Are social networks healthy?
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Facebook has 3 billion users
Facebook now has over 3 billion monthly active users, and the meta-app family as a whole has 3.88 billion. Daily active users have risen to 2.064 billion. The Reels feature recorded 200 billion daily views. The new platform Threads reached 100 million users in 5 days, with millions returning daily.
Youtube has 2.5 billion users
Google reports that over 2 billion users watch YouTube shorts monthly. This is an increase of 1.5 billion year-on-year. YouTube generated $7.67 billion from advertising in Q2 2023, exceeding expectations. New advertising formats are planned. In addition, Google reaches 150 million people via Connected TV in the US.
AI is blind
OpenAI has withdrawn its AI Classifier, a tool for identifying AI-generated text, due to a lack of accuracy. When first released, it correctly recognized only 25% of AI texts and incorrectly classified 10% of human texts as AI-generated. OpenAI is currently researching more efficient techniques for text origin recognition.
ChatGPT is getting worse
A study by Stanford and UC Berkeley shows that the performance of OpenAI's GPT models degrades over time. In particular, there were performance degradations in maths tasks, sensitive questions, and code generation. GPT-4's ability to identify prime numbers dropped from 97.6% to 2.4%, and code generation dropped from 52% to 10%. Researchers recommend regular monitoring of LLM services.
Facebook groups divide
New research points to ideological segregation on Facebook and Instagram. Groups and pages in particular contribute to polarisation and often spread misinformation. Conservative content is more often classified as false, indicating higher exposure to political misinformation.