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- ChatGPT’s Surprisingly Human Voice Came With A Human Cost
- Meta Announces The Reinstatement Of Former President Donald Trump In Its Apps
- 47% Of UK Businesses Are Embarrassed By Their Website
- Linkedin Now Up To 900 Million Members, Continues To See ‘record Levels’ Of Engagement
- Ad Spending On Twitter Plummeted By Over 70% In December
CHATGPT’S SURPRISINGLY HUMAN VOICE CAME WITH A HUMAN COST
Popular, eerily-humanlike OpenAI chatbot ChatGPT was built on the backs of underpaid and psychologically exploited employees, according to a new investigation by TIME.
A Kenya-based data labelling team, managed by San Francisco firm Sama, reportedly was not only paid shockingly low wages doing work for a company that may be on track to receive a $10 billion investment from Microsoft, but also was subjected to disturbingly graphic sexual content in order to clean ChatGPT of dangerous hate speech and violence.
Beginning in November 2021, OpenAI sent tens of thousands of text samples to the employees, who were tasked with combing the passages for instances of child sexual abuse, bestiality, murder, suicide, torture, self-harm, and incest, TIME reported. Members of the team spoke of having to read hundreds of these types of entries a day; for hourly wages that raged from $1 to $2 an hour, or a $170 monthly salary, some employees felt that their jobs were “mentally scarring” and a certain kind of “torture.”
META ANNOUNCES THE REINSTATEMENT OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IN ITS APPS
Today, Meta has announced that former US President Donald Trump will be allowed to return to Facebook and Instagram, after he was banned from both apps over his posts around the time of the January 6th incident at the Capitol building in 2021.
As explained by Meta:
“Two years ago, we took action in what were extreme and highly unusual circumstances. We indefinitely suspended then-US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. We then referred that decision to the Oversight Board — an expert body established to be an independent check and balance on our decision-making.”
In response, the Oversight Board called for Meta to implement more structured parameters around how such decisions were made, and how long any resulting suspension would be in place. Based on this, Meta announced a two-year end date for the suspension, with a review to be conducted to assess the risk of reinstatement at that stage. That’s now resulted in Meta’s decision to allow Trump back into its apps.
47% OF UK BUSINESSES ARE EMBARRASSED BY THEIR WEBSITE
UK companies are losing a considerable sum of money each year due to poor website experience despite spending a substantial amount on marketing technology.
This is according to research by Storyblok, a content management system (CMS) category leader that empowers both developers and content teams to create better content experiences across all digital channels
500 business leaders at mid-sized e-commerce companies in the US and Europe were asked a range of questions about their company’s website performance and associated costs. Surprisingly, 47% of UK businesses said their website had recently embarrassed them in front of a key stakeholder or customer, however, 90% said their website met all or most of their expectations.
Nearly every business (92%) thinks their website’s poor user experience is costing them sales, with 9% estimating this sum exceeds £100,000 per year. Storyblok’s recent survey of 6,000 consumers in the US and Europe echoed these findings, with 60% of consumers stating they abandon an average of 5 purchases a year due to poor user experience on websites.
LINKEDIN NOW UP TO 900 MILLION MEMBERS, CONTINUES TO SEE ‘RECORD LEVELS’ OF ENGAGEMENT
LinkedIn has once again seen ‘record levels’ of in-app engagement in the most recent quarter, with the platform reporting 18% growth in total user sessions, according to the latest data from parent company Microsoft.
LinkedIn’s revenue also increased 10% in the period, driven primarily by growth in its Talent Solutions recruitment element. LinkedIn has warned, however, that this will likely decline in 2023 due to a broader slowdown in hiring, particularly in the tech sector, where many of LinkedIn’s job postings stem from.
As per LinkedIn:
“We once again saw record engagement among our more than 900 million members. Three members are signing up every second. Over eighty percent of these members are from outside the United States.”
AD SPENDING ON TWITTER PLUMMETED BY OVER 70% IN DECEMBER
Advertising spending on Twitter plummeted by 71% in December, according to data from ad research firm Standard Media Index (SMI).
The news comes as many advertisers continue to slash their spending on the social media platform.
Last week, The Information revealed that over 500 advertisers had paused their spending on Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover, leading to a 40% decrease in revenue compared to last year.
In a bid to salvage revenue for the business, the Tesla CEO announced plans earlier this week (24 January) to introduce an advertising-free version of its subscription product. The move intends to raise the demand for its premium offering.
Twitter relaunched its premium offering for the second time in December, offering everyone perks such as ‘blue tick’ account verification for £6.50 ($8) a month. This soon led to brands like Nintendo and Apple being impersonated by online trolls with seemingly authentic, verified accounts.
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