In an effort to make sure that you can be truly confident when choosing the best cheap VPN for your needs, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2 Coalition) has launched the VPN Trust Seal accreditation program.

The new accolade builds on top of the VPN Trust Initiative, which was first launched in 2019 with the goal of strengthening trust and mitigating risks for VPN users, and the VTI principles that were published in 2020.

Now, the i2 Coalition has announced a list of trusted VPN providers that you can purchase with confidence, including some of our favorites like Surfshark with its  incredible value $2.39 per month deal and NordVPN, which is nearly 70% off for a limited time.

The Most Trustworthy VPNs Revealed

The VPN Trust Seal accreditation program has been launched and it’s a certification designed to help making good VPN choices easier than ever. Specifically, it will provide a badge to VPNs that meet the standards set out in the five principles of the VPN Trust Initiative (VTI).

On September 29 2020, the i2 coalition created the VT1 principles with the aim of creating a “comprehensive set of best practices for VPN providers that bolster consumer confidence and provider accountability”.

This organization includes major VPN brands that will immediately be accredited: Surfshark, VyprVPN, ExpressVPN, and NordVPN are already members, as are Hide.me, StrongVPN, PureVPN, Ivacy and IPVanish.

The Five Key Principles of the i2 Coalition

The principle areas of the VTI – and their related best practices – include:

• Security: VPNs will take steps to secure their infrastructure for their users, including using strong encryption and token-based authentication.
• Advertising Practices: marketing claims have to be backed up by the terms of use provided by VPN companies, and they have to use clear and transparent language.
• Privacy: VPNs will be up-front about what data they log, and quickly disclose any data breaches that occur.
• Disclosure and Transparency: How user data is used must be made public by VPN companies, and annual transparency reports must be carried out.
• Social Responsibility: VPNs should contribute to education initiatives and make their software open-source.

If a VPN has a VPN Trust Seal, it means it meets these standards.

What Is The i2 Coalition?

Founded in 2011, the i2 Coalition works with and advocates for internet infrastructure providers, working to create sensible policies and working practices that benefit companies and consumers.

Along with the VPNs mentioned earlier, a range of other companies that operate in the tech sector are also involved, including Amazon, Google, and GoDaddy.

Are There VPNs You Can’t Trust?

Yes. In fact, there’s plenty of downloadable software out there on the internet that advertises itself as a VPN, but in reality, has very few (or none) of the security features and assurances you’d reasonably expect to be included when you purchase a subscription to use a virtual private network.

A lot of free VPNs, unable to use subscription fees to update their security infrastructure, often rely on harvesting user data and selling it to advertising companies to make money. Others don’t have networks that adhere to the latest encryption standards.

So, it’s crucial that you go for a provider you know you can trust, like NordVPN – even if it costs a few dollars a month. It’s a much better option than compromising your ow privacy every time you use the internet. Soon, it’ll be even easier to work this out, as you’ll be able to check out to see whether they have the seal of approval from the i2 coalition.

Apple’s Tim Cook has revealed that the company soon plans to hire a number of staff into AI roles in the United Kingdom, at a time when other large tech companies continue to implement far-reaching cost-cutting measures such as layoffs.

The news comes as Amazon invests $4 billion into AI startup Anthropic and Meta releases its first chatbot assistant trained on public Facebook and Instagram data.

Apple To Go on Hiring Spree

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook revealed this week that the company intends to hire staff in the United Kingdom to work on artificial intelligence projects, on top of the existing AI office in Cambridgeshire where hundreds of staff work on machine learning projects.

“We’re hiring in that area, yes, and so I do expect it [investment] to increase,” Cook told the PA news agency on a trip to Britain this week, during which he visited a school that had partnered with Apple to provide,

“AI is all over our products today” he continued, “it’s behind the Fall Detection on the (Apple) Watch, it’s behind Crash Detection, it’s behind Afib (atrial fibrillation) detection, it’s behind the ECG, it’s predictive typing on iPhone… it’s literally everywhere on our products and of course, we’re also researching generative AI as well, so yes we have a lot going on.”

The Independent reports that Cook dubbed the UK’s tech scene “vibrant”, referencing the fact that the country is home to the third-largest Apple employee population.

Layoffs Continue in the Tech Sector

Unfortunately, not many companies in the tech sector are thinking about recruiting new employees – quite the opposite. Just yesterday, Fortnite creators Epic Games announced that it’s making 16% of their workforce redundant.

Elsewhere, most of the companies usually classed under the “big tech” umbrella – including Meta and Amazon – have both laid off thousands of workers in the past 12 months. Google, on the other hand, axed a number of employees in its recruiting team just this week.

Twitter has gotten rid of around three-quarters of its staff team since Musk’s acquisition of the platform back in November 2022, while T-Mobile, Salesforce, Uber, Reddit, and Spotify have all downsized their payroll since the turn of the year.

The AI Arms Race Hots Up Again

A lot happened this week in the world of AI this week aside from Apple announcing that it plans to hire even more employees to work on artificial intelligence projects.

Perhaps the biggest news to hit the headlines was Meta’s launch of its very own chatbot in the US, which will be available through WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. Amazon, on the other hand, invested an eye-watering $4 billion into Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude 2, a highly capable ChatGPT Competitor released in July of this year.

Not content with being left out, Microsoft-backed OpenAI also had some big news – that ChatGPT can now finally access the internet and use this to inform its responses.

With Google also releasing a raft of extensions for its chatbot, Bard recently, it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to come out on top – and what’s on the horizon.

Facebook is a great place to share photos, message friends, and receive updates from people you only spoke to once in high school. However, just like with popular social media apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and its local selling platform — Facebook Marketplace — are increasingly popular places to get scammed. You don’t need to worry, though, as this guide will tell you all about Facebook and Facebook Marketplace scams — and how to avoid them.

The world’s most popular social media app gives cybercriminals ample opportunities to reach out to targets directly, contributing to a landscape where 62% of Facebook users encounter scams on a weekly basis, with malicious activity ramping up in the holiday season. Falling for Facebook fraudsters isn’t inevitable, though.

We outline some common Facebook and Facebook Marketplace scams to look out for in 2024, offering practical advice on how they can be avoided. Read on for insights and to learn from the first-hand experience of real-life victims, or jump to specific scams you’re interested in.

Facebook scams:

• Facebook Fake Fundraisers
• Facebook Giveaway Scams
• Facebook Quiz Scams
• Facebook Clickbait Scams
• Facebook Scam Messages

Facebook Marketplace scams:

• Facebook Marketplace Phishing Scams
• Facebook Marketplace Fake Listing Scams
• Facebook Marketplace Fake Payment Scams
• Facebook Marketplace Refund Scams

What are Facebook and Facebook Marketplace Scams?

Facebook scams refer to any type of fraudulent activity that takes place on the Meta-owned app, Facebook. With over a third of the global population (37%) owning a Facebook account, the platform has become a valuable tool for cyber opportunists looking to extort victims en masse. Since Facebook is primarily intended for personal use, scams on the app tend to monopolize on its main use cases like personality quizzes, brand giveaways, and charity fundraisers.

Facebook Marketplace scams, on the other hand, describe any scam leveraged on the site’s local selling platform. Since Facebook Marketplace offers local users a space to buy and sell goods and services, rackets on the site commonly involve fake goods and payments – mirroring Amazon scams and the fraud found on other popular selling platforms like eBay.

Facebook Fake Fundraisers

Due to its booming userbase, Facebook can be an excellent way for users to raise awareness about legitimate charity campaigns. However, fraudulent users have been quick to prey on the generosity of users by targeting them with fake charity fundraisers – and they can be very hard to decipher from the real deal.

These bogus campaigns can take many forms, but they typically entail authentic-looking charities (see picture below) and a link to a website where the cause and payment information are outlined. Fake charity appeals also often request donations through fundraising pages like GoFundMe, or Kickstarter.

This type of fake campaign is typically posted and distributed through copycat accounts created by scammers that contain real user details and friend lists. Criminals also tend to request donations through third-party apps like Venmo or CashApp to avoid so it’s harder for fraudulent activity to be traced.

Examples of fake charity campaigns on Facebook. Source: kaspersky.co.uk

How to avoid fake fundraisers on Facebook: Always do your due diligence before donating. If you haven’t heard of a charity before, research them to make sure they’re legit, and if you’re unsure about a GoFundMe campaign, check if the organizer’s account seems trustworthy. Finally, before you contribute towards a campaign, make sure they offer secure payment gateways like Adyen or PayPal.

Facebook Giveaway Scams

If you’ve ever stumbled across a Facebook post promising riches to the first users that like, comment, or share, you’ve probably encountered a giveaway scam.

This type of ruse, which is also common on apps like Instagram and TikTok, either masquerade as competitions or charitable payouts to those in need. They will use money or products like iPhones as the bait, before asking supposed “winners” to follow malicious links or share personal information to reclaim their prize.

These compromised credentials can then be used to extract victims from their money and gain access to personal accounts.

Fake giveaway scams on Facebook. Source: treasurecoastbiz.com

Nazmul Asif, the Co-founder of WordPress plugin RioVizual, tells us about a time he came across a bogus giveaway on Facebook. “The scam was advertised as a giveaway for a free iPhone. To enter the giveaway, you had to like and share the post and tag two friends in the comments” Asif explains. 

Fortunately, Asif’s alarm bells went off before he shared any personal information, but with fake giveaway ruses costing victims around $80 million each month across platforms, many users aren’t so lucky.

How to avoid giveaway scams on Facebook: Fake giveaway scams can be tempting, if the profile behind the post is requesting personal information, we’d run for the hills. If the giveaway is being hosted by a company, cross-check to see if it’s being advertised across platforms. And as a general rule of thumb, if it looks too good to be true — it probably is.

Suspicious Facebook Quizzes

Facebook quizzes are a fun way to find out which character of Friends, or seasonal Starbucks drink you’d be. However, unbeknownst to most users, they’re also a great way to for scammers to collect your private security information.

By asking seemingly begin questions like “What’s your mother’s maiden name?” and “What was the name of your first school?” cybercriminals are able to gain the information they need to access your private accounts. From here, they can deploy malware,  search for more personal data, or even use your account to carry out more social engineering.

A Facebook scam quiz found used by Cambridge Analytica in 2016. Source: bitdefendermyanmar.com

And it’s not only small fish behind these sketchy quizzes. Facebook personality quizzes were central to Cambridge Analytica’s data harvesting and political microtargeting efforts in 2018. So even if you’ve always wanted to find which Taylor Swift album best fits your personality, it’s always best to think twice before entering personal information on quizzes.

How not to fall victim to dodgy Facebook quizzes: If a Facebook quiz is asking you well-known security questions, don’t give away any personal details and report the quiz and its creator to the platform. Only take quizzes from reliable pages too, to minimize your chances of getting hustled.

