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Founder of TikTok parent company lost $17 billion in 2022: ranking

Founder of TikTok parent company lost $17 billion in 2022: ranking
This photo taken on April 23, 2018 shows CEO of Bytedance Zhang Yiming speaking during the 1st Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, in China's eastern Fujian province. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 07 April 2023
AFP
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Founder of TikTok parent company lost $17 billion in 2022: ranking

Founder of TikTok parent company lost $17 billion in 2022: ranking
  • Despite huge losses, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is still the second-richest entrepreneur in the world under age 40, with wealth valued at $37 billion, according to statistics published by the Chinese firm Hurun
Updated 07 April 2023
AFP
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BEIJING: Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok parent company ByteDance, saw his personal fortune fall by $17 billion last year, according to a new Chinese ranking published Thursday.

The reasons for the losses are unknown, but Zhang is still the second-richest entrepreneur in the world under the age of 40, with wealth valued at $37 billion, according to statistics published by the Chinese firm Hurun.

Ahead of him is Mark Zuckerberg, boss of US tech giant Meta — the owner of Facebook and Instagram — whose fortune was estimated by Hurun at $68 billion.
According to the ranking, Zuckerberg also lost money last year to the tune of $8 billion.
Zhang co-founded ByteDance in Beijing in 2012, but resigned from the group in 2021 in the midst of regulatory tightening on China’s tech industry.
A Chinese citizen, Zhang is now based in Singapore.
ByteDance’s success in China’s highly competitive Internet sector has been largely thanks to its popular short video app Douyin.
The app is the most valuable start-up globally, with a market capitalization of $200 billion, according to Hurun.
Its international version, TikTok, is wildly popular with teenagers around the world, but concerns over national security have left its future uncertain in many countries.
Critics say TikTok allows Chinese authorities access to global user data — allegations the firm has vehemently denied.
Still, the US, Canadian, British and Australian governments, as well as the European Commission, have recently banned their officials from installing TikTok on work phones.
And Washington has threatened the app with a total ban, with TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew hauled before a US congressional hearing recently to defend it.
On Tuesday, TikTok was fined 12.7 million pounds ($15.8 billion) by the British digital regulator over its use of the personal data of children.
 

Topics: TikTok Bytedance Facebook Zhang Yiming Hurun

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Netflix set to release new collection of Saudi short films

Netflix set to release new collection of Saudi short films
Updated 02 October 2023
Arab News
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Netflix set to release new collection of Saudi short films

Netflix set to release new collection of Saudi short films
  • Offering includes productions shown at Red Sea International Film Festival
Updated 02 October 2023
Arab News

RIYADH: Netflix’s second volume of its “New Saudi Voices” film collection will be released on Friday.

The collection comprises 14 short films that featured at the Red Sea International Film Festival, including the winners of the 48-hour Filmmaking Challenge.

These include the dramas “Old Phone Number” by Ali Saeed and “Zabarjad” by Hussain Almutliq, which explore the themes of character growth while clinging to one’s past.

“Last Chance to Fall in Love” by award-winning writer Faisal Buhaishi follows the story of an old man reuniting with his first love after 50 years.

Movies from the fantasy genre include “A Swing” by Raneem and Dana Almohandes, which follows a 10-year-old girl’s journey through the woods to find a magical swing her father used to tell her about.

“Lucky You’re Mine” by Nora Abu Shusha reveals the unspoken challenges of married life, while “Tea Leaf” by Mohammed Baqer looks at the pain and regret that come with failed relationships.

Other films in the collection include “Requiem for Silence” by Majed Z. Samman, “Forward” by Fahad Alotaibi and “Othman” by Khaled Zeidan.

“The second volume is not just a collection of short films, it is a celebration of untold stories and a testament to the creative prowess of the emerging filmmakers,” said Nuha El-Tayeb, Netflix’s content director for Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

The films “transcend borders and allow viewers to experience the beauty and dynamism of Saudi culture. We believe great stories can come from anywhere and be loved by anyone,” she said.
 

Topics: Netflix New Saudi Voices

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Apple says it will fix software problems blamed for making iPhone 15 models too hot to handle

Apple says it will fix software problems blamed for making iPhone 15 models too hot to handle
Updated 01 October 2023
AP
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Apple says it will fix software problems blamed for making iPhone 15 models too hot to handle

Apple says it will fix software problems blamed for making iPhone 15 models too hot to handle
  • Says it is working on an update to the iOS17 system that powers the iPhone 15 lineup to prevent the devices from becoming uncomfortably hot
  • Dismisses speculation that the overheating problem might be tied to a shift from its Lightning charging cable to the more widely used USB-C port
Updated 01 October 2023
AP

Apple is blaming a software bug and other issues tied to popular apps such as Instagram and Uber for causing its recently released iPhone 15 models to heat up and spark complaints about becoming too hot to handle.

