Welcome to the Year of Deepfake

This Week: The dangers of generative AI and the history of SaaS

Author

Speak Tech English
May 27, 2024

Happy Monday. We’ve got a new segment for you this week called In Simple English. Here, we’ll give a short explanation of complex technical topics in a way that’s easy to understand. If it’s a topic you don’t know about already, we hope we can spark your interest.

IN THE NEWS

What’s been going on recently?

Even Katy Perry's mom fell for an AI photo of the singer at the Met Gala

Neither Perry nor Rihanna attended the Met Gala, but fake photos of the two in theme-appropriate dresses popped up on social media.

(Click to read on Business Insider)

As predicted at the beginning of the year, Deepfakes are becoming a hot topic in 2024.

If even someone’s mum can be tricked into believing a fake photo of them, it’s clear that we have something to worry about.

Especially when this generative-AI technology is applied to more serious topics, like election campaigns, as India has been struggling with in recent months.

Useful Vocab:

generative AI

AI that can produce new text, images or video based on existing data

to fall for something

to be tricked into believing something that is not true

pop up

to suddenly appear (especially on a computer/device screen)

hot topic

something that everybody is talking about

IN SIMPLE ENGLISH

Software as a Service (SaaS)

What is SaaS?

Software as a Service is like renting software instead of buying it.

How does it work?

Instead of installing and maintaining software, you access it over1 the internet.

SaaS applications run on SaaS provider’s servers, meaning the provider manages important things like security and performance.

What are some examples of SaaS products?

Think of apps like Netflix, Spotify and Zoom.

When did SaaS come about?

Modern-day SaaS models originated in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the internet became widely accessible. The first known SaaS applications were simple web-based tools such as email and project management software, which could be accessed through2 a web browser.

Improvements in cloud computing have made it possible to deliver software over the internet using remote servers, which massively reduces the cost and complexity of deploying and managing SaaS apps.

1  We use the preposition ‘over’ when talking about movement across a particular space (in this case, the space is ‘the internet’)

2  Similarly, we use the preposition ‘through’ when talking about movement within a particular space. In this context, both prepositions can be used interchangeably

VOCAB OF THE WEEK

Try sleeping on it!

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