TVs, big-ticket electronics and small kitchen appliances are where you’re going to find some of the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. This one is no secret ... become available,” said Vivek Pandya, group manager at Adobe Digital Insights ...

What to buy (and skip) on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023

Finding Opportunity at AfroTech Will Cleveland has always had a thing for analytics. Throughout his career, he’s been charged with figuring out strategies via content curation that give customers the data they need to make the best decisions possible.

How Will Cleveland Found His Dream Job Driving Inclusive Travel with Analytics at Expedia Group

Oct. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Amazon, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Glassdoor, Tripadvisor, and Trustpilot announced they have teamed up to launch the global Coalition for Trusted Reviews ...

Amazon, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Glassdoor, Tripadvisor, and Trustpilot Launch First Global Coalition for Trusted Reviews

PRNewswire/ — Today, Amazon, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Glassdoor, Tripadvisor ... all of whom agreed to join together to fight fake review content on the Internet. To further maintain the credibility and authenticity of reviews on our platforms ...

Around 75 brands with outlets across Dubai are taking part in the campaign Dubai: The Dubai Jewellery Group will add more ... Tourism (DET), is offering the deals, offers and prizes as part ...

Dubai Jewellery Group announces prizes, deals this Diwali

Sony has said it has launched an investigation after a ransomware group claimed to have breached the company’s systems. Cyber Security Connect reported that a ransomware group calling itself ...

Sony Launches Investigation After Ransomware Group Claims to Have Breached Company’s Systems

Sony is currently facing a cyberattack, according to reports and a notice put out by the ransomware operator who conducted the operation. As of September 25, it has been announced that “all of ...

Sony Group Corporation Reportedly Faces Major Cyber-Hack; Ransomware Group Claims the Data Is for Sale

Dubai, UAE – Dubai Jewellery Group (DJG), the leading trade body for the jewellery ... DJG aims to make Diwali celebrations more radiant than ever by offering an array of irresistible deals, prizes and offers across a variety of jewellery brands in ...

Dubai Jewellery Group announces unbelievable prizes and deals this Diwali

Group members can like, comment, save more ideas, and see what's already been booked across places to stay, flights, activities and car rentals. Available on the Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo apps. Price tracking: view price history, receive alerts when ...

Expedia Group uncovers top desired locations for Canadian sports fans and how much they spend to see their teams on the road

Expedia wants travelers to be ready for 2022. That’s why the travel planning company has published a list of hacks that are meant to help consumers save money and ease stress.

expedia group inc.

Expedia Group, Inc. operates as an online travel company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Core Online Travel Agencies, Trivago, Vrbo, and Egencia. Its brand portfolio include Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand with localized websites; Hotels.com for marketing and distributing lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Expedia Partner Solutions, a business-to-business brand that provides travel offerings for various airlines and hotels, online and offline travel agencies, loyalty and corporate travel companies, and various consumer brands; and Egencia, which provides corporate travel management services. The company's brand portfolio also comprise Orbitz, Travelocity, and CheapTickets travel Websites; ebookers, a full-service travel brand; Hotwire, an online travel Website; Expedia Group Media Solutions that provides media partnerships and digital marketing solutions; trivago, an online hotel metasearch platform; and Expedia Local Expert, a provider of online and in-market concierge services, activities, experiences, and ground transportation. In addition, its brand portfolio consists of CarRentals.com, an online car rental booking service; Classic Vacations, a luxury travel specialist; Expedia CruiseShipCenters, a provider of advice for travelers booking cruises and vacations; and SilverRail, a provider of a rail retail and distribution platform connecting rail carriers and suppliers to online and offline travel distributors. Further, the company provides online travel services through its Wotif.com, lastminute.com.au, travel.com.au, Wotif.co.nz, and lastminute.co.nz brands; loyalty programs; and advertising and media services. It serves leisure and corporate travelers. The company was formerly known as Expedia, Inc. and changed its name to Expedia Group, Inc. in March 2018. Expedia Group, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Expedia Group, Inc. operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Retail, B2B, and trivago segments. Its brand portfolio include Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand with localized websites; Hotels.com for marketing and distributing lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, and CheapTickets travel websites; ebookers, an online EMEA travel agent for travelers an array of travel options; Hotwire, which offers travel booking services; CarRentals.com, an online car rental booking service; Classic Vacations, a luxury travel specialist; and Expedia Cruise, a provider of advice for travelers booking cruises. The company's brand portfolio also comprise Expedia Partner Solutions, a business-to-business brand that provides travel and non-travel vertical, which includes corporate travel management, airlines, travel agents, online retailers and financial institutions; and Egencia that provides corporate travel management services. In addition, its brand portfolio consists of Trivago, a hotel metasearch website, which send referrals to online travel companies and travel service providers from hotel metasearch websites; and Expedia Group Media solutions. Further, the company provides online travel services through its Wotif.com, lastminute.com.au, travel.com.au, Wotif.co.nz, and lastminute.co.nz brands; loyalty programs; hotel accommodations and alternative accommodations; and advertising and media services. It serves leisure and corporate travelers. The company was formerly known as Expedia, Inc. and changed its name to Expedia Group, Inc. in March 2018. Expedia Group, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Expedia Group

The coworker that just left the company may be back, and they might return sooner than expected. The new class of workers, sometimes called “boomerang employees” because they leave and return to their employer, are not as disadvantaged in the job market as conventional might suggest. career advice More than two out of five professionals (42%) believed their current company treats former employees fairly during the interview process, according to a survey of 3,129 verified professionals in the U.S. from the Blind. professional social network In contrast, 14% think a potential boomerang employee does not have a fair shot compared to a fresh, new-to-the-company candidate. The remaining 44% polled by Blind were unsure. For the millions of Americans who left their jobs in the last year amid “ ,” the survey findings might be welcome news. The Great Resignation What is a boomerang employee? A boomerang employee is someone who leaves a company and returns later. The worker can come back to their same role or another, including at a more senior position or a different department entirely. The benefits of being a boomerang employee It can pay off to return to a former employer as a boomerang employee. Because they have worked at the company already, boomerang employees may have a leg up on other candidates and new hires once rehired. More than four out of five current job interviewers (86%) view candidates that used to work at the company more positively, according to Blind, compared to 14% who said: “more negatively.” Blind found every professional who interviews job candidates as part of their role at LinkedIn said they favored former LinkedIn employees. More than nine out of 10 current job interviewers at Adobe, Capital One, Expedia Group, Google, Indeed.com, Meta (Facebook), Salesforce, Uber, VMware and Zillow Group said the same. Click for full CSV data from the poll. here A boomerang employee is typically already familiar with the company culture and how to get work done. Often, the professional also comes with new skills and experiences from the time spent at another employer. The result may be less training or onboarding required. What to know about a boomerang job offer Professionals considering returning to a past employer should first understand whether being a boomerang employee is possible. Many companies have a standard called “eligibility for rehire,” which typically requires a track record of meeting expectations. Someone terminated for poor performance, violating company policy, or even leaving on bad terms, usually cannot come back as a boomerang employee. Some companies also have a “cool-off” period, which makes some former employees ineligible for rehiring for a specific time. Ex-employees might be barred from coming back for several months or as long as one year or more. The policy is rare, and nearly half of professionals (44%) do not know if their company has one in effect, according to Blind. Only one in 10 worked surveyed by Blind said their company had a cool-off period or similar policy, making former employees ineligible for rehire, while 46% said their companies did not. Cool-off periods for former employees may be more common among large companies, but the policy is not limited to specific company sizes or industries. A plurality of verified professionals at Bloomberg said their company had a cool-off or similar policy. Many Oracle, Twitter and Walmart employees reported the same, too. The bottom line Professionals who quit their job as part of the “Great Resignation” or left the workforce because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have another option in today’s job market: their previous employer. Companies may be more likely to hire a boomerang employee than other candidates, according to Blind. Methodology Blind conducted an online survey of 3,129 verified professionals in the U.S. on its platform from Nov. 23 to 30, 2021, to understand whether companies may be treating returning former employees differently than other candidates when hiring. Also published on Teamblind's blog

