Tag Archive for Artificial intelligence

| October 24, 2024
Comments Off on Securing Your Data from LinkedIn AI Models

Securing Your Data from LinkedIn AI Models

Securing Your Data from LinkedIn AI ModelsIn September 2024, LinkedIn started using your data to train its artificial intelligence (AI).  LinkedIn’s AI is a large language model (LLM) designed to recognize patterns and connections within data. LinkedIn’s generative AI is trained on huge sets of data. The data is often scraped from publicly available Internet resources. Think news articles, academic research, government reports and public information, for example.  It need the data to learn how to improve grammar, vocabulary, and context.  The more diverse and higher-quality data it collects, the better its predictions and accuracy.

LinkedIn's generative AITo improve its bot, LinkedIn collects data when you interact with its generative AI, whether composing a post, changing your preferences, or providing feedback.  LinkedIn also gathers data when you engage with other people’s posts on LinkedIn.  The artificial intelligence training option is turned ‘on’ by default.

Fortunately, LinkedIn added an opt-out option for the LLM training.  Otherwise, beginning November 20, it would start using your data for AI training.  According to LinkedIn’s FAQ page,

“opting out means that LinkedIn and its affiliates will not use your personal data or content on LinkedIn to train models going forward, but it does not affect training that has already taken place.”

affiliatesMicrosoft owns LinkedIn, which means that LinkedIn “affiliates” refer to companies owned by Microsoft.  Microsoft has a stake in 289 companies, including five artificial intelligence firms.  Therefore, based on LinkedIn’s FAQ statement, LinkedIn’s LLM and its 289 affiliates use your data.

One of the primary concerns about LinkedIn using your data for AI training is the potential invasion of your privacy.  These models often produce outputs based on the data provided during training.  A generative artificial intelligence model will show you rehashed or repurposed versions of its training data as output.  Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security, told Technopedia,

“It’s likely that elements of your writing, photos, or videos will be merged with other people’s content to build AI outputs.”

Stop LinkedIn from using your data to train its AI

Stop LinkedIn From Using Your DataTo stop LinkedIn from using your data to train its AI models, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your LinkedIn account.
  2. Click on your profile picture in the header menu.
  3. Click the “Me” option in the top bar
  4. Choose “Settings & Privacy.”

Choose "Settings & Privacy."

5.  Next, select “Data Privacy” from the left sidebar and click on “Data for Generative AI Improvement” on the right.

Choose "Data Privacy"

6.  Under the “How LinkedIn uses your data” section, look for the “Data for Generative AI Improvement” option.

Toggle the setting to "Off".

7.  Toggle the setting to “Off.”

These steps prevent LinkedIn from using your data for future artificial intelligence training.

rb-

Congrats to LinkedIn.  Despite sneaking the change in without telling us, they did the right thing and made it easy to opt out.  Google requires you to download a special tool to edit your robots.text file.

Related article

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT for a while and has blogged from the Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that has caught my attention since 2005.  You can follow me on Facebook or Mastodon.  Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,
| September 28, 2024
Comments Off on Job Scams That Will Compromise Your Safety

Job Scams That Will Compromise Your Safety

Job Scams That Will Compromise Your SafetyJob scams are on the rise. NBC reports that they increased by 118% from 2022. Job scams are essentially fake job postings. The scammer is trying to access your bank account and looking for your personal information. The rise in remote work and advancements in AI have made it easier for scammers to create convincing fake job listings.

Mark Anthony Dyson has written an interesting article on the Job Scam Report about conducting a safe job search. He warns that job scammers are hijacking the hiring process to steal personal information in the long run. However, they are also after cash in the short run. According to the FTC, the typical job scam victim in 2023 lost $2,000. Additionally, the article details five myths about job scams that are putting job seekers at risk.

Your future

Dyson says that bad guys are running scams to compromise personal info. The Better Business Bureau reports that employment scams were the number one riskiest scam for people ages 18-44 in 2023. Consequently, if scammers get hold of data, your future financial and employment will be adversely affected. 

