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ChatGPT bug may have exposed payment information

Due to the bug, some subscription confirmation emails generated during that window were sent to the wrong users…reports Asian Lite News

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has admitted that some users’ payment information may have been exposed earlier this week when it took ChatGPT offline owing to a bug.

According to the company, the Microsoft-owned company took ChatGPT offline due to a bug in an open-source library which allowed some users to see titles from another active user’s chat history.

“It was also possible that the first message of a newly-created conversation was visible in someone else’s chat history if both users were active around the same time,” said the company.

The bug has been patched and ChatGPT service and its chat history feature, with the exception of a few hours of history, have been restored.

However, upon deeper investigation, OpenAI discovered that the same bug may have caused the unintentional visibility of “payment-related information of 1.2 per cent of the ChatGPT Plus subscribers who were active during a specific nine-hour window”.

“In the hours before we took ChatGPT offline, it was possible for some users to see another active user’s first and last name, email address, payment address, the last four digits (only) of a credit card number, and credit card expiration date. Full credit card numbers were not exposed at any time,” the company revealed.

Due to the bug, some subscription confirmation emails generated during that window were sent to the wrong users.

These emails contained the last four digits of another users’ credit card number, but full credit card numbers did not appear.

“It’s possible that a small number of subscription confirmation emails might have been incorrectly addressed prior to March 20, although we have not confirmed any instances of this,” OpenAI further said.

The company said it has reached out to notify affected users that their payment information may have been exposed.

“We are confident that there is no ongoing risk to users’ data,” it added, apologising again to users and to the entire ChatGPT community.

The bug was discovered in the Redis client open-source library called “redis-py”.

ALSO READ-AI one of biggest risks to civilisation, warns Elon Musk

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Musk tried to take over OpenAI in 2018, but failed

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Ting/IANS)

According to a Semafor report, he also reneged on a promise to supply $1 billion in funding, contributing only $100 million before he walked…reports Asian Lite News

Elon Musk tried to take control of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in early 2018 but Sam Altman and OpenAI’s other founders rejected Musk’s proposal.

Musk, in turn, walked away from the company and reneged on a massive planned donation, reports Semafor. Musk told Altman that he believed the “venture had fallen fatally behind Google”.

But the Twitter CEO failed to convince OpenAI founders to take over the AI chatbot ChatGPT creator. When Musk walked away, he resigned from its board in 2018 citing a conflict of interest with his work at Tesla.

According to a Semafor report, he also reneged on a promise to supply $1 billion in funding, contributing only $100 million before he walked.

This left OpenAI with “no ability to pay the astronomical fees associated with training AI models on supercomputers”.

In March, 2019, OpenAI announced it was creating a for-profit entity so that it could raise enough money to pay for the compute power.

“We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance,” the company wrote at the time.

Less than six months later, Microsoft infused $1 billion in OpenAI, and the rest is history. They built a supercomputer to train massive models that eventually created ChatGPT and the image generator DALL-E.

The latest language model, GPT-4, has 1 trillion parameters. Musk has now raised questions over how a non-profit has become a $30 billion maximum-profit company for Satya Nadella-run tech giant.

“I’m still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated $100 million somehow became a $30 billion market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn’t everyone do it?” he quipped.

Musk has also paused OpenAI access to Twitter database. The AI chatbot ChatGPT is now a rage and Microsoft has infused $10 billion into it to make it more useful for across industries.

ALSO READ-AI one of biggest risks to civilisation, warns Elon Musk

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India News Social Media

India govt blocked 110 YouTube channels since December 2021

In response to a separate question, the union minister said the Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau has busted more than 1,160 fake news…reports Asian Lite News

The central government has issued directions for blocking 110 YouTube-based news channels and 248 URLs since December, 2021 for carrying content against the sovereignty of the country, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, Thakur also said the National Crime Records Bureau did not maintain any separate data on journalists.

The minister was responding to a question put by Congress member Pradyut Bordoloi who had sought details and the number of journalists arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPA), Indian Penal Code and other penal laws during the last five years and the current year, news agency PTI reported.

YouTube.

Thakur said that ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are state subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India and state governments are responsible for prevention, detection and investigation of crimes and for prosecuting the criminals through their law enforcement agencies.