Facebook Clickbait Scams

Facebook and clickbait are no strangers. But while most clickbait on the platform leads to fairly innocuous articles or product pages, other has more malicious intent.

In a similar way to giveaway scams, clickbait scams rope users in with salacious content designed to evoke a strong emotional reaction, positive or negative – think shocking animal neglect campaigns or pictures of adorable babies. Once they’ve grabbed your attention, they try and funnel users to malicious websites, or ask them to hand over sensitive personal information.

Example of a Facebook clickbait scam. Source: malwarebytes.com

How to avoid the bait on Facebook: Just like with fake giveaway scams and bogus charity appeals, always check the legitimacy of the source before clicking on any links. No trustworthy source will request sensitive information either so always be suspicious of unusual requests.

Facebook Scam Messages

Last but not least, we have Facebook’s magnum opus scam – fraudulent impersonations. If you’ve ever been added by a copycat account, or bombarded with unusual messages from friends you haven’t spoken to since 2009, you’ve been targeted by this ruse.

They take place when cyber criminals take over or clone a legitimate Facebook connection, before sending out phishing messages to their list of contacts, similar to how many WhatsApp scams and even Google Chat scams operate. These messages are designed to entice users into a conversation or shock them with alarming information, with the ultimate goal being retrieving sensitive data.

Design expert and founder of brand-da.com Daria Udalova narrowly avoided falling prey to this scam when checking her Facebook messages. After Udalova received a message from a brand she recognized with a familiar “let’s collaborate vibe”, that didn’t initially raise any red flags.

But after following a link to an official form, and noticing it lacked the brand’s official domain, she suspected something was up. “The link didn’t seem to belong to the brand’s domain. That was a moment of Aha! Gotcha! for me. So I took a step back, didn’t click, and reported it,” Udalova tells Tech.co.

Many tell-tail signs are harder to spot though, so here’s how to avoid getting duped by scam Facebook messages.

How not to fall for scam messages on Facebook: If you get an unusual message from a Facebook friend, reach out to them in person or on an alternate platform to verify it’s legit. If you suspect it’s a bogus message, report the profile to Facebook immediately and notify the user if you haven’t already.

Facebook Marketplace Phishing Scams

Phishing scams take place across all corners of the internet, and Facebook Marketplace is no exception. Due to the high success rate of phishing attacks and Facebook Marketplace’s low barrier to entry, there are a number of different ways criminals are leveraging the platform.

One common phishing attack to be weary of is the “identity verification” scam. Sellers have been known to set up fake marketplace listings, before asking buyers to send over a Google verification code or sensitive information like contact numbers, social security numbers, or financial data to prove their authenticity. This information can then be used for fraudulent purposes.

Facebook Marketplace identity verification scam. Source: komando.com

Another common phishing attack is the “account suspension” scam. In this swindle, scammers pose as Facebook Marketplace support and message targets telling them they need to verify their account to prevent it from being suspended.

Nazum Asif, Co-founder of riovizual.com tells us about a time he encountered this scam. “I clicked on the link and was taken to a fake Facebook Marketplace login page. The login page looked real, but it was actually a phishing site. If I had entered my Facebook login credentials on the fake login page, the scammers would have stolen my account.”

How to stay safe from Facebook Marketplace phishing scams: Facebook users should always be on the lookout for unusual requests on the marketplace and should never share personal information or verification codes with anyone on the app. The platform’s support team won’t reach out to you on Messenger either, so if you think a request is bogus report the account immediately.

For more in-depth guidance, you can check out full guide on how to avoid phishing scams.

Facebook Marketplace Fake Listing Scams

Just like with any other major online marketplace, there’s always a chance that purchases will fall through on Facebook Marketplace. Scam sellers create fake listings, that are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing, before ghosting buyers after they send over the payment.

Theador Hughes, founder of the casino bonus code site CasinosCodes almost got caught out by this scam after seeing an ad for some affordable, high-end electronics listed on the site. “Seeing the attractive price and considering the credibility of Facebook Marketplace, I contacted them,” Hughes tells us. 

However, after being sent a suspicious-looking PayPal request from an unofficial domain, alarm bells started sounding. Luckily, Hughes has a background in finance, but spotting red flags isn’t always this easy.

Matthew Krebs from Creating Margins was recently scammed out of $1000, after placing a downpayment on a fake truck listing he found on Facebook Marketplace. Krebs has since filed a police report but has been unsuccessful in tracking down the scammer and getting his money back.

How to know if a product is the real deal on Facebook Marketplace: Facebook lists a passport, driver’s license, and a state or government-issued ID as acceptable forms of seller identification on its Marketplace. If you’re unsure whether a product is legit, you have the right to ask for identity verification.  What’s more, if a listing for a product is a lot cheaper than the norm, you should be especially cautious.

Facebook Marketplace Fake Payment Scams

It’s not just sellers you should be aware of on Facebook Marketplace. Unfortunately for users looking to make a buck from unwanted products, fake payment scams are also rife on the platform.

In this Facebook Marketplace racket, buyers pay for products using fraudulent checks or payment methods. It’s also common for scammers to use payment platforms that can easily refund or cancel payments once products are delivered. Whichever way these tricksters choose to ‘pay’, it’s always the sellers who end up losing out.

Lots of Facebook Marketplace scammers have been using Zelle to make fake payments. Source. businessinsider.com

UK-based seller and founder of Chorlton Fireworks, Saj Munir, told us about a time he fell victim to a fake payment scam. After receiving a message from what seemed to be a legitimate buyer, the scammer sent him a link to a seemingly legitimate payment portal. “Trusting my instincts, I proceeded with the transaction”, Munir explains “only to find out later that the payment was entirely fraudulent.”

“I was left not only without the promised funds but also without the fireworks I had set aside for this sale. It was a significant financial setback for my business, and I felt a deep sense of betrayal.” – Saj Munir founder of Chorlton Fireworks 

How to avoid fake payments on Facebook Marketplace: To avoid falling victim to this scam like Munir, sellers should only use payment methods that can’t be reversed last minute and should always wait until a payment has cleared before posting an item.

Facebook Marketplace Refund Scams

Another popular swindle to look out for on Facebook Marketplace is refund scams. In this social engineering exercise, scammers claim they have rightfully purchased a product, before asking sellers for a full or partial refund.

Sometimes the fraudster will claim a product is faulty or not as advertised, and other times, buyers will ask for a refund without paying the seller money in the first place (see screenshot below).

Australian Facebook Marketplace user being targeted by a fake refund scam. Source: au.finance.yahoo.com

No matter which technique is used, sellers always lose out when issuing refunds so it’s important to make sure that requests are legitimate before continuing.

How to veer clear of refund scams on Facebook Marketplace: Sellers should always hold out issuing refunds until the item has been returned. This way, they can check if there actually is a fault with the product and avoid being frauded.

Are Facebook and Facebook Marketplace Safe?

Facebook and its selling subsidiary Facebook Marketplace offer safe and legit ways to connect with friends and to shop and sell locally. However, just like with all social media platforms and online marketplaces with large user numbers, they also open opportunities for getting scammed to users who aren’t practicing due diligence. Fraudsters are simply everywhere on social media, evidenced by the fact that even LinkedIn scams are now rife on the otherwise sanguine platform for professional networking.

However, by learning about the most common cons taking place on the Meta-owned sites – and hearing a few cautionary tales – we hope your experience on the platforms can become much safer. Remember, if something on either platform seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Facebook and Facebook Marketplace Scams FAQs

If you’re still using X (formerly known as Twitter) as a reliable source of news in 2023, you shouldn’t be. The site was recently called out by the European Union (EU) recently for being the worst platform on the web for disinformation.

With the Musk-owned platform recently axing a feature that allows users to report political misinformation, this news shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

But for those concerned about the spread of disinformation online, we outline how the EU came to their conclusion, as well as what steps readers can take to cut fake news from their timelines.

X Is the Worst Online Platform for Disinformation

In the least surprising news that’s emerged this year, Elon Musk’s controversial social media app X has been found to have the largest “ratio of discoverability” of disinformation out of any other major online platform, according to a recent report from the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation.

The social media site, which underwent a rebrand this April, was assessed in a pilot phase to evaluate a new testing methodology for discovering disinformation online. Aside from discovering that X had the worst track record for disinformation, the study also found out unverified content was more likely to be posted by users with high follower counts.

“Mr Musk knows that he is not off the hook by leaving the code of practice, because now we have the Digital Services Act fully enforced,” – Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourová

X withdrew its participation in the EU’s Code of Practice in May, but the project still has 44 signatories including major names like TikTok, Facebook, Google, and YouTube.

But X isn’t the only platform fighting disinformation. Between January and April this year, the report also revealed that Google removed over 400 YouTube channels after they were found guilty of peddling Russian-state-sponsored content, with Meta, TikTok, and Microsoft taking similar actions.

Why Fake News Is Rife on Elon Musk’s X

Twitter has never been considered to be a beacon of truth, but since Musk took the helm last October, the platform’s fake news problem has gone from bad to worse.

Musk’s disregard for accurate information was first highlighted in November, when Twitter’s content moderation and disinformation divisions were disproportionately impacted by the company’s ruthless round of firings.

Teams responsible for monitoring fake news across the platform were dismantled even further in January, with offices in Dublin and Singapore bearing the biggest brunt. The Tesla CEO has continued to deprioritize fact-checking into this year’s election cycle too, by disabling a feature that lets users report misleading political information earlier this week.

A combination of X’s deteriorating safeguards, a recent spike in AI content generation, and the fact that fake news spreads six times faster than truthful content has created a hotbed of misinformation on the social media app — with potentially very harmful consequences.

Falling for bogus information isn’t inevitable, though, as we explore next.

How To Detect and Avoid Misinformation Online

Fake news can be almost indistinguishable from the real deal, but there are a number of steps you can take to assess its legitimacy:

• Check the source – This may sound obvious, but if you haven’t heard of the publication before, alarm bells should be ringing. You should also check for typos and unconventional domain extensions as these can be major tell-tale signs.
• Cross-reference – If a story is only being reported on by one source, this should be a massive red flag. Always cross-check articles you’re suspicious of to validate whether a story is authentic.
• Check the author – Checking if an author is credible is an effective way to practice due diligence. Have they worked for other publications? Do they have a good reputation? Are they a controversial figure?
• Check for satire – If the article sounds a bit too outrageous, it may be satire. These stories are normally pretty easy to spot, and there should be a disclaimer somewhere on the source website.
• Use a fact-checking site – You don’t always need to do the legwork yourself. There are a number of quality fact-checking tools out there like Snopes, Politifact, and Fact Check.