He points out that most scams are just old scams with new layers and better disguises. They use basic social engineering tactics, like phishing links, infected files, and fake landing pages. We’ve known about all of these tactics for decades.

Dyson says some job seekers let their guard down, and others give up on their job search. However, this critical error in judgment makes everyone more vulnerable to job scam myths like:

Job scams ONLY target the desperate.

Scammers use social engineering to cast a wide net.False: Scammers use social engineering to cast a wide net. They want to find anyone looking for something better. They create offers that are “too good to be true” and uniquely plausible. The “offers” are designed to pique the interest of the receiver. The BBB warns that if you are offered a job without a formal interview with excellent pay and benefits, it’s likely a scam.

How to stay safe: Don’t entertain the possibilities unless you know who sent it to you. One way to verify the sender is to search for the number quickly in Google. If the number is associated with a legitimate business, you should see that the business’s website appears in the first few results. Verify that the number shows up on that business’s website.

Job scams are easy to spot.

False: Job scams evolve just as the job market changes. The author points out that job scams increase when unemployment and uncertainty rise. The growing use of AI is currently driving this trend.  

How to stay safe: Read articles like this about job scams. In addition, check out the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker, which catalogs over 34,000 scams. The BBB is working closely with the FBI to identify scammers.

Legitimate companies won’t ask for personal or financial information.

Legitimate companies don't ask for personal information upfrontTrue: Legitimate companies don’t ask for personal information upfront as a candidate. Once hired, your personal information, such as your social security number or bank account, is necessary, but not before you are hired. Moreover, the BBB states you should be especially wary if someone pressures you to divulge your information, saying the job offer will only last if you fill out all the forms.

How to stay safe: Follow your instincts. Never give sensitive information to anyone you aren’t sure you can trust. Does something seem “a little off?” If that is the case, disconnect and report the crime to the FBI’s ic3.gov or the FTC. You should also contact the job board if that’s where you encountered the scam. Most job sites have a mechanism for reporting these types of issues.

Additionally, Dyson says you must contact the appropriate institutions (bank, credit card, etc.) if you have given up your personal information, cash, or both.

Once scammed, you’ll know how not to get scammed again.

False: No matter how tech-savvy you may be, you are still vulnerable to social engineering tactics. You can be a victim more than once. Different scams can look the same. The bad guys take advantage of job seekers who are desperate and anxious; others are curious due to the “desirable” opportunity they seek.

How to stay safe: You must do your due diligence and research every part of your job search to ensure the opportunity is legitimate. Research the person who contacted you. Look them up. A quick LinkedIn search should reveal if they work for the company they claim to represent. Additionally, you can find the company’s contact information on their official website (check the URL) and contact them directly to ask if they are hiring for the position you’re applying for. You can go even further and verify the website at ICANN here. If they say they’ve been in business for five years, but the website was created a week ago, that is a huge red flag for a job scam.

Once scammed, there’s nothing more to do.

your personal information is their end gameFalse: Once you’re an online scam victim, the work is just beginning. The scammers may have gotten away with some money, but your personal information is their end game. They want to steal your identity and cause damage to YOUR NAME:

They can use your personal info to:

  • Get bank accounts.
  • Open Credit cards.
  • Incur Medical care resulting in medical bills.
  • Apply to multiple jobs in the same company.
  • Scam other people.

How to stay safe: Start before they scam you. Be proactive and protect your personal information. The author suggests you:

  • Regularly change your passwords.
  • Freeze your credit and bank accounts and credit reports.

Furthermore, if you fall victim to a scam, tell your network. The scammers can create social media accounts to scam others in your name.

Related article

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT for a while and has blogged from the Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that has caught my attention since 2005. You can follow me on Facebook or Mastodon. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| September 20, 2024
Comments Off on Can You Identify AI Images? Find Out Now!

Can You Identify AI Images? Find Out Now!