Your Old Employer Might be Your Best Bet for a New Job 

The size of data to be analyzed is becoming huge and massive day by day with the applications gaining adhesion. Some problems such as unmanageable data size and queries taking a lot of time are sure to be encountered. Here comes the need for a competent data warehousing solution for data storage that will assist with keeping your data organized as well as making it easily accessible for analytics and reporting. What is Amazon Redshift? is a cloud-based, petabyte-scale data warehouse service that is provided and fully managed by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is a solution that is well efficient and effective to collect and store all your data. You can analyze it by making use of various business intelligence tools available out there to gain insights for your customers and business. Amazon Redshift Top 6 Benefits of Amazon Redshift Below listed are a few of the merits or advantages of Amazon Redshift. Let’s dive into them one by one: 1: Horizontally Scalable Amazon Redshift is horizontally scalable. Scalability is a very mandatory feature for any Data Warehousing solution and activities. We just need to append or add extra nodes using Cluster API or AWS Console, whenever there is a requirement of high storage or speed. The application, though, stays uninterrupted during this process, as the existing cluster remains available for the read operations. The transition process here is quite smooth and flexible as data is moved parallelly between nodes of old and new clusters. 2: High Performance: Several factors are adding up to the high performance of Redshift such as query optimization, efficient data compression, and parallelism. A huge and repetitive type of data is stored in the columnar storage database. This further leads to a decrease of I/O operations on disk which increases the performance. 3: Security: There are many security features inbuilt with Amazon Redshift. Data Encryption, VPC for network isolation, various ways to access control options are available. Cluster Encryption can be enabled at the time of launching the cluster to encrypt data stored in the cluster. Server-side encryption and client-side encryption can be used when loading data from S3. 4: Massive Storage Capacity: Redshift offers a petabyte range of data storage. We can choose Dense Storage type of compute nodes that offer large storage space. You can add more nodes to your cluster to exceed it beyond the petabyte range. 5: SQL Interface: Redshift Query Engine is similar to the interface as PostgreSQL, which is based on ParAccel. It is also readily compatible with Postgres JDBC/ODBC Drivers. 6: Transparent and Attractive Pricing: Redshift is considerably cheap than other on-premise alternative solutions prevalent. We are flexible to opt whether we can choose the expense as a capital expense or operational expense. Use Cases of Amazon Redshift in Industry There are various use cases where Amazon Redshift is being applied in the industry. Let’s look up to some live examples: 1: Operational analytics on business events: Amazon Redshift has been used for gathering together structured data from the data warehouse and semi-structured data from application logs so that we can acquire real-time insights on applications and systems. 2: Business Intelligence: We can build extremely amazing and powerful reports and dashboards using existing business intelligence tools. This proves quite simple and cost-effective to run high-performance queries on huge petabytes of structured data. 3: Expedia Group makes use of Amazon Redshift: Expedia has been using this a standard deployment model to develop and deploy applications faster, troubleshoot problems as well as scale to process large volumes of data. 4: Mission-Critical Workloads: Data Sitting which takes place into feeds into time-sensitive apps. This is mainly responsible for the database to remain active, otherwise, it would adversely affect the business. Redshift 5: Storing and Processing Data with Log Analysis: Some of the benefits offered here are, the maximum amount of fidelity is ensured with no information lost. Slicing and Dicing can be possible in any dimension. 6: Quick Analysis of Data for Business Applications in enterprises such as Brooks Brothers, Intuit, and Royal Dutch Shell: Redshift offers analytics in a SaaS model to its customers. The mentioned enterprises proactively use Redshift to deploy machine-learning models, mission-critical applications, business-critical SAP applications, and identification of cyber-security threats. Conclusion has devised Amazon Redshift, which is an excellent solution when it comes to data warehousing. It has many benefits over other alternatives such as Snowflake and Bigquery. It has cut down the cost of running a data warehouse, as it is cheap and allows storing entry-level data. Above are the use cases discussed which include data-driven services creating new revenue streams for companies. SNDK Corp In this conclusion, we will summarize some features of Amazon Redshift in a nutshell. It is extremely scalable and provides high performance. It is secure and easy to manage. Some of the readily available management points include automated backups, fault tolerance, and integration with third-party tools. Some of the security features encountered are network isolation, end-to-end encryption, and audit and compliance. Also published on: https://www.sndkcorp.com/amazon-redshift-introduction/

