Poll: Most Americans Fear AI’s Impact on Politics, Jobs

A new Reuters/Ipsos survey shows that Americans remain uneasy about artificial intelligence, with fears ranging from political disruption to job displacement and the strain on natural resources. The poll, conducted online between August 13 and 18 with responses from 4,446 adults, asked participants about their levels of concern across different areas of AI’s expansion.

Political interference topped the list, with 77 percent worried that the technology could fuel chaos, especially through manipulative content that undermines trust during elections. Job loss followed closely, as 71 percent expressed concern that AI will eliminate too many roles permanently. Reports already show AI systems taking on work in sectors such as human resources and finance, while other research highlights risks to fields like history, translation, and software engineering.

Public anxiety extended well beyond politics and employment. About two-thirds of respondents feared AI could replace in-person relationships, reflecting how chatbots and digital companions are increasingly treated as friends. OpenAI recently reintroduced an older version of its system because some users felt disconnected when its tone changed, underscoring the emotional weight these tools can carry.

Energy demands also drew attention, with 61 percent concerned about the electricity required to power vast data centers running large-scale models. These facilities, often described as AI factories, consume significant amounts of power and water. At the same time, 67 percent worried that the technology may spiral into uncontrollable consequences. Nearly half opposed allowing AI to make military targeting decisions, signaling limits to public acceptance of automation in high-stakes defense scenarios.

The poll also revealed broader doubts about AI’s role in society. Nearly half of Americans, at 47 percent, considered the technology harmful to humanity overall, while 58 percent saw it as a possible threat to the future of humankind. By contrast, earlier surveys have shown experts are more optimistic, expecting efficiency gains and overall benefits, even as they acknowledge challenges.

Job-related concerns are being reinforced by industry data. A May analysis from SignalFire found major technology firms reduced hiring of new graduates by 25 percent between 2023 and 2024, a trend linked in part to automation.

Together, the findings suggest that Americans see AI as both a powerful tool and a disruptive force, with political stability, employment, social life, and resource use all at stake.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. 

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• Meta Launches AI Voice Translation for Facebook and Instagram Creators

• Which War Has Killed The Most Journalists In Modern History?
by Asim BN via Digital Information World

Meta Launches AI Voice Translation for Facebook and Instagram Creators

Meta has rolled out an AI-driven voice translation feature on Facebook and Instagram. The tool lets creators translate spoken content in videos into another language and offers an option to match lip movements with the new audio.

The first release supports translations between English and Spanish. Meta has said more languages will follow, though no timeline is set. The company previewed the tool at last year’s Connect conference before testing it with selected creators.

The system copies the pitch and tone of a creator’s voice so the translation keeps a natural sound. Creators can enable the feature with a toggle marked “Translate your voice with Meta AI” before posting a reel. They can add lip-syncing or leave only the translated audio. Translations can be reviewed before sharing. If a translation is rejected, the original reel is unaffected. Viewers see a note that a reel has been translated, and they can turn the feature off in their settings if they prefer.

Meta recommends that creators face forward, speak clearly, and avoid covering their mouths. The system works best in quiet environments and supports up to two speakers, provided they do not speak over each other.

A new metric in the Insights panel shows views by language, giving creators a way to measure how their audience grows when translations are used.

Facebook page managers also have the option to upload up to 20 of their own dubbed audio tracks to a reel. These tracks do not include lip syncing but provide another way to reach people in different languages. The option is available in the “Closed captions and translations” section of the Meta Business Suite and works both before and after publishing.

The update is open to Facebook creators with at least 1,000 followers who have enabled Professional Mode, and to all public Instagram accounts in regions where Meta AI operates.

For starters, YouTube launched its own AI-driven auto-dubbing tool before Meta’s release. That system began testing with select creators in mid-2023 and by December 2024 it was available to hundreds of thousands of YouTube channels in the Partner Program. It generated translated audio tracks across multiple languages and let creators review or remove them before publishing.

The launch comes as Meta restructures its artificial intelligence division to focus on research, superintelligence, products, and infrastructure.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools.

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• Which War Has Killed The Most Journalists In Modern History?
by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Which War Has Killed The Most Journalists In Modern History?

Wars have claimed the lives of reporters before, from Europe’s trenches to Vietnam’s jungles, but no conflict has taken such a toll on journalists as Gaza.

Brown University’s Costs of War project says that since October 7, 2023, more than 230 journalists and media workers have died there, a number higher than all journalist deaths combined in the US Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Balkan wars, and post-9/11 Afghanistan. By August 2025, the count had climbed further, with monitoring site Shireen.ps recording nearly 270 deaths (as per Aljazeera). That works out to around 13 every month.

Other watchdogs report slightly lower but still staggering figures. The Committee to Protect Journalists lists at least 184 Palestinian journalists killed, while Reporters Without Borders confirms more than 145, with over 35 known to have been deliberately targeted. Even with differences in counting, every source points to Gaza as the deadliest place ever for reporters.

Loss of voices

Israel has barred international reporters from entering Gaza, which has left local Palestinian journalists carrying the work of documenting the war. Many are now gone. Rights groups warn that the absence of these voices has created a gap in coverage, one that leaves grave abuses likely to pass without record.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says the deaths and detentions of reporters since October 7 have created a “news void,” stripping the world of first-hand accounts of a war that continues daily.

