $456.8 million. This average was slightly influenced by $2.23 billion that was given to Elon Musk in 2018, the highest bonus given to any CEO ever. Most of Elon’s earnings are based on performance based stocks and shows the difference between wages in company’s leaderships.

The CEO with the second highest bonus is Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai with an average bonus of $98.9 million. He received $10 million in cash in 2022 and $42.2 million bonus as stocks. This means that with each earning Alphabet is making, Sundar Pichai is taking $245 average as bonus. Third place is secured by Amazon’s Andy Jassy. He has taken an average $53.4 million bonus and his highest recent bonus was in 2021 with $211 million equity bonus. He made an average $6198 bonus payments with every dollar an Amazon worker makes.

Apple’s Tim Cook came in fourth place with a $46.6 million average bonus as he was given $82 million in stocks in 2022. Oracle’s Safra Catz has secured the fifth place with an average bonus of over $43 million a year. She received $129 million in stocks in 2022. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, and CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, came at sixth and seventh place with over $42 million and $41 million bonuses yearly. The eighth, ninth and tenth spots were secured by JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon ($40.6 million), Intel’s Patrick P. Gelsinger ($37.2 million) and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen ($34.9 million).

These amounts of bonus show that there is a huge difference between wages of employees and bonuses of CEOs. This shows the inequality and gap between employees and CEOs that decrease the morale of employees. Founder of Stock Dock, Adam Garcia, says that many CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have given up any bonuses and chosen a $1 salary. But many other CEOs receive bonuses due to stocks as this gives them a right to buy and sell them.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

UN Says 2024 Will Be the Hottest Year Ever Recorded

The dangers of climate change are getting harder and harder to ignore, especially after 2023 ended up becoming the hottest year on record. The ice glaciers melted more than they ever had at this current point in time, and as if that wasn't enough, the UN is claiming that 2024 will be even hotter with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The World Meteorological Organization, which is part of the UN, stated that we are in the middle of the hottest decade in history. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres responded to this by saying that the planet is on the brink of collapse.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the 1.5 degree celsius lower limit of the Paris Climate Accord might be broken much faster than expected. What's more is that marine heatwaves occurred one out of every three days last year, which was absolutely devastating for marine life.

By the end of 2023, it was estimated that somewhere in the region of 90% of the ocean had suffered a catastrophic heatwave. As a result of the fact that this is the case, many are calling for world governments to act before it’s too late. Close to the WMO’s headquarters in Switzerland, alpine glaciers ended up losing 10% of their total mass within the past two years alone.

Sea levels started being recorded in 1993 by satellite, and in 2023, they reached their highest point in the past 30 years. In the past decade, the sea rise has been double that which occurred in the prior two decades.

On top of all of that, 333 million people are now food insecure. This is more than double the 149 million that were food insecure prior to the Covid pandemic. The only thing that might give us hope for a bright future is the recent boom in renewable energy production. Renewable energy capacity increased by 50% year over year, and that might end up being the thing that pulls us back from the brink of disaster.

Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts.

Last year saw record heat, record sea levels & record ocean surface temperatures.

There’s still time to throw out a lifeline to people & planet - but leaders must step up & #ActNow.https://t.co/fCGqLk0Xw6 pic.twitter.com/3uaaMJDV04

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 19, 2024

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

YouTube Tries Out Letting Viewers Fix Captions

YouTube is testing a new idea to make the captions on its videos better. They're asking people who watch videos to help by fixing any mistakes in the captions. This help from viewers is being tested on a small number of videos in English.

Here's how it works: When you're watching a video that's part of this test, you can click on the settings icon and choose "subtitles." Then, you can see the video's captions. If you spot a mistake, you click on a pencil icon and type what you think is the correct caption.

Other people watching the video can also help. They can see the corrections you've suggested. If they agree with your correction, they can vote for it by clicking on it.

Right now, these changes won't automatically update the video's captions. But, the person who made the video can see all the suggested fixes and decide if they want to use them. This could make captions more accurate.

Better captions are important for several reasons. They make videos easier for more people to understand, especially if they have trouble hearing. Accurate captions can also help videos show up in search results, since Google uses these captions to understand what the video is about.