The Cupertino, California, company said Saturday that it is working on an update to the iOS17 system that powers the iPhone 15 lineup to prevent the devices from becoming uncomfortably hot and is working with apps that are running in ways “causing them to overload the system.”
Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms, modified its social media app earlier this week to prevent it from heating up the device on the latest iPhone operating system.
Uber and other apps such as the video game Asphalt 9 are still in the process of rolling out their updates, Apple said. It didn’t specify a timeline for when its own software fix would be issued but said no safety issues should prevent iPhone 15 owners from using their devices while awaiting the update.
“We have identified a few conditions which can cause iPhone to run warmer than expected,” Apple in a short statement provided to The Associated Press after media reports detailed overheating complaints that are peppering online message boards.
The Wall Street Journal amplified the worries in a story citing the overheating problem in its own testing of the new iPhones, which went on sale a week ago.
It’s not unusual for new iPhones to get uncomfortably warm during the first few days of use or when they are being restored with backup information stored in the cloud — issues that Apple already flags for users. The devices also can get hot when using apps such as video games and augmented reality technology that require a lot of processing power, but the heating issues with the iPhone 15 models have gone beyond those typical situations.
In its acknowledgement, Apple stressed that the trouble isn’t related to the sleek titanium casing that houses the high-end iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of the stainless steel used on older smartphones.
Apple also dismissed speculation that the overheating problem in the new models might be tied to a shift from its proprietary Lightning charging cable to the more widely used USB-C port that allowed it to comply with a mandate issued by European regulators.
Although Apple expressed confidence that the overheating issue can be quickly fixed with the upcoming software updates, the problem still could dampen sales of its marquee product at time when the company has faced three consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in overall sales.
The downturn has affected iPhone sales, which fell by a combined 4 percent in the nine months covered by Apple’s past three fiscal quarters compared with a year earlier.
Apple is trying to pump up its sales in part by raising the starting price for its top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro Max to $1,200, an increase of $100, or 9 percent, from last year’s comparable model.
Investor worries about Apple’s uncharacteristic sales funk already have wiped out more than $300 billion in shareholder wealth since the company’s market value closed at $3 trillion for the first time in late June.

Topics: iPhone15

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French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf appointed head of Académie Française language watchdog

French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf appointed head of Académie Française language watchdog
Updated 29 September 2023
AFP
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French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf appointed head of Académie Française language watchdog

French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf appointed head of Académie Française language watchdog
  • Maalouf becomes the 33rd person to occupy the prestigious post of “perpetual secretary”
Updated 29 September 2023
AFP

PARIS: “The Immortals” have spoken: the 388-year-old Academie Francaise, custodian and promoter of the French language, has a new leader in the form of author Amin Maalouf.
The French-Lebanese writer, 74, becomes only the 33rd person to occupy the post of “perpetual secretary” since the body’s founding under King Louis XIII in 1635.
He takes over from Helene Carrere d’Encausse, who died last month having held the post since 1999.
She did not designate a clear successor but Maalouf, who won France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, in 1993 for “The Rock of Tanios,” was considered the obvious choice due to his highly active engagement in the institution since being elected in 2011.
There was one other candidate, his close friend Jean-Christophe Rufin, though he only threw his hat in the ring at the last minute, fearing there was not enough of a democratic process, joking to one magazine this weekend that it was “like North Korea.”
The academy is charged with setting the rules of the language to ensure it remains “pure, eloquent and capable of dealing with the arts and sciences.”
Lately, it most often gains notice as the bulwark against the entry of English words into French usage.
Last year it railed against the common practice of using English-sounding terms in French ads and branding — such as train operator SNCF’s low-cost “Ouigo” (pronounced “we go“) service — or simple imports from English like “big data” and “drive-in.”
It became more assertive under Carrere d’Encausse, even threatening legal action against the government for including English translations on national identity cards.
There are currently 35 members of the Academy — known as “Immortals” in reference to their motto “A l’immortalite” (“To immortality“).
Past members include such luminaries as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Victor Hugo.
One of Maalouf’s priorities will be to complete its ninth dictionary, which the academy has been working on since 1986, and is reportedly close to completion.
After centuries of opposition, it agreed in 2019 to allow feminine versions of certain professions, including railway worker, member of parliament and doctor.
The first female member of the Academie, Marguerite Yourcenar, was only admitted in 1980 and there are currently six.
Novelist and essayist Maalouf started his career as a journalist, working as a foreign correspondent.
As well as “The Rock of Tanios,” his novels include “Leo Africanus” and “Samarkand.” Among his best known non-fiction is “The Crusades Through Arab Eyes.”

