Twitter Reinstates Blue Ticks for Some Media Houses, Celebrities
Twitter’s blue ticks were reinstated on some media, celebrity, and other high profile accounts – a move protested by many of the recipients. Once a free sign of authenticity and fame, blue ticks must now be bought by subscribers for $8 a month, Twitter says. Non-paying accounts that had a blue tick lost it as owner Elon Musk implemented a strategy, dubbed “Twitter Blue”, to generate new revenue, announced last year. Only a tiny fraction of blue-ticked users subscribed — less than 5 percent of the 407,000 profiles affected, according to Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer who tracks social-media platforms. But a number of celebrities regained their blue ticks, seemingly without action on their part, including author Stephen King, NBA champion LeBron James and former US president Donald Trump. Musk tweeted that he was “paying for a few (subscriptions) personally.” The accounts of some dead celebrities, such as US chef Anthony Bourdain, also received a blue tick. Late actors Sushant Singh Rajput & Siddharth Shukla got their blue ticks back, much to netizens’ surprise. Amitabh Bachchan (paid for the blue tick) & SRK also got theirs back. Alia Bhatt, Virat Kohli, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan had also lost their blue ticks over non-payment of fees. However, now, all of these celebrities are verified on Twitter.Many official media accounts regained a tick, including AFP, which has not subscribed to Twitter Blue. The New York Times got back its gold badge this month after Musk had bashed the news organization as “propaganda”. The Times is among the major media groups that have a gold tick reserved for an “official business account” paying at least $1,000 a month. The reinstated ticks did not lure back US public radio NPR and Canada’s public broadcaster CBC, which recently suspended activity on their accounts and had not resumed tweeting as of Sunday. The broadcasters were among those to protest the “state-affiliated” and “government-funded” labels Twitter attached to them, which were previously reserved for non-independent media funded by autocratic governments. Many who unwillingly gained blue ticks made it clear that they had not subscribed, as the badge became a symbol of support for Musk.
India predicted to have over 900 million internet users by the year 2025
As digital acceleration reshapes the consumer attitudes and expectations in India, Kantar has released a comprehensive ‘Digital environment scan and outlook for the year’.
Key Findings:
At 338 million online payment users and 62 billion Digital transactions, India is poised to go cashless.
It is predicted that by 2025 India will have at least 900 Mn internet.
At 22%, India leads in digital ad spends, ahead of the UK (9.3%), US (10%), Australia (5.8%), France (11%) and China (3.3%).
1/3rd consumers are buying from social platforms which will only accelerate – 77 Mn Online Shoppers buy through social commerce platforms in India 2021
1/4th consumers follow influencers on social media platforms, of these 40% follow more than 5 influencers. Average number of influencers followed is 7.5
D2C ecosystem is at an inflection point of rapid growth in India. These brands are driving the growth of online shopping in India.
Digital touchpoint impact clocks a steady growth from 2017-18 (36%) to 41 % in 2019 and 49 % in 2020-21
Infosys founder Narayana Murthy on why ChatGPT won’t be a big ‘threat’ to jobs
Ever since OpenAI developed ChatGPT caught the fancy of the world, there has been discussions on its impact on certain kinds of jobs. Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy has downplayed the impact that ChatGPT will have on jobs. He has said in an interview “ChatGPT is an excellent addition to knowledge generation, to doing certain kind of jobs, like writing essays.” “If there is a competition between you and me, you will be using ChatGPT as your base but will be adding your own differentiation, smartness, tweaking.” “Smart people will score higher.” “It will help produce better quality of work but will not replace the human brain.”
Google to incorporate generative AI in the ad business
Ever since OpenAI developed ChatGPT caught the fancy of the world, there has been discussions on its impact on certain kinds of jobs. Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy has downplayed the impact that ChatGPT will have on jobs. He has said in an interview “ChatGPT is an excellent addition to knowledge generation, to doing certain kind of jobs, like writing essays.” “If there is a competition between you and me, you will be using ChatGPT as your base but will be adding your own differentiation, smartness, tweaking.” “Smart people will score higher.” “It will help produce better quality of work but will not replace the human brain.”