6 Reasons to Use Amazon Redshift

Just when everyone thought it was just another distraction by the nerdy coders of this world and not to be taken seriously, the price of one bitcoin appreciated from just around $0.008 per bitcoin to $0.08 per coin after the infamous event of purchasing just one pizza with 10,000 bitcoins and boom! everyone’s attention at least those in Wall Street who love to trade gains got interested. With its’ usual meteoric rise, the price of bitcoin hits all-time high and like a Fugazi, it fritters away with horrific speed bashing the most erudite technical analysis put forward by experts leaving them aghast. appreciating more than 900% in between 2 months in 2010 With the usual jamboree saw being celebrated by crypto lovers and general cryptocurrency communities whenever an industry giant drums support for bitcoin or other digital assets, the disappointment is usually palpable when the plug is pulled on digital assets. In this piece, let’s look at some of the big guns who have rejected bitcoin and other digital assets after initially giving their blessings. Fiverr In the wake of January, many of the users of Fiverr an Israeli based freelance giant were hit with the shocking news of Fiverr’s abrupt stop on its support for Bitcoin the foremost digital asset. The team reads exact mail sent by Fiverr “We noticed that you previously used Bitcoin to purchase services on Fiverr. Effective January 19, 2017, Bitcoin will no longer be accepted as a form of payment on Fiverr. However, you will still be able to make purchases using your debit or credit card, PayPal, or Fiverr credit. Thank you for your understanding, Fiverr Team” While this came as a rude shock to users who preferred the bitcoin payment option, Fiverr didn’t explicitly state their reasons for their decision giving room for speculations. Many cited the the state of Israel enacted taxing bitcoin and other digital assets for being classified as properties rather than currency as their reason. Some other users didn’t appear to care much as they felt it caused an enormous sell pressure on bitcoin as Fiverr never paid sellers who receive their pay in bitcoin as they exercised their full powers as the middleman thereby converting to fiat before crediting the sellers (freelancers). recent laws However the perception of freelancers and the general public had about this incident, you will agree with me that for a platform which generates huge revenues and is home for more than 3 million freelancers reported to have grown by over 600% in just around 8 years of its existence while ranking among the first 450 sites globally, no doubt triggered some seismic shocks. Expedia Expedia a popular travel giant is another big name that its support for bitcoin it has given to the foremost digital currency as far back as 2014. Expedia.com is a travel booking website owned by Expedia Group. The website can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, and vacation packages. In 2018, it silently stopped accepting payment from its users in bitcoin citing slow transactions confirmation, difficulty in facilitating a transaction, high transactions fees and double charges where users who have made payment using bitcoin still have to use their cards for payment as key reasons. For a company like Expedia whose gross booking amounted to approximately , the exposure and adoption bitcoin and perhaps other digital assets such as the Ripple coin, Ethereum, Stellar Lumen etc., would have continued to enjoy is undoubtedly a huge miss for digital assets. aborted 99.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 Reddit Reddit is another notable platform that stopped accepting bitcoin for subscription of gold membership users of its platform. Reddit the difficulty of accessing bitcoin payment option by its users and the change in Coinbase’s decision to discontinue their Merchant Tool product in favor of Coinbase Commerce policy by Coinbase as it’s the reason for removing the crypto payment option from its platform. While this may not be seen to matter much, Reddit as a platform monthly views of up to 18 billion, 330 million registered redditors, with over 150,000 communities known as subreddits. cited commands Microsoft The technology giant dealt a massive blow to the hype already out there when it was by the press that it will no longer give its customers the option of redeeming bitcoin on its platform from the 26th of December 2017. While it didn’t explicitly state the reason for its decision, reading comments from its employees in different forums one gets the picture that this was done not because of any regulatory demands or anything of such, but would rather infer operational difficulties as the prime reasons for this development. reported Steam A major online gaming stream company it no longer supported bitcoin due to the extreme case of volatility and high transactions charges. This made the purchase of games by customers on its platform difficult as the window of opportunity open to make the purchase by its customers were counteracted most times by delay in transactions confirmation often leading to more bitcoin being topped to augment the slight differences that resulted between order and transaction confirmation. Some customers adding bitcoins had even been caught out a second time as the value changed again. A gaming platform that brags of having as much as on its platform as at 2014, one would imagine what it would have looked like if bitcoin was still enjoying support from an industry behemoth such as Steam. announced 75 million registered accounts Stripe After about 3 years of allowing users of its platform the option of accepting and gifting payment in bitcoin, the payment giant the plug in April of 2018. to Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson, speaking at Fortune‘s Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday, “Bitcoin and other blockchain-based payment services are slow, impractical, and over-hyped.” She continued by stating there was not any solid use case or “killer app” for bitcoin other than ransomware used by criminals. Stripe has grown since its establishment in 2011 and is presently said to have the 20 billion U.S. dollar valuation. Stripe presently serve over B2B and B2C customers with notable household names such as Slack, Docusign, Digital Ocean, Hubspot among the list of businesses Stripe presently accommodates. Stripe, however, has thrown its support for cryptocurrencies such as Stellar by even having up to 2% equity in the IBM backed payment coin. pulled According crossed 1 million PayPal As was , the payment processing giant announced in the third quarter of 2014 its limited support for bitcoin making it the biggest payment giant to throw their weight behind the digital asset whose meteoric rise has caught the attention of many. It, however, put out a caveat saying reported “To be clear, today’s news does not mean that PayPal has added Bitcoin as a currency in our digital wallet or that Bitcoin payments will be processed on our secure payments platform. PayPal has always embraced innovation, but always in ways that make payments safer and more reliable for our customers. Our approach to Bitcoin is no different. That’s why we’re proceeding gradually, supporting Bitcoin in some ways today and holding off on other ways until we see how things develop.” says “Right now, we don’t see a lot of interest from our merchants. But if it’s something that stabilizes in the future and is a better currency, then we’ll certainly support that.” PayPal’s CFO while speaking on a show hosted by “Mad Money” At some point, Paypal was seen clamping down on several accounts on its platform citing reasons such as trading cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Trying to gather more resources about this on the internet shows even more interesting patterns as these posts appears to have been brought down. See [ ], the first post and the reference link on the reputable bitcoin.org website also shows post has been brought down permanently [ ]. Attempts by some groups to spark up a frenzy by warning them to stop trading cryptocurrencies using PayPal, it was however showing this was another spoofing attempt intending to manipulate the price of bitcoin for their personal gains. 1 here 2 sending fake emails to PayPal users laid to rest Dell After the infamous by Michael Dell the founder of the computer giant Dell, users who opted for the bitcoin payment on its platform were slammed with a stonewall from its customer support stating that option is no longer available adding them to the league of big corps that once again . tweet pulled its plug on bitcoin Mastercard & VISA This is somewhat a tricky one. As bitcoin has been tipped to end the crushing hegemony of card and payment processing giants like Mastercard and VISA, one would expect a lash out from these bigwigs to protect their interest. While both VISA and Mastercard have not openly withdrawn “total” support for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and others, they have taken steps which can be said to be circumventing of the easy adoption of cryptocurrencies by the everyday users by digital assets thereby imposing huge fees on those who opt to use their card whether Mastercard or VISA issued to purchase cryptocurrencies. While many believe the rise of bitcoin and future cryptocurrency is tied to the eventual fall of financial middlemen like VISA and Mastercard, these companies are simply doing what they can in order to protect their interests citing authentic claims for their decision. reclassifying Twitch The latest as at (time of publication) is Twitch, a game streaming platform owned by Amazon. It is to have silently alienated itself and ended its support for bitcoin and bitcoin cash payment it has earlier supported. This comes after it started accepting bitcoin as far back as 2014 only to stop abruptly and then reopened that option in 2016 using Coinbase as its’ preferred payment gateway. With Twitch becoming the most recent mainstream company to drop cryptocurrency payment options in 2019, it appears the road to mass adoption is not a straight but a convoluted journey. reported While this article is focused on major companies that disavowed their support for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a mainstay or option to access their product or service driven platform, I must mention many other credible companies have been showing their support and giving possible green light to cryptocurrencies such as was seen with Jack Dorsey the co-founder of Twitter and founder of Square the bloomberg report of to power its ever growing 2 billion plus users, JP to rival XRP (Ripple coin) by Ripple technologies and so much more. openly throwing its weight behind bitcoin and the open source community, Facebook launching its own cryptocurrency Morgan investment banking giant recent launch of the JPM Coin I help startups in areas such as brand management, content, and growth hacking. Reach out to me on for featured article and consultation. LinkedIn

