Global Opinions on Single-Use Plastics Ban Revealed in Survey

Plastics are not only harmful for our environment but it is also extremely dangerous for living things like animals and humans. A new research also shows that plastic is broken down and is now found as microplastics in humans blood stream.

Ipsos conducted a survey of more than 24,000 respondents in 32 different countries to find out how much people agree to impose a ban on single use plastic. According to the results, 85% of the participants agreed that there should be a ban on single use plastic. Most respondents who agreed (97%) were from Indonesia, followed by Mexico (94%). 93% respondents from Uganda agreed that there should be a ban on unnecessary use of plastic products.

86% respondents each from France and UK were in the support of banning single use plastics. 83% respondents from Brazil and 82% from Denmark also shared the same thoughts. The percentage for people agreeing to ban single use plastic products was lower in India (76%), USA (73%) and Japan (60%). An average of 87% respondents said that it is important for the law makers to impose guidelines that would reduce the manufacturing of plastic products.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Samsung Estimates More Than 15-Fold Rise In Q2 Profits As AI Boom Lifts Earnings

South Korean tech giant Samsung seems to be on a roll as it just revealed estimates for a massive 15-fold increase in operating profits for Q2 2024.

The news comes amid a rise in AI trends that have enhanced earnings after semiconductor chip prices increased.

The company is the global leader in terms of memory chips, television, and smartphone devices. And seeing figures for operating profits rising to $7.5 billion is huge, as previous reports showed figures to be much less.

This latest profit beat out the LSEG SmartEstimate that comes from analysts who keep on generating the most accurate forecasts. Moreover, this quarter was the most profitable since Q3 of 2022.

Additionally, the much better and promising profit estimates also reflect the firm’s decision to reverse inventory writedowns linked to books as the pricing for chip inventories continues to rebound. So it’s not just a rise in chip prices here that’s worth a mention.

Meanwhile, figures for revenue ended up rising by 23% in Q2 when compared to a similar period one year back.

The company’s shares opened with 1.2% as compared to the 0.4% increase across the wider market. Moreover, the firm is all set to roll out a detailed earnings report from Q2 towards the end of July.

The company’s leading semiconductor division appears like it posted another consecutive profitable report that enhanced the results from Q1 as the trend for rising memory chip costs keeps moving upward during the 2022 to 2023 period. This might have to do with poor post-pandemic demands related to gadgets making use of chips.

There is a huge demand for DRAM chips including those having bigger bandwidths that are commonly seen in chipsets based on AI. The same goes for those utilized in servers across data centers. Meanwhile, those running AI services keep assisting prices for buoy chips to increase as per analysts’ opinion.

During Q2, we saw prices for memory chips rise by nearly 18% when compared to the last quarter. But rises in prices for memory chips could move slower in Q3 as predicted by TrendForce who saw a 5 to 10% rise in DRAM and NAND Flash while older chip demand falls.

Earning calls are clear signs of progress and from this report, we are keen to look at the firm’s outlook regarding legacy chips that would determine if recovery was possible or not by next year.

The demand for chips that are on the higher end of the spectrum could result in outperformance throughout the market as explained by analysts. And while the South Korean tech giant is doing great overall, it’s falling behind another rival of the local industry which is Hynix. The latter is known for supplying HBM chips to clients such as Nvidia.

Meanwhile, chip maker Micron Tech which is based in the US was also witnessed beating out estimates for the newest quarterly revenue that was driven by a huge demand for AI. However, we have to mention the recently published forecast did disappoint investors who are now more upbeat than the rest.

Right now, investors are keen on seeing if Nvidia can give Samsung approval for its supply of 4th Gen HBM chips as results from failed tests conducted in the past did ruin hopes that the company had for securing a deal.

The company underwent a serious shift in positions related to its semiconductor division where it was said to be going through a chip crisis and to combat that, it had its sector head replaced.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Music Copyright Claims On YouTube: App Offers Creators New Options And Here’s What To Expect

It’s not uncommon for creators to receive copyright claims for music they’ve used while creating content on a certain video. Once a certain claim is addressed or removed, creators can monetize their videos but not before that.

So what options do creators have in terms of editing? For starters, YouTube says there’s Trim, Mute, Song Replacement, and Erase Song. And this can be achieved via the YouTube Studio.

Up until now, creators could make use of the Erase Song feature in Beta to silence any sounds that came with copyrights in the content. However, the tool’s performance just was not as accurate as many would have preferred.

