OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman Confirms AI Won't Replace Human Writers Anytime Soon

In a recent interview, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, says that he doesn't believe that AI can replace human writers. He says that he has seen many badly written content by AI on the internet and he thinks that no AI model can write similar to what a human being can. AI written content is being used in schools and workplaces and many people are concerned that their roles will be replaced by AI. Yes, many content writers have lost their jobs because their client/company has started using AI but AI cannot reach the quality level of a professional human content writer, particularly when it comes to storytelling with a personal touch.

Many writers are embracing AI, instead of being afraid of it. A writer recently wrote and illustrated a complete children’s book by using AI. Another writer also wrote 120 books using chatbots over two years. Some writers are also starting to work with AI firms to enhance their AI skills. Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring writers to write prompts for AI.

Altman says that AI is a great tool for writing, but it isn't a complete substitute for a human writer. It cannot generate quality content and needs human input to create ideas. He said that AI has to reach super intelligence to take the place of human writers. There are a lot of other issues when it comes to AI that are more worrying than this.

Sam Altman said in the interview that ChatGPT’s writing skills aren't perfect right now and a lot of work needs to be done before it can generate high-quality content. OpenAI’s GPT-4o shows better writing abilities than other LLMs but it still needs a lot more training. Altman asked a question: whether the most popular novel of 2027 will have a human writer or not? The answer is yes, absolutely. Altman added that whenever he finishes a book, he checks for the writer's name, but he won't have this feeling for AI writing. There is a connection between the writer and the readers, and AI writing cannot achieve it.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Is Your Data Safe? Discover the Social Media Apps You Should Avoid!

Researchers at Incogni looked at the top 15 social networking apps and found that these platforms severely mishandle our data and privacy. Meta's Facebook and Microsoft's LinkedIn were the worst platforms when it comes to user privacy protection. Reddit, Snapchat, and Pinterest were the platforms with the lowest risks of privacy breaches. Researchers looked at privacy risks on each platform across five categories.

The first category was data collection and retention. Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram received the worst results in this category. Another category was user control and consent. In this category, default privacy settings, privacy settings, and visibility options were analyzed. Meta’s platforms Messenger and WhatsApp were the worst in that section. TikTok was also among the worst apps in this category. There are a lot of data points these apps collect and share with third parties.

Another category was the transgression category, which means fines and data breach incidents. X, LinkedIn, and Facebook didn’t get a good score in this category, but Reddit, Telegram, Quora, and Discord received positive scores. In terms of transparency, LinkedIn and Quora were the worst, while Snapchat and YouTube were the best. Meta’s apps and YouTube were the worst apps in terms of how easy it is to understand their privacy policies and the steps required to delete an account.

The researchers say that it seems like you now need a college degree to understand social media apps’ privacy policies. Researchers also found that, in addition to complex policies, there are a lot of steps users need to take to delete an account. To delete an account on Telegram, TikTok, and Discord, you just need two clicks. But for the deletion of accounts on Meta apps and YouTube, it takes a maximum of six clicks. After you leave a platform, your data remains there for at least 180 days. The platforms that delete the data after 180 days are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Discord. Telegram deletes user data just a few days after account deletion.

In recent years, many countries have implemented laws about user data and privacy, but they are not enough. The only way these platforms will comply with the law is if violating the law becomes less profitable than complying with it. Meta has already faced many legal fines because it continues to breach user privacy. The only way users can make social media platforms safe for them is by reviewing their privacy settings and making sure they only allow apps to see information that is necessary.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Zillow Prepares To Launch New Climate Catastrophe Alerts For Americans Through Its Maps

Climate change and global warming are very real and the effects can be seen worldwide today. This is why popular real estate platform Zillow Maps is gearing up to display climate-related catastrophe alerts to all users.

The news comes amid a devastating Hurricane Helene that ravaged Florida recently, leaving millions without power. Moreover, beachfront properties were significantly impacted and were witnessed getting washed into the ocean. This is why Zillow says it’s important to keep homeowners aware of the risks as they build up with time.

Now, Zillow plans to add data related to floods, wildfires, air quality, and more that’s linked to homes across America. Such information will solely depend on the climate risk at stake. For instance, when you look at homes prone to flooding, the page will display the frequency and depth of floods in any area.