Canadian Disney Plus viewers using a shared password have a month to start streaming on their own dime, according to a recent announcement made by the entertainment platform.

In an email sent out to users this week, Disney explained that it’s going to start implementing restrictions on users sharing passwords with people outside their households from November 1st. It’s unclear whether these limits will be extended to US users.

As Disney fights to increase its paid subscribers after a disappointing Q3 earnings call, this move follows an extremely lucrative crackdown made by steaming giant Netflix earlier this year.

Disney Plus’s Password Sharing Clampdown Begins

Popular streaming platform Disney + has informed its Canadian customers that it will be restricting password sharing from November 1.

In an email sent out to subscribers, the entertainment company states “We’re implementing restrictions on your ability to share your account or login credentials outside of your household”. They also told users “You may not share your subscription outside of your household” in its recently updated Help Center.

While it’s unclear what exact action will be leveraged against those guilty of using shared credentials, Disney’s Canadian subscriber agreement outlines that the company may “analyze the use” of culpable accounts, which could lead to account limits or termination.

Disney Plus’s Growth Has Buffered

Disney’s pending Canadian crackdown comes a month after the company expressed issues with retaining users in its Q3 earnings call.

In the conference, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that US and Canadian subscribers have dipped from 46.4 million to 46 million between October to December 2022. He also explained that its Indian service has hemorrhaged over 12 million users since April.

As a result of these losses, the company declared that it’s ‘actively exploring’ ways to tackle password sharing and “will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies” later this year.

“We certainly have established (password sharing) as a real priority, and we actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.” – Bob Iger at Disney’s Q3 Earning Call

The kid-friendly streaming giant also used the call to announce some major changes to its pricing structure. On September 6, the company will be launching a new $19.99 ad-free bundle with Hulu on September 6, while the price of individual subscriptions is set to rise from October 12.

Will Disney’s Password Policy be as Successful as Netflix’s?

Disney’s user crackdown hasn’t come out of the blue. Its latest efforts echo similar actions made by streaming rival Netflix earlier this year.

After losing revenue to password sharers for years, Netflix began charging US subscribers $8 extra for additional users that live outside their household in May – and the results were outstanding.

In the four days following the change, the streaming company witnessed its four largest days of US user acquisition on record, according to data from media research firm Atenna. The trend also continued into the next month, with a total of 2.3 million additions being recorded from May to July.

With major streaming services struggling with increased competition and shifting consumer preferences, the success of Netflix’s password crackdown has offered some hope for the industry. And with Disney’s CEO claiming that a “significant” amount of Disney+ rely on borrowed credentials, the potential for growth could be huge.

ChatGPT users don’t have to be coding masterminds to benefit from the tool. In fact, for many tasks, they don’t need any coding knowledge at all. However, there are still some tasks that require a guiding hand in the form of third-party integrations, also known in this specific context as ChatGPT plugins.

Luckily for avid ChatGPT users, there’s now an ecosystem of ChatGPT plugins available to download, strategically fashioned to channel ChatGPT’s immense potential into specific tasks like online searches or securing restaurant reservations. So, we’ve searched high and low for the 10 easy to use (yet genuinely useful) ChatGPT plugins and add-ons.

Once installed, these plugins will help you maximize the value of your $20 per month ChatGPT subscription. They may only end up saving you an hour or two of time each week, but there are thousands of ChatGPT plugins that are completely free to use – so really, there’s very little downside.

What Is a ChatGPT Plugin?

ChatGPT plugins are third-party apps designed to accomplish a wide range of different tasks, all powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT large language model system.

Just opening up ChatGPT and trying to hold a conversation doesn’t always result in any actionable benefits. The best plugins will channel the power that ChatGPT-4 delivers, giving users a clear, measurable path towards success.

Granted, not all plugins do a great job of wrangling the sometimes-finicky AI model. But a good plugin works sort of like adding an extra magnifying lens to a microscope: ChatGPT remains the main engine at all times, but adding that extra filter can help you get more targeted results.

Plugins vs GPTs

It’s good to just take a second to clarify the difference between ChatGPT plugins and GPTs. In November 2023, ChatGPT launched GPTs – a way for users to make their own, custom chatbots with custom knowledge bases. A GPT store where these can be bought and sold will be launched at some point this year (2024) OpenAI says.

However, they’re not the same things as a plugin. Plugins usually have singular functionalities and are more like extensions of existing “apps” within the chat interface. Custom GPTs are more like niched versions of ChatGPT – chatbots with specific purposes or knowledge bases.

The Best ChatGPT Plugins for 2024

AI has been a hot topic now for some time, so it’s no wonder that the most popular ChatGPT plugins are easy to spot. But not all plugins are created equal: If you don’t interact with it carefully, ChatGPT can be prone to AI hallucinations, the term for confidently made-up assertions with no basis in reality. A plugin designer needs to plan for this, and should build fail-safes into any software that relies on ChatGPT.

Here, we’ve reviewed all the biggest and best plugins to determine which are worth checking out.

In this guide:

• PromptPerfect: Best for generating prompts
• VoxScript: Best for search engine results
• Expedia: Best for travel
• Canva: Best for graphic design
• OpenTable: Best for restaurant reservations
• WolframAlpha: Best for computation
• Instacart: Best for shopping and food prep
• Speak: Best for translating languages
• WebPilot: Best for talking to webpages
• AskYourPDF: Best for talking to documents

PromptPerfect: Best for generating prompts

There’s no better place to start than with prompts — the term for the statements you’ll need in order to get any responses from ChatGPT in the first place. If you don’t have an ear for crafting the perfect prompt yourself, try the PromptPerfect plugin.

For example, you could suggest “raccoon in space suit” as a possible prompt, which PromptPerfect might spin up into a much better prompt like “Adorable raccoon astronaut exploring an alien planet, futuristic space suit with glowing neon accents, surrounded by strange and colorful flora and fauna, sci-fi atmosphere.”

There’s a catch: Unlike the other plugins in this guide, it’ll cost you $9.99 per month. This plugin exists to suggest more detail for a bare-bones prompt, helping the user realize just how complex a prompt they could make — even if they ultimately tweak the results to their own taste.

VoxScript: Best for search engine results

The VoxScript plugin began as a project aimed at making YouTube easier to search, but its functions go beyond that. With it, users can automatically pull up the perfect Google search result and save themselves the trouble of sifting through all the possible options. Given the amount of SEO and sponsored ads you’ll need to avoid these days, that’s a big time-saver.

Another cool use of VoxScript includes searching through YouTube transcripts to isolate specific statements, analyzing them, and even “holding a conversation” with the text of the video to pull out key insights. If you’re interested in learning more uses of the plugin, just use the prompt “what can Voxscript do” once you’ve installed it for a complete list of what it can do.

Expedia: Best for travel

Plenty of brand names have jumped on the ChatGPT plugin bandwagon, and Expedia has been getting some of the best reviews for its own offering. With the Expedia plugin, you’ll be able to ask ChatGPT about all the pesky but essential tasks needed for vacation planning: Tell it your destination, and the plugin can suggest possible round-trip flights, hotel booking, and even sights or activities to check out once you’re at your destination.

Expedia was one of the first waves of plugins released in early 2023, so they went all out to leave a good impression. According to the company, this app will look through “1.26 quadrillion variables including hotel location, room type, date ranges, price points, and much more.”

Canva: Best for graphic design

Canva is a popular graphic design platform that makes it easy to craft social media images, slideshows, and more. But Canva wasn’t content to just be every social media manager’s favorite tool. Now it has a ChatGPT plugin to help everyone else become masters of graphic design art as well.

Once you’ve installed the plugin, just tell ChatGPT directly what you need with a prompt along the lines of the one we suggested in an article published last year: “I am a B2B technology website. Create me a Twitter/X banner.” You’ll get multiple options to pick from, and since Canva is directly integrated, you can open up and edit your final results, giving it that real-human-being tweak to catch any errors that the AI might have left in the mix.

OpenTable: Best for restaurant reservations

The OpenTable online restaurant-reservation service company has operated since the internet dark ages, by which I mean 1998. As a result, it has a wide range of restaurant partnerships that make it easy to find cool new locations, reserve a table at them, or read up reviews, all from the comfort of your laptop.

Now, they offer a ChatGPT integration that allows the AI to do even more of the work. You’ll just have to install it and then ask it to find a restaurant that meets your specifications. Sample prompts include questions like “What’s a restaurant with oysters and great cocktails in the Upper West Side NY?” or “Where’s a highly reviewed brunch spot I can take my mom this Mother’s Day in Charleston?”

Once you let ChatGPT know the day, time, and group size for your reservation, that’s all you need to do: When you show up on the day, the reservation will be waiting for you.

WolframAlpha: Best for computation

ChatGPT can do a lot of things, but anything past very basic math has proven to be a challenge for the system. It’s a large language model, after all, and a language-based interface isn’t designed for numbers.

Enter the WolframAlpha tech, which can handle anything from calculus to trigonometry, and accepts input in standard English as well, allowing for the conversational experience a ChatGPT user expects. Wolfram now offers its own plugin to combine its powers with ChatGPT.

This is a great plugin for avoiding the AI hallucinations that ChatGPT tends to make up when it can’t find a good answer. It’s even free for now — but don’t be surprised if a price tag pops up down the road, as the main WolframAlpha system already comes with a “Pro” subscription itself.

Instacart: Best for shopping and food prep

Along with taking out the trash and washing dishes, meal-planning is a fact of life, like it or not. But if you don’t like it, the Instacart plugin for ChatGPT can take (some of) the load off of your own task-avoidant shoulders.

The service will take prompts such as “I have chicken and pasta. What’s a kid-friendly meal I can make, and what else do I need?” or “How can I make an easy carrot cake?” and turn out full recipes. Once you agree on what you want, you can ask the plugin to create an Instacart order that includes them all and buy it, all from your interface.

This is another example of what makes many of these plugins so useful: It takes an existing powerhouse — in this case, Instacart’s knowledge of over 1.5 million products from over 1,100 retail banners — and plugs it into ChatGPT.

Speak: Best for translating languages

Speak offers a language tutoring service that’s powered by its own AI. Pick up the tool’s ChatGPT plugin, and you’ll get both their AI and OpenAI’s language model, both working towards one goal: Helping you translate and communicate in a language you don’t speak.

Prompts can be simple for this service: Just ask ChatGPT how to say a sentence in the language you’re interested in. In response, the Speak plugin will not just give you a basic translation, but will also explain what a formal vs. a casual way to phrase the translation might be, and can serve you an example conversation to help you lock in the best context surrounding that term.

In fact, the Speak AI might even be more powerful without the inclusion of ChatGPT: The app holds an 4.8/5 score on the iOS store, with plenty of rave reviews for the custom language guideance that the AI offers.