List of Top Mainstream Companies that Dropped Support for Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies

As you can notice above, Amazon managed to survive the dot-com bubble. While its revenues grew from 1997 to 2001 as a result of the aggressive expansion, the company's losses mounted. During that time, Amazon's employee base grew from 158 to 614. That was a time when management, leadership, and culture started to play a critical role in Amazon's success. Indeed, if we were to break down or have a theory around what makes a company able to scale, there is the core which is represented by a which obsesses over customer experience. must-have product or a service To gain further traction, the company needs a strong . And as it scales, culture might become extremely important. Thus, it might look something like that: business model That is why, as Amazon scaled up and as it started to expand its products aggressively it has also to find business model-market fit. By 2001, Amazon had that! The company, had not only expanded its selection away from books and into many other categories. But it had also opened up its platform to third-party sellers which helped further grow Amazon customer base, by following the : Amazon flywheel model At the time, Amazon also strategically opened to third-party sellers to enhance its brand. In other words, where today Amazon might host third-party sellers which might be primarily small businesses. Understanding Amazon business model-market fit Back in the 2000s, Amazon opened up to brands like which further amplified Amazon's brand. Toysrus.com, Inc., Target Corporation, Circuit City Stores, Inc., the Borders Group, Waterstones, Expedia, Inc., Hotwire, National Leisure Group, Inc., Virgin Wines, and others If you could buy something from Target on , you would trust its brand more easily. Amazon The third-party seller strategy started to work. And it showed how Amazon was leveraging on a to enhance its brand and business. platform business model The third-party seller services strategy revolved around three core ones: here third party seller could offer their products on Amazon, either in its online stores or in a co-branded store on the Amazon site, or both. And they could also fulfill those thorough products Amazon by paying the company a fixed fee. Companies like Target and Toysrus were part of it. Merchant@amazon.com Program: with which the third-party seller had its own URL and Amazon provide the option of providing fulfillment-related services on behalf of the third-party. Merchant Program: which represented third-party seller’s e-commerce websites were offering products available on Amazon, which product were fulfilled by Amazon and the company paid commission to syndicated store. Syndicated Stores Program: In that period, as Amazon started to scale its employees base, it significantly strengthened the management team. In the annual letter of 2001, Jeff Bezos highlighted: When forced to choose between optimizing the appearance of our GAAP accounting and maximizing the present value of future cash flows, we’ll take the cash flows. And he continued: Why focus on cash flows? Because a share of stock is a share of a company’s future cash flows, and, as a result, cash flows more than any other single variable seem to do the best job of explaining a company’s stock price over the long term. Therefore, even though Amazon did survive the dot-com bubble, the business model which would enable the company to make it through the first phase of scale-up was drafted around the beginning of the year 2000, right at the bottom of the dot-com bubble. In short, even though Amazon emphasized so much on cash flows, during the dot-com, the company was burning a substantial amount of cash. And Amazon itself still saw the web as a distribution platform, rather than a enabler. business model Therefore, Amazon's survival through that period was nonetheless due to a bit of lack. However, Jeff Bezos led Amazon through that period with vision and extreme passion, and  he kept pushing the company to a new business model. Amazon.bomb evolving into a platform To have an idea of how gloomy was the scenario. As the Guardian highlighted in June 2000, in an article entitled " " Amazon.bomb: Analyst Ravi Suria highlighted Amazon's "weak balance sheet, poor working capital management, and massive negative operating cashflow - the financial characteristics that have driven innumerable retailers to disaster through history." It was a day during which Amazon's shares lost 20% of their value, and 51m of them changed hands. A company worth about $40bn (£25bn) just before Christmas had ended the day worth $12bn (£7.5bn), and things did not improve during trading yesterday. At those comments, Jeff Bezos replied at the time: Three years ago our stock was $1.50 a share, today it's $30-something. There have been many, many days when our stock has gone up 20% in a day" - that laugh again - "and if stocks can go up 20% in a day, they can go down 20% in a day. All internet stocks are volatile, including Amazon.com... we are nowhere near running out of cash, and we are not at all worried about it. And he was right. Even though the company had burned a few hundred million in cash in 2001. It had managed to get a long-term loan of over six hundred million back in 2000, right before the explosion of the dot-com bubble. Thus, guaranteeing enough cash to go through that bad period. Indeed, as of 2001, Amazon still had over five hundred millions of cash sitting in its bank account. To understand how bad Amazon reputation might have been at the time (of course not all agreed with that), an April 26, 2001, by Doug Casey, author of "Crisis Investing," highlighted: article dated I've said several times that Amazon is a cinch for bankruptcy, certainly Chapter 11 (a reorganization) and maybe even Chapter 7 (a liquidation), although I consider the latter a bit of a long shot. The lessons Amazon learned during the dot-com bubble to find business model-market fit What can we learn from this story? Quite a bit of luck when hard times hit is critical. Amazon managed to secure enough cash to survive long enough to its business model to be fully viable and scalable. The company kept pushing on growth, and it changed its as it went through the crisis. In short, Amazon in 2000 finally expanded its e-commerce and made it more as a platform business, which would be the basis for Amazon success in the decades to come. business model Jeff Bezos kept a strong focus on the operations even through a period which was highly distracting.When new technologies are becoming mass adopted, companies need to think about it as a new playground where the rules of the business game can be rewritten. Throughout the dot-com era, Amazon changed the playbook. It went from a cash-burning machine, and it transitioned into a lean organization. Although we give the as given today, they were not so back then. lean startup principles Not by chance, I mentioned luck as the first factor, but learning fast, changing playbook accordingly, were also crucial to Amazon survival! Disclaimer: I’m the Founder of FourWeekMBA.