He said the Ministry has issued directions for blocking access of 110 YouTube-based news channels and 248 user generated URLs, including webpages, websites, posts/accounts on social media platforms, podcasts, and apps for carrying content referred to section 69A of the IT Act, 2000.

In response to a separate question, the union minister said the Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau has busted more than 1,160 fake news, it was reported.

The minister said the Fact Check Union takes cognizance of news both suo-motu and by way of queries sent by citizens, the report added.

Abusive content

Thakur on Sunday indicated that the government has taken a serious note of rising complaints about increasing abusive and obscene content shown on over the top (OTT) platforms and if need arises, it may change rules governing them.

Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Thakur said: “Abusive language in the name of creativity will not be tolerated. The government is serious about the complaints of increasing abusive and obscene content on OTT platforms. If there is a need to make any changes in the rules regarding this, the ministry is willing to consider that.”

He further said that “these platforms were given freedom for creativity, not obscenity”.

“Whatever necessary action needs to be taken on this, the government will not back down from it,” he said.

“The process so far is that the producer has to resolve the received complaints at the first level. Around 90 per cent to 92 per cent of the complaints are resolved by them by making necessary changes. The next level of complaint resolution is at the level of their association, where most of the complaints are resolved. At the last level, it comes to the level of the government, where action is taken at the departmental committee level, according to the rules that are in place.

“… but complaints have started increasing in the last few days and the department is taking it very seriously. If there is a need to make a change, we are willing to consider it seriously,” Thakur said.

ALSO READ-YouTube TV’s ‘multiview’ feature rolling out to all users

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Social Media Tech Lite

WhatsApp rolling out new updates for ‘communities’

Chinese hackers luring Indian WhatsApp users into 'part-time' jobs

WhatsApp also moved the community icon from the bottom bar to the chat header in order to improve the user interface and maintain consistency with other chats…reports Asian Lite News

To make it more user-friendly, Meta-owned WhatsApp has rolled out new updates to the community feature by introducing some changes to the interface of the “announcement group” for users on iOS and Android.

According to WABetaInfo, the company has renamed the announcement group to “Home” on WhatsApp beta for Android, and its new name is “Updates” on WhatsApp beta for iOS.

The community feature on WhatsApp allows users to create and join groups of people who share similar interests or hobbies.

The report said that this renaming decision may have been made because the announcement group is typically a read-only conversation to which only community admins have access, and it may not fit the traditional definition of a group.

WhatsApp also moved the community icon from the bottom bar to the chat header in order to improve the user interface and maintain consistency with other chats.

In addition, the latest WhatsApp Communities update for iOS and Android provides community admins with a more bug-free experience when posting messages to their community.

The new WhatsApp Communities update is now available to some users who have installed the latest versions of WhatsApp beta for iOS and Android, and it will be available to even more people in the coming days, the report said.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is reportedly working on a redesigned chat attachment menu for Android beta.

The tweaked chat attachment menu is more clearer and offers a better user-friendly experience.

ALSO READ-Lulu unveils AI-powered customer experiences on WhatsApp

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Social Media Tech Lite

YouTube TV’s ‘multiview’ feature rolling out to all users

YouTube TV's 'multiview' feature rolling out to all users.

Commenting on the announcement, one user asked, “Any chance it’ll ever be more than two screens? I have only ever seen that since yesterday.”..reports Asian Lite News

Video-sharing platform YouTube on Saturday announced that it is rolling out its streaming television service’s new “multiview” feature to all usersAthat allows subscribers to watch up to four different programs at the same time.

The company tweeted from its YouTube TV account: “Wow! We hear ya! We’re rolling out multiview streams to ALL users for the rest of the tournament.”

“We didn’t plan to release this beyond our test group so soon. Please be patient while we fine tune and fix known issues. Enjoy multiview early as we prep for a biiig fall.”

Commenting on the announcement, one user asked, “Any chance it’ll ever be more than two screens? I have only ever seen that since yesterday.”

To this, the platform replied, “since this is a pilot feature, we’re still figuring out the best configurations. you may see anywhere from 2 to 4 streams shown together based on the timing of when games are scheduled to begin and end.”

Earlier this week, the company had announced the “multiview” feature andAsaid that early access to multiview will roll out to all YouTube TV members over the next few months.

