Global Data Center Impose a Major Threat to Climate

Who would have ever thought in their wildest imagination that a tribal teenager in Africa in today's day and age would have more advanced technological access to the world than the US presidents in the 1990s? As wild as this thought may sound through the rapidly developing technology and globalization access to information and connectivity is faster and more robust than ever. But as much as these advancements may sound promising and life-changing in a prosperous manner there are severe and haphazard consequences, particularly to the environment.

Research done by Morgan Stanley has shown that the massive rise in data centers to meet user needs can cause 2.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide gasses to be released into the air, sabotaging all the efforts made by several climate change activities and global protocols in the name of decarbonization fight to save the climate and preserve the world’s natural beauty.

Mega companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are the frontrunners of these data centers to use non-renewable energy methods like coal-produced electricity to run the centers with the aim of expanding their artificial intelligence and computing research and practically applicable outputs. However, when asked about 2.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide released they commented that they will reduce their emissions from the year 2030.

The study by Morgan Stanley also mentioned that the carbon emission gashed out in the air by these data centers will be equivalent to 40% of the entire US emission per year. However, the expansion of these companies will also bring in massive investment in clean power development programs to run these data centers. Advanced clean energy producing technology such as carbon capture, sequestration technology (CCUS) carbon dioxide removal processors will be a major part of the future to bring greenhouse gas emissions down.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Ahmed Naeem via Digital Information World

Whatsapp View Once Privacy Feature Under Risk!

Whatsapp initiated its view-once feature back in 2021 allowing people to send videos, pictures, and voice notes to be only seen one time. The feature is so advanced in protecting user privacy that a screenshot nor a screen recording will work to save the media file.

However, Tal Beery, a security researcher working on the Whatsapp privacy issues found a bug that allows users to save and capture a copy of the picture which is sent through the view-once feature.

To further criticize WhatsApp regarding this bug, Tal Beery mentioned in his blog that the only thing worse than no privacy is thinking you have it when you don’t. Believing your conversations are secure, only to find out they aren’t, creates a false sense of safety—an illusion more dangerous than having no privacy at all.

In response to to these slanders by Beery and other security researchers like WhatsApp took it to the public and assured that they are in the process of making new updates that will remove the bug and resolve privacy concerns and guided the users to send view-once feature to only those people who they can trust.

Also read: Research Shows There is an Increase in Requests for User Data from US Government

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by Ahmed Naeem via Digital Information World

Research Shows There is an Increase in Requests for User Data from US Government

According to the data by Surfshark, the US government requests to have user data from many big tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Meta. The data requested by the US Government and law enforcement agencies is almost double the data requested by the EU. There was a 38% increase in data requests in 2022, with about eight times increase between 2013 and 2022. The data requests went from 1.6 million to 2.2 million in 2022.

The researchers of the study say that there were 140 governments requesting for user data in 2021, which increased to 147 in 2022. In total, data from 9 million accounts was requested from 190 countries during this period. The user data is investigated for a number of purposes, from criminal investigations to administrative or civil cases.

Among all the countries requesting for data, most of the requests are from the USA and EU. The USA had about 3.3 million data requests from 2013 to 2022. USA and EU make up 58% of all the data which was requested from different countries. Germany and Singapore have second and third most requested user data. Germany requested for 850 accounts per 100,000 people with Singapore requesting for 696 accounts. The UK was the fourth country requesting for most accounts (672) and France (616) being the fifth country to request most user data.

Other countries which saw an increase in requested accounts were Mexico, Canada, Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Poland and Greece. Apple had the most account requests with a 479% increase in 2022. On the other hand, many authorities had more interests in Meta accounts between 2013 and 2022. 8.9 million accounts were requested by Meta during this period while Apple just had 853,700 accounts requested.