How Amazon Survived the Dotcom Bust - An Intro to Business Model-Market Fit

Finding a trustworthy software testing company is not piece of cake. It may take weeks, and it is guaranteed to cost you some efforts and nerves. Yet, it’s not like you can release your software solution without proper testing done. Users become less forgiving when it comes to less-than-perfect user experience and bugs. What is more, if you are determined to update and improve your software, you will need to cooperate with a QA company on a regular basis. And if you don’t want to switch to another company in a rush because you need to meet deadlines, you’d better make sure your first choice is the optimal one. Does this choice seem to be nearly impossible to make properly on the first try? Fear not — to help you out, we have listed the top 20 software QA companies that deserve your consideration. We have selected and ranked these companies based on five key indicators: ● . The range of services provided, their quality, specialization, experience, and skills possessed by the company’s employees. Services ● . The efficiency and quality of the company’s organizational structure and internal management. Operations ● . The company’s approach to delivering the services in terms of the methodology used, requirements management. Offering strategy ● . The company’s ability to provide services to the clients outside of its country of operations efficiently and take into account the foreign market’s specifics. Geographic strategy ● . What its former and existing clients have to say about the company. Online reviews Top 20 Software Testing Companies: Our Choice Source 1. PQA Testing is a Canada-based QA company with more than 20 years of experience. The company specializes in a number of sectors, such as financial services, healthcare, gaming, government, insurance, and e-learning. Apart from the application testing services themselves, PQA Testing also provides QA consulting and training. PQA Testing : 1997 Founded : Canada Location : 100+ Employees : functional, performance, and load testing, test automation, consulting and training, content verification Software Testing Services : large enterprises and midsized businesses Major Clients 2. QA Consultants One of the largest QA companies in North America, has been in business for more than two decades. It has expertise in such industries as healthcare, retail, telecommunications, insurance, and government. The company delivers its services in four engagement models: on-demand testing, Test Factory, project-based, and managed services. QA Consultants : 1994 Founded : Canada Location : 50+ Employees : test automation; functional, performance, integration, security, mobile, and data testing; specialized audit Software Testing Services : Toronto Hydro, AT&T, Home Depot, Canadian Tire Financial, Toyota Major Clients 3. Indium Software has almost 20 years of experience up its sleeve, as well as 240+ clients in QA services and expertise across 19 industries. Besides QA services, the company also provides development services (including Big Data, blockchain, and advanced analytics development). Most notably, Indium Software also specializes in developing and testing games. Indium Software : 1999 Founded : US Location : 650 Employees : core testing (functional, compatibility, regression, user acceptance testing), game QA, specialized QA (DevOps, cloud, API, compliance testing, data quality validation), tool-based solutions (test automation, performance, and security testing) Software Testing Services : Fortune 100 and Global 5000 companies Major Clients 4. QAwerk focuses on testing games, mobile (30+ mobile apps have already been successfully tested by the QAwerk team) and desktop applications, and websites. About 60% of the company’s projects fall under the category of long-term collaboration. The industries that QAwerk works with are eGovernment, eCommerce, startups, business automation, media and entertainment, and data mining. QAwerk : 2015 Founded : US, Germany, Ukraine Location : 16+ Employees : web, mobile (iOS and Android), game and desktop application testing; documentation and technical writing; offshore QA teams Software Testing Services : Elsewhen, Unfold, ClearData, MarketOne, Cygnet Major Clients 5. QualiTest is, perhaps, the most global company on our list — it has offices in eight countries on three continents. The scope of offered services is also impressive: QualiTest tests mobile and web apps, cloud system, ERPs and CRMs, cybersecurity, and even compliance with GDPR. QualiTest : 1997 Founded : US, UK, Israel, Romania, India, Turkey, Ireland, Ukraine Location : 1,000+ Employees : independent, managed crowd, outcome-based testing; test environment management; DevOps testing, right-shore testing; consulting; testing for startups, test automation, mobile and website testing, load and performance testing, cloud, CRM and EDI testing, cyber security testing, etc. Software Testing Services : Microsoft, FujiFilm, Avaya, OmniTracs, Florida Hospital, News UK Major Clients 6. TestArmy is a software testing company that offers testing services ad hoc and on a full-cycle basis for desktop, mobile (Android and iOS), and web applications. The company has more than 500 completed projects up their sleeve delivered for clients all over the world, specializing in serving the US- and EU-based businesses. TestArmy : 2010 Founded : Poland Location : 50+ Employees : security, performance, functional, UX testing; test automation; QA consulting Software Testing Services : Samsung Electronics, Philips, EyeEm, Origintag, Yves Rocher Major Clients 7. A1QA is no novice in the QA world — the company has 15+ years of experience in the field, and its portfolio consists of more than 1,500 successful projects. A1QA offers a variety of software testing services for web and mobile apps, as well as consulting, dedicated teams, full-cycle testing, and test automation. A1QA : 2002 Founded : US (headquarters), offices in the UK, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe Location : 700+ Employees : functional, performance, security, compatibility, usability, and localization testing for mobile and web applications Software Testing Services : Adidas, Kaspersky Lab, Expedia, Qiwi, Telekom Austria Group Major Clients 8. Fluid Attacks One of the software testing companies in the US, focuses on testing the security of software and revealing vulnerabilities. The company offers continuous and one-shot white hat hacking services at any stage of the life cycle of the solution. Among its services are static, dynamic, and interactive security testing, as well as software composition analysis. Fluid Attacks : 2001 Founded : US Location : up to 50 Employees : cybersecurity Software Testing Services : Abbott, Avianca, KometSales, Corona, Claro Major Clients 9. UTOR is a Ukrainian QA company that specializes in testing mobile and web applications. UTOR team is working on 14 projects at the moment and has 44 projects completed in 2018. Apart from full-cycle testing services, the company provides dedicated QA specialists to complete the clients’ teams and sets up dedicated QA teams. UTOR : 2016 Founded : Ukraine Location : 33 Employees : security, performance, automation testing, QA audit Software Testing Services : Lift and Squat, Round Pegs, Itau, Connectoo Major Clients 10. MeU Solutions specializes not only in software testing but also in software development (the company offers its own solutions, One2Automate, Shinobi, One2Explore, One2Test). Among its services, you can find shift-right testing, security testing as a service, automation sign-on, managed testing and more. Besides, you can turn to MeU Solutions for a QA consultation. MeU Solutions : 2016 Founded : Vietnam Location : 50+ Employees : manual and automated testing; mobile, security, Agile testing Software Testing Services : BeeTrack, mobile development companies Major Clients 11. OnPath Testing provides QA services to the businesses on any development stage (early, growth, or mature), as well as VC and Dev companies, with attention towards the specifics of each stage. Apart from usual functional and performance testing, OnPath Testing also takes up defect management to deal with discovered errors and bugs. OnPath Testing : 2009 Founded : US Location : up to 50 Employees : QA audit, manual and automation testing, functional and performance testing, defect management Software Testing Services : OpenWave, English360, AirCell, Thomson Reuters, MapQuest Major Clients 12. TestScenario specializes in testing Android and iOS mobile apps and web applications during any stage of the product’s life cycle. The company provides testing services for SOAP and REST APIs as well, and it has 470+ tested mobile apps and 50+ tested web apps of various complexity up its belt. TestScenario : 2014 Founded : India Location : up to 50 Employees : manual and automated testing, mobile and web app testing, load and performance testing, API testing, consulting Software Testing Services : Samsung Parts, Fanster, CSA Health Box, Procure Networks, Hip Give Major Clients 13. Pragmatic QA is a Bulgarian-based company providing three major QA services (software testing as a service, staff augmentation, and test consulting). You can find both small businesses and corporations with 80,000+ employees among the clients Pragmatic QA. Besides, the company provides training for QA specialists. Pragmatic QA Surely, this list is not exhaustive; yet, we have picked the software testing companies that are the leading ones when it comes to the quality of the services, operations, product, and geographic strategies — and the ones with positive reviews from real clients. We hope that this list will help you find a one-time or long-term tech partner you will enjoy cooperating with. : 2013 Founded : Bulgaria Location : up to 50 Employees : application testing, staff augmentation, QA training Software Testing Services : Rakuten, EasySecure, Westum, SevOne, KMPG Major Clients 14. BugRaptors may not have a decade of experience, yet its portfolio is still impressive: 300+ websites and 500+ mobile apps tested for 500+ clients worldwide. Apart from standard testing services, the company provides automated testing and specialized services (most notable ones are game, ERP, and Big Data testing). BugRaptors : 2016 Founded : US, India Location : 75+ Employees : standardized (functional, compatibility, system, usability, regression, installation, user acceptance testing), automation testing (performance, web, mobile testing, etc.), specialized (ERP, web, security, cloud, game, Big Data, mobile, DevOps and Agile testing) Software Testing Services : HP, EDS, Kerr-McGee, Web-Flight, REO Major Clients 15. vTest ’s portfolio includes 50 clients and 2,500 test cases. This software QA company specializes in mobile app testing and provides its services based on one of three engagement models (managed services, consulting, or team extension). Besides, the company has experience in working with ISO and CMMI standards. vTest : 2015 Founded : India Location : up to 50 Employees : consulting, managed services, team augmentation; mobile testing Software Testing Services : Chain Ninja, LendTech, EasyWork, Lift&Co, Tremido Major Clients 16. KiwiQA is an Indian company specializing in testing solutions for a number of industries, including banking and finances, healthcare and fitness, commerce, insurance, telecommunications, retail, etc. The company delivers its services to small businesses, enterprises, and startups alike while taking into account the specifics of each type of clients. KiwiQA : 2009 Founded : India, Australia, UK Location : 50+ Employees : automation and manual testing; performance, security testing; code verification, consulting; Big Data, CRM, SalesForce, game testing Software Testing Services : Abacus, Quantum Digital, AOL, KPMG Major Clients 17. ThinkSys : 2012 Founded : US, Israel, India Location : 150+ Employees : automation, regression, functional, localization, mobile, performance, security, usability, eCommerce testing Software Testing Services : Shutterstock, American Greetings, Bond University, ServiceMesh, NowVel Major Clients is one more company that provides both QA and development services. It offers mobile and desktop application end-to-end testing. Among the services provided by ThinkSys you can find the full spectrum need for full-cycle product management, including regression, usability, functional, localization, performance, and security testing. ThinkSys 18. Testbytes has tested 125 websites and 200 mobile apps for 160 clients worldwide. Testbytes team has taken part in projects in a number of industries, including commerce, banking, and finances, healthcare, and insurance. Besides web and mobile app testing, Testbytes also provides services for testing games and desktop software. Testbytes : 2013 Founded : India, US Location : 30+ Employees : mobile, desktop and web app testing, game testing, security testing, and testing automation Software Testing Services : Fixle, Taskr, inLinx, 3R Connect, Emuser, Keepity Major Clients 19. BairesQA is an Argentine-based company focusing on testing mobile and web applications (its portfolio includes 250 websites tested). Its clients include companies from Spanish- and English-speaking countries. BairesQA employees run tests exclusively in real environments (no emulators or rooted devices are used). Besides, the company provides test case design services. BairesQA : 2015 Founded : Argentina Location : up to 50 Employees : web and mobile app testing, test automation, load testing, test case design Software Testing Services : Aerolab, Georgia Pacific, Baloon Group, FXStreet Major Clients 20. Acutest specializes in delivering testing services for the following four industries worldwide: finances, retail, telecommunications and media, and the public sector. The company has successfully completed 1,000+ projects over 15+ years of experience. Apart from full-cycle testing services (such as test automation, transformation, and management), Acutest also offers the “sprint finish” service to help your development meet the deadlines. Acutest : 2002 Founded : UK Location : 200+ Employees : managed services, specialist and non-functional testing; test transformation, automation, and management; sprint finish Software Testing Services : BBC, McAfee, UNICEF, Vodafone, Primark, HP, Carnival, BNP Paribas Major Clients