WebPilot: Best for talking to webpages

Conversations with inanimate objects are no longer just setups for bad improv: With the WebPilot ChatGPT plugin, you can post an URL and get ChatGPT to respond to you with information solely from that online source.

Simple prompts like “Can you summarize this page? https://tech.co/news/best-chatgpt-plugins-for-2024” can turn into a conversation about specific claims or arguments made within the text of the page. You can ask the tool to give you something specific from the webpage, or you could ask it to give you a modified version that fits your needs better than the real thing.

You can also search the whole internet using the plugin, allowing it to guide you to the most relevant content out there, or enter multiple webpages to receive an article summarizing them all at once.

AskYourPDF: Best for talking to documents

The AskYourPDF plugin will read any PDF you give it and explain the basic details to know about it, from the number of pages to the content of the PDF itself.

Like Speak, this service works as a stand-alone offering without ChatGPT, powered by its original, albeit less famous, AI. The process for using it is a little different, though. Instead of starting with the ChatGPT interface, you’ll need to visit the AskYourPDF website and upload the PDF in question. Only then can you return to ChatGPT, where you can paste in the document ID that correlates to your PDF and ask all the questions you want.

This plugin is a useful tool for students in college or AP English. You’ll be able to parse academic papers much faster with an AI blazing the trail and highlighting the key information to know.

How to Install ChatGPT Plugins

You can play around with ChatGPT for free, but to use any plugins, you’ll need a paid subscription. It’s called ChatGPT Plus, it costs $20 per month, and it gives you access to the most recent model of the service, which is currently ChatGPT-4.

Once you have a ChatGPT Plus account, you can start installing plugins with just a few steps. First, hover over the GPT-4 icon and click “plugins.” This opens up the Plugin section, and you can reach the store by clicking the arrow next to the GPT-4 button. Then, just search for the plugin you want, click “install,” and start familiarizing yourself with its features.

Once installed, the plugin will be fully integrated with ChatGPT, so you can talk to ChatGPT like you normally would, and the plugin will activate itself when its needed.

Read Next: ChatGPT vs Grok

FAQs

ChatGPT is now capable of browsing the internet to provide users with up-to-date responses, instead of being limited to data produced before their previous September 2021 cutoff date.

After failing to integrate the chatbot with Microsoft Bing in May due to paywall challanges, the research firm has finally found a way utilizing browse the web without plundering restricted data.

But OpenAI isn’t just investing in its flagship product. In a busy week for the AI company, it also secured $1 billion of funding to build the “iPhone of artificial intelligence”.

ChatGPT Can Finally Browse the Internet

In a move that sharpens ChatGPT’s competitive advantage against rivals like Google Bard and Bing AI, the chatbot can now search the internet to provide relevant, up-to-date content to its users.

The long overdue update overrides previous limits which prevented ChatGPT from relying on data that was produced after its September 2021 cut-off date.

“Browsing is available to Plus and Enterprise users today, and we’ll expand to all users soon. To enable, choose Browse with Bing in the selector under GPT-4,” – OpenAI on X

The AI research firm recently Tweeted that the browsing integration is currently available to those with a Plus and Enterprise plan, and will be available to general users “soon”.

OpenAI first tried to connect to Microsoft Bing back in May of this year. However, it shelved the project after it found out users were bypassing paywalled websites and retrieving restricted information for free – an offence that Microsoft’s Bing Chat and Google Bard have both also previously been found guilty of.

After working hard to resolve this issue, OpenAI has implemented new rules including “identifying user agents so sites can control how ChatGPT interacts with them” and reading and respecting sites’ robots.txt files so they only crawl consenting sites.

ChatGPT Ups its Game, Adding Siri-Like Features

Integrating with Microsoft Bing is one of the biggest upgrades ChatGPT’ has made since its launch in November 2022. However, it’s just one in a series of improvements its creator OpenAI has announced this week.

On Monday, the company revealed ChatGPT will soon be able to have voice conversations with its users, in a similar way to Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant Siri.

The feature, which relies on technology Spotify is currently using to translate podcasts, will also be able to narrate bedtime stories, and speak out loud text input from users, in what OpenAI is claiming “opens doors to many creative and accessibility-focused applications”.

ChatGPT new voice activation and image interaction features. Source: openai.com

But it doesn’t stop there. ChatGPT will also soon support image interactions, enabling users to generate richer, more specific responses by pasting images into prompts. These features will become available to Plus and Enterprise subscribers over the next few weeks.

OpenAI in Talks to Build the “iPhone of AI”

In what’s turning out to be a very busy week for OpenAI, the AI powerhouse also recently announced it’s been in “advanced talks” with former Apple designer and Steve Jobs collaborator Jony Ive about creating the “iPhone of artificial intelligence”.

The venture, which aims to create a more natural and intuative user experience for interacting with AI, has already secured $1 billion in funding from the Japanese company SoftBank, according to the Financial Times.

Details about the prospective smartphone haven’t been announced and no official deal has been made. However, with Apple recently reporting a historic dip in iPhone sales, and SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son being prepared to pump tens of billions of dollars into AI partnetships, OpenAI seems to have a solid chance of biting into Apple’s smartphone monopoly.

Rumble is an online video-sharing platform, and one of the more well-known alternatives to the industry-dominant YouTube.

It was first founded in 2013 as a YouTube alternative, and has found enough popularity among US conservatives to become the livestreaming host of the RNC’s second Republican presidential primary debate in the evening of September 27, 2023.

Just 20% of the nation’s population had heard of Rumble as of a December 2022 survey, so the platform is having a moment. Here’s what to know about the service.

Fast Facts About Rumble

• 20% of Americans know what Rumble is, according to a 2022 Pew Research poll, while 2% have used it.
• Rumble is valued at over $2 billion.
• Rumble reported 78 million active users globally as of 2022.
• 76% of those who get news from Rumble on a regular basis identify as Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party.
• Around a fifth of the most prominent Rumble accounts (22%) have been either banned or demonetized on other platforms.
• 55% of the most prominent accounts promote accounts on other sites, including Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
• Rumble is blocked in France for refusal to remove Russian state media accounts from the platform.

Rumble’s cloud platform also currently supports Truth Social, a right-wing social platform launched by former US president Donald Trump in February 2022.

Rumble’s Right-Wing Political Connections

Rumble itself has courted right-wing names in recent years, even offering Joe Rogan a $100 million podcast deal that he rejected in 2022.

Most recently, Rumble made headlines in connection to one prominent user of the platform, Russell Brand, an English comedian recently accused of rape and sexual and emotional abuse by five women, following a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s documentary series Dispatches.

Rumble has positioned itself as an alternative to YouTube’s content moderation, saying that it is the “free speech” option, “immune to cancel culture,” and is separate from “big tech platforms that continue to embrace ‘cancel culture’.”

Rumble does have its own content moderation policy, which forbids obscenity, stalking, and discrimination.

The Rumble homepage.

Rumble and Google Ads

Rumble is 90% funded by Google Ads, the popular pay-per-click online advertising platform developed by Google.

But since the platform’s anti-“cancel culture” positioning draws in plenty of content that’s explicitly not brand-safe, Rumble’s recent rise in public awareness has brought additional scrutiny: Burger King, Asos and HelloFresh have all pulled ads from Rumble within the last week, following Rumble’s apparent support of Russell Brand.

Lack of transparency surrounding Google Ad buys has long been a boon to platforms and publishers that are very brand-unsafe but drive a lot of traffic: They can profit from Google’s pay-per-click model without the knowledge of the businesses who place ads directly through Google.

Check My Ads Institute has a solution, however. The digital adtech transparency watchdog has released a helpful guide to blocking Rumble from your company’s ad campaigns, should this be deemed necessary.

Two out of three (67%) of business leaders in a recent Tech.co survey said that they would trust AI technology to drive their company vehicles.

In addition, half of respondents (50%) said that they were actively “considering replacing” their current human-driven company vehicles with AI-powered self-driving vehicles.

Commercial fleets in the US are still waiting on AI to be fully functioning, and face legal concerns surrounding the issue as well. However, as these exclusive survey results show, the majority of business managers are more than willing to embrace self-driving vehicles.

70% of Business Leaders Say Self-Driving Vehicles Are Safe for Company Use

Tech.co’s survey found that the typical business leader trusts in the AI behind self-driving vehicles, and is willing to put their company where their mouth is: 70% of them say they believe think AI-powered vehicles “are safe for company vehicle use.”

However, given that 67% of respondents said that they’d be fine with self-driving vehicles in their fleets, it’s worth noting the lower percentages of positive responses to questions about actively replacing their human drivers with AI: Just 50% of those who answered our survey say that they are considering replacing human drivers with AI, leaving a remaining 50% who either answered that they are not considering this or who chose not to answer.

Granted, that’s half of them, so it’s not a minority, but that does leave a gap between those 50% and the 67% that are thinking about investing in AI. Those who say they won’t replace humans but will add AI may be interested in expanding their fleet using AI, while retaining all their current drivers for their older, human-driven vehicle models.

Indeed, another survey question confirmed that expanding companies are a lot more likely to pick AI over humans: 67% of survey respondents said they would consider AI-powered self-driving vehicles for transport goods over hiring human drivers.

Most Business Leaders Say AI Is the Future, Boosts Efficiency

Why switch to self-driving cars? Boosting efficiency is a big reason: 70% of business leaders believe self-driving company vehicles could complete business transportation tasks more efficiently than human drivers can.

That makes sense, as an artificial intelligence that can drive a vehicle won’t suffer from the same needs as a human driver, from low visibility during nighttime driving to legally mandated time off of work to nap at a rest stop.

Plus, AI is simply the wave of the future — at least according to the 73% of respondents who say they believe self-driving company vehicles will grow in popularity over the next five years.

They Agree on One Thing: 83% Say AI Needs Regulation

Better efficiency can’t cut corners when it comes to roadside safety, and the large majority of business leaders we polled at Tech.co agreed on this point: 83% of them held that “clear AI regulation” needs to be established for AI-powered company vehicles.

Lawmakers are already hammering out the regulations surrounding the use of self-driving commercial fleets on public roads. Most recently, a bill passed the California Senate this month to require the presence of a human safety operator for each self-driving truck operating in the state. That’s effectively a ban on self-driving trucks across the nation’s most populated state, although this bill was later vetoed by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Granted, some AI use is far from a new development for fleet managers. All of the best route planning software uses some form of AI to power routing, dispatch, and in-the-moment route optimization, using the latest traffic or weather data to adjust the map directions that human drivers rely on.

We have yet to see if full automation can arrive for fleets across the US, but this survey makes one development clear: If self-driving trucks do reach the market, the majority of business leaders will be ready and waiting with open checkbooks.