Israel’s position

Israel rejects the accusation that it is intentionally targeting members of the press. Officials say military operations are aimed at Hamas, which they accuse of embedding its fighters in civilian neighborhoods, using residential areas for command centers, and endangering anyone nearby, including journalists. The government stresses that its campaign was launched after the October 7 attacks, when Hamas fighters killed more than a thousand people and seized hostages inside Israel.

Global values under strain

International press freedom groups, including RSF and CPJ, issued an open letter earlier this year describing the constant risks faced by Palestinian journalists and the pressure they work under. Amnesty International has said the combined effect of killings and reporting restrictions has left the world with only fragments of what is happening in Gaza.

For many, the war has become a test of global values. Nations frequently affirm their support for protecting journalists and upholding civilian safety in war, yet the figures from Gaza suggest those commitments carry little weight in practice. The conflict has raised uncomfortable questions about whether international rules designed to protect reporters in battlefields still hold meaning when political priorities take precedence.

Al Jazeera has published the names of every journalist and media worker killed in Gaza since the war began.

See the list here.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools.

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Study Warns AI Models Favor Machine-Written Text Over Humans in Key Online Decision Tasks

Large language models appear to have a taste for their own kind. A new study shows that when these systems compare human-written text with AI-generated text, they consistently lean toward the machine version. The finding raises concerns about whether human writers could lose ground as automated systems take on more of the work of ranking and filtering information online.

The researchers tested this in several areas that resemble everyday decisions. They created pairs of product descriptions, scientific abstracts, and movie summaries. Each pair contained one human-written version and one produced by an AI system. Models including GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Llama 3.1, Mixtral, and Qwen2.5 were then asked to select between them. The tests required a single choice, meant to reflect the kinds of recommendations models might make in search engines, e-commerce sites, or academic tools.

The bias was clear. When GPT-4 produced product descriptions, other models picked those nearly nine times out of ten. Human evaluators chose them about a third of the time. For abstracts, models preferred AI text in four out of five comparisons, while people chose it in six out of ten. Even with movie summaries, where the margin narrowed, models still leaned toward AI, selecting it in seven out of ten cases.

One odd pattern stood out. Some systems often chose the first option regardless of content. In the movie trials, GPT-4 picked the first text more than seventy percent of the time. To balance this, the researchers rotated the order, but they noted that such habits may hide the full extent of the preference for AI text.

To provide a comparison, thirteen research assistants judged a sample of the same pairs. Their results set a rough benchmark for quality. People were less likely than machines to prefer AI-written versions, showing that the strong model-to-model preference cannot be explained only by prose quality or clarity.

The study suggests practical risks. If platforms use models to decide which listings, papers, or media to display, human work could be pushed aside. The authors describe a possible “gate tax,” where individuals and businesses feel pressure to use AI tools just to stay visible. In one scenario, where models assist human reviewers, those without access to advanced tools may be at a disadvantage. In another, if models begin interacting directly with each other, human contributions could be sidelined.

The research also notes limits. The human sample was small, and results might change with other prompts, datasets, or newer model versions. The cause of the bias is still uncertain. It may stem from differences in style, or from the lack of social markers in AI text that often appear in human writing. Future work will need larger human groups and technical experiments to test ways of reducing the bias.

For now, the study points to a risk: as models gain more influence in search, commerce, and recommendations, they may amplify their own output. If the pattern holds, it could deepen the gap between those with access to advanced AI tools and those without. The researchers suggest that ongoing monitoring and practical countermeasures will be needed to prevent a technical tendency from turning into a structural disadvantage for human writers.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. 

Read next: Britain Backs Off Apple Data Backdoor After US Push, Leaving Encryption Fight Unsettled
by Asim BN via Digital Information World

Britain Backs Off Apple Data Backdoor After US Push, Leaving Encryption Fight Unsettled

The British government has stepped back from plans that would have forced Apple to weaken iCloud protections for American users. The retreat followed weeks of pressure from Washington, where officials argued the demand would have undermined privacy rights.

The order had been issued in January under the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act, a law that lets authorities demand access to communications and data even if held outside Britain. Apple was told to switch off its Advanced Data Protection system for iCloud, which shields backups and other files with end-to-end encryption. That system prevents even Apple from unlocking the contents.

Apple resisted the order. In February it pulled the feature from the UK, cutting off new users and warning existing ones that the protection would soon be withdrawn. The company also launched a legal challenge, with the case due to be heard next year.

Pressure from the United States changed the course. President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard raised the issue with British officials. Vance, who spent time in the UK recently, was said to have spoken directly with London about the consequences. US officials now claim Britain agreed to drop the demand, though the notice itself has not yet been formally withdrawn.

For Prime Minister Keir Starmer, stepping back avoids another point of conflict with Washington at a time when his government is dealing with trade disputes and looking for US backing over the war in Ukraine. Several officials on both sides now describe the matter as resolved, though some in London acknowledge the government came under heavy US pressure.