ALSO READ-UK govt to look into Youtube gathering child data  

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Social Media Tech Lite

GM may bring ChatGPT-like digital assistant for cars

General Motors

Announced internally, the cuts affected about 500 positions across the company’s various functions, reports CNBC, citing sources…reports Asian Lite News

Automaker General Motors (GM) is reportedly working on a virtual personal assistant based on the same machine learning models that power ChatGPT.

According to Semafor, citing sources, the voice-activated chatbot will be powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, which owns the OpenAI tech that powers ChatGPT.

In addition, Scott Miller, GM’s vice president of software-defined vehicle and operating system, confirmed that the company is developing an artificial intelligence assistant in order to go beyond current voice commands.

For instance, if a driver gets a flat tyre, they can ask the car to show them how to change it, which may result in the car playing an instructional video on an internal display.

Moreover, the report mentioned that the version of AI assistant in GM cars will behave differently than ChatGPT or Bing Chat because the automaker is working on adding another, more car-specific layer on top of the OpenAI models known for answering any question, often with unpredictable results.

Meanwhile, General Motors has laid off hundreds of workers from the company as it follows other major companies, including competitors, in downsizing headcounts to preserve cash and boost profits.

Announced internally, the cuts affected about 500 positions across the company’s various functions, reports CNBC, citing sources.

ALSO READ-AI chatbot ChatGPT unable to clear UPSC exams

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Business Social Media Tech Lite

Meta fires 10K more employees, shuts 5K open roles

In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes, he added…reports Asian Lite News

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced to sack an additional 10,000 employees via several job cut rounds in the coming months.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said overall, “we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired” in the company’s “year of efficiency”.

In a separate filing with the US SEC, Meta said the new job cuts will lower the high end of its expense guidance for the year by $3 billion.

Over the next couple of months, organisation leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening the organisations, cancelling lower priority projects, and reducing hiring rates.

“We will let recruiting team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted. We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May,” the Meta CEO said.

In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes, he added.

“Our timelines for international teams will also look different, and local leaders will follow up with more details,” said Zuckerberg.

The fresh cuts come just four months after he laid off 11,000 employees, or 13 per cent of the company, in November last year.

Zuckerberg said that after restructuring, Meta plans to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group.

“Other relevant efficiency timelines include targeting this summer to complete our analysis from our hybrid work year of learning so we can further refine our distributed work model. We also aim to have a steady stream of developer productivity enhancements and process improvements throughout the year,” he added.

In its ‘Year of Efficiency’, Meta will make the organisation flatter by removing multiple layers of management.

“As part of this, we will ask many managers to become individual contributors. We’ll also have individual contributors report into almost every level — not just the bottom — so information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster,” Zuckerberg noted.

ALSO READ-More layoffs likely in Meta

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Business Social Media

Lulu unveils AI-powered customer experiences on WhatsApp

Chinese hackers luring Indian WhatsApp users into 'part-time' jobs

Since July 2022, Salem has delivered over 300+ personalized offers on WhatsApp, recording a 40% increase in opt-ins through them…reports Asian Lite News

Committed to driving excellence in customer experience, international retailer Lulu Hypermarket has launched Salem, a new AI-powered customer service channel available on WhatsApp. The service is powered by Yellow.ai, a leading enterprise-grade Conversational AI platform.

Customers can now receive in-app purchase receipts, quickly track the delivery of their online orders and message for purchase-related customer support – all through WhatsApp. Customers in  the UAE can also use WhatsApp to order products for in-store collection.

Lulu Hypermarket has also become one of the first retailers in the Middle East to introduce a loyalty programme via WhatsApp, through which customers can sign up for personalized offers based on their purchase history. Since July 2022, Salem has delivered over 300+ personalized offers on WhatsApp, recording a 40% increase in opt-ins through them.

With deep backend integration with the retailer’s CRM and Order Management system, Salem is capable of efficiently engaging with customers across the stages of their purchase journey, and has markedly improved customer satisfaction by up to 60%.

