The generative AI gold rush is underway — just don’t expect it to create profits anytime soon.

The company is already quite profitable, having grown net income to more than $12 billion on $36.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter alone. But its revenue growth is expected to slow going forward. At the same time, it’s spending more than ever on AI and the metaverse.

“Historically, investing to build these new scaled experiences in our apps has been a very good long-term investment for us and for investors who have stuck with us,” Zuckerberg said on the first quarter earnings call, drawing an analogy to the rollouts of Stories and Reels. “And the initial signs are quite positive here, too. But building the leading AI will also be a larger undertaking than the other experiences we’ve added to our apps, and this is likely going to take several years.”

He said that the Meta AI assistant has been “tried” by “tens of millions of people” since it was made widely available last week, though that’s to be expected given how prominently it’s now featured in areas like the Instagram search box. The real test will be whether Meta AI becomes a product that people come back to often and if lots of people want to use an AI assistant in social media apps.

Looking ahead, Meta sees multiple ways to monetize its assistant, which is free to use right now.

“There are several ways to build a massive business here, including scaling business messaging, introducing ads or paid content into AI interactions, and enabling people to pay to use bigger AI models and access more compute,” Zuckerberg said. “And on top of those, AI is already helping us improve app engagement, which naturally leads to seeing more ads and improving ads directly to deliver more value.”

In the next year or so, Zuckerberg suggested that usage of Meta AI could also improve the quality of its ads, which implies that the company will analyze the way people use its assistant to better understand what they’re interested in buying. This approach puts Meta on a different path than OpenAI, which has, so far, resisted advertising as a business model in favor of subscriptions and a nascent enterprise focus.

“I used to think that AR glasses wouldn’t really be a mainstream product until we had full holographic displays,” he said. “But now it seems pretty clear that there’s also a meaningful market for fashionable AI glasses without a display.”

Passwords can definitely be a frustrating part of our lives. Remembering which passwords you used for your dozens of different accounts is nearly impossible without the help of password managers. 

Should you suddenly start receiving constant emails telling you that you have to reset your password for whatever reason (or sometimes with no reason listed) on top of everything else, you may be at the end of your patience.

Several reasons exist for receiving these email messages, and they can range from legitimate to scam to somewhere in between. 

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What is a password reset email message?

When you are entering your username and password at a website to access your account, you may see a small “Forgot Password” text link. If you can’t remember your password, and you click this link, the account holding company will send you an email that allows you to reset your password. This type of email reset message, like the one below, would be a legitimate one.

However, some password reset emails you receive are fake, usually attempting to trick you into revealing your username and password to a hacker.

Example of legitimate password reset email (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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Why do I receive fake password reset emails?

When you receive email messages asking you to reset a password when you did not make the request, the message could be a fake. Some of the reasons you may receive fake emails like this include:

Beware the bait: A hacker is attempting a phishing attack, hoping you’ll click on a fake link in the message.

Privacy alert: You potentially shared your email address at an unsafe website, and hackers are trying to steal your account password by tricking you into revealing it.

Security warning: Your account has some sort of security issue that is triggering these messages.

Update required: You may need to update your software or app to the latest version.

Illustration of a hacker on a laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

MORE: HOW TO KEEP YOUR ONLINE PASSWORDS SAFE

What should I do if the password reset emails are legitimate?

The password reset email message you are receiving could be a legitimate request. It may indicate that your account is under attack from a hacker. You can protect yourself in a few ways.

Go to the website directly and access your account. Then change your password to make it stronger.

Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) on your account. Should someone figure out how to hack your account password, having the second verification requirement significantly protects you.

Reach out to the website that holds your account for help with taking the necessary steps to protect yourself.

You may receive the message because you need to change your password every few months to match the requirements of the company holding the account.

Never click on a link in the email message as it could be a fake. If you click on it, you may actually give the hacker the information to take over your account rather than protect your account. The best way to protect yourself from clicking malicious links that install malware that may get access to your private information is to have antivirus protection installed on all your devices. This can also alert you of any phishing emails or ransomware scams.

Get my picks for the best 2024 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices.

Steps you can take to eliminate password reset emails

You can take a few steps to try to reduce the number of emails you receive requesting a password reset.

1. Double-check your username and password. When accessing your account, you may have a typo in your login information. Should you repeatedly attempt to access your account with this error, the company that holds the account may believe a hacking attempt is occurring, triggering an automatic reset. If your web browser automatically populates your username and password for you, make sure this information is free of typos.