Meta Connect 2023 is the biggest tech event since Apple launched its new iPhone and iOS 17. As widely teased, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to deliver a major new hardware launch in the Meta Quest 3 and plenty of news about the company’s future AI plans.

Want to follow all the action live and as it happens? Read on as we explain how to watch a Meta Connect live stream online for free, as well as details of what to expect at this year’s event and other crucial details like and time of today’s keynote.

Here’s how to watch Meta Connect 2023 online and live stream all the action for free.

How To Watch Meta Connect Online: Free Live Stream

Watching Meta Connect 2023 couldn’t be easier.

In fact, Meta is hosting a Connect live stream right on its website. So all you need to do to watch Meta Connect online today is head there, sign up, and then log-in at the right time to tune in.

That brings us to the very important question of the Meta Connect keynote time, full details of which are below for your convenience.

When is Meta Connect 2023? Time in US, UK, Europe, India and more

Today’s Meta Connect 2023 keynote kicks off at 10am local Pacific time at the company’s California HQ.

This means the Meta Connect time is as follows for the time zones and countries below:

• 10 am PT (US)
• 1pm ET (US)
• 6pm BST (UK)
• 7pm CEST (Europe)
• 10.30pm IST (India)
• 3am AEST (Weds Sept 27 in Sydney, Australia)

If you tune in as detailed above just before these times, you’ll be able to easily watch Meta Connect online.

What to Expect at Meta Connect 2023

In addition to the main keynote led by Mark Zuckerberg, which will feature the tech giant’s biggest announcements, there’s also a Developer State of the Union that’s likely to be packed with interesting nuggets about how the company’s VR and AR platforms are, well…developing.

In terms of previewing Meta Connect 2023, the big spoiler alert to reiterate for Meta Connect 2023 is that it’s going to see the launch of the all-new Meta Quest 3, a VR headset that’s hoping to woo gamers first and foremost, but is also likely to have some seriously useful work features and use cases. At least, that’s a fair bet given Meta’s recent advertising push around VR for work.

Plenty is also expected on the AI front, with Meta promising to reveal new ways that “AI will help people connect and express themselves.”

Why Can’t I Watch Meta Connect 2023?

That’s a good question. There are a number of reasons why you might be having problems getting access to the main Meta Connect live stream today, the first of which is if Meta.com is blocked in your country or by your specific ISP.

If that’s the case, you could try using one of the best free VPNs to watch the event. A VPN, or virtual private network, is a clever bit of software that helps you repoint your internet connection to different countries and servers around the world, which is sometimes a way to access georestricted content. However, you absolutely must check that it’s legal to do this where you reside, as while VPNs are legal in and of themselves, we can’t speak for local laws where you live.

In one of the most exciting ChatGPT updates since it became possible to install ChatGPT plugins, the popular AI chatbot now lets you prompt it using voice commands and by uploading pictures.

It means that ChatGPT is now much more than just a text-based companion for all your online endeavors, with the addition of these interactive features moving it one step closer to being able to replicate human-to-human interactions.

The new functionality will initially be available to ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise users, who will get access “in the next two weeks.” This suggests a phased rollout, and if you want to check if you’re one of the lucky ones who can talk to the generative AI tool early, here’s how to use voice commands with ChatGPT.

How To Use Voice Commands on ChatGPT

OpenAI, who owns ChatGPT, announced the blockbuster update in a recent blog post. The voice update will be available only on the ChatGPT apps for Android and iOS, while image-based interactions will be supported on the web platform, too.

If you’re a ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise subscriber and want to check out the new feature for yourself, then it couldn’t be easier to do so. Simply open ChatGPT and make sure you’re logged in to your premium account, then navigate to Settings > New Features and you’ll be able to opt-in to voice conversations. Remember, if you can’t find this option right now, it’s probably just because it hasn’t rolled out to just yet and there’s no need to panic.

Once you have secured access, it’s all about learning to how to use voice with ChatGPT to the best effect. Bearing in mind it’s mobile-only, you’re likely to get the most mileage simply from the convenience of being able to ask it to execute the best ChatGPT prompts, instead of having to type them. It’ll be fascinating to see how people do interact with when it’s more widely available, which is something OpenAI says will happen in due course.

How To Use Image Input on ChatGPT

The other major addition to ChatGPT is the ability to input images into the chatbot. The use cases here are more obvious, given the visual nature of the society we live in and OpenAI has already offered up a handful of suggestions on how to use the new feature.

“Snap a picture of a landmark while traveling and have a live conversation about what’s interesting about it. When you’re home, snap pictures of your fridge and pantry to figure out what’s for dinner (and ask follow up questions for a step by step recipe). After dinner, help your child with a math problem by taking a photo, circling the problem set, and having it share hints with both of you,” the company writes.

There’s no need to opt in to this feature, apparently, it should just become available to Plus and Enterprise subscribers over the next couple of weeks.

How Does Voice on ChatGPT Actually Work?

For those interested in the more technical aspects of how voice works with ChatGPT, what we know right now is that the capability is powered by an all-new OpenAI text-to-speech model that’s “capable of generating human-like audio from just text and a few seconds of sample speech.”

OpenAI adds that it’s working with professional voices actors to create the different voice profiles that will be offered when using the feature, while transcription of a user’s words into text is made possible by the company’s Whisper system.

After rolling out to Plus and Enterprise users, OpenAI says that developers will be the next to get access to ChatGPT’s new voice and image input powers.

The first time you see its super low prices, you’d be right to wonder if Temu is legit or not. It’s certainly got its share of bad reviews and complaints on sites like the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which could lead you to believe it’s not safe to shop on. You may also just be plain confused by the upstart online retailer suddenly popping up with ads on your social media feed. To really understand what Temu is all about, I took the plunge and ordered a car charger from it. Here’s what you really need to know about Temu, based on this experience.

Before starting my Temu shopping journey, I found it useful to remember that pretty much all online retailers, including giants like Amazon, get routinely slated on sites like the BBB. They’re basically a dumping ground for the frustrations of customers whose orders have been problematic, which is something I’ll touch on in more detail later. Similarly, while Temu’s rock bottom prices seem too good to be true, its direct access to the wholesale Chinese supply chain means it cuts out the middle man and keeps the end cost to you mindbogglingly cheap.

Of course, once you’ve shopped around Temu a bit, you begin to notice it does have its fair share of shortcomings. In this guide, I’ll share both sides of my experience ordering from Temu, so you can see first-hand what it’s all about and then make your own mind up if it’s safe or not. Let’s start with a bit of useful background information on what Temu is.

What is Temu?

Another essential thing you should know about Temu is that it offers global shipping coverage. You can order directly from Temu in US, UK, mainland Europe, Australia, and much of Asia. Best of all, Temu shipping is free, even though you might spend more on lunch at the local sub shop than you do getting Temu to send you cheap HDMI cables. There’s also a generous 90 day returns window, in line with what’s offered by other online mega stores.

Who owns Temu?

Temu is owned by a company called PDD Holdings. Before Temu, it was best known as the parent firm of another online retailer, Pinduoduo. That site specialized in budget agricultural equipment but had a questionable reputation. Specifically, it was suspended from the Google Play Store over malware concerns and found itself at the center of a scandal after two worker deaths.

This hasn’t exactly helped Temu’s standing, but it should be said that serious concerns over employee conditions in the Chinese supply chain have plagued big tech for years – Apple’s relationship with Foxconn being another problematic example.

Where is Temu located?

There are two answers to this questions. Temu itself is headquartered in Boston, MA, while parent company PDD Holdings recently moved its headquarters from Shanghai to Dublin. In terms of the goods Temu is supplying, these are still coming direct from China, which is why its prices are so cheap.

Why is Temu so cheap?

Temu is so cheap because it cuts out the middle man and provides shoppers with prices direct from the Chinese wholesale supply chain. It’s reportedly losing a lot of money doing this, but it’s a strategy that has allowed it to quickly establish a foothold is Western markets previously dominated by the likes of Amazon. In terms of the US market specifically, it’s also able to take advantage of the de minimis loophole, which sets out that imports under $800 are not subject to duties, taxes or other tariffs.

What is Temu Actually Like To Shop On?

On the whole, not that different from shopping on other online retailers. Head to the Temu website and you’ll find a familiar interface with products available to browse by type, along with plenty of deals, promos and special offers. When I last went to check out Temu’s wares, it was the retailer’s Fall Sale in the spotlight, along with Halloween merch being pushed.

As you can see, the main nav bar provides easy access to a number of other useful landing pages, from specific product categories to deals and a “Best Sellers” section that I found useful to get an idea of what sorts of things other people are buying on Temu. The answer? Apple Watch lookalikes and sneakers, it would seem.

If you decide to investigate something further, you’ll find that individual product pages are laid out in a user friendly manner that’s likely looks familiar to online shoppers. As well as having a user review system in place, Temu also clearly states a delivery window for each item, as well as that item’s success rate at arriving in that window. While seeing that there’s a more than 20% chance an item might be delivered late isn’t great, at the same time I actually found Temu’s honesty here reassuring, as it reflects the realities of ordering something direct from China.

Want to be the next Temu? Read our guide to the Best Ecommerce Website Builders

Having recently bought a wireless iPhone car charger on Temu, what I was really interested in was the “Your orders” section to see what kind of order tracking you can expect from the retailer. For anyone shopping on Temu for the first time, it’s a pleasant surprise to discover that it provides the same kind of thorough and transparent order tracking that you get from other big name online retailers. This is visible on the website itself, but I also received regular update emails from the retailer confirming key stages of the dispatch and shipping process. This was reassuring, given poor communication was one of the more common Temu complaints I’d encountered in my research prior to ordering.

The main thing to note here is that you’ll notice my item was indeed being delivered. Not only that, I can tell you that it was delivered on time, based on the window Temu gave me at the start of the shopping process. I saved about $15-20 and, ironically, the only hiccup in delivery was down to Evri, who failed to deliver it when promised.

Of course, you may notice that there’s a lot more to order tracking on Temu than when you task Amazon with delivering the new Madden every September. That’s obviously because there’s a lot more to delivering straight from China than from your local Amazon warehouse.

Which brings us to Temu’s shortcomings.

What Isn’t So Good About Temu?

My Temu order arrived 10 days after I ordered it, which is in keeping with the “roughly 10 days” window I was expecting based on my pre-purchase research. The fact is that Temu takes longer – a lot longer – to get stuff to your front door. This means it won’t be for everyone, at least not all of the time. The lengthy transit took its toll on my item, too, and you can see the wear and tear for yourself.

