EU’s Highest Court Confirms Record $2.7 Billion Fine Against Google For Anti-Competitive Shopping Services

Google is not going to be happy with this new decision delivered by the highest court in the European Union. This is related to its anti-competitive behavior linked to Shopping Services.

The company has been fined a record-breaking $2.7 billion which was first imposed several years ago and is now upheld by the Court of Justice today. This is where the tech giant was called out for favoring its price comparisons in its search engine results. As a result, it put other competitors at a serious disadvantage.

Google issued an appeal against the case during the time to help stop other similar fines from making their way. This includes changes to how its vertical search feature works like maps, travel, and other domains.

The court also ruled that the behavior of Google was not satisfactory, declaring it discrimination against the Android maker. It also issued statements about it falling outside the fair competitive domain.

We’ve seen the company already make some big changes to better comply with the ruling from 2017 but seeing this new verdict might lead to more changes in how the firm shares information online. This would include transparency of the algorithm and also how advertisers strategize and spend budgets.

Google issued its own statement on the matter and how it felt so disappointed over the endeavor. They called the decision very unfair and linked to a small array of facts. The search engine giant also spoke about how they rolled out changes to better comply with the 2017 verdict and now this was disappointing.

Whatever the case is, the has spoken and confirmed that Google cannot function unfairly in the EU and deny consumers access to full online data.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: iPhone 16’s A18 Chip Boosts Performance, AI Errors Draw Backlash
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

iPhone 16’s A18 Chip Boosts Performance, AI Errors Draw Backlash

The iPhone is the most influential and sought-after brand when buying a smartphone. With its vision to transcend how we view technology altogether and its improvisation capability with each new release, the iPhone is the ideal choice for many people.

To excite the iPhone fan base and tech enthusiasts, Apple announced that the new model, iPhone 16, with advanced artificial intelligence, which they call Apple intelligence, will be released on the 20th of September. Apple Intelligence uses the software of the A18 chip, which provides an additional 16-core neural engine that resembles human cognition and 17% extra memory bandwidth than the previous model. The A18 allows the iPhone 16 to consume 20% less power while running 15% faster on its processing speed than the A17 Pro. Plus, the new version can also write eloquent formal and informal emails for you, clear up photos, and summarize messages.

However, when the prerelease version was put to stand to see if the hype was worth it, some helpful and strangely weird things were found that questioned the integrity of the advanced artificial intelligence systems used in this model.

Upon inspection of the prerelease model, researchers and journalists noticed that very weird and laughing things happen, such as the iPhone 16 sending a news alert out of nowhere that Donald Trump is endorsing Tim Walz for the presidency of the United States of America in the 2024 elections. The prerelease model when so far screwing that it assumed that the person, who was inspecting the capability of its generative AI system, was a professor at UC Berkeley and bypassed a very famous and well-known social security scam to the priority inbox. This thing went so far screwing up that it edited the selfie of the user from having head hair to completely bald.

The major problem with this new version is that it makes things up on low-state information, such as app alert summaries. Despite the information being low-state, the fact that it is fabricating and misrepresenting information is a major concern.

Now, you all are questioning whether investing $799 in the iPhone 16 is worth it. Well, that depends, but I suggest you wait until Apple's intelligence system explains the difference between fabricated and real events. Additionally, Apple says that the prerelease version that is acting dumb, the version of iOS 18.1, isn’t the final representation of the final product as it yet has to improve.

• Also read: Do Fancy AI Smartphones Attract Users? This New Survey Might Surprise You

At the launch event, certain features, such as the customizable AI generative emojis, weren't available for testing. At the same time, Siri's intelligence is still a big question mark because, as seen in the previous models, Siri does give invalid and accurate answers. For example, when asked about Covid-19 vaccines, it didn’t answer the precise information per the Centers for Disease and Control.

Although many people might disagree, the factual opinion is that Apple, for several years, has stretched the real truth about its technological capabilities. The iPhone has had a lot of them, but they have let people down due to invalid information.