For now, YouTube is only trying this out with a few videos in English to see how it goes.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Mahrukh Shahid via Digital Information World

Viral Social Media Content Sparks Outrage and Threat Perception, Research Finds

According to a study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, it was found out that a sense of being viral produces outrage and threat to the person. When new trends emerge on social media and become viral, they become a source of harmful issues and can range from economic to climate conditions. On social media, virality means the number of likes and comments a post has acquired. When the likes and comments on a post are higher, it creates a sense of panic and concerns and users pose it as a threat.

Any content that is related to threats in society becomes a source of outrage when it becomes viral. These outrages become more powerful if the said threatful content is opposing the views of a society or talking about a political opposition. In the study, the researchers analyzed different posts about climate change, immigration and Covid-19. The researchers found out that the posts that were stating some different point of views were shared widely and attracted more replies that were expressing anger.

The team of researchers did some experiments with 1500 people. The reason for the experiment was to find out how these participants reacted to tweets that were shared a lot and the ones that weren’t shared that much, and to find out how these people would react to tweets according to their own perceptions. In one part of the experiment, the participants were shown tweets that were talking about some political parties that the participants were supporters or not supporters of. The reactions of the participants were observed according to how they perceived danger in the tweets and which responses made them angry. The next part of the experiment was to show these participants some prejudiced tweets and analyze the emotional and behavioral responses of the participants in terms of virality of the tweets.

The researchers recorded the difference of reactions of participants on annoying tweets and tweets that were harmful and prejudiced. They even made a new hashtag to see how the participants will perceive a new trend if it gets viral. The experiment was concluded after assessing which factors angered the participants, as well as which factors made them worry and sad. Participants were also evaluated on the basis of their reactions on viral tweets on the basis of likes and shares and viral tweets on the basis of the person who has tweeted.

From this experiment, the researchers found out that the posts that become viral on social media are more likely to get opposed and produce harmful emotions like anger. The posts who talk about genuine concerns also elicit deep reactions. The researchers say that they will also do an experiment in the future that will be about virality of a post in terms of trending topics and volume of posts about an issue.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Meta, TikTok, And Snap Pledge To Work Toward Election Integrity As US Presidential Race Draws Near
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Meta, TikTok, And Snap Pledge To Work Toward Election Integrity As US Presidential Race Draws Near

It’s election season and as the US braces for another Presidential race, tech giants are rolling up their sleeves to make sure they can handle the pressure.

Meta, TikTok, and Snap were seen uniting with a host of other leading tech firms in regards to the signing of the IFES’s latest guidelines for election integrity.

The goal is to ensure all companies are working toward making sure there’s limited misinformation spread and greater trust in data content being published online. Only then can it give rise to a healthier ecosystem.

This new agreement is going to witness platforms achieving a fixed set of principles by making sure the right selection, integrity, and protective measures are in place while also giving rise to better transparency over several regions around the globe. We’re now hearing about how both Microsoft and Google are also signing up to achieve the same target.

The IFES added how such regulations will give rise to a new framework for better engagement as well as support between election officials and tech firms working during that time. They would help in making the most clear policies and processes to have data shared around election time and also help in making sure voters in new democracies get the best quality of data out there today.

This will similarly enhance the communications amongst various channels as well as the election authorities while limiting barriers to ensure there’s enough support for the most authentic election period, even if the company is less known and small in scale than the rest.

Every region will feature a new set of rules surrounding data sharing as well as the whole political process. It is going to be very difficult for every tech giant to come forward with universal parameters that ensure the right protection is in place across various nations.

This latest agreement is designed to better the entire shared initiative so voters are guarded at all times while also giving rise to more knowledge shares and cooperation on such fronts between the leading providers today.

As mentioned by Meta on this front, they feel the guidelines are built on the efforts made to ensure shared practices are used that not only benefit the company but other arch rivals every year when elections are arising all over the globe.

The latest set of rules was designed at this year’s Summit for Democracy which is taking place in the Korean city of Seoul now. The latest use of tech has been a key focus for that conference and this is where global leaders will share approaches to various elements affecting the bigger and broader ecosystem for data.

This certainly seems like a bigger step in the right direction to making sure this year’s election results are as authentic as can be with Meta preparing for what will come next in terms of a mighty US election race.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Meta Rolls Out New Offer To Reduce Facebook and Instagram Subscription Fee By Half
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Meta Rolls Out New Offer To Reduce Facebook and Instagram Subscription Fee By Half

Meta Platforms is giving users a chance to breathe a sigh of relief when subscribing to its Instagram and Facebook apps.