I knew it was never going to be like unboxing a new iPhone, so this isn’t really a problem. The problem is the lengthy delivery itself. Much of what’s bought online these days falls into the category of “semi-panic” shopping. When I lost the last of my child safety lock keys the other day, there was no question of checking if I could get them from Temu for less – I needed them tomorrow and Amazon was the only place for that. In other words, Temu is only really an option if you can afford to wait for something. This means it’s good for, say, kitting yourself our with a new season wardrobe on the cheap – but less suitable when you forget a birthday or anniversary and have to snap something up at the last minute.

There were also a couple of things I searched for where Temu wasn’t able to live up to my hopes. For instance, when I searched Temu for golf balls, what was available wasn’t actually any cheaper than buying them new from a local budget retailer, or bagging a lake ball deal off Amazon. The so-called top deal, featuring 12 non-brand name golf balls for $34, is actively bad value – and the idea of it being “originally” priced at $80 and therefore over 50% off is also questionable. Let’s not pretend other retailers are immune to this, but this is a particularly bad example.

Ultimately, if you shop on Temu it’s your responsibility to know if a deal is legit or if it’s a lemon. You’re also likely to quickly discover what you personally are able to use Temu for, and where it comes up short for you. In my case, I’d happily use it to get cut-price versions of gadgets I don’t really need (like wireless iPhone car chargers) but want nonetheless. It’s useful if you want to try a particular type of product to see if it works for you, before potentially upgrading to something more premium.

Verdict: What Temu is Depends on Who You Are

Based on my experience, Temu is a perfectly legitimate online retailer that will get you the items you ordered, most likely within the timeframe it says it will. If it doesn’t, you’ll be reasonably compensated. That much is clear.

Its overall utility as an online retailer, therefore, isn’t really in question. Its utility to you, as an individual shopper, is what you need to ask yourself. If you go in with realistic expectations, such as to buy a bunch of fast fashion on the extra cheap or try out new gizmos, you’ll probably (like me) be pretty happy. If you’re expecting premium goods delivered to you on military deadlines, you’ll discover pretty quickly it’s not for you.

To come full circle, another way to answer the key question of “What is Temu?” would simply be: whatever you want it to be. Temu is neither a great value retailer for everyday essentials or a purveyor of cheap Chinese goods. It’s both.

Read Next: The Main Ways Technology is Impacting Your Daily Life

For months now, AI has been helping businesses complete tasks, saving them valuable time and money – but it’s also great at helping employees secure new jobs by building them resumes.

Resume building can be a long, arduous process. Knowing precisely how to showcase your experience and present yourself as a great fit for any job isn’t an easy task. But, as with many things, that’s where AI can now help you out.

In this guide, you’ll find out why Zety is the best AI resume builder, how its closest competitors stack up, and how to use ChatGPT to improve your resume.

• What Is an AI Resume Builder?
• The Best AI Resume Builders
• The Best Free AI Resume Builders
• Can ChatGPT Improve My Resume?
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Is an AI Resume Builder?

An AI resume builder is any program or service that utilizes artificial intelligence to automate the resume-building experience for users.

With an AI resume builder, you simply have to input your qualifications and experience, and the software will take care of all of the design and formatting duties. Some of the more sophisticated AI resume builders currently available can auto-generate text, and others will analyze your resume and suggest improvements.

Along with dedicated AI resume builders, you can also ask generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Bard to write specific aspects of your resume, provide examples of good resumes and make aesthetic recommendations, but they don’t have design functionalities.

The Seven Best Resume Builders

Below, we’ve reviewed the top 7 resume builders with expansive paid plans. A lot of them, like Enhancv, also have free plans – which we’ll discuss later on in this article.

1. Zety Resume Builder
2. KickResume
3. MyPerfectResume
4. Rezi
5. NovoResume
6. Enhancv
7. Teal

1. Zety Resume Builder

Zety Resume Builder has a wide range of templates and color schemes to choose from. Impressively, it’ll auto-generate relevant text for the different sections of your resume. Even if you end up editing it, it’s often easier to start with something and work from there, rather than a blank slate.

Overall, Zety is very easy to use. We didn’t run into any problems while testing it, and found the overall building process to be much quicker than the likes of Teal, Novoresume, and Rezi.

What’s more, the “final summary” section is really intuitive – you can edit any part of the resume by just clicking on it. If you want to change something, it’ll take you back to the section of the building journey where you want to make the change.

All in all, our mock resume took about 15 minutes to build. This is really, really quick, and almost all of the copy was generated by Zety, which only tasked us with filling in the bare minimum needed to make it personalizable.

However, Zety costs $2.70 for 14-day access, during which you can do unlimited printing and downloading. If you’d like monthly access, it’ll cost you $5.95.

2. KickResume

KickResume’s setup process starts with a conversation with an AI chatbot, which asks you for your name and your job title. After that, you’ll have a resume generated for you with some mock text, which provides a good foundation to build on.

KickResume has an AI toolbox that will analyze your resume and then award you a score out of 100. If you upgrade to Premium, however, you’ll unlock more in-depth feedback that you can action instantly.

KickResume is one of the only resume builders on this list with a live chat function – which comes in handy if you get stuck with anything.

Along with a limited free plan, KickResume has a $5 per month yearly plan, a $12 per month quarterly plan and a $19 per month monthly plan.

3. Resumaker.ai

Resumaker.ai is an AI resume builder that will generate an entire resume for you from scratch if you select the “AI writer” option when you’re setting up.

Resumaker.ai told us that over 1300 resumes had been built using the software on the day we tested it – so it’s clearly quite popular with job hunters. You can probably see why if you look at the below image – Resumaker.ai generated a pretty solid foundation for a resume for a promoter, which is the job we chose from its drop-down menu when we tested it.

If you want to download your resume, however, you’ll have to pay a 7-day access fee of $0.99.

A professional plan, which will grant you access to premium templates and a spell checker, costs $23.75 for 3 months. The expert plan, on the other hand, is $45.75 for half a year and comes with unlimited downloads.

4. MyPerfectResume

MyPerfectResume looks a little bit like our top-rated AI resume builder, Zety – in fact, the initial setup screen is almost identical. You’ll get almost 40 templates to choose from with this AI resume builder, which is a lot more than some of the other providers on this list.

MyPerfectResume provides a lot of prompts, suggestions, and AI-generated copy for your resume, which means it’s a much quicker process for resume building than a standard resume builder, or just doing it from scratch yourself.

You do have to pay to download your final resume, however, much like Zety, MyPerfectResume will grant you access to premium features like a resume checker if you purchase a subscription.

A 14-day full-access subscription costs just $2.70, whereas a monthly subscription is available for $5.95.

4. Rezi

Rezi is geared towards customers who want to make a range of resumes, rather than just one – it has a dashboard where you can view all of your resumes side by side.

One unique thing about Rezi is the video tutorial that accompanies all the different parts of your resume that you’ll build. It also has an AI-powered job-matching tool that’s included but is currently in Beta.

However, to unlock the AI resume writer, AI cover letter writer, and various other useful features, you’ll need to pay for a premium subscription, which starts from $19 per month on the quarterly plan. If you just want to pay for one month, however, it’ll set you back $29.

You can also purchase “AI credits” separately which can be used to activate these types of features within the software.

5. Novoresume

Novoresume doesn’t ask for much information when you sign up – all you have to do is select a template. In this sense, it was pretty quick to get going.

Although not much of the information is filled in for you automatically, Novoresume does provide a variety of optimization suggestions for each section of your resume, as well as tips on what to write and examples of what you could put.

However, there aren’t many more advanced AI capabilities other than that – but we did like how simple the editor provided by Novoresume was. It’s worth noting that a lot of the templates are reserved exclusively for premium members.

Novoresume has a limited free plan that you can use to make one single-page resume. Premium plans start from $19.99 per month and will let you create a ten-page resume, using more fonts and color themes, and create multiple versions with the same information.

6. Enhancv

Enhancv is a free AI resume builder that will construct a resume from a selection of pre-determined templates, which all look very professional. It’s definitely quality over quantity here, which can’t be said for every resume builder. You will, however, have to make an account if you want to download your finished resume.

The setup process is quite short. After clicking “Build Your Resume” we were introduced to Julia, a “personal resume expert”, who guides you through the initial steps. Although it’s a very basic addition to the standard AI resume-building experience, it did make it feel a little more personable and human-led.

Once you’ve entered some information, you’ll have your resume template generated, which you’ll have to go on to fill in. Although it’s very straightforward, Enhancv loses marks by not automating more of the process. Therefore, it still took us a while to finish.

Enhancv has a free plan that lets you build Two resumes/CVs and cover letters, but there’s also a $24.99 per month monthly plan, a $16.66 per month pro quarterly plan, and a semi-annual plan for $13.32 per month.

7. Teal

Teal is a resume builder that exclusively contains templates that are ATS-proven, which just means they’re amenable to the applicant tracking systems many companies use to process resumes and CVs.

Although you’ll have to input pretty much all of the text for your resume yourself, Teal does use AI to analyze the content of your resume and provide both structural and keyword-based feedback.

Another useful Teal feature is the “Work Styles” area, which will take you through a quiz on your traits and provide you with insights on how your strengths and weaknesses will impact different aspects of the job-finding process. This is useful to know when you’re building your resume.

Along with its resume builder, Teal also has a Chrome extension which will let you bookmark jobs from the likes of LinkedIn and Indeed, automatically source salary information from job descriptions, highlight skills and keywords from Job Description, and send you follow-up reminders.

Teal’s premium version, Teal+, costs $9 per week, $29 per month, or $79 for three months. If you upgrade, you’ll get a more in-depth analysis of your resumes.

The Top Free AI Resume Builders

Along with the subscription-based AI resume builders reviewed above, there are some out there that you can use completely free of charge.

Jobscan

Jobscan isn’t a resume builder by trade – instead, it can scan already-built resumes and optimize them for specific job roles. However, it also provides an AI resume builder that you can use for free.

Like Teal, Jobscan’s AI resume builder will format your resume so it’s amenable to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) which automate much of the initial selection process. Jobscan also says that its resumes templates are “universal” and will autofill into any job application.

Resumake

This AI resume builder requires you to input quite a lot more information than some of the others on this list – the only automated bit is the formatting. There are nine templates to choose from, but they’re all pretty similar.

However, Resumake has a sleek interface, is very easy to use and you can instantly download your finished resume as a PDF after you’re finished with the final touches.

Paid AI resume builders with free plans

Almost all of the AI resume builders featured on our paid list have free plans worth checking out. For instance, Novoresume, Teal, and Enhancv have limited free plans you can take advantage of. Other tools, like Resumaker.ai, offer week-long access programs for a very small amount of money.

Novoresume will let you build one single-page resume using their pre-defined layouts. You won’t be able to create multiple versions or access the provider’s premium templates, however, but if you just need a simple resume, it’s worth a look.