V. NandaKumar, Director of Marketing and Communications at Lulu group, said: “Salem has considerably reduced the workload on Lulu Hypermarket’s customer support agents, allowing them to concentrate on more crucial tasks. Within 4 weeks of going live, it has successfully handled queries from over 3M unique users on WhatsApp and will continue to scale up in the coming months. At the same time, it is capable of smoothly switching customer conversations to live agent support in the case of complex issues”.

Raghu Ravinutala, CEO and Co-founder, Yellow.ai, said, “Conversational AI-powered solutions coupled with conversational commerce on messaging channels such as WhatsApp are quickly and effectively changing the game of retail digital commerce and helping brands stand out in a highly cluttered market. The sheer convenience quotient that this provides not only helps elevate customer experiences but also translates to greater conversion rates. And Salem is a true testimony to that. We are excited to work alongside a legacy brand like Lulu Hypermarket towards delivering delightful customer experiences and contributing to their overall digital transformation journey”.

Nicolas Farin, Head of Client Sales EMEA, Business Messaging at Meta says, “We continue to see a growing demand from customers, particularly in the Middle East, to connect with a business in the same way they chat with their friends and family – through quick, easy and secure messaging. We hope this partnership will continue to improve customer journeys, offering new and innovative ways to connect on WhatsApp”.

Click here to start a chat with Lulu Hypermarket on WhatsApp today!

ALSO READ-Lulu inks deal to promote UAE agricultural produce

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Social Media Tech Lite

Microsoft to bring toggle for profanity filtering in Teams

Microsoft.(Photo:Twitter)

With the options, users can make sure that their messages are “noticed and given the attention they deserve”, the company said in a statement…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft Teams, which allow users to view Live Captions within meetings, will soon support switching a profanity filter on or off with a toggle.

According to Windows Central, the feature is on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap and could be available as early as May 2023, though this is subject to change.

“With the newly introduced toggle for turn on/off profanity filtering, users will now be able to control whether they want to continue to leverage the profanity filtering capability provided out of box, or, if they want to see every word as-is,” according to the company.

Moreover, the report said that when the toggle for filtering Live Captions becomes available, it will be an option on Microsoft Teams for Windows and Mac. It should also be accessible to a wide range of clients, including government tenants, the report added.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has introduced new “set delivery” options in Teams, with which users can now mark their messages as important or urgent.

With the options, users can make sure that their messages are “noticed and given the attention they deserve”, the company said in a statement.

Navigate to the “Mark as important” button which is present beneath the compose box and select either the “Important” or “Urgent” option depending on the level of attention the message requires.

ALSO READ-WhatsApp rolls out picture-in-picture mode for video calls on iOS

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Social Media

WhatsApp may let users ‘mute calls’ from unknown numbers

WhatsApp.

With the new feature, the chat list will always be visible when opening a chat…reports Asian Lite News

Meta-owned WhatsApp is reportedly developing a new feature, “silence unknown callers”, which will allow users to mute calls from unknown numbers while still showing them in the calls list and notification centre.

According to WABetaInfo, the new feature is currently under development on WhatsApp beta for Android. This feature will also include several advantages, such as reducing interruptions and potentially avoiding spam calls.

Users will find the toggle located in the app settings, and once enabled, calls from unknown numbers will get silenced, but they will still be shown in the calls list and notification centre, said the report.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is rolling out a new “Split view” feature for tablets, which will allow users to see and use two different sections of the application side by side at the same time, on Android beta.

Usually, the chat view takes up the entire screen when users open a chat on the tablet version of the application and then users have to go back to the chat list again if they want to open a different conversation.

With the new feature, the chat list will always be visible when opening a chat.

WhatsApp rolling out ‘Split view’ feature

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is rolling out a new “Split view” feature for tablets, which will allow users to see and use two different sections of the application side by side at the same time, on Android beta.

Usually, the chat view takes up the entire screen when users open a chat on the tablet version of the application, reports WABetaInfo.

And then users have to go back to the chat list again if they want to open a different conversation. With the new feature, the chat list will always be visible when opening a chat.

The split view will help users to manage and organise chats by quickly scrolling through the list of conversations without having the need to exit the current chat. The new feature is available after installing the latest update of WhatsApp beta for Android from the Play Store, and is expected to roll out to more users over the coming days, the report said.

ALSO READ-WhatsApp rolls out picture-in-picture mode for video calls on iOS