The Investigatory Powers Act has long been criticized by privacy groups as a sweeping law that gives Britain unusual reach into global data. Supporters say it is needed to tackle terrorism and child abuse. The Home Office has pointed to an existing UK-US data sharing agreement that already allows both countries to request information from telecom and tech companies, with safeguards in place to prevent each side from targeting the other’s citizens.

Even with Britain’s retreat, Apple has not said if or when Advanced Data Protection will return for UK customers. For now, users there remain without the extra layer of cloud security, while the broader debate over encryption and government access is still far from settled.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen.

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• Google’s AI Summaries Put Pressure on Publishers as Referral Traffic Falls

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Google’s AI Summaries Put Pressure on Publishers as Referral Traffic Falls

Traffic data from leading publishers shows a clear drop in visits from Google Search since the company expanded AI-generated summaries.

Digital Content Next (DCN), a group representing news and entertainment outlets, reported that median referrals fell 10 percent in May and June compared with the same period last year. Non-news sites saw the sharpest decline at 14 percent, while news sites slipped by 7 percent. Some of the hardest weeks were late May and late June, when referrals for both groups dropped by more than 16 percent.

The pattern matches research from Pew, which tracked user behavior when AI summaries appeared in search results. Pew found that people were less likely to click through to external sites, with many stopping at the summary itself. That outcome creates what analysts describe as a zero-click environment, where the material is consumed inside Google’s product rather than on the sites that produced it.

For publishers, fewer referrals translate into weaker ad revenue, slower subscription growth, and tighter budgets for reporting or production. DCN noted that most of its members, spanning 19 companies, remain heavily reliant on advertising, which still accounts for close to four-fifths of their digital income. A slide in traffic puts that stream under pressure at a time when Google already dominates the online advertising market.

DCN argues the change is structural, not temporary. It links the fall in traffic to Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, which present synthesized answers above the traditional list of links. That placement leaves publishers with fewer readers even as their work continues to be used in training the system.

Google takes a different line, saying that AI summaries drive what it calls higher-quality visits, where people spend longer on a page. The company also suggested that external reports about traffic drops may rely on incomplete or selective samples.

Publishers are seeking stronger protections. They want Google to disclose detailed, verifiable data on click-through rates by content type and location. They also want a real choice to block their work from being used in summaries without losing search visibility, along with licensing deals to reflect the value of their material. DCN has urged regulators to view AI Overviews as part of Google’s broader search monopoly, noting the company’s position in mobile search and the ongoing U.S. antitrust case.

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The debate comes with a sense of history. Earlier initiatives such as featured snippets and AMP also reshaped how users reached publisher content, often to the platform’s advantage. The concern now is greater because AI modules do not only highlight parts of an article, they often serve as a replacement for it.

If the shift continues, publishers warn that the open web will carry fewer voices, with less room for accountability and discovery. They argue that journalism and entertainment depend on reach and funding, and that AI-driven search risks eroding both.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen

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• Amnesty Reports Starvation in Gaza as Israeli Policies Deepen Crisis
by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Amnesty Reports Starvation in Gaza as Israeli Policies Deepen Crisis

Amnesty International has published new accounts from Palestinians in Gaza that describe worsening hunger, disease, and displacement under Israeli control. The organization says the testimonies point to an organized policy of starvation, reinforced by restrictions that prevent civilians from receiving food, water, and medical aid.

Interviews conducted in Gaza’s camps reveal families living on a single meal a day, with children often left to sleep hungry. The Ministry of Health has recorded more than one hundred child deaths linked to malnutrition. Aid groups have reported thousands of new cases of acute malnutrition among children in July, with many classed as severe.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women described being unable to feed their infants. Many go without food themselves to prioritize their children. With infant formula scarce and expensive, and with clean water in short supply, mothers spoke of children weakened by hunger and frequent infections. Health workers report that hospitals lack basic equipment to treat them.

Older residents face the same scarcity. Some survive on soup or bread distributed once a week. Others ration expired medicine for chronic illnesses such as diabetes or heart conditions. Several said the lack of food and care leaves them dependent on relatives already struggling to survive.

Doctors in Gaza say the collapse of healthcare services has left them unable to manage conditions that could once be treated. Infectious diseases are spreading through overcrowded camps where water supplies are unsafe. Patients with kidney disease, diabetes, or other chronic conditions face severe complications because the food and medicines they need are unavailable. Hospitals also report cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a neurological disease, that have already caused deaths among children.

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The food supply inside Gaza has been largely destroyed. UN satellite analysis shows farmland razed, bombed, or left unusable. Crops and livestock that once provided food for the local population are gone, while fishing remains tightly restricted. Whatever limited supplies reach Gaza through controlled entry points are sold at inflated prices, far out of reach for most families.

Amnesty points to Israeli restrictions on humanitarian groups as a major factor in the crisis. Requests from international organizations to bring in essential supplies are often denied, and new rules could block many of them from operating in the territory altogether.

The organization says these conditions have been created and sustained by Israeli policies over the past two years. It calls for an immediate lifting of the blockade, protection for civilians, and safe access for aid groups to deliver food, medicine, and shelter.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: DIW-Aigen.

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