Teal’s free version, despite costing nothing, still has a significant number of features, which we’ve discussed earlier on in the article. You’ll still be able to use its analysis tools and access the Work Styles area without purchasing a subscription.

Enhancv, on the other hand, will let you build two resumes with basic resume sections – although you’ll have access to all the software’s design tools, which isn’t all that usual for a free AI resume builder.

Can ChatGPT Improve My Resume?

Although ChatGPT won’t spit out a fully formed resume for you, it can certainly help you improve aspects of your resume, provided you’re using the correct ChatGPT prompts to help you.

You can, for instance, paste your resume into ChatGPT and ask it to make some suggestions on how to optimize it for specific roles, or how to showcase your experience in a more impressive (yet still truthful) light. It’s particularly good at making linguistic suggestions and you can ask the chatbot to paraphrase your sentences so that they sound more resume-appropriate and professional.

However, we’d strongly recommend reading through OpenAI’s privacy policy first – as well as other chatbots – before you paste any personal information into them. The same goes for the AI resume builders on this list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wonder which cities are embracing the return-to-office movement more than others? A new study discovered where employees are losing out on flexible schedules the most.

As the pandemic gets further and further in the rear-view mirror, more businesses have announced return-to-office mandates, much to the chagrin of employees that got used to a bit of work-life balance.

If you’re working from home and have no intention of commuting any time soon, watch out for these cities, which have higher rates of office occupancy than any others.

Top 10 Return-to-Office Cities

Office occupancy is as good as a metric when it comes to measuring how employes are returning to their commutes, which is what Kastle Systems used for their Getting America Back to Work study.

According to their data, there are 10 cities that stand out above the rest. Here are the top 10 cities for office occupancy in September 2023:

1. Houston, TX – 61.6%
2. Austin, TX – 59.3%
3. Dallas, TX – 53.9%
4. Chicago, IL – 53.6%
5. New York, NY – 50.1%
6. Los Angeles – 49.4%
7. Washington DC – 47.9%
8. Philadelphia – 42.7%
9. San Francisco – 42.6%
10. San Jose – 41.5%

Suffice to say, if you want to keep your flexible work arrangements, you’re going to want to get out of Texas as fast as possible. Beyond that, though, it seems that these are merely a list of some of the largest hubs in the office, and that the overall trend getting rid of remote work.

The Labor Day Shift

Not only did the research from Kastle Systems — a credential and access administration systems company — point to the cities with the largest office occupancies, but they also noted how they changed over time.

More specifically, researchers noted that Labor Day has represented a massive increase in office occupancy after the long holiday week, as return-to-office mandates typically hit that Tuesday.

“This post-Labor Day jump in occupancy mirrors the pattern from the past three years. If the pattern continues, the Barometer may reach a new, higher base level as more workers return to the office.” – Kastle Systems researchers

The list of cities with the biggest change reads quite differently. From Wednesday, September 6th to Wednesday September 13th, for example, New York increased office occupancy from 42.5% to 50.1%, representing a 7.5% increase, making it the biggest shift in the country. San Jose, Philadelphia, and Washington DC all saw a 4.1% increase, which makes them all tied for second place.

Should You Get Rid of Remote Work?

As a business owner, you may feel a lot of pressure to get your employees back to the office. After all, big corporations like Amazon and Apple are doing it, and even if their employees are revolting, they must be onto something, right?

The reality is that getting rid of remote work does little more than alienate top talent and worsen employee well-being. In fact, some remote workers have had to sell their homes at a loss due to rushed return-to-office mandates, which many executives regret, based on recent studies.

All that to say, if your remote workers are productive, happy, and committed to getting work done, don’t throw a wrench in the works because you think it’s what you’re supposed to do.

A new study found that younger generations like Gen Z and Millennials are actually more likely to be the victim of online scams than older generations like Gen X and Boomers.

Online scams have become a common part of the digital world, with personal data and financial information being targeted everywhere from social media to messaging apps.

Well, despite all the memes about their inability to pronounce “Chipotle,” this study shows that older generations are actually keeping their information safer than younger generations.

Younger Generations More Victimized by Online Scams than Older Generations

The Annual Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors Report from the National Cybersecurity Alliance looks at three types of online scams — phishing, identity theft, and romance scams — to determine which generations were most likely to fall victim to these kinds of cyberattacks.

According to their data, Gen Z is the generation most victimized by phishing scams, with 34% noting that they have been tricked by hackers into giving up their information. On top of that, Millennials were more often victimized by identity theft (20%) and romance scams (18%) than any other generation.

Comparatively, Baby Boomers seem quite technically proficient. Only 12% have fallen victim to phishing scams, as well as only 8% having their identity stolen and 4% falling for romance scams.

Why Are Younger Generations Getting Scammed?

While this study seems to debunk the popular theory that boomers are ripe for the picking when it comes to online scams, there are some clear reasons that younger generations would be more prone to getting scammed online.

For starters, the level of online usage from generation to generation plays a big role. 64% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials respondents, for example, noted that they were “always connected” when it came to online presence. Comparatively, only 33% of Boomers said the same, with 60% saying they were only online “a few times a day.”

False confidence could also be playing a role, as thinking you’re secure when you’re not can leave you vulnerable to more sophisticated attacks. In the study, 47% of Gen Z and 52% of Millennials agree with the statement “I find it easy to be secure when I am online.” Conversely, only 30% of Boomers agree with that statement.

How to Stay Safe Online

The study noted that Gen Z and Millennials should be far more proficient when it comes to securing their data online, but that the complicated nature of cybersecurity and the desire for convenience over protection does a lot to impede their success.

As a result, the report states that supporting users with more easy-to-use tools like password managers to ensure that staying safe online is not only effective, but also simple to enact.

“Gen Zs and Millennials were found to be particularly at risk. Although around half of them have access to training, they reported the highest victimization rates across generations, while simultaneously rating cybersecurity to be less of a priority than other activities. This suggests more support—not more training—is needed to help younger generations stay safe online.” – National Cybersecurity Alliance researchers

All that to say, cybersecurity efforts and attitudes right now are far behind where they need to be to ensure that the online world is a safe place for everyone. But if you’re a Millennial looking to throw shade at older generations, you might want to keep the “ok boomer” to yourself.

Amazon is finally inserting itself more prominently in the generative AI discussion, announcing a collaborative partnership with Anthropic to the tune of a $4 billion investment.

ChatGPT and Bard have been a formidable one-two punch when it comes to AI platforms. The driving force behind their popularity have been their resource-laden backers, with Bard created by Google and ChatGPT partnered up with Microsoft in a big way.

Now, Anthropic has its own sugar daddy, but is Amazon too late to the party to seriously compete?

Anthropic and Amazon Enter Partnership

Announced in a press release, Amazon and Anthropic — the company behind the generative AI platform Claude 2 — have entered into a partnership that will see a $4 billion investment in the innovative technology.

“We have tremendous respect for Anthropic’s team and foundation models, and believe we can help improve many customer experiences, short and long-term, through our deeper collaboration.” – Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon

Much like OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, this means that Amazon will now have a minority ownership position with Anthropic.

In addition to the $4 billion investment and minority ownership, Amazon Web Services (AWS) “will become Anthropic’s primary cloud for mission critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development.”

Anthropic will also use Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia chips “to build, train, and deploy its future foundation models.”

How Will Amazon’s Investment Boost Anthropic?

Anthropic was founded in 2021 but has been noticeably behind the likes of ChatGPT and Bard due to its lack of resources. After all, when you’re competing with Microsoft and Google, it’s hard to keep up when it comes to finances and tech infrastructure.

Fortunately, this investment from Amazon should position the company to be more competitive, if only by increasing the bandwidth it will have to manage more and more users.

“By significantly expanding our partnership, we can unlock new possibilities for organizations of all sizes, as they deploy Anthropic’s safe, state-of-the-art AI systems together with AWS’s leading cloud technology.” – Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic

As a result, this new partnership makes it seem like the two-party system of AI chatbots could potentially turn into a free-for-all to see which big tech firm can lock down generative AI dominance in the future. However, the reality is a bit more complicated.

Anthropic’s AI Love Triangle

Life is much easier when you can separate entities into neat like boxes: Coke versus Pepsi, McDonald’s versus Burger King, Apple versus Android. However, when it comes to generative AI platforms, the waters are much murkier than many realize.

Yes, ChatGPT and its creator OpenAI are partially owned by Microsoft, but the AI company is also partnered with Salesforce, Atlassian, Shutterstock, and a few others.

Anthropic is the same way. While this investment from Amazon is poised to be a primary focus for the company, Anthropic is still also partnered with Google since February this year. Suffice to say, the AI platforms like Anthropic are happy to play the field for the time being in hopes of becoming the go-to solution for users around the world.

The deadline for a recent class action lawsuit against Instagram is drawing to a close. Residents of Illinois may be eligible for a $68.5 million Instagram settlement, but only if they make a claim before September 27th.

According to the lawsuit, Instagram parent company Meta collected biometric data illegally. Meta has denied this and is paying a tiny fraction of its multi-hundreds-of-billions net worth to settle the issue.

To qualify, you must have used Instagram within Illinois between August 10th, 2015, and August 16th, 2023. That’s a lot of people! Here’s how to file your claim and when you might get paid.

What to Know About the New Instagram Settlement

The class action lawsuit is, “Parris v. Meta Platforms Inc, case no 2023LA000672” and claims that Meta Platforms, Inc. violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act when it allegedly collected and stored “biometric identifiers and/or biometric information” through Instagram without complying with that act’s requirements.

Since the Biometric Information Privacy Act is specific to Illinois, the settlement applies to its residents. You can read a notice summing up the details online.

The settlement gives everyone who is a member of the Settlement Class five different options, although the deadline has run out for a few of them. We’ll start with the easiest: Doing nothing. You’ll get no settlement, and you’ll also lose the right to bring your own lawsuit against Meta about these specific claims.

If that sounds a little unfair, consider your other options: You can attend a hearing to tell the court your opinion, or you can object in writing — although the deadline for objecting was August 16th, 2023, so the time has run out for that option. That’s something to bring up in your hearing, perhaps.

The option to request an exclusion has also run out, thanks to an August 16th deadline. But there’s one final option left that could land you a payout: Submitting a claim form.

Want to take a break from the app? Read our guide to deleting Instagram here.

How to Submit a Claim Form

You’ll get your portion of the $68.5 million settlement if you are eligible and you file a claim. To make that claim, visit the claim form.

Check your email inbox for an email about this claim — you will likely have received a Notice ID and Confirmation Code that can help you out when filing the claim.

You don’t need the email, though. Just fill out the form as normal and pick the payment method you prefer from the four options: Mastercard, Venmo, Zelle, or a paper check.