Topics: Amin Maalouf Academie Francaise France Lebanon

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Meta’s new AI assistant trained on public Facebook and Instagram posts

Meta’s new AI assistant trained on public Facebook and Instagram posts
Updated 29 September 2023
Reuters
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Meta’s new AI assistant trained on public Facebook and Instagram posts

Meta’s new AI assistant trained on public Facebook and Instagram posts
  • Meta said it did not use users’ private posts or messages in respect of privacy policy
  • Tech giants rely on large dataset which are often taken from the internet to train AI models
Updated 29 September 2023
Reuters

MENLO PARK: Meta Platforms used public Facebook and Instagram posts to train parts of its new Meta AI virtual assistant, but excluded private posts shared only with family and friends in an effort to respect consumers’ privacy, the company’s top policy executive told Reuters in an interview.
Meta also did not use private chats on its messaging services as training data for the model and took steps to filter private details from public datasets used for training, said Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, speaking on the sidelines of the company’s annual Connect conference this week.
“We’ve tried to exclude datasets that have a heavy preponderance of personal information,” Clegg said, adding that the “vast majority” of the data used by Meta for training was publicly available.
He cited LinkedIn as an example of a website whose content Meta deliberately chose not to use because of privacy concerns.
Clegg’s comments come as tech companies including Meta, OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google have been criticized for using information scraped from the Internet without permission to train their AI models, which ingest massive amounts of data in order to summarize information and generate imagery.
The companies are weighing how to handle the private or copyrighted materials vacuumed up in that process that their AI systems may reproduce, while facing lawsuits from authors accusing them of infringing copyrights.
Meta AI was the most significant product among the company’s first consumer-facing AI tools unveiled by CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday at Meta’s annual products conference, Connect. This year’s event was dominated by talk of artificial intelligence, unlike past conferences which focused on augmented and virtual reality.
Meta made the assistant using a custom model based on the powerful Llama 2 large language model that the company released for public commercial use in July, as well as a new model called Emu that generates images in response to text prompts, it said.
The product will be able to generate text, audio and imagery and will have access to real-time information via a partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
The public Facebook and Instagram posts that were used to train Meta AI included both text and photos, Clegg said.
Those posts were used to train Emu for the image generation elements of the product, while the chat functions were based on Llama 2 with some publicly available and annotated datasets added, a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.
Interactions with Meta AI may also be used to improve the features going forward, the spokesperson said.
Clegg said Meta imposed safety restrictions on what content the Meta AI tool could generate, like a ban on the creation of photo-realistic images of public figures.
On copyrighted materials, Clegg said he was expecting a “fair amount of litigation” over the matter of “whether creative content is covered or not by existing fair use doctrine,” which permits the limited use of protected works for purposes such as commentary, research and parody.
“We think it is, but I strongly suspect that’s going to play out in litigation,” Clegg said.
Some companies with image-generation tools facilitate the reproduction of iconic characters like Mickey Mouse, while others have paid for the materials or deliberately avoided including them in training data.
OpenAI, for instance, signed a six-year deal with content provider Shutterstock this summer to use the company’s image, video and music libraries for training.
Asked whether Meta had taken any such steps to avoid the reproduction of copyrighted imagery, a Meta spokesperson pointed to new terms of service barring users from generating content that violates privacy and intellectual property rights.

Topics: Meta Facebook Instagram artificial intelligence (AI)

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Dubai’s Arab Media Forum wraps up with insights into AI-led future

Dubai’s Arab Media Forum wraps up with insights into AI-led future
Updated 27 September 2023
Arab News
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Dubai’s Arab Media Forum wraps up with insights into AI-led future

Dubai’s Arab Media Forum wraps up with insights into AI-led future
  • Forum had two key themes: impact of artificial intelligence and influence of film and drama
Updated 27 September 2023
Arab News

DUBAI: The 21st edition of the Arab Media Forum wrapped up in Dubai on Wednesday, with leading media figures, ministers, heads of local Arab and international media organizations, as well as intellectuals and writers coming together to discuss the future of the industry.  

The two-day forum had two key themes: the impact of artificial intelligence on the media, and the influence of film and drama as sources of soft power.  

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammad Al-Maktoum highlighted the importance of culture in society, saying it is intertwined with creative economy, the basis for countries’ development.  

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, spoke of the importance of finding common ground in the region in order to coexist peacefully.  

”This pillar is stability. This stability is not just for the UAE but for the entire region as this cannot be achieved in isolation. There is a need to calm the region and not focus on disagreements. Confrontation leads to a high price for all parties. So, the first pillar is stability, and this is an established fact. The second pillar is geo-economic more than a geo-strategic. Economic growth is important,” he said.

Most of the attendees and panelists shared the view that AI can be beneficial in terms of solving problems in a cost-effective and timely manner. However, some journalists warned of its dangers in terms of spreading fake, unverified news, as well as its possible impact on job losses in the media sector.  

Bahraini Minister of Information, Ramzan Abdulla Al-Nuaimi, and H.E. Karam Gabr, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation, discussed the differences between Arab media operations and their counterparts in West.

“Each country has a different set of laws, morals and culture; we Arabs have been stereotyped on how we handle our journalists and our media, but what the West fails to understand is that we live according to our values and not theirs,” Al-Nuaimi said.  

Both agreed there should be economic opportunities for the youth to express their creativity, and channel their opinions and frustrations in positive ways.  

Topics: Arab Media Forum

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