In our latest podcast, the Our-Hometown team shares their insights on an episode by ColdFusion on the Dead Internet Theory, a concept suggesting most internet activity is the work of bots. They believe this issue, driven by profit and occasional geopolitical interference, is a significant challenge we need to address.

The video discusses a study showing only 57.7% of internet users are human, with harmful bots making up 27.7%. It’s alarming to see the proportion of humans on the internet at its lowest in eight years, while bad bots are increasing at a rate of 5% per year. The team believes the growing abilities of generative AI will impact these numbers in the future.

They also touch on the different types of bots, the use of plugins to identify bots, and the issue of bots spamming comments on YouTube videos. They discuss the implementation of CAPTCHA and the need to mitigate security risks, and the use of two-factor authentication (2FA) for user security.

The video concludes by discussing the creation of an AI version of an influencer named April Isabella and the potential for AI influences on social media platforms like Instagram. They warn about an inversion point where YouTube bots would make up a larger percentage of viewership than real people, distorting analytics and making it harder to identify real traffic from fake traffic.

The team encourages us to develop critical thinking skills and technological literacy to combat the wave of low-quality AI-generated content. They believe that developing safeguards like content credentials is as important as the development of the technology itself.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro
02:33 – Dead Internet Theory
06:23 – Bots and Bots
21:05 – AI Influencers
23:52 – Fake on Facebook
25:28 – Turing Turns
29:25 – AI and Trust
32:17 – Final Thoughts

The post Dead Internet Theory by ColdFusion | OHT Commentary first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this video, the OHT team provides commentary on an interview between Lex Fridman and Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI. They discuss various topics related to ChatGPT and the personalization of models. They explore the idea of feedback mechanisms and the potential for users to report, upvote, or downvote responses.

They also touch on the democratization of the alignment process and the importance of keeping alignment ahead of the capabilities of models. The conversation delves into topics like human training, reinforcement learning, and the challenges of aligning models with different values across countries.

They also discuss the partnership between Open AI and Microsoft, as well as the potential business model changes and the role of safety in AI development. Throughout the conversation, they mention various features and possibilities related to the Open AI system and its applications.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro
00:22 – GPT-4
06:41 – RLHF
15:30 – AI Safety
19:05 – Alignment vs. Capability
25:14 – System Prompts
28:00 – AI Engine Prompts
31:52 – Steerability
35:04 – Business Model
38:45 – Relationship with Microsoft

The post OpenAI and ChatGPT: Lex Fridman interviews CEO Sam Altman first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this commentary video, the Our-Hometown team engage in casual forum-style discussions based on an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast featuring Mark Zuckerberg.

They highlight how Zuckerberg’s discussion about AI aligns with their vision of developing chat bots. The team mentions the availability of open-source AI models, such as GPT, and the potential use of Facebook’s AI in their own chat bot development. They delve into the importance of open sourcing AI and the benefits it offers to researchers and developers.

The conversation also touches on the significance of alignment in AI models and the potential risks associated with AGI. The team explores various possibilities of utilizing AI, including customized chat bots for businesses and content generation based on specific prompts.

The video concludes with discussions on training models, generating summaries, and potential applications for AI in journalism and local events coverage.

Chapters

00:00 – Start
00:53 – AI and Open Source
10:01 – Models and Datasets
11:57 – AI Chatbots and Personalization
14:26 – AI Engine for WordPress
19:22 – Model Alignment
21:13 – Open Source = More Secure
22:44 – Custom Chatbots
25:00 – AI Engine: Content Creation
Original Podcast Video:    • Mark Zuckerberg: …  
Transcript: https://steno.ai/lex-fridman-podcast-…

The post META and AI: Insights from the Lex Fridman interview with Mark Zuckerberg first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Watch and listen as the team recaps and reflects on the events of the past year in the video below.

Be sure to join us each Wednesday for Office Hours! 

The post Office Hours: Our-Hometown in 2021 first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Our engineering team has provided an detailed overview of the multiple layers of security within the Our-Hometown platform. Click on the question to expand the response.

The following are more tips and features designed to keep your website secure.

Website Security Refresher

1. Use Two-Factor Authentication
2. Use Strong Passwords
3. Don’t Share Accounts/Logins
4. Adjust Former Employee Accounts
5. Manage Screen Share/Remote Access Software
6. Keep your Anti-Virus and Firewall protection up to date

Two-Factor Authentication

Two-Factor Authentication, or 2FA, still requires your staff to login with their normal username and password, but upon doing so they are asked to enter a special pin code that is delivered to the user via mobile, email, or in our case, an authentication app such as Google’s Authenticator.

Customizable Membership Paywall

Digital Subscriptions integrate directly with the Our-Hometown WordPress CMS, allowing you to sell and manage online subscribers through the same portal you use for updating your website.

You will have complete control of the pricing, duration, access level, and renewal settings of each subscription plan you create.

Payment Gateways with SSL security

Choose from Stripe, Paypal, or Authorize.net to handle all encryption and security required today. Once you’ve set up your payment gateway, you’ll be able to accept credit cards for digital subscriptions, placing classified ads, paid forms, paid directory listings, or any other products you’d like to sell on the site.

Auto-Renewing Subscriptions with Stripe

One huge benefit to taking subscription orders through your website is the ability to enable Auto Renewing (or Recurring) subscriptions with the use of Stripe, our preferred supported payment gateway. Auto Renewing subscriptions are important because they represent predictable revenue that you can depend on being there on a monthly or yearly basis, and serve as a great method of retaining subscribers who might otherwise let their subscriptions lapse.