Can You Identify AI Images? Find Out Now!Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the tech-du jour.  A significant 77% of consumers have already interacted with AI platforms in their daily lives. Nevertheless, when distinguishing between machine-generated images and real ones, only 40% of people are successful. Although some images are straightforward, prepare to be amazed by how realistic AI-generated images can be—or how peculiar real-life photos can appear. To test your AI acumen, Microsoft has designed a quiz. Can you accurately identify AI-generated images from real ones?

Real or Not quiz

SpidermanThe Real or Not quiz features fifteen distinct photos curated by Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice Chair and president. To begin with, your task is to determine whether each image is machine-generated or a genuine photograph. Furthermore, the quiz dynamically selects different images for each attempt, allowing you to test your AI senses continually.

My repeated attempts at the quiz yielded no straightforward answers. The BOT’s ability to produce convincing images is impressive. My highest score was 11 out of 15, achieving a commendable 73%. Finally, the results also provide context by comparing your score to other Real or Not participants. You can also include your scores at the bottom of this to see how you score compared to other Bach Seat readers.

Clues to AI

When examining images, watch for subtle clues that reveal whether they are AI-generated or authentic. While the expert AI excels at creating overall authentic scenes, scrutinizing finer details often reveals peculiarities.

AI Yoga Fail Pay attention to:

  • Doors merging.
  • Ladders that lead to nowhere.
  • Heavy machinery that is oddly placed and appears pristine.

Consider the eyes: Are they natural or flat? As for hands, AI still struggles. While improvements have been made, odd-looking fingers persist in AI images. Conversely, complex hand gestures or positions often indicate real photos.

rb-

These Artificial Intelligence-generated images pose a significant threat in political and cultural contexts. Any user can fabricate compromising images of public figures. This underscores the importance of vigilant scrutiny. Those who mindlessly doom scrolling may miss the subtle clues that reveal the true nature of the images they encounter.

Remember, as AI technology continues to evolve, our ability to discern between real and AI-generated content becomes even more critical. Stay curious, stay informed, and always question what you see online. 

Take the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence quiz and post your results here.

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

 

Related article

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT for a while and has blogged from the Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that has caught my attention since 2005. You can follow me on Facebook or Mastodon. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,
| September 6, 2024
Comments Off on What You Could do with the NVIDIA Record Loss this Week?

What You Could do with the NVIDIA Record Loss this Week?

Artificial intelligence bellwether stock NVIDIA (NVDA) announced its 2025 Q2 fiscal results on Tuesday. America’s second-largest public company ended the quarter with $30.04 billion in revenue. However, shares dropped 9.5%, leading to a $278.9 billion reduction in the company’s value.

What You Could do with the NVIDIA Record loss this week?

Analysts attribute NVIDIA’s stock decline to its Q3 revenue guidance of $32.5 billion, below the Wall Street ‘whisper number’ of $33 billion to $34 billion.

NVIDIA’s $278.9 billion loss is the largest single-day loss by a U.S. company, surpassing Meta’s $237 billion loss in February 2022.

Unexpected NVIDIA Q3 guidance

The unexpected Q3 guidance miss triggered a sell-off, likely driven by NVIDIA’s AI chips in trading systems, causing the $278.9 billion decline.

RB-

Sure, I could write about an AI Hype Cycle, a rickety economy, or a DOJ investigation with a 50/50 chance of a convicted felon becoming President. But it seemed more fun to put this loss into perspective:

  • A stack of $100 bills totaling $1 million would be about 43 inches tall (just over 3.5 feet). To put the enormity of NVIDIA's loss into perspective
  • Stacking $278.9 billion in $100 bills would reach approximately 189 miles, the distance from New York City to Washington, D.C.
  • It would also fill the Empire State Building 25 times over.

Or I could:

  • Buy Pebble Beach golf course for $3.2 Billion,
  • All 32 teams in the National Hockey League. The NHL can be got for $41.9 Billion, as well,
  • All 32 National Football League franchises. The entire NFL is worth $162 Billion,
  • End Homelessness in the U.S.
  • And still have cash on hand.

