Digital world

  Video streaming giant YouTube is working on a new way to ensure users see ads and don’t skip them. This includes hiding the ‘Skip’ button option. The free viewing experience that users have been benefiting from, thanks to the Skip button, could soon be disguised from user view. But if you’ve really got a problem with ads, the app is giving you the chance to pay extra and subscribe to Premium. Google says ad monetization is one of the chief ways it makes money and helps creators get their rightful share. Hence, features like ad blockers have already made it hard for websites on the search engine to benefit and now the skip button is also hindering its monetization potential. We can see this as a smart tactic to push marketing of its premium tier. Remember, so many viewers are complaining about how ad segments keep getting longer by the day. And if you can’t skip them, it just adds to a not-so-pleasurable experience. The app has been very vocal about the ongoing debate against free...

  At Apple's yearly meeting, big shareholders have a chance to suggest changes. This year, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) wants Apple to share how it uses AI and its rules for using this technology safely. Norges Bank Investment Management and Legal & General, two of Apple's biggest shareholders, are  backing this idea . Norges Bank says Apple should think about how its work and products affect society. Legal & General talked to Apple about being more open with its AI plans but didn't get the details they wanted. They think Apple should be clear about how it uses AI and how it manages any risks. A big advisory group, Institutional Shareholder Services, is telling Apple's investors to support this AI proposal. They believe Apple's current rules don't fully cover the risks of using AI. This makes it hard for shareholders to understand the dangers. Apple, however, doesn't want this proposal to pass. T...

  iPhone maker Apple has just made a shocking turn of events by confirming how its approach to tackling explicit and child abuse materials, better known as CSAM scanning, could be abused. The company highlights how repressive governments might use it for scanning ordeals such as plans related to political protests. The Cupertino firm rejected any reasoning provided during that period. But one ironic twist did take center stage after a reply was put forward to the government of Australia recently. Apple mentioned how it had planned to roll out on-device scan plans with the help of techniques used for digital fingerprinting. Those fingerprints are a means to match certain pictures without any individual getting the chance to view them. They’re designed to be used in a very fuzzy manner to match certain pictures that were cropped or edited while giving rise to a small number of false positives. To be a little more clear in this regard, Apple confirmed how its recent proposal was an ap...

  Stability AI has just announced  Stable Diffusion 3 , its newest and most advanced AI for making images. This release seems to be a move to stay ahead of new AI technologies from OpenAI and Google. While we're still waiting for more details, it's clear that Stable Diffusion 3, or SD3, introduces a fresh setup and aims to work well on many types of computers, although you'll need a strong one. SD3 is built on an updated method called " diffusion transformer. " This idea started in 2022, got an update in 2023, and is now ready to be used more widely. It shares some concepts with  Sora, OpenAI' s video-making tool. SD3 also uses "flow matching," a new way to make better-quality images without making the system too heavy. The new version comes in different sizes, from smaller setups with 800 million parts to huge ones with 8 billion parts. This range means SD3 can run on various computers. Unlike AI tools from OpenAI and Google, you don't need to u...

  Meta’s Oversight Board has  just announced  an expansion plan to include Threads in its purview. The announcement was recently made about how Threads users would be given the chance to make appeals against Facebook’s parent firm’s decisions having to do with moderating content online. This would provide this independent group the chance to impact policies for the new app that comes under Meta’s ownership. It’s a serious expansion for Meta’s Oversight Board. The latter has now weighed up against any issues linked to Facebook and Instagram’s content published online. This change would give users the chance to have greater accountability that was independent, early on. As per statements mentioned by the Oversight Board, users making appeals across Threads are going to see it work very much like how it is on Meta’s other two apps, Instagram and Facebook. After exhausting the whole internal system on Meta, they can see a small glimmer of hope through reviews requested by Met...

  Rumors are going strong on social media about Google’s journey with Gmail coming to an end. And that too as early as this year. If you paid witness to such a shocking hoax that’s fast spreading online too then we can confirm that it’s not true by any means. The Android maker is addressing the need for users to calm down after the hoax emphasizing the company’s goodbye to Gmail. Many versions of this hoax can be found online  on the Twitter (X) app . But Google has rest assured everyone to take it easy and that it’s not going anywhere. However, a clause also mentions how users would now be defaulted to new views on Gmail. So other than those cases where you had specifically requested for the basic HTML version, nothing is going to change. The search engine giant  just made  updates to its respective  support page  too instead of this hoax and how it will now change to Standard display after the issuance of a deadline date. Reports by users on tech outlet...

  Google just rolled out a useful AI writing tool called ‘Help Me Write’ that can be found on the Chrome Browser. The latest initiative  makes text suggestions depending upon the context of the website it comes face to face with. The new AI writing assistant can be found on Chrome and it provides ideas that assist users in producing things like reviews and inquires. Moreover, this feature is up for grabs in the English language only for those located in the US for now. But with time, we can see it do wonders for more people. The tool first made headwaves after being unveiled by the Android maker in January of this year. And after the successful launch carried out this week, many cannot wait to get their hands on it. The tool helps with producing all kinds of things like online reviews and inquiries as well as classified advertisements as well. Google promises that with this new tool, writing is bound to become so much simpler for users. This has to do with the fact that it mak...

  Search engine giant Google has just  rolled out  a series of changes to its Misrepresentation policy related to ads on the platform. The company confirmed today how the goal is to address all kinds of issues involving deceiving practices where impersonation and fake affiliations were taking place at large. A new statement from Google was also published in this regard where they mentioned how Google Ads would be updating its Unacceptable business endeavors as a part of its Misrepresentation policy that entails grabbing users' attentio n by giving them data or funds through fake affiliations or by ads by public figures or brands that make it all seem so real. The policy change is set to begin as early as next month when Google Ads will begin rolling out new policies to limit those ads that falsely claim links with well-known names of famous personalities so that they can manipulate the users out there. There has been a little delay for some French advertisers who have til...

  It’s a brave new world: we’ve got self-driving cars, airport robots helping you find your gate, and refrigerators that can tell you when you need milk. Regardless of their purpose, smart tech has more Americans attuned to the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape these days. For many, that means excitement about the growing cache of AI jobs out there. It’s true that opportunities in AI are taking off, and a  new study  by moveBuddha shows hotspots where this niche job market is booming. With California’s long-time dominance in tech and startups, it only makes sense that almost 25% of the country’s AI jobs are in the Golden State. But there’s plenty of gold to go around. Up-and-comers are competing for dominance, and two states even have more AI jobs per capita than California: Virginia and Maryland each have 6 jobs available for every 10,000 residents. The study shows where AI jobs are taking off — and where job seekers might want to take off and relocate. This post sh...