Top 20 Software Testing Companies Worth Your Attention in 2019

February, the last full month of winter, dumped an abundance of snow on some of us and a ton of interesting news on all of us. Airbnb plans to change the competitive space of the travel industry by shifting their business model from simple apartment sharing as it creates an end-to-end travel experience. With 46 percent of projects closing after fundraising campaigns, ICOs seem harmful to investor financial health. Blockchain succeeds in the travel technology space — TUI and Travel Ledger are utilizing the Ethereum platform for inventory management. We unpack these items and others in our February technology industry review. Airbnb plans to conquer the airline business Airbnb gradually moves in the direction of becoming an end-to-end travel solution. Last year, the company partnered with hospitality development companies to launch branded hotels. In early February, for hotel distribution. And then the rental giant announced further expansion into the events market, targeting the concert segment. But now they are going even further — Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says that they are thinking about to their offerings. The most interesting question is how the company plans to enter this market: whether they will acquire an OTA, partner with GDS providers, or airlines directly. Airbnb opened up the platform adding flight booking The expansion beyond traditional rental business isn’t surprising. The company looks for additional revenue streams, so the rumors of a potential IPO may come true in 2019. If the expansion turns successful, Airbnb will become a one-stop travel shopping platform similar to Expedia and Booking Holdings (ex. Priceline Group). The changes in the Airbnb strategy confirm a big shift in demand for all-in-one solutions in the travel market. Flights, hotels, and cars are now expected to be found within a single interface. Ethereum-based blockchain makes its first footprints in the travel industry In January we said that blockchain startups failed to disrupt the travel industry — . However, there are budding blockchain initiatives worth discussing as spring approaches. TUI Group, the leading travel company, to increase transparency and improve inventory management. TUI’s problem is its organizational structure. The company owns several semi-independent brands, and as a result, it doesn’t have a unified database. TUI plans to use an Ethereum-based solution to introduce smart contracts that will unify data exchange between TUI entities. This can solve the data governance problem and potentially improve revenue management capabilities: The travel agency will be able to swap inventories between subsidiaries in the event of extreme demand. so far ses blockchain Another project worth discussing is . UK’s Intuitive, Australia’s Tourism Technology, and Dolphin Dynamics a blockchain-based billing platform for the travel industry. All payment transactions will be recorded and stored in a decentralized database. The platform will make travel payments more secure, transparent, and cost-effective. Partners will build a project on top of Ethereum technology as well. The network will be governed by a non-profit organization established by developers. Travel Ledger partnered to deliver Nearly half of last year’s ICOs failed (we’ll discuss this in the next section), but blockchain as a data exchange technology may become a strategic focus for midsize and large organizations that strive for transparency, coherent data exchange, and security. 46 percent of ICOs fail, but there are bright exceptions The shows that 46 percent of ICOs failed last year. Investors lost over $104 million on burned-out projects. The research covered 902 startups placed on Tokendata. ICO projects often behave like scams: Founders raise money and disappear. In addition to outright fraud, hundreds of zombie startups exist. These companies often have questionable business ideas and incoherent models. Once they fail to build a powerful community around their projects, these businesses opt for radio silence. Currently, about 12.5 percent of projects are half-dead. This situation will likely lead to a broader consensus about ICO regulation, which will be similar to IPO procedures and stock exchange listing requirements. News.Bitcoin.com study Source: TokenData On the other hand, some ICO representatives demonstrated impressive results in 2018. Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform, has during the pre-ICO stage and plans to raise a proportional sum during the second pre-sale. The potential Telegram deal is staggering. The company plans to get over $1.6 billion. Notably, total ICO volume in 2017 accounts for 5.6 billion. Telegram ICO may become the largest ICO so far. raised $850 million Source: Business Insider UK IBM and Unity aim to lift AR/VR technology to enterprise scale IBM and Unity , which allows for easy integration with for Unity developers. Unity is the leading graphics engine applied in AR and VR applications by far. Combining it with AI capabilities of IBM, the initiative will lay the groundwork for enterprise AR/VR use. New SDK provides powerful visual and speech recognition support. The potential use cases are language translation, voice-driven interactions, and real-time visual recognition. launched IBM Watson Unity SDK cloud-based AI services Currently, the companies aim to keep working within education and gaming industries. Further, once AR/VR technologies mature, they will be actively used across marketing, construction, and manufacturing. The mixed reality and AI markets are expected to grow fast. So, the new opportunity from IBM and Unity is a good point to consider in early adoption for companies doing complex visualization work. AI-based recommendation engines will predict best outfit choices The eCommerce and retail companies strive for personalization, the new standard in acceptable customer experience. Companies like , a retail B2B tech startup, and beauty retailer Sephora push personalization to a new level. Trendage Trendage works on the that utilizes AI and visual search. The algorithm helps match the accessories and clothes chosen by users with the rest of the items that would pull the outfit together. On top of that, the platform analyzes user body parameters, age, regional fashion trends and their changes to make predictions even more specific. Currently, the Trendage solution uses millions of outfits created by users to recommend clothes, accessories, and shoes. The company raised $1.5 million in funding this month. recommendation technology Interestingly, Trendage doesn’t suggest something revolutionary in terms of . But given the new angle of their use, it may have great impact on the existing clothing retail business. personalization technologies AI startup will use 25 million record dataset to improve cancer diagnostic IDG that 43 percent of healthcare CIOs plan to increase investment in AI next year. Generally, the study confirms that data science is being actively discussed among health industry technicians and decision-makers. But the problems related to the availability of health data significantly slow down innovation in the industry. research claims Nevertheless, investments in AI-based healthcare startups continue to grow. For instance, is a cancer pathology-detection startup. The company plans to train its machine learning algorithms using 25 million diagnosis slides. The startup aims at making cancer diagnosis more accurate and faster. solution can be very disruptive because they’ve already gathered a substantial dataset. The project funding. Paige.AI Paige.AI closed $25 million in Series A Healthcare AI/ML funding skyrocketed to over $700 million in 2017 with 126% growth year-over-year. The most demanded innovations are automation solutions, computer vision, population health, etc. Source: PitchBook Booking Holdings is a new name of Priceline Group Priceline Group . Booking.com is the core brand in the group’s portfolio. The subsidiary generates over 1 million properties and provides access to a more than 1.5 million properties inventory. Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, says that the new name will more accurately reflect the nature of the business. This step also helps the company boost its brand awareness. So, if you are looking for the travel API from Priceline Group, bear in mind that you should search for Booking Holdings instead. changes its name to Booking Holdings Google presents beta of the new mobile framework Google announced a beta release of a new tool for mobile developers, . It’s a new mobile cross-platform UI framework, which allows engineers to speed-up native interface development on iOS and Android. Although the framework isn’t ready for a stable release, it has already been used in production apps. Flutter requires developers to use Dart, which is marketed as an alternative to JavaScript. Similar to the , Flutter compiles source code into native code in the build stage. Flutter Xamarin approach The search giant claims that the key advantages of Flutter are: High-velocity Expressive and flexible design Native performance If you are considering , Flutter is yet another option to consider with your engineering team. which cross-platform mobile framework to choose Final word ICOs appeared to be a questionable way to invest in technology as 46 percent of blockchain startups failed in 2017. However, the technology seems to be a viable instrument for solving business problems. TUI and Travel Ledger are good examples: TUI uses it to improve data governance and information interchange. Travel Ledger works on secure and transparent payments. These projects confirm that viable and valuable blockchain projects sit far beyond the overhyped cryptocurrencies sector. Ethereum powers both these projects. It’s a good sign for the technology as the trust of key players will boost the industry interest and put adoption at a new level. Regardless of failures, ICO as the fundraising method continues to hit record numbers. Telegram made the largest ICO round in cryptoinvest history. Originally published at AltexSoft’s blog: Liked the story? Help more people find it! 👏👏👏 “ Technology Industry News & Trends, February 2018 ”