 

Related article

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT for a while and has blogged from the Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that has caught my attention since 2005. You can follow me on Facebook or Mastodon. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,
| July 15, 2024
Comments Off on Artificial Intelligence Firms You Should Know

Artificial Intelligence Firms You Should Know

Artificial Intelligence Firms You should KnowOn June 20th, 2024, artificial intelligence darling Nvidia surpassed $3 trillion in market cap. As a result, the chip maker became the most valuable company in the world, beating out Microsoft and Apple. Some are wondering if Nvidia’s current valuation is justified and sustainable. Some are arguing that we’re still just at the beginning of the Generative AI boom. However, others aren’t yet convinced that AI will deliver on the hype that tools like ChatGPT have created.

Generative artificial intelligence

In this context, Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) refers to a trending class of machine learning applications that are able to create new data, including text, images, video, or sounds, based on a large dataset on which it has been trained. Here are some other GenAI firms that could be some alternate firms to check out if NVIDIA is too rich to buy at this level.

Artificial Intelligence vendors

Adobe

Adobe is most famous for its creative software like PhotoShop. However, the company has expanded into artificial intelligence. Adobe planned to acquire Figma in a $20 billion deal announced in September 2022. They called off the deal in December 2023 due to antitrust concerns in Europe. Adobe’s latest image generation model, Firefly 3, announced in April 2024. The model brings a new level of high-quality images and better understanding of prompts given.

  • Key Products: Adobe Sensei, Adobe Firefly, AI Assistant
  • Company value: $200.86 billion

Alphabet (Google)

Google logoGoogle and its parent company Alphabet expanded into artificial intelligence with the formation of its Google AI division in 2017. In 2023, the company announced BARD. The company designed BARD to compete with Microsoft’s integration of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. The early release was marked by reported internal disapproval of the product. 

  • Key Products: Gemini, Vertex AI, Gemini for Google Workspace
  • Company value: $1.72 trillion

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web ServicesKnown for its scalable cloud infrastructure, Amazon has also thrown its virtual hat into artificial intelligence ring. Yet, the e-commerce and cloud giant finds itself playing catch-up in generative AI.

According to Business Insider’s sources, a stealth internal project code-named Metis, is it next step in AI.  “Metis” will be powered by an internal Amazon AI model called Olympus. The latter will power Remarkable Alexa, a new, more capable version of Alexa for a  monthly subscription fee. 

Metis will reportedly use a technique called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), according to BI. RAG will enable Metis to retrieve information from beyond the original data used to train the underlying model. This means Metis will offer more up-to-date responses like the latest stock prices or medical reaserach, while other chatbots still produce inaccurate or outdated information.

AWS offers a suite of AI services, including GenAI models for text, speech and image processing.

  • Key Products: Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Amazon SageMaker
  • Company value: $1.79 trillion

Anthropic logoAnthropic

Anthropic announced the third generation of its Claude generative AI chatbot, which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Claude AI is a constitutional chatbot. It has been trained to make judgments based on a set of principles taken from documents including the 1948 UN Declaration and Apple’s terms of service, which expands to issues in the digital domain. Claude 2 has complex choice-making capabilities and scored 76.5% on the multiple choice section of the bar exam. While it hasn’t quite had the publicity of the big artificial intelligence chatbots it looks like Anthropic might have created a worthy competitor.

  • Key Products: Claude 3, Claude API
  • Company value: $15 billion

Cohere

Cohere logoCohere is a company which focuses on building artificial intelligence models for enterprise customers. Enterprise customers can use their own data to train their AI models, without sharing that data. Their primary focus is on creating AI systems that can: understand, generate and, interact with human language.

  • Key Products: Command, Embed, Chat, Generate, Semantic Search
  • Company value: $2.2 billion

IBM

IBM logoIBM’s Watson was the first artificial intelligence language model technology to attain global notoriety, as a result of its 2011 victory on the quiz show Jeopardy!. Watson was question-answering platform, initially developed from 2004-2011. Since then, its deep learning capabilities have been applied to a wide range of industries, including healthcare, cuisine, hospitality, water conservation, and more. IBM has continued to evolve it’s AI capabilities. In the past 5 years, IBM has filed 1,591 AI-related US patent applications. In April 2024, IBM announced its acquisition of HasiCorp. for $6.4 billion.