Thankfully, the app is making huge improvements to the feature, with all credit to the enhanced AI-powered algorithm to better highlight, correctly identify, and get rid of content featuring copyright claims.

When the Erase Song feature is clicked, creators will witness two options pop up on the screen. This includes erasing the song and muting all sounds.

All you need to do is click on the Summary page and go to the right-hand side. Depending on the claims’ details, there are several options to select from including erasing the sound if the creator is eligible. Once that’s selected, several options pop up like Audio Intact, Dialogue, and more including Background sounds.

If the creator opts to have all sounds removed, then all the music between the timestamps specified is erased. YouTube confirmed how the feature is up for grabs on the app’s desktop and YouTube Studio mobile in the upcoming few weeks.

In situations where the erase song option does not end up removing a claim successfully on a certain video clip, creators have the chance to explore more options for editing through the app’s YouTube Studio like Trim and Mute.

Seems like the app is on a mission to please creators and this might be a great way to start because let's face it, no one likes to see a copyright infringement label that hinders monetization.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Meta’s Research Team Is Working On Four New AI Models To Help Developers Create New Apps

Tech giant Meta is working on developing four new AI models that will assist creators and developers with the curation of new apps.

The model would be available for public use and so far, the design has been published delineating the latest models and how it might be accepted for future use.

The news comes at a time when we witness a significant rise in AI demand, not to mention AI apps that are produced through such models and then further enhanced with capabilities. The latest effort by Meta has four models including two new Chameleon variants as well as JASCO and AudioSeal.

JASCO will accept various kinds of inputs related to audio and help with sound enhancements. Moreover, the team added how users would be able to tweak features including bass sounds, acoustic, and other melodic tunes to give rise to a great beat. This would also be able to accept text inputs that can be utilized for flavor music.

Examples will entail asking models to produce tunes linked to Blues jazz or rock and then also ensuring the hearer is aware that the tune was made using AI-based apps as the watermark would be present. This way, many would understand how the music comes with a commercial license.

Models like AudioSeal actually go as far as to mention which segments of the tune were generated through AI with watermarks being placed accurately in those locations.

Meanwhile, both Chameleon models can convert text to visuals and could be rolled out with limited features. Both variants called 7B and 34B need models to be aware of pictures and tech. Due to this, it carries out reverse processing and can produce captions for images.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Can AI Tools Like ChatGPT Experience Feelings And Capture Memories? This New Survey Has The Answer

A new survey is shedding light on AI tools like ChatGPT and what people’s opinions about them might be.

The survey questioned people about their thoughts on the leading AI tools and if they felt large language models actually had feelings or featured the capabilities of preserving memories. Surprisingly, a lot of the respondents said yes and we’re talking about two-thirds of the majority.

Thanks to the research carried out by the University of Waterloo, many felt AI does engage in some form of conscious behavior and therefore can give rise to subjective experiences like making memories or having emotions.

LLMs do frequently display conversational styles when rolling out content and such human capabilities give rise to human debates on whether AI really displays consciousness.

As per the experts, when people hold such strong sentiments about AI tools, it ultimately impacts how they work with them and interact with them. Moreover, this gives rise to strong social bonds and builds more trust.

Meanwhile, too much trust is also not a good thing as it means strong emotional dependence and limited human interactions, not to mention being overly dependent on AI to make pivotal decisions.

Many AI experts have denied time and time again how AI might be conscious but as per this new study, the opinions of the general public prove otherwise.

It’s a reality that many people believe in and that is why the authors embarked on a survey to prove just that. The results are right in front of us and with close to 300 individuals from the US taking part and most of them agreeing about ChatGPT being conscious, we might need to consider that for the future of AI.

Respondents were asked to comment on the tools’ mental state and their capability to produce plans, reasonings, and emotions, not to mention how frequently they engaged with the tool.

Furthermore, the study revealed that more the people make use of ChatGPT, the greater they contribute as having feelings which is significant considering how frequently AI is being used in our lives each day.

The authors also explained how the results delineated how powerful language is as a simple chat alone could lead many to assume that agents appearing and working differently from them might also have a mind of their own.

Other than emotions, being conscious has to do with intelligence that is linked to moral responsibilities. This is the ability to produce plans and act in a certain way, not to mention having more self-control over ethical ordeals and legal matters.