Many tech firms are complying with these user data requests, with disclosing data for 269,000 requests in the last 10 years. Surfshark says that these requests are going to keep on increasing in upcoming years. All in all, the disclosure rate for accounts is 72%, with Apple disclosing the most information. It disclosed 83% accounts upon government requests. The rate of disclosure is slightly lower in other companies like Google (72.9%), Meta (72.8%) and Microsoft (67%).

Read next: Google is No Longer Being Frequently Used as a Verb Because of Gen-Z Preferring to Say “Searching” Instead of “Googling”
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Missing Crucial Facebook Updates? Learn How to Organize Your Feed in Just Minutes!

Facebook feeds, appearing on your Facebook page, are usually based on your Facebook activity. Which page you have searched, spent time scrolling on or, friends you have interacted with, or groups that you have been to frequently, becomes the source of your Facebook feeds.

But not all feeds are required by users, and consequently, important ones get mixed up among a long series of feeds and are erroneously skipped by their attention. Users can change this default setting to receive only those feeds potentially important to them in a chronological manner. This will keep them updated regarding all latest feeds, without bothering about scrolling down to find specific feeds.

Follow the following steps to change this default setting on a laptop and smartphone:

On Smartphones

1) Log in to your Facebook account and click on the profile picture at the top-right corner of the page.

2) Select the option of feeds from the given in the menu.

3) You will see your feeds coming from all pages, friends and groups. Click on the three-dot option at the top-right corner of the first feed. Scroll down and select manage your feeds present at the end.

4) Click on favorites to prioritize people and pages. Now you will see feed coming from them chronologically, without missing any, whenever you will log in to your account.

5) Then go back and tap on manage defaults. Change the default settings to show less to receive less or no content which is low quality or problematic. It will clear your Facebook feed from content only filling in the space.

On Web/Laptops

1) Log in to your Facebook account and click on the box-shaped option at the top-right corner of the page.

2) Tap on feeds, which will lead you to your Facebook feeds.

3) You will notice that all is selected by default. Click on favorite and then on manage favorites at the top-right corner.

4) Now follow the same steps mentioned above to add favorites and to change settings in manage defaults.

The foraging settings would allow users to view important feeds chronologically, with the fear of skipping any one of them. The additional settings would also limit the number feeds per day by not allowing useless feeds to pop up on their main page.

Read next: 

• Is Misinformation Unstoppable? Bill Gates Reflects on the Crisis and Who Must Fix It

• The New Definition of Open-Source Disqualifies Many AI Models Claiming to be Open-Source

• Google is No Longer Being Frequently Used as a Verb Because of Gen-Z Preferring to Say “Searching” Instead of “Googling”

by Ehtasham Ahmad via Digital Information World

Google is No Longer Being Frequently Used as a Verb Because of Gen-Z Preferring to Say “Searching” Instead of “Googling”

We all are used to saying “Googling” as a verb but a new study shows that Gen-Z are now more used to saying “searching” instead of “googling”. This is because many Gen-Z aren’t only relying on Google for searching up things and often use TikTok and Instagram to look things up. The de-verbing of Google’s name tells us how consumer search behaviors are changing with technology. 20 years ago the word “Google” was added in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and was defined as searching something up on the web.

Being added as a verb was an important milestone for Google which made history. Later, Google became one of the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world. But now, this special status of Google is rotting away. An internet analyst, Mark Shmulik, wrote Google as a verb is no more. Now younger generations are more interested in “searching” instead of “Googling”.