You’ll still be eligible even if you haven’t lived in Illinois since 2015, when the window of eligibility starts.

When Will You Get Paid?

The actual settlement comes after administration costs and taxes have been removed, and you’ll have to split it with every other member of the settlement class.

There’s no set deadline for when you’ll get paid quite yet, but the final hearing will likely be on October 11th. Pending final approval, eligible members should receive their payout within 90 days, or any time before January 9th, 2024.

It’s just the latest tech giant lawsuit settlement — we’ve covered similar tales for Google, Zoom, and Meta’s other top social platform, Facebook.

The average cost of an insider cybersecurity attack has sharply risen by 40% across the past four years, a new research report has found.

On top of that, the typical annual cost of these types of cyber threats has risen to reach $16.2 million per attack in the past 12 month period.

The biggest costs happen after the attack has occurred, which means that businesses everywhere should prepare their potential responses now in order to lose the least.

The Number and Costs of Insider Attacks Are Rising

“Insider” attacks, according to the new report, might be both malicious (Espionage, IP threat, sabotage, or fraud) or non-malicious (when an insider is negligent, mistaken, or outsmarted). The report, sponsored by insider cybersecurity firm DTEX Systems and out from the data privacy-focused Ponemon research institute, is titled 2023 Cost of Insider Risks Global Report.

It finds that insider threats are on the rise, and not just when it comes to the cost of each attack: The total number of insider incidents across 2023 rose to reach 7,343, up from just 6,803 the year before. 

Most of the incidents — 75% — were traced back to non-malicious insiders, often due mistaken insiders (55%).

The biggest costs: Containment and remediation, which on average account for $179,209 and $125,221 per incident, respectively. The longer a response takes, the greater the cost.

Why Cyber Budgets Aren’t Spent in the Right Places

Insider attacks are up. In other words, the call is coming from inside the house.

But businesses haven’t adjusted their budgets to account for this. 88% of them are still devoting 10% or less of their IT security budget to managing insider risk specifically… with 91.8% of budgets going towards external threats.

But social engineering, which targets insiders to phish or otherwise trick employees into leaking sensitive information on their own company, remains a huge concern. We lost a collective $6.9 billion to phishing attacks in 2021, and just last year the FBI declared phishing to be the most common form of cyber attack.

Staying Safe From Insider Threats

Change is coming, the report found. Nearly half of organizations, or 46%, are set to increase their investments in insider risk programs in 2024.

But what could that look like for you? Here are the top tips for avoiding a phishing attack.

• Use two-factor authentication
• Double-check the URL
• Don’t give out your login credentials
• Monitor your personal financial accounts

You can also consider a few extra security tools — we’ve ranked the top VPNs for businesses and the best password management tools to boot.

Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa will shortly be boasting a more human-like voice and more natural conversational tone, due to an integration with its very own generative AI large language model (LLM).

The update was announced in Amazon’s annual devices bonanza on Wednesday, where a slew of other software and hardware AI updates were also revealed.

Amazon’s Alexa’s new capabilities mark a massive leap forward in voice assistant technology, but with its unit recently weathering major cuts for poor product performance, the pressure for the AI-powered device to perform is definitely on.

Amazon’s Alexa Welcomes New Generative AI LLM

Just like every major tech company in 2023, Amazon has been busy cashing in on the power of generative AI, and this time the company is bringing it to its home devices.

At Amazon’s fall hardware event on Wednesday, Rohit Prasad, the company’s senior vice president and head scientist for artificial general intelligence announced the rollout of Alexa LLM — a generalized model that has been optimized for voice applications.

Alexa’s LLM can talk about any topic, respond to multiple queries at once, intuitively connect with the correct APIs, and even offer tailored recommendations based on recent purchases.

Aside from the device’s new LLM upgrade, it’s now even easier to activate Alexa devices, too. In addition to using code words, users can just look at the screen of a camera-enabled Alexa device to turn it on, and its acoustic processing helps it to determine whether a customer is speaking to the device or someone else.

Unlike its former iterations, Alexa will also be able to offer opinions, like which movies should have won an Oscar but didn’t, and which type of cuisine it prefers.

Alexa’s AI Demo Encounters Some Hiccups

While Amazon’s new generative AI features represent an exciting breakthrough in the company’s home devices unit, Wednesday’s demo wasn’t without its tribulations.

When devices chief Dave Limp was trialing the product’s new “Let’s chat” feature, Alexa lagged in response, and Limp had to repeat his question multiple times to get an answer.

Despite these slight shortcomings, Limp assured consumers that Alexa would be unlikely to display any form of AI hallucination — a phenomenon that other generative AI models — including Google Bard and ChatGPT have been guilty of exhibiting in the past.

Will Alexa’s AI Upgrade Be Enough to Recover Sales?

Despite being a major cash cow for Amazon, the Alexa team faced major cuts at the end of 2022 after the company’s Worldwide Digital unit lost over $3 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

This loss in sales has been attributed to a “collateral failure of imagination,” by one former employee working in the division, while even Amazon’s own CEO Andy Jassy is reportedly less excited about the division than former chief executive Jeff Bezos.

Even analysts at UBS announced that Amazon could improve its North American margins by reducing investments in “moonshots” like Alexa, according to the Financial Times.

However, while experts may remain skeptical about Alexa’s latest upgrade, leveraging generative AI is an excellent way to bring the device’s capabilities into 2023, and the only way the hardware manufacturer will be able to compete with fellow top dogs Google and Microsoft.

Google recently confirmed that its Calendar application, a key part of its larger Google Workspace productivity suite alongside Google Meet, suffered a widespread outage on Thursday, September 21.

The internet giant’s Workspace status dashboard first logged reports of a problem at 14:17 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), which is 11:14am US Eastern time and 8:14am PT on the West coast that day.

It subsequently updated the page with more information at 14:35 UTC, or 11:35am ET / 8:35am PT, it which it provided additional details of the problems being experienced by Google Calendar users.

Very shortly thereafter, at 11:49am ET / 8:49am PT, Google said the problem had been resolved.

Right now, Google Calendar is not down – but we’ll update this page with any future problems that may arise, as soon as they happen.

Google Calendar Down: How Thursday’s Outage Evolved

Thursday’s unexpected Google Calendar outage was owned early on by Google, with the following information coming direct from the Mountain View-based tech giant about the outage.

The company said: “The affected users are able to access Google Calendar, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior.”

It chimed with reports on social media, where people were saying that their Calendar events were suddenly deleting events and other similar problems.

In a further update on Google Calendar being down, Google suggested that customers instigate a browser refresh as a potential workaround to any issues being experienced, adding that its engineers hoped to have a timeframe on the problems being resolved by 16:00 UTC (12pm ET / 9am PT). This was successfully achieved, according to both Google and general user reports.

The IT team at our publishing company also independently verified the outage by way of a team services update.

Thousands Report Google Calendar is Down in September

Reports first started surfacing about Google Calendar being down on Thursday, September 21 on the Down Detector website, which crowdsources and compiles user reports of outages of various popular services.

As you can see from the below graph, Calendar incidents starting spiking mid-afternoon, and at the time of writing had run into their thousands.

Stay tuned, as we’ll continue to update this article with the latest on Google Calendar being down as soon as more information becomes available.

Related News: Google Calendar Now Lets You Log Paid Appointments

Google Calendar Downtime Resolved

Google then updated its status dashboard at 12:05pm ET, noting that the problem was still persisting for some, but that a fix was likely coming soon that would fully resolve the issue.

“Google Calendar service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users within the next 1 hour.”

Google stated that “this time frame is an estimate and may change” but users were pleased to see that it didn’t and Google Calendar was no longer down.

AI research lab OpenAI has just unveiled DALL-E 3, the third iteration of its AI image generator with even more potential for interpreting nuance and detail than DALL-E 2.

Currently in research preview, DALL-E 3 also integrates directly with ChatGPT. This allows the chatbot to do the heavy lifting by creating prompts, opening its use up to a less tech-savvy audience.

OpenAI’s soon-to-be-launched image creator also boasts enhanced safety measures to reduce algorithmic bias and the generation of harmful content. But whether DALL-E 3 is doing enough to assuage the concerns of independent creators remains yet to be seen.

OpenAI Unveils DALL-E 3: its User-Friendly, Advanced AI Image Creator

ChatGPT creators OpenAI recently launched its first official preview of DALL-E 3 – its most sophisticated and easy-to-use image generation program to date.

According to its new release page on OpenAI’s website, the text-to-image generator understands “significantly more nuance and detail” than previous systems, making it easier than ever for users to translate ideas into accurate images.

Unlike all previous iterations of DALL-E, this new model integrates with the company’s chatbot, ChatGPT, too. This allows users to use ChatGPT to create tailored and detailed prompts, making it easier for users with less technical know-how to bring their ideas to life.

“Modern text-to-image systems have a tendency to ignore words or descriptions, forcing users to learn prompt engineering. DALL·E 3 represents a leap forward in our ability to generate images that exactly adhere to the text you provide.” – ChatGPT website

OpenAI has also taken additional steps to limit DALL-E 3’s ability to generate violent, adult, or hateful content, and improved safety performance in risk areas like harmful biases around over and under-representation.

Since OpenAI launched its seminal text-to-image generator DALL-E in January 2021, the market has become rife with a number of high-quality copycats. A number of platforms like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have gained more notoriety than DALL-E due to their enhanced image quality and customization options.

However, OpenAI believes this product update could cement DALLE-3 in prime position, due to its powerful ability to generate output that adheres exactly to the text the user provides.

Is DALL-E 3 More Friendly to Creatives?

Since DALL-E’s initial launch in 2019, its training process, and potential to infringe on copywritten work, have been the source of much controversy.

Similarly to ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 was trained on millions of images scraped off the web without necessarily gaining the consent of their owners. While this unlocked an abundance of rich source material, it also sparked a debate over the ownership of AI-generated images, as well as a number of lawsuits brought about by disgruntled artists and image creators.

To avoid these ethical quandaries, OpenAI is doing things a little differently with DALL-E 3. The text-to-image generator will reject requests that ask them for an image created in the style of living artists. The tool is also allowing creators to opt their images out from training their future image generation model.

OpenAI efforts clearly mark a step in the right direction, especially for creatives looking to remove their art from DALL-E’s training set permanently. However, for those who believe their art has already been stolen through OpenAI’s invasive scraping practices, these amendments do little to quell their concerns.

When is OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 Available?

DALL-E 3 is currently limited to research preview, which means that its use is currently not available to the public.

However, DALL-E’s newest version will be released to ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise users throughout October, shortly followed by research labs and its API service later in the fall.

OpenAI has not commented on when a free version of DALL-E 3 will be released.