So this opens up the future for more scientific experiments and studies to better understand AI models in detail and how people perceive over time around the globe. After all, social bonding with LLM and AI tools is not something that has ever been discussed in the past.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Creative Community Criticizes Apple Intelligence For Lack Of Transparency

It looks like some of Apple’s most loyal customers aren’t too happy with its policy regarding generative AI.

This year has marked a major milestone for the leading Cupertino firm that opted to unveil its collaboration with the makers of ChatGPT, not to mention the rollout of Apple Intelligence. And yes, the iPhone maker has officially entered the much-heated AI race after taking a backstep for months.

The company confirmed how this year will see devices running on Apple Intelligence which is the name reserved for the tech giant’s version of generative AI. Amongst the many exciting features is the ability to produce pictures using text prompts.

While the news might excite many Apple users, it’s leaving a bad taste for creative community members who are surprised at how much lackluster surrounds the policy regarding AI models. Amongst their many concerns is zero transparency about how the models were trained and which data was used.

Many feel this is a fundamental right that every Apple user deserves to know and not seeing that is disappointing for many arising from the community of creative artists whose livelihood depends on personalized content creation.

For years, these members of society have looked up to Apple as a pioneer in the world of tech as well as liberal arts. Now, these same people are expressing frustration about how silent Apple has become in terms of how it attains data for use in AI models.

Generative AI’s success truly depends on what kind of information or training data was used to bring it up to the point of launch. So many firms continue to ingest data available online, refusing to take consent or provide compensation to the original creators.

The fact that Apple may have done what the others did is sad for some people to see, especially those having blind faith in the iPhone maker for decades.

To help give you a better understanding of what we mean, close to six billion pictures were used to train AI models such as LAION-5B. And all of those were stolen from the web and no one is calling the firm out for such acts.

This is why the creative community featuring music artists and authors, as well as those who deal with art daily, have united to take a stand against anyone consuming their efforts for free and keep generating more profits out of it.

We saw top music labels such as Sony and Universal sue AI music startup firms for breaking copyright claims. Today, we’re seeing tech giants strike deals through licensing with those producing content online like news publishers to stay safe from legal matters.

Seeing Apple do the same is something bothering the community who expected so much more from the Cupertino company while others speak about giving the iPhone maker the benefit of the doubt when they shouldn’t have.

There is no training source revealed for Apple Intelligence so far nor did Apple agree to doing so. Its company blog post says it used the same means that others in the industry do which is to scrape public data online through AppleBot. Are you shocked?

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Threads Celebrates First Anniversary With Milestone 175 Million Monthly Active Users

Meta’s Threads just turned one and the app is celebrating the news by sharing another milestone of its journey in the world of social media.

Launched in July of last year, the app had people running in flocks to get a subscription as the platform seemed like the next best thing after Instagram. It was less images and more text and many went as far as to reveal how the launch could give serious competition to archrival X, formerly known as Twitter.

As time passed, the app had its ups and downs but it’s certainly come a long way, facing plenty of hurdles. Today, it’s got a massive monthly userbase featuring over 175 million users and that’s a great point worth celebrating.

Mark Zuckerberg posted through his Threads account how the milestone achieved was just the boost that the app needed. Changes might be coming slowly but the fact that it was bare bones at the start with fierce competition from rivals is certainly something to be proud of.

In the beginning, we saw Meta’s Instagram spin-off platform be rolled out across both iOS and Android devices. Soon after that, the desktop version popped up. We do see it evolving to include more images than before but it wouldn’t be wrong to mention that 63% of all posts published on the app entail only text.

The app has confirmed that more than 50 million Tags were made using the app and amongst those, the most popular ones included BookThreads, PhotographyThreads, and those linked to the Gym.

No matter how much Facebook’s parent firm can deny the fact that it was initially supposed to serve great competition for Twitter, now X, the facts can no longer be ignored. X might have a massive user base and be doing great on its own terms under Elon Musk’s leadership, the competition is there and who knows what the future holds.

Do you recall the faceoff X had with Threads after its launch? The former accused the company of hiring former employees from X to run Threads and therefore trade secrets were getting shared. X felt threatened by the growing presence of Threads and a lawsuit came into being.

Musk continues to boast about X's success and how the user base features more than 600 million active users each month. And while Threads is nowhere near half that mark, it’s more keen on its own personal gains at this moment.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World