Stripe Update for Gravity Forms

A recent update for the GravityForms plugin that comes included with Our-Hometown’s WordPress Publishing Platform has introduced a more secure way of connecting and communicating with the online payment gateway, Stripe.

The post Security Features first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Check out the video below to watch Matt talk about this password reset, or keep scrolling to read some of the questions/concerns regarding this process.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is there a security threat? Why am I forced to reset my password? 

No! This is strictly a preventative measure. There is no evidence that suggests that any accounts on our platform have been compromised. However, as a result of a year-end security review, we discovered that several newspaper staff accounts do utilize weak passwords that could be easily guessed by “bots” developed by criminals to force their way into accounts.

Using a “medium-strength” or higher password greatly reduces the chance of your account being broken into by one of these bots; so we are requiring that all staff accounts for all of our customers use one of these higher-strength passwords.

2. Will my subscribers have to change their passwords as well?

No! This mandatory password change is only required for staff members who have access to post and edit content or otherwise customize the website. Only Users with a role other than Subscriber will be forced to change their password.

3. It is now Thursday, and I have not been asked to change my password. What is the deal?

This mandatory password change is being gradually rolled out to customers on our platform. This means that while some customers will be prompted to change their passwords on Thursday, others won’t be asked until this option is rolled out to their site, which could be next week or the following week. Please be patient if you have not yet been asked to reset your password!

4. Should I change my password now to avoid having to do this later?

When this change is rolled out to your website, you will be REQUIRED to change your password at that time — regardless of how recently you changed your password. We won’t advise against changing your password now if you think you are using a weak password, but keep in mind you will be asked to change it again.

5. Once it has been rolled out to my site, how do I change my password?

You will be prompted to change your password the next time you login to the website or the admin dashboard. You will not need to use the Forgot Password link or otherwise reset your password — the system will make sure to walk you through the process!

6. I don’t want to change my password. We use the same password for everything. Is there any other option?

No. This password change is mandatory and there is no option to opt-out.

While we understand that changing a password that you’ve used for years can be a bit of a pain, we can assure you it is worth it in the long run! This is not about preventing a greedy reader from accessing your content for free. A criminal who is able to access your staff account could add, remove and manipulate content, add or remove advertisements, edit business and event listings, manage subscribers and more.

Furthermore, we recommend that you do not use the same password for all of your important accounts online, as that in itself can be a security risk.

That being said, if remembering your new higher-strength password is going to be an issue, you can always use Google Chrome‘s built-in password management tool to automatically fill-in your passwords when logging into sites that you frequently visit, or a similar tool such as LastPass. Just make sure to update your password within those tools so that they do not keep trying to log in with your old password.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please e-mail us at ops@our-hometown.com at any time.

The post Matt Larson answers your password reset FAQs on this week’s Office Hours first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Audio Articles converts all text articles into an audio file that readers can choose to listen to instead of reading. This is especially useful on mobile devices, since it allows users to free up their hands and listen to the news while multi-tasking.

Check out the full length video replay below if you weren’t able to attend this week’s session live!

The post Office Hours Recap: Audio Articles first appeared on Our-Hometown.

With this option enabled on your website, subscribers will be limited to three active sessions at any time. Once they eclipse that limit, they will be automatically logged out of an existing session to make room for the new one. This means that while most readers won’t notice any difference in the way things work, it will cause headaches for anyone who may be sharing their account with friends or family as they’ll frequently be facing session limits due to signing in and out of several devices.

You can read more about the Logged In Plugin Update here, or simply watch the video replay below to see what Matt has to say!

Be sure to check back next week for another episode!

The post Office Hours Recap: “Logged In” Plugin Update first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The Drag & Drop Composer provides you with several pre-built blocks that you can use to craft attractive and stylish newsletters for your readers just by dragging a block into your newsletter layout and dropping it at the desired location. It couldn’t get much simpler than that!

If you missed the live session, don’t worry! You can watch the full length video replay below!

Our-Hometown customers are invited to join in on the live Office Hours session every week at no charge to ask questions or steer the conversation towards a topic you’re interested in learning more about! Keep an eye on our newsletter for the an announcement of the next episode!

The post Office Hours Recap: Newsletter Layout Builder first appeared on Our-Hometown.

The Google Docs Add-On allows you to connect your Google Docs account with your Our-Hometown website so that you can easily publish content directly from your Google Docs workspace to the web without having to switch between multiple platforms or copy and paste content. Many newspapers rely on Google’s free word processing software to draft and edit content for both print and the web; so this add-on is a great way to streamline your production process by “cutting out the middle man” that would otherwise have to manually transfer all of those articles to the website or lay them out in an InDesign template.

Once your articles are published to the web, you can take advantage of our Reverse Publishing Suite to easily export all of those articles for placement in your InDesign layout for the print edition.

Check out the replay below and let Matt walk you through the process and show you how much time you can save using these two tools together!

Remember, Our-Hometown customers are invited to attend Office Hours every week for FREE! Be sure to Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive updates on each upcoming session of Office Hours, as well as other great content to help you get the most out of our platform!

The post Office Hours Recap: From Google Docs Plugin to Reverse Publishing first appeared on Our-Hometown.