In terms of wildfires, it would showcase how many fires took place in recent memory and also the probability of that getting impacted by the fire over the next few years.

The information will be present on the company’s map and will also be color-coded to display the different kinds of disasters so everyone can check the areas where all five risks are present at the same time. Meanwhile, it confirmed how the data would be property-specific. So that means every user can beforehand check out the risks, if any, before adding offers.

The feature will likely be rolled out on the page and iOS app by this year’s end with support for Android devices arriving during the start of 2025.

The company released a statement on this front, adding how climate risks are a huge consideration when citizens invest in property. This is why markets are only deemed healthy when buyers have the right kind of data accessible to them so they can make the right decision.

This tool is also sufficient, considering the timing of extreme weather conditions. From floods and high temperatures to wildfires and more, the tool can assist agents keep their clients informed about any risks. Be it climate change, insurance, or even factors like affordability in the long term.

This is why Zillow has collaborated with First Street to get the right predictions and provide proper risk assessment. As it is, the firm calls itself a great model for determining climate risk and financial modeling.

As per the company, studies proved that 80% of all investors always take climate risks into account before making a property purchase. This entails the growing accounts of wildfires and homeowners’ insurance that might be destroyed by hurricanes.

With this new feature, buyers will remain informed and make the best purchasing decisions without regret as new listings seen in August were mostly at risk for wildfires and flooding. So if you ask us, the company is certainly giving buyers the reassurance they need, ahead of time.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Prompt Engineering is in Demand for Small Businesses in the USA

As technology is evolving, new skills are needed in job marketing everyday. Prompt engineering is also one of the skills that is in demand. Prompt engineering is a skill in which you have to create prompts differently to give to AI systems so that it can help with your business. According to a survey, 27% small businesses said that prompt engineering is important as compared to 54% medium or large sized businesses.

53% of small businesses said that prompt engineering will become an important skill but 25% believe that it will become less important as AI evolves. Larger businesses are also 2.4 times more likely to use prompt engineering daily as compared to small businesses. One in 4 business owners (26%) also said that they have never used prompt engineering.

For the small business owners that have used prompt engineering, the survey by Adobe asked them about its advantages for small businesses. 46% said that prompt engineering increases their efficiency, 35% said that it enhances the quality of AI output and 33% said that it reduces the need for manual intervention. Providing a competitive edge with the use of AI technology in the right way (23%) and facilitating personalized customer experiences (19%) were also among the advantages of prompt engineering.

There were also some challenges of prompt engineering that some small businesses faced. 44% said that it requires continuous learning and updating of skills, 33% said that they are uncertain about its long term use and 24% said that it's time consuming and costly. Struggling to integrate with existing systems (23%) and finding skilled prompt engineers (22%) were also some prompt engineering challenges faced by small businesses.

Many of the small businesses are looking for hiring talented prompt engineers with 38% considering giving prompt engineering training to their current employees. 48% of small businesses have learned prompt engineering on their own. The top states looking for prompt engineers in the USA are California led by San Jose ($170,396) and San Francisco ($150,814). California is followed by New York and Washington. Las Vegas and Jacksonville are the cities with least pay for prompt engineers.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

2024 Router Security: Only 28% Change WiFi Passwords, Down From 35% in 2022

Broadband Genie conducted their third router survey to find out if people are now aware of how they are compromising their security by not changing their router’s default settings. In the previously done surveys in 2018 and 2022, many of the people were not aware of their network security. 3045 respondents were surveyed and it was found that 52% of the users have now adjusted their router’s factory settings. The survey done in 2018 found out that 18% of the users have changed their router administrator password but it has decreased to 14% in 2024. When you leave your password at default, more people can easily access it and snoop around your data. It was also found that 72% of respondents have never changed their Wifi password. Just 28% of the users have changed their Wifi password in 2024, while 35% did so in 2022.

9 in 10 respondents (89%) also reported never changing their router firmware. This is a decrease from 2018 and 2022. If users do not update their router firmware, it can become vulnerable to nefarious actors. The challenge many people face is that the instructions to update the router firmware are mostly unclear and complicated. But once you update it, it can decrease the risks associated with leaving the router unupdated.

Even though changing the name of the network may seem a useless move, it can still serve as a security precaution. But it seems like 89% of people haven't changed their network’s name. Hackers can easily identify the router if it doesn't have a unique name. The survey also found that 75% aren't aware or haven't checked if other people are using their network. It is important to know so users can see if there is someone who is using their network without their consent.