The company announced today that the monthly subscription fee was nearly half, going down from 9.9 euros to just 5.9. This was confirmed through a blog post generated by one leading Meta executive who says the decision was taken due to both privacy and antitrust concerns.

The reduction in pricing arrives at a time when the tech giant is already facing a huge amount of criticism about its rollout of subscriptions for Meta’s apps without ads. Critics say the only way to achieve this is by making users roll out fees to have privacy in check and they don’t think it’s fair to charge such a huge amount.

The rule was rolled out by Meta last year in November in regards to the Digital Markets Act that is designed to prevent personalized ads targeting users daily while they use the platforms. And that too, without any kind of consent provided. And it’s impacting their revenue source big time.

The firm mentioned how the fee model is designed to attain a balance to the growing demands of the privacy laws across the EU and the Digital Markets Act. Facebook’s parent firm also mentioned how they wished to really speed up the process for a while now because they wished to get stability.

Now, they’re dropping prices for both usual and additional accounts.

Meta’s lawyer has also chimed in to add how the company has been wanting to make the change for a while now and the fact that it’s already happening is a miracle in itself, he explained during a recent hearing for the company.

This has to be the lowest price that a Meta subscriber should pay, Meta reiterated, hoping the decision is welcomed by the masses with open arms. It makes sense as the uncertainty regarding the regulatory ordeal is present today and must settle down fast, it hopes.

However, privacy activists feel the issue here is not linked to costs. It’s more related to giving people their rights for free and not being forced to pay money to opt out of ad-targeting practices.

As per the GDPR, this is a consent that every individual is entitled to and it’s boldly documented in the privacy law of the EU.

Others feel even the fee is not the issue but the concerns arising here have to do with the approach of pay or okay. The whole initiative critics feel is to get people to press on okay, even if it’s not the free and genuine choice of them all. They don’t feel that a mere change in pricing would help in normalizing the act.

The hearing has given users of Meta and those belonging to third parties the chance to get more clarity on the subject and how it would comply with the respective DMA law.

We’ve also heard how Meta rolled out the offer of subscription fee reduction to regulators during this year’s start and is now talking about it with data protectors too, including the mighty watchdog in Ireland.

Those giving out consent for tracking will get free services funded with the help of ad revenue. But we must also remember how firms breaching the Digital Markets Act now would be liable to pay as much as 10% of the yearly global turnover.

Image: DIW-AIgen

Read next: Unedited AI Text is Appearing in Scientific Journals
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Unedited AI Text is Appearing in Scientific Journals

The prevalence of AI generated text online has caused concern because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up lowering the bar for written content. It’s not easier than ever to churn out subpar content full of misinformation, but one might assume that this type of writing would never make its way to a scientific journal. In spite of the fact that this is the case, it turns out that that’s exactly what ended up happening with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Google Scholar, the research tool that allows you to pull up research papers, was recently found to contain phrases such as “As of my last knowledge update”. It is important to note that this phrase is famously used by ChatGPT to provide context about any and all answers it provides.

It gets worse. Apparently if you search "as of my last knowledge update" or "i don't have access to real-time data" on Google Scholar, tons of AI generated papers pop up. This is truly the worst timeline. pic.twitter.com/YXZziarUSm

— Life After My Ph.D. (@LifeAfterMyPhD) March 18, 2024

A paper called Quantum Entanglement: Examining its Nature and Implications that was published in the “Journal of Material Sciences & Manfacturing Research” contains this phrase. It bears mentioning that the previous typo is intentional, since the title of this supposedly peer reviewed journal contains it. A recent tweet also went viral after it showed the phrase popping up in scientific journals.

The combo of predatory journals, the pressure to publish, and ChatGpt is going to accelerate the destruction of the trustworthiness scientific articles.

These authors didn't even edit the AI output and the journal published it. 😭 pic.twitter.com/n7XbG5lbxh

— Koltai.bsky.social (@KolinaKoltai) March 14, 2024

However, these journals are not exactly the most renowned in the world. Rather, they were small scale journals that didn’t really have much of a reputation. This just goes to show how important it is to make sure that you are only paying attention to information provided in journals that are vetted. The low level journals that AI has been found in are thought to be troublesome in the scientific community, since they publish anything for a fee and offer a certificate of publication as well.

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This might cause some to lose their faith in scientifically proven information that has been independently verified. With misinformation reaching such unprecedented levels, such issues may very well end up being catastrophic in the long run as well as in the short term. As a result, many are calling for more work to be done to prevent AI being misused in such a manner.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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