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2. Remove unauthorized devices. Some accounts maintain a list of devices authorized to use your account. If a hacker manages to gain some of your personal information, it may be able to add one of its devices to your authorized list, triggering account login errors as it tries to hack your password. Check the list of authorized devices and remove any items you don’t recognize. 

The process varies, depending on the type of account. We’ll cover steps for Microsoft, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL.

Microsoft:

• From your Microsoft account home page, click on your personalized logo at the top right of the page.
• Then click My Microsoft Account
• Scroll down the page until you see your list of trusted devices.
• Click View All Devices
• On the next page, you can click Remove Device for any device you want to remove from your account.

Steps to remove unauthorized devices from PC (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Gmail:

• Sign in to your Google Account at myaccount.google.com.
• Click the Security tab on the left side of the page.
• Scroll down to the section labeled “Your Devices” and select Manage all devices.
• You’ll see a list of devices where your Google account is currently signed in.
• If you see a device you don’t recognize, click on it and select Sign out.

Yahoo:

• Go to the Yahoo Account security page at help.yahoo.com/kb/account.
• Click on Recent activity.
• Review the list of devices and locations that have accessed your account.
• If you notice any unfamiliar activity, click Remove or Sign out next to the suspicious device.

AOL:

• Sign in to your AOL account and go to the Recent Activity page.
• Review the sections for Recent activity, Apps connected to your account and Recent account changes.
• If you find any activity or devices that you don’t recognize, click Sign out or Remove next to it.

Remember to regularly check your account settings and authorized devices to ensure the security of your accounts. If you suspect any unauthorized access, it’s also a good idea to change your passwords and review your account recovery options.

3. Sort such messages to spam. If you’d prefer to simply not see these kinds of email messages, set up your email client to sort messages like this to a spam folder. (Because many of them are spam, some email clients do this automatically.) Should you ever legitimately request a password reset, though, you’ll need to remember to look in the spam folder for the message.

4. Use a static IP address. Some accounts attempt to recognize your device through your IP address. If you have a dynamic IP address, your IP address changes constantly, meaning the account may not recognize your device, triggering the reset message. This often occurs because you are using a VPN. See if your VPN allows you to use a static IP address.

Woman holding a tablet with VPN installed (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

MORE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CYBERCRIMINAL GETS ACCESS TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

Kurt’s key takeaways

Although it can be frustrating to receive password reset emails, you should investigate any request like this that comes from an account you use regularly. Reach out to the customer service team for the account where you are having the issue. You may find that a simple glitch is causing the issue. Fix that, and you can put a halt to these frustrating messages. Or if it is a fake password reset email, you now know how to handle the situation to stay safe and secure.

Can you share a time when you strengthened your online security measures in response to a threat? What prompted it and how did you do it? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

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While Drake’s fans have been having a ball with the Canadian rapper’s recently released track dissing fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar, the legal team representing Tupac Shakur is threatening to take legal action if the song isn’t pulled off the internet.

Billboard reports that late rapper Tupac’s legal team is ready to take Drake to court over the release of “Taylor Made,” Drake’s recently released song featuring the AI-generated voices of Shakur and Snoop Dogg. In a statement about Drake’s creation of “Taylor Made,” litigator Howard King called the song a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time” and said the Shakur estate never cleared the use of Tupac’s voice.

“The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality,” King said. “The Estate would never have given its approval for this use.”

For the past few weeks, a number of rap artists, including Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole, have been pointedly attacking one another (and entertaining everybody else) through their music after years of simmering tensions over — among other things — who’s the biggest in the game. In response to “Like That,” Future’s recently released song featuring Lamar in which he calls Drake out for making previous jabs, Drake dropped “Push Ups,” a track poking fun at Lamar’s height, shoe size, and the details of his old deal at Top Dawg Entertainment. 

Rather than waiting for a response, Drake also debuted “Taylor Made” on April 19th, and the song immediately raised eyebrows — less so for its reference to Taylor Swift and more so for its prominent use of voices from West Coast rappers (one of whom is quite dead) who did not seem to be involved in any of the ongoing beef. Following the release of “Taylor Made,” Snoop uploaded a video to Instagram with an assortment of emoji seemingly indicating bemusement.

Tupac’s estate wants “Taylor Made” pulled within 24 hours, and if Drake made the song without their permission, we might just see it disappear. But as much as this beef has been about garnering attention, Drake could be very willing to go to court to make his case.