Technology Industry News & Trends, February 2018

The 40 Under 40 Fueling Spain's Startup Economy

40 অনূর্ধ্ব 40 স্পেনের স্টার্টআপ অর্থনীতিতে জ্বালানি দিচ্ছে

Die 40 unter 40 treiben Spaniens Startup-Wirtschaft voran

Los 40 menores de 40 que impulsan la economía de las startups en España

Les 40 de moins de 40 ans alimentent l'économie des startups espagnoles

40 अंडर 40 स्पेन की स्टार्टअप अर्थव्यवस्था को बढ़ावा दे रहा है

スペインのスタートアップ経済を支える40歳未満の40人

스페인의 스타트업 경제를 촉진하는 40세 미만 40세

Os 40 abaixo dos 40 impulsionam a economia das startups na Espanha

40 Yaş Altı 40, İspanya'nın Startup Ekonomisini Güçlendiriyor

Nhóm 40 Under 40 thúc đẩy nền kinh tế khởi nghiệp của Tây Ban Nha

40 位 40 岁以下的人士推动了西班牙的创业经济

AI labs are creating a beast we cannot tame that could “manipulate people to do what it wants.” Elon Musk, ‘The Godfather of AI,’ and 50,000+ tech experts warn artificial intelligence could have profound risks to humanity. Many prominent figures have recently talked about AI and noted their thoughts on paper. Some urge seeing AI in a positive light, and others alarm that AI can have ‘profound risks to humanity.’ Some experts argue that AI & ChatGPT can act as a In workplaces, for example, AI can improve productivity by serving as a resource for employees to communicate with and save time on writing emails. ‘white-collar worker to help you with various tasks.’ In learning, AI can help identify what motivates students and what makes them lose interest and then deliver tailored content based on that information. It can also help teachers plan course instruction learning plans, help evaluate students’ knowledge on exams or certain topics, and support as a tutor in training. In healthcare, AI will help by completing paperwork, filing insurance claims, and empowering ultrasound machines that can be used with minimal training. Probably the most impressive part is that it can help people in impoverished countries who can hardly see a doctor when needed. After being introduced to ChatGPT, Bill Gates, the creator of the BASIC programming language for Altair 8800 and the MS-DOS operating system for IBM PC, was so impressed that he said: “I knew I had just seen the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface.” He is adamant that “[AI] will change how people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other.” In five years, AI may add more than $15 trillion to the global economy through advances in medicine, biology, climate science, education, business processes, manufacturing, customer service, transportation, and more. But AI, as with many new technologies, is making many uncomfortable. Elon Musk and Geoffrey Hinton are the latest to openly voice their opinions that AI comes with potentially destructive risks. Whichever group we belong to, we need to accept the fact: The AI horse has left the barn and is not coming back. Another fact may be that we’re risking in ways that could profoundly impact humanity. AI could ‘manipulate people to do what it wants Learning about AI’s risks is like going through a wormhole. The further you go, the darker it gets. On the eve of Monday, May 23, a controversial image of an made the circles online and took the world by storm. Twitter “blue ticks” jumped in to share it. The stock market wobbled, and the S&P 500 nose-dived by 30 points. explosion near the Pentagon complex This, unfortunately, is just the beginning of AI’s potential to spread misinformation, boost non-factual propaganda, and induce panic. Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, who got the nickname ‘The Godfather of AI’ because of his early work on algorithms that train machines that underline AI, recently told AI labs are creating a beast that will be hard to tame and that could be “manipulating people to do what it wants.” Times that New York He firmly believes that AI machines are designed to get more intelligent than humans, and what would take up to 50 years for his fears to become a reality, he now believes they may knock on our technology door “as soon as 5-10 years from now”. A few weeks ago, he left his part-time job at Google and stopped his contribution to the company’s Bard chatbot to tell a message to the world: “I want to sort of blow the whistle and say we should worry seriously about how we stop these things getting control over us.” The company behind the world’s most powerful AI chatbot to date, OpenAI, in a admitted that "At some point, it may be important to get an independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models." recent statement The quote ended up being included in an pleading with policymakers to pause the development of AI systems stronger than GPT-4 from AI labs, a letter that has since been signed by likes of Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, Apple’s Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, and 50,000+ AI and tech experts and enthusiasts. open letter The letter suggests that pausing the work from AI labs for at least six months is the only way to have enough time to prepare for adequate regulations and enjoy an “AI summer” without rushing for a destructive “fall.” Elon Musk raised many eyebrows when he , a company where he reportedly invested over $1 billion over time, for becoming a “closed-source, maximum-profit company,” which he says he “never intended.” openly criticized OpenAI Google’s Sundar Pichai didn’t come lightly with his statement about AI either, saying that its risks Google recently saw over get wiped off the company’s market cap because of an incorrect response by its newly released chatbot, Bard. “keep [him] up at night.” $100 billion OpenAI’s new GPT plug-in can even make decisions for businesses As if AI-powered chatbots were not enough, OpenAI’s renowned ChatGPT has recently announced a plug-in that allows AI to make decisions regarding its host. Major companies, including , , , and , have already integrated the plugin into their services. Expedia OpenTable Instacart Klarna Bank AI can now even complete everyday tasks on people’s behalf, such as ordering a drink, booking a hotel, or reserving the best possible seat in a restaurant. A new part of it, known as a “code interpreter,” can also write and execute codes on behalf of a business. And that’s hazardous from a security perspective. Or, as , a research scientist at NVIDIA AI, explained it: “[The next generation of] ChatGPT will be like a meta-app—an app that uses other apps.” Linxi “Jim” Fan The announcement of the GPT plug-in has since raised many eyebrows. One of them who doubts the safety of such a plug-in is Ali Alkhatib, acting director of the Center for Applied Data Ethics at the University of San Francisco. He argues that part of the issue with plugins for language models is that they could help to easily jailbreak such systems, warning that: “Things are moving fast enough to be not just dangerous, but actually harmful to a lot of people.” Going from content generation to taking action on people’s behalf closes the air gap of language models’ access to decision-making. “We know that the models can be jailbroken, and now we’re hooking them up to the internet so that it can potentially take action,” says , director of the Center for AI Safety. Dan Hendricks Hendricks suspects extensions inspired by ChatGPT plugins could simplify tasks like spear phishing or phishing emails. He added, “That isn’t to say that by its own volition, ChatGPT is going to build bombs or something, but it makes it a lot easier to do these sorts of things.” Kanjun Qiu, CEO of , adds that AI chatbots “could have unintended consequences.” For example, such a plugin could book an overly expensive hotel or distribute misinformation and scam. Generally Intelligent Not only that. GPT-4’s red team found out they could “send fraudulent or spam emails, bypass safety restrictions, or misuse information sent to the plugin,” as Emily Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington, reported. The GPT-4 red team also admitted that because GPT-4 can execute Linux commands, it has the potential to explain how to make bioweapons, synthesize bombs, or buy ransomware from the dark web. Bender further added: “Letting automated systems take action in the world is a choice that we make.” Can AI transform industries that are all about psychology? ChatGPT has taken over the conversations online, from magazines to social media platforms like LinkedIn, on prompts to use for best results, opinions on its impact, and whatnot. Lots of these writings are even done by ChatGPT itself. Psychology and emotions are where AI and ChatGPT fail to impress. Let’s say, to write an up-to-date post when a social injustice has conquered the news or write an ad that connects with the audience’s emotions and offers genuine solutions to their pain points. The last time I asked ChatGPT, its answers were far from convincing. Basic, at best. That’s probably not the most impressive social media post about ESG. The limitation comes mainly because AI is not necessarily good at understanding the main concept of a human request, which leads to some bizarre answers. This is where psychology and human emotion in marketing come in. When it comes to SEO marketing, in her recent article, shares how her AI-generated article performed in search engines. Despite publishing the article on a completely healthy domain, the article ranked 45th for the same keyword, with a negative tendency of impressions. “I believe impressions will eventually drop to 0. That’s how AI content performs in organic search results today,” she wrote. Victoria Kuchurenko Some may argue that the software provides the results according to the prompts it’s asked for. That may be true to some extent. But not entirely. At its core, ChatGPT is run by AI, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP), meaning it can offer as much information as it has been provided and how it has been programmed. , a marketing expert of 20+ years that has led some of the biggest brands in India and UAE, said no matter how good AI is, “it can not replace human creativity; it simply forces marketers to go back to the fundamentals of marketing, which is about human psychology, and problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking.” But she also believes that AI will inevitably disrupt the marketing space and has major concerns about the direction of AI in marketing. Shagorika Heryani “The biggest danger is that the weaponization of information will become a lot scarier, especially with AI’s lack of limits to form opinions on politics, religion, and other sensitive issues, in ways we marketers could handle before.” Human marketers offer differentiation, a sense of belonging, community, and emotional connection for the consumer, something AI will hardly ever excel at. ‘A white-collar worker to help you with various tasks.’ But with lots of risks, too. “Do you think ChatGPT and AI will take over?” a friend asked. She is not alone in her doubts about the potential of AI to massively impact the future, negatively as much as positively. The bluntest answer to this question probably comes from ‘The Godfather of AI,’ who says, "It’s not inconceivable. That’s all I’ll say.” It’s time for AI labs to push some brakes and governments to develop “extremely powerful regulations” to limit AI’s risks for humanity. With the way AI developments are going, one thing is sure: the clock is ticking loudly.

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Since 1996

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