Despite all the backlash and criticism that Apple intelligence is facing, there are some positive advantages of this ai driven technology too integrated into the iPhone. One of the most helpful utilizations of Apple intelligence is in the photos app, where you can use natural languages to find pictures of any particular occasion. Other than that, Apple Intelligence can highlight any part of a photo that you may find distracting, and the AI generative system will make it disappear.

Another example that makes Apple intelligence true to its promise is the summarization of information blasting your phone, particularly emails. As the traditional mail apps show, the lengthy first two lines make up your mind as to whether to open or not. Now, with Apple intelligence, those two lines are summarized, making it easy for the user to read and decide whether they should open it or not. However, Apple still has the problem of misinterpreting messages, people’s names, or taking pictures in the wrong direction.

No matter how often Apple intelligence messes up, Apple's upper management calls it a low-stakes and high-utility case. Many big tech enthusiasts say that Apple is not like Google, which adds AI-driven answers that are often wrong to its high-stakes engine, while Apple intelligence's errors are not a big problem.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• What Are the Top Time-Wasters for Small Business Owners, According to a New Survey
by Ahmed Naeem via Digital Information World

What Are the Top Time-Wasters for Small Business Owners, According to a New Survey

A new survey commissioned by Slack and conducted by Talker Research reveals some time-wasting things entrepreneurs have to deal with everyday which make them less productive. The survey was conducted among 2000 US small business owners. It found out that respondents waste one hour 36 minutes of their time daily on non-productive things. It makes about 3 weeks per year for these small business owners.

According to the survey, the biggest time-wasters for them are non-work related distractions (57%), procrastination (47%) and waiting for status updates (28%). Another emerging productivity killer is switching between different apps and tools (17%). The survey found out that an entrepreneur switches between an average of four digital apps daily, while one-third of them use more than five digital apps.

29% of the respondents in the survey said that they waste their time while repeating messages on different platforms, while three in one waste time while searching information in the wrong places. There was also a survey among different generations to find out how entrepreneurs from different generations manage their times daily. 47% of the Gen-Z respondents said that they are excellent in managing their time efficiently, compared to 33% of millennials, 25% of Gen-X and 24% of Baby Boomers who said so. 69% of overall respondents said that they manage their productivity by focusing on what’s important in their work.

Many small business owners are also working on technology with 59% of entrepreneurs introducing new technologies to their businesses this year, 62% are aiming to simplify their tasks, 59% of them are looking for ways to save their time and 51% are planning strategies to improve their products and services.

It is great to see that despite many challenges and time-wasting activities, entrepreneurs are still looking for ways to make themselves more efficient and to create a work environment that can make them more productive. Once they learn to manage their time, they will be closer to success.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

ChatGPT Tops AI Tools Among Students, 86% Use AI for Studies: Survey

The Digital Education Council conduced a survey named 2024 Global Student AI Survey to find out how many students use AI in their studies. It was found that the majority of the students who were surveyed (86%) use AI to study. Most of the students admitted that they are using artificial intelligence regularly with 24% saying that they use AI every day. 54% of the respondents use AI weekly while 54% use it once a week, according to a survey.

The survey was done among 3,839 students of bachelors, masters and Phd in 16 countries. As most of the students admitted to using AI for study purposes, 66% used ChatGPT for this purpose. ChatGPT was the most used AI tool among respondents of the survey. Other most used AI tools among students were Grammarly and CoPilot with 25% students using each tool.

When asked why they use AI tools, 69% students said that they use them to search information, 42% check grammar on AI tools, 33% use them to summarize documents and 28% use them to paraphrase a document. 24% students also use AI tools to create the first draft for their work. Even with many students using AI, not many of them were confident about their AI skills, with 58% saying that they do not have adequate AI knowledge and skills. 48% said that they do not know how they feel about AI adoption in the workforce and 80% of the respondents saying that their university’s integration of AI tools do not meet their requirements.

Students have a lot of expectations with AI with 73% saying that their universities should provide AI training to both faculty and students. 72% want their universities to offer courses about AI literacy, 71% want their universities to include students whenever there are talks about AI implementation in educational institutions and 51% of the respondents said that their universities should increase the use of AI in teaching and learning.

Read next: Research Shows There is an Increase in Requests for User Data from US Government
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

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

Image: DIW-Aigen

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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