Gen-Z is a powerful generation which is setting up trends for the upcoming worlds. As people born between 1997 and 2012, Gen-Z have grown up seeing the internet their whole lives. Now that they are getting into their professional lives, they are changing the traditional cultures in technology and setting up their own pace in the economy. Gen-Z as well as Gen-Alpha aren’t using the word “googling” or “google it” anymore. They are just saying “searching” or “search it” if they want to find something. Becoming a verb means that you are being used and appearing frequently. When Google was getting the title of “verb”, the company wasn’t that happy because this would mean that the word would be used around a lot, and won’t be easy to get trademarked. But every company would like to become a verb because this would mean that they are well known around the world. But now that Google has been de-verbing, it would mean that user behavior is changing.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The New Definition of Open-Source Disqualifies Many AI Models Claiming to be Open-Source

Open-source AI models from Meta, Google and other companies are not open-source according to a new definition. Open Source Initiative (OSI) updated the definition of Open-source after the initial definition of the word in 1998. OSI was working on a new definition of the word for two years. Mozilla explains the updated definition of Open-source as something not just redefining AI, but also impacting the future of technology and society.

Mozilla's technical lead of AI governance, Nik Marda, says that Meta’s Llama cannot be considered an open-source because of the new definition as well as Google’s Gemma because these models cannot be used limitlessly and they have some restrictions. Marda says that Open-source didn’t have a precise and correct definition in the past years and that’s why many companies believed that their AI model is Open source. Now that the new definition is here, many AI models are not going to be called open source.

A rough definition of open source can be a company changing the platform according to their needs and restricting access if they want. This could lead to many problems like disrupted services and expensive features. Security researchers recently discovered some flaws in Apple devices because of some mistakes in open source code.

Meta isn’t acknowledging the new definition of open source by OSI and Google hasn’t said anything. Meta says that there is not a single and global definition of Open source AI. Meta’s spokesperson also added that they are going to work in the industry with Open source AI even if it doesn’t match the definition. Mark Zuckerberg says that his definition of open source is models which are released publicly with a license.

The Linus Foundation says that categorizing models as open source is going to undermine the term “openness” and this way knowledge cannot be shared freely for inspection. Models which call themselves “open source” often demand licenses and difficult terms and conditions. The Linus Foundation proposed that instead of calling models open and close, we can term them in three types: open science, open tooling and open model. One of the AI writers said that Llama is on a spectrum of openness which means that it isn’t as restricted as other AI models and shows signs of open-source software.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Is Misinformation Unstoppable? Bill Gates Reflects on the Crisis and Who Must Fix It

Bill Gates has placed the burden of addressing misinformation on younger generations, acknowledging that he underestimated the challenge. Speaking to CNBC, the Microsoft co-founder reflected on his earlier belief that people would naturally gravitate toward accurate information. His optimism, however, has faded as misinformation has proliferated, especially in the digital age, where identifying falsehoods on social media platforms has grown increasingly difficult.

Gates, who has long been at the center of various online conspiracies, admitted that the complexity of this problem has eluded him. During the pandemic, false claims about him, including accusations of embedding microchips in vaccines, gained traction. Such incidents brought the issue of misinformation closer to home, even affecting his family. Gates revealed that his youngest daughter, Phoebe, faced online harassment, shedding new light on how pervasive this problem has become.

Gates’ reflections come as public sentiment has increasingly called for stronger action against misinformation. A 2023 Pew Research survey found that a majority of American adults believe tech companies should take a more active role in curbing false information and harmful content. Yet, even with decades of experience in the tech industry, Gates admits that a definitive solution remains elusive.

He questioned how free speech should be balanced with the need to prevent harm, suggesting that incitement to violence or the spread of dangerous health misinformation should have consequences. However, implementing such measures, especially with the vast amount of content online, poses its own set of challenges. Gates mused whether artificial intelligence could help, but he also pointed out that by the time false information is flagged, the damage is often already done.

Despite his early optimism about the internet's potential for spreading knowledge, Gates now recognizes the limits of technological solutions. Confirmation bias, the tendency of individuals to favor information that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs, exacerbates the problem. He reflected on how even he can fall into this trap, admitting that he's sometimes drawn to articles critical of politicians he dislikes, even when the criticism may be exaggerated.

For Gates, misinformation is not a problem with a clear or easy solution, and it's one that the next generation will have to confront head-on.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Asim BN via Digital Information World