75% of the respondents also aren't sure why they should adjust their router's settings. 18% don't know how to change the settings which is a decrease from 20% in 2022. This means that 72% respondents know how they can change their router settings to increase their security level. If you want to prevent yourself from cyber attacks, make sure to change your Wifi passwords and network names. Update your router and keep check of who's using your network.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

45% of Workers Face Data Breaches, AI Blamed for Rising Cyber Threats (infographic)

A new poll of 20K adults from all around the world conducted by Yubico found that most of the employed people have been victims of cyber attacks. According to the results of the poll, 45% of the respondents said that their personal data like email and banking information has been compromised by hacking or scamming attempts. 72% believe that scamming and phishing attempts have become more seamless and smooth, with 66% saying it is because of artificial intelligence.

The survey also found out that 50% of the respondents have been exposed to a scamming attack in the last year at their work but only 23% said that their company took measures for cyber security training for their employees. 20% reported that their personal accounts got hacked in a cyber attack attempt, which included their banking as well as email accounts.

As a result of those cyber attacks, 22% lost their money and 30% said that they don't think their personal accounts can ever be safe after that. A lot of respondents also got their personal passwords hacked or exposed (50%). 44% got their social media passwords hacked or exposed.

The reason why a lot of hacking attempts are successful is because many people believe that putting a username and password on your account can make it safe (39%). People tend to reuse these passwords which make them vulnerable to cyber attacks. 20% of the respondents reported that their company doesn't update technology frequently and only does it when it's needed. 70% say that they take extreme measures to protect information at work as compared to 63% who protect their personal information more. This is the reason why 24% of respondents always worry about someone hacking their personal account and information.

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Popular Education Apps Are Asking for Dangerous Permissions — Here’s What You Need to Know

Cybernews examined 25 popular learning and education apps with millions of downloads on Google Play and found out that most of these apps can spy on users. There are many learning apps like Udemy, Coursera, Moodle and Duolingo that a lot of people use but these apps can access your private data too. Whenever users are using these apps, they should be cautious about giving app extra unnecessary permissions.

Most of the popular education apps ask for permissions like write and read external storage, access camera, record audio and getting accounts. The app that asks for the most sensitive permissions is the Remind app which provides communication services for schools. This app asks for a total of 12 sensitive permissions.

Another dangerous app for user privacy is Coursera which asks for 11 sensitive permissions. Questions.AI (an AI homework app) and Moodle (course and class management systems) asks for 10 sensitive permissions. ClassDojo, Gauth_AI, Simplilearn, Canvas Student, Duolingo, Udemy and Blackboard Learn all ask for more than five sensitive permissions.

Most educational apps ask for access to a camera. It is important because of the times the user needs to make in-app pictures and submit them. But this could lead to malicious actors accessing the user's camera without his permission. A total of 17 apps that were analyzed ask for access to the camera.

Coursera and Duolingo apps also ask for access to your accounts. This isn't necessary for educational apps and this means that if you give those apps that permission, they can access all of your accounts that are registered on your device. Account information has a lot of sensitive data that can identify a user's online identity. Duolingo also asks for permission to access contacts of the users. Contact information is also sensitive because it can contain private data about all of your contact and this can be used for unwanted data scraping.

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A lot of apps also read files and storage of users. They can access your files, photos, videos and documents that can contain your private information. 21 apps that were analyzed can write to your storage while 20 can read your files. PictureThis, a plan identifying app, can also access the location of where the picture was taken. Khan Academy, Questions.AI and Remind App can also request for your phone number and IMEI and if given permission, these apps can identify the device and its user. There were also ten apps that needed your microphone permission. It may be needed for the learning process like for learning language in Duolingo, but if it's exploited, it can access your sensitive and private information.

Remind app can also call and connect to Bluetooth on the user's behalf. It can also lead to privacy breaches and fraudulent scam communication. Moodle and Questions.AI can access your exact location while ClassDojo, Moodle, Questions.AI and Sololearn can access your approximate location.

To keep your data and private information safe, it is best that you review your permission requests before giving access to these apps. Only give permission only when it is necessary and give it only while using the app. If you do not handle this well, it can lead to privacy invasion and data leaks which can become a threat to you.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World