Elon Musk threatens to sue Microsoft over ‘illegally’ using Twitter data
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has threatened to take legal action against Microsoft over claims that the latter used data from Twitter without permission. The billionaire’s statement came in response to reports and tweets noting that Microsoft would drop Twitter from its advertising platform. In a tweet on April 20, the billionaire said, “They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time”. Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion last year and has introduced some radical changes to the organization since then, said that he is “charging businesses for access to its stream of data”. Earlier, Microsoft said in a notice that its advertising platform would “no longer support Twitter” from Tuesday 25 April. That means companies can no longer use Microsoft’s platform to manage their tweets or engagement. This also coincides with Twitter’s timeline to put its API (application programming interface) behind a paywall. Under Twitter’s new pricing arrangement, large companies like Microsoft could have to pay as much as $42,000 per month to gain access to Twitter’s API. The new pricing system has already led some smaller developers to abandon the platform, such as Tweetbot maker Tapbots. Musk’s threat appears to be over Microsoft-backed AI firm OpenAI using Twitter data to train the large language model behind products like ChatGPT.
Pinterest plans to use AI, shoppable media to become a ‘digital bazaar’
By integrating AI and shoppable media features, Pinterest hopes to become a sort of “digital bazaar,” where users can come to be inspired, discover new brands, and make purchases without leaving the app. The great AI race: Like Meta and Snapchat, Pinterest is exploring ways to incorporate AI into its platform. But Pinterest CEO Bill Ready says the company plans to be very deliberate about how it’s using AI, incorporating the technology in a way that’s additive to people’s lives, not addictive. “Which I think has been one of the criticisms of some of what has happened with AI and social media over the last many years,” he said. “In a lot of ways it was becoming more and more addictive—connecting you to things that make you engage for longer but may not make you feel better after you engage with it.” Ready underscored the importance of customer data in unlocking AI’s potential, noting the platform is able to take the “billions of interactions” from users to better inform AI and connect consumers to more relevant content. One-stop shop: Over the past few months, Pinterest has incorporated more shoppable content on its platform, which can help to streamline the path to purchase.
India tops fantasy sports market
India’s fantasy sports industry, which has been growing over the last six years, is estimated to have invested ₹3,100 crore in real-world sports via sponsorships and partnerships with sporting leagues, and is expected to make a cumulative contribution of ₹29,000 crore to the overall sports economy between FY22 and FY27. A Deloitte India and Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports report, titled Fantasy Sports: A Catalyst for the Sports Economy’, said India has emerged as the fastest growing market in the world, with over 300 fantasy sports platforms having a user base of over 180 million, or almost three times the size of North America. In FY22, revenues of fantasy sports firms almost tripled in two years to ₹6,800 crore, and 31% over FY21. It is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 30% over the next five years to ₹25,300 crore in FY27, the report added. Currently, there are 692 million active internet users. It is expected to increase to 900 million by 2025. It also attracted steady investments, with both domestic and foreign funding adding up to ₹15,000 crore till FY22, valuing the overall sector at about ₹75,000 crore. Furthermore, the industry generated indirect revenues of ₹6,200 crore in this period, and created 12,000 direct and indirect jobs by FY22-end.
TruthGPT: Elon Musk’s ChatGPT alternative
During an interview Elon Musk talked about his vision for TruthGPT adding that his ChatGPT alternative “might be the best path to safety, in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe, it is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe.” “I’m going to start something which I call ‘Truth GPT’ or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” he said in the interview. According to Musk, TruthGPT will be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” The overall idea, as per Musk, is to build an AI that tries to understand humanity is less likely to destroy it. Musk also showed concern about OpenAI’s ChatGPT saying that it “is being trained to be politically correct.” He further called AI a bigger threat to humanity than cars or rockets adding that it is capable of destroying humanity. Reportedly, Musk had reached out to AI researchers in recent months for developing a ChatGPT alternative. He has also created an AI company called X.AI headquartered in Nevada.
Generative AI will spark innovation
With the rise of advanced large language models like GPT-4, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming “table stakes” — a basic norm for companies across businesses, with 98% of global executives believing that it will spark significant creativity and innovation. According to Accenture’s Technology Vision 2023, generative AI will advance human capability as a co-pilot, creative partner or advisor. Over 95% of executives agree it will usher in a new era of enterprise intelligence. The report is based on a survey of 4,777 C-level executives and directors in 34 countries and 25 industries, conducted between December 2022 and January 2023. 59% of executives say that it will lead to increased innovation. 95% of executives say that next-generation computing will be a major driver of breakthroughs in their industries. 90% say that data transparency is becoming a competitive differentiator in their organizations. 56% say that greater transparency will lead to more trust among customers. 79% believe that strategy of centralized solutions will lead to better digital identity.