MAM
Taboola releases readership insights for April 2022
Mumbai: Taboola, a front-runner in powering recommendations for the open web, today released the readership insights for the month of April, 2022. These insights from Taboola’s Newsroom revealed the topics of interest of Indian readers that gauged their attention. Over the last month, a huge surge in the page view traffic on specific subject-focused articles showcased a tremendous shift in the reading interest of the population, increasing their awareness of the ongoing pandemic and keeping themselves entertained.
Here are some of the key insights revealed from the readership trends released:
The threat of new Covid Wave
The rising cases of coronavirus in the subcontinent alerted the readers as Taboola Newsroom saw a 65 percent surge in readership to 23 million pageviews peaking in mid-April. As Delhi and NCR region reported maximum cases, article headlines mentioning Delhi and COVID also peaked by 137 percent.
India’s love for cricket
Nothing causes a stronger buzz in India as much as cricket does. The new season of IPL caused an 877 percent surge in the readership by drawing a traffic of 14 million pageviews over the last 45 days. As people searched to gather updates about their favourite teams and players, Chennai Super Kings gained a lot of traffic during the season since the start of March while Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings saw a surge from mid-April.
Celebrating celebrity unions
The celebrity wedding of Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor caused much anticipation in the country. According to Taboola Newsroom, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor drove 24 million (350 percent) and 15 million (1,831 percent) pageviews since early April, respectively. The couple tied the knot on 14 April 2022 and continue to drive readership in the entertainment segment as the country is geared up to know more about the newlyweds.
Data from Taboola Newsroom identifies topics and news categories, which have seen an increase in pageview traffic for the past 53 days. This data comes from the wide network of Indian news publishers Taboola works with. Taboola’s news publisher partners have access to data on trending topics in the Topic Insights part of Taboola Newsroom, a real-time audience analytics platform.
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
