AI Safety Legislation, Alphabet's Big Wins, and Dark Social Marketing Tips

What’s up, AI enthusiasts! 👋

Our community grows from week to week. I am thankful for your subscriptions. And remember, you may reply to any email and ask about anything. Maybe next time, you’ll be answered in this newsletter. 😉 

So, your favourite 3-minute newsletter is back to hit you with some fresh facts. Have a cuppa, a soothing drink 🥤 in a cylindrical vestibule as you witness some illuminating news to make your brain go oooh. Max is here, so have no fear as we take a deep, cleansing dive into the world of AI! ⤵️

1. Safety Steps 🧷

Do you remember, reader, that scandalous publication of ‘hot’ images of Taylor Swift? 🎤 Gradually, step by step, but hopefully, we are moving towards safer and less harmful AI use. The Senate has unanimously passed the DEFIANCE Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing the issue of non-consensual deep fake pornography. 

The legislation, which modifies the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), allows victims to sue those who create, distribute or possess these digitally altered images if they knew or disregarded the lack of consent. Spearheaded by Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (love her ❤️), the bill 👩‍⚖️ aims to provide legal remedies for victims of this form of image-based sexual abuse. Ocasio-Cortez, who has personally experienced this type of abuse, emphasised the bill's importance in offering justice and protection to victims. The next step is the House of Representatives' consideration of the bill. 

We will be following the updates on this important case, not just for celebrities but for all of us 🧑🏻‍💻

2. Teach me that Alphabet! 🔡

You go, girl! Google's parent company, Alphabet, reported nearly $85 billion in sales for the second quarter, surpassing Wall Street's expectations 😲 by about $640 million.

Quite an impressive performance, I should say, and it clearly was driven by AI 🤖 advancements, significantly boosting the company's profits. Google Cloud revenue exceeded $10 billion for the first time, with an operating profit of over $1 billion, contributing to a nearly 30% increase in company-wide profits to $23.6 billion compared to the same period last year. CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the role of AI in this growth on the Alphabet 2024 Q2 Earnings Call, noting that their AI infrastructure and generative AI solutions have generated billions in revenue and are utilised by over 2 million developers. 

Despite the hiccup with the $23 billion deal to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz falling through, Google is still rocking it! Their strong performance and cutting-edge AI projects, like the new Gemini AI chatbot and the AI Overviews tool, keep them firmly at the top of the AI game 🥂 Have you bought some shares already? 💰️ 

3. Marketing Hinge 💐

Marketing can be similar to dating: the moment you think that it might be a thing, they ghost you 🙈 But don’t lose hope – maybe meanwhile, they are discussing what to do with their friends! Consumers increasingly use dark social media channels to recommend or explore brands, which are private sharing methods such as direct messaging, email, and secure browsing. I know I know, these methods are difficult to track 🤷🏻 and so they challenge marketers who rely on tracking engagement to avoid ad fatigue. But look at the numbers: according to Capterra, only 24% of consumers recommend products on social media; however, many more use untraceable methods like in-person or phone conversations (76%), private messages or group chats (49%) and via email (12%).

To protect their privacy online, consumers may use guest checkouts and digital wallets 👛, which can obscure tracking efforts. Despite this, brands should still ‘make the first move’ and offer these features as they align with consumer expectations for privacy control. Even more (don’t lose hope 🙏🏻), brands can improve their social media marketing efficiency and attract attention through other strategies. Three tips on your journey might be:

1️⃣ Implement URL shorteners and UTMs: These tools help track dark social traffic by adding tracking parameters to links.

2️⃣ Encourage easy sharing: Integrate sharing buttons with tracking capabilities into content and online assets.

3️⃣ Be transparent about data usage: Build trust by clearly communicating how customer data is used and respecting privacy preferences. Try this and keep believing - your customer full of love and passion is somewhere just around the corner 💔

That’s it from me. I hope you had a wonderful time scanning through our well-versed journal on AI news. I know I did ☺️ If so, don’t forget to recommend it to a friend (or a foe).

Stay classy and curious! 🧐 

Max 

xx