  • Key Products: WatsonX.ai, Code Assistant, Slate, Granite
  • Company value: $153.76 billion

Jasper

Jasper AIJasper uses artificial intelligence to help businesses write marketing content. They claim it can write the same content much faster than a human being can, in a tone of voice that customers relate to and find familiar. It helps businesses generate consistent and effective digital marketing content, from blog posts to social media updates.

  • Key Products: Jasper, Jasper API, Jasper AI Copilot
  • Company value: $1.2 billion

Meta (Facebook)

Meta logoMeta (formerly known as Facebook) has grown to where 3.14 billion people interact with one of their platform’s daily. The company is known for its social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. While the company has faced criticisms harmful misinformation, polarizing political content, and data leaks.

For years, Meta has used artificial intelligence to recommend posts in our feeds, moderate content, and target ads behind the scenes in Instagram and Facebook.

  • Key Products: Meta AI, Llama 2.0, Llama 3.0 (coming soon), Seamless Communication models
  • Company value: $1.252 trillion

Microsoft largest artificial intelligence company

Microsoft logoMicrosoft has claimed to be the world’s largest artificial intelligence company. MSFT has made a $10 billion investment in OpenAI in January 2023. They then integrated ChatGPT generative AI chatbot and Dall-E image generation into the Bing search engine and Edge web browser.

  • Key Products: Microsoft Copilot, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Copilot in Bing
  • Company value: $3.01 trillion

Midjourney

Midjourney.comMidjourney AI specializes in creating AI-powered tools that generate realistic and imaginative images from text descriptions. It offers tiered subscriptions and allows users to monetize their AI-assisted artwork. It’s integrated into various platforms, including Discord and Microsoft Edge.

In late March 2023, Midjourney suspended free trials due to people abusing the system.

  • Key Products: Midjourney AI
  • Company value: $10 billion

NVIDIA king of artificial intelligence

NVIDIA logoNVIDIA started working on 3D graphics graphics processing units (GPUs) for multimedia and gaming companies in 1993. The company also began creating artificial intelligence applications back in 2012. Today, NVIDIA is generally considered the leader in AI technology as it is at the forefront of AI and is developing software, chips and AI-related services.The company commands 87% of the GPU market and has had a hand in major AI technology advancements, including ChatGPT, which was trained using 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs. The NVIDIA NeMO LLM’s status as one of the most advanced large language models, along with a new partnership with Microsoft, further cement its place among prominent AI companies.

  • Key Products: NVIDIA AI, NVIDIA NeMo, NVIDIA BioNeMo, NVIDIA Picasso, various chips and GPUs
  • Company value: $2.14 trillion

OpenAI sparked the artificial intelligence boom

OpenAI logoOpenAI continues to lead the GenAI space with its GPT-4 model, widely used across industries for natural language processing tasks. OpenAI’s tools are integrated into numerous applications, from customer service chatbots to creative writing assistants.

In contrast, OpenAI has famously scooped up data from everywhere to train its chatbots, like Reddit. And, when a user uploads information into OpenAI to ask ChatGPT to do a task, OpenAI uses that data to train its models for everyone’s use. Users can opt out of that, but it’s one of the reasons why companies warn their employees not to share data with OpenAI.

  • Key Products: GPT-4, ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Sora
  • Company value: $80 billion

Stability AI

Stability.ai logoStability AI excels in creating advanced AI models, particularly the Stable Diffusion series, that generate high-quality, realistic images from text prompts. They offer models in multiple languages and for commercial use, emphasizing photorealism and complex prompt processing.

  • Key Products: Stable Diffusion XL, Stable Video Diffusion, Stable Audio, Stable Zero123

Related article

Ralph Bach has been in IT for a while and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow me on Facebook. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Artificial ntelligence | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries