Machine learning used to analyse compounds in a bottle of wine and trace them back to estateFraudsters who pass off ropey plonk as a high-end tipple may soon have artificial intelligence on their case; scientists have trained an algorithm to trace wines to their origins based on routine chemical analyses.Researchers used machine learning to distinguish wines based on subtle differences in the concentrations of scores of compounds, allowing them to track the wines back not only to a particular vine-growing region, but to the estate where the wine was made. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsI've just been looking at my photos from a recent trip to the Grand Canyon and I'm thoroughly unimpressed. Why do photographs of beautiful scenery never do it justice? Alex Robinson, SuffolkPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
The EU's artificial intelligence safety bill enters its final stages this week, but seems already to have been nobbled by the big names in the USWednesday will be a fateful day in Brussels, a faraway city of which post-Brexit Britain knows little and cares less. It's the day on which the EU's AI proposals enter the final stages of a tortuous lawmaking process. The bill is a landmark (first in the world) attempt to seriously regulate artificial intelligence (AI) based on its capacity to cause harm and will soon be in the final phase of the legislative process - so-called trilogues" - where the EU parliament, commission and council decide what should be in the bill, and therefore become part of EU law. Big day, high stakes, in other words.However, the bill is now hanging in the balance because of internal disagreement about some key aspects of the proposed legislation, especially those concerned with regulation of foundation" AI models that are trained on massive datasets. In EU-speak these are general-purpose AI" (GPAI) systems - ones capable of a range of general tasks (text synthesis, image manipulation, audio generation and so on) - such as GPT-4, Claude, Llama etc. These systems are astonishingly expensive to train and build: salaries for the geeks who work on them start at Premier League striker level and go stratospheric (with added stock options); a single 80GB Nvidia Hopper H100 board - a key component of machine-learning hardware - costs 26,000, and you need thousands of them to build a respectable system. Not surprisingly, therefore, there are only about 20 firms globally that can afford to play this game. And they have money to burn. Continue reading...
The photographer found that a 15th-century castle formed a perfectly incongruous backdrop for a flock of pink sheepJennifer Cheung first visited Wanas Konst sculpture park, in Knislinge, Sweden, on the day of her elopement. On the way to the church where her husband's grandparents had married decades before, the almost-weds stopped for a brief visit. That was in 2013, and whenever she returns to Sweden from her home in LA, she tries to revisit. She shot this image, with a 15th-century castle as the backdrop for a flock of pink sheep, in 2017.Every time I visit Wanas there is something beautiful to capture. Some artworks are there permanently and some change," Cheung says. These sheep were a live exhibition by artist Henrik Plenge Jakobsen; he was inspired by Queen Marie Antoinette of France, who was said to have kept a flock of pink, perfumed sheep in a model farm she had built near her Versailles chateau. You don't need to know the artist's intention to enjoy the installation, of course, but it makes you curious to find out more." Continue reading...
As phone and video consultations increase, study examines safety incidents and offers advice for refining the processChristmas parties are once again on the calendar, but while some aspects of daily life are returning to pre-pandemic routines, others seem to have changed forever, not least GP consultations.According to figures from NHS England, 29.1% of appointments in October were conducted remotely. Continue reading...
X plans to cater to small and medium-sized businesses as big advertisers pull their dollarsMajor advertisers like Disney, IBM and Apple are still withholding ad dollars from Elon Musk's X two weeks after its owner endorsed an antisemitic tweet and two days after he launched an expletive-laden tirade to describe his feelings about the pull back. Marketing agencies are pulling back from it as well. In response, X has said it plans to attract smaller and medium-sized businesses to prop up its income.Small and medium businesses are a very significant engine that we have definitely underplayed for a long time," a statement given by the company to the Financial Times on Friday reads. It [was] always part of the plan - now we will go even further with it." Continue reading...
Inventor alleged that article criticising his championing of Brexit and move to Singapore was vicious and vitriolic'Sir James Dyson has lost his libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mirror after a columnist at the newspaper stated that he had championed Vote Leave ... before moving his global head office to Singapore".The inventor gave evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice for two days during a trial against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over an article published in January 2022. Continue reading...
by Johana Bhuiyan and Blake Montgomery on (#6GT7M)
Employees paid tribute to Mai Ubeid, who was killed in Gaza, and denounced Project Nimbus, which provides services to Israel's militaryIn the shadow of Google's sprawling New York City campus, former and current Google and Amazon workers gathered on Tuesday evening to pay tribute to Mai Ubeid, a young woman and software engineer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza along with her whole family. The workers also took the opportunity to castigate their employers for contracts with the Israeli military.Ubeid had graduated from a Google-funded coding bootcamp, Gaza Sky Geeks, and later interned at a firm that was part of the Google for Startups accelerator program in 2020. Those who knew her have described her in written tributes and in interviews with the Guardian as a strong and determined visionary. She had muscular dystrophy and, as such, used a wheelchair to get around. Ubeid dreamed of one day developing a platform for people with disabilities to network and connect, according to Kathrine Tinggaard Nicolaisen, a former communications manager at Gaza Sky Geeks based in the West Bank who knew and had met Ubeid. Continue reading...
In a sea of Portakabins in Shoreditch, a pair of best friends are making a very British surreal comedy game based on their northern home townThank goodness you're here!" says a panic-stricken patron of Rog's Veg Hall. The shop owner has lost his rag after overhearing a comment about his corn-shaped head, leading to a full vegetable assault on any and all customers.After a careful creep around the aisles and a few jumps through some boxes and bins, I confront Rog with a reflection of what he's become, triggering a several-minute montage of the man's tormented life, from childhood bullies to first love to his wife asking for a divorce, unable to live a lie any longer. Rog comically breaks down as the customers escape and I head out to help more citizens. Continue reading...
In part two of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we weigh up the issues of resource extractionIn the deserts of Chile, the Australian outback and the plains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the earth is being peeled back and the water sucked up and dried out to find the minerals needed to feed the world's need for electric cars.The scars left on the earth by the search for battery minerals are regularly trotted out by opponents of the transition away from fossil fuels. But in our EV mythbusters series, we are taking a closer look at some of the most common criticisms of electric cars, highlighting the myths, the realities, and the grey areas. Continue reading...
1 December 1983: Electronic mail tends to be informal in style encouraging people to send brazen messages but even if you are abroad, work can follow you wherever you areA colleague and I were in different parts of the United States recently and were due to meet at an international airport. I arrived to meet his 6 o'clock flight and to pass the time, went to a call box, put in 10 cents, dialled a local number and linked my handheld computer, via a local computer, to another computer in Britain. I then interrogated my electronic mailbox in London.There was one new message. It read I got an earlier flight and have been sitting in the United Airways arrivals lounge since. Why the hell don't you read your mail more often?" I found him, sitting indignantly, only 100 yards away. Continue reading...
CEO Elon Musk warned before delivery event it would take a year to 18 months to make the car a significant cashflow contributorTesla is set to start deliveries of its long-delayed, much-hyped Cybertruck electric pickup on Thursday after its CEO, Elon Musk, tempered investor expectations, citing problems in ramping production of what he called a radical" product.Cybertruck, Tesla's first new model in nearly four years, is critical to its reputation as a maker of innovative vehicles. At a time when the company is battling softening electric vehicle (EV) demand and rising competition, Cybertruck is also key for generating sales, though not to the extent of the company's high-volume Models 3 and Y. Continue reading...
Tech company said accounts impersonating Americans spread political content aiming to divide country ahead of election yearSomeone in China created thousands of fake Facebook and Instagram accounts designed to impersonate Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the US ahead of next year's elections, Meta said on Thursday.The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The accounts sported fake photos, names and locations as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political issues. Continue reading...
Altman says tech giant, which owns 49% of ChatGPT maker after investing $13bn, will take non-voting, observer position on boardMicrosoft will take a non-voting, observer position on OpenAI's board, its CEO, Sam Altman, said in his first official missive after taking back the reins of the company on Wednesday.The observer position means Microsoft's representative can attend OpenAI's board meetings and access confidential information but will not have voting rights on matters including electing or choosing directors. Continue reading...
The NYPD has communicated via public channels for nearly a century. Now the system is being encryptedA crackle, a chirp and the voice of a dispatcher describing an unfolding crisis in rapid-fire code. For nearly a century, New York City police have communicated about crime and catastrophe over radio broadcasts on public channels. And for journalists and the public, these dispatches have been a reliable way to get real-time knowledge of what's happening in one of the world's most chaotic cities.Now the NYPD is encrypting these channels for the first time in its history - an upgrade" expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars before it's completed in December 2024. Over the summer, police began scrambling the channels for certain precincts, leaving anyone listening in with white noise. Continue reading...
by Alexi Duggins, Hannah Verdier and Hollie Richardso on (#6GS46)
In this week's newsletter: The Guardian columnist and the presenter turned author unite for The Rest Is Entertainment. Plus: five of the best podcasts with unlikely host pairings Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe Rest Is Entertainment
Deal resolves tech giant's concerns over Online News Act, which makes big companies share advertising revenue with publishersCanada and Google have reached a deal to keep links to news stories in search results and for the tech giant to pay $73.6m annually, or C$100m, to news publishers in the country.The deal resolves Alphabet-owned Google's concerns over Canada's Online News Act, which seeks to make large internet companies share advertising revenue with news publishers in the country. Continue reading...
The internet is abuzz with the results of this year's rundown, with Taylor Swift coming out on top as 2023's most streamed artistThere's a flurry of activities inside Spotify's New York City's offices in the Financial District. It's almost like election night," Louisa Ferguson, Spotify's global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same time, she feels like Santa Claus putting presents under a tree. Honestly, it's a pretty apt analogy," she says on a brief respite during what constitutes her busiest day of the year. It's really like we created this gift of music and then we get to deliver it to everyone."Spotify Wrapped, which went live today for millions of users globally, enjoys its status as a cultural, social and music event of the year. Generated by listening habits and rolled out in a tidy package of graphics, video and music, it's a uniquely shareable snapshot of the sonic year that was, providing users with their most listened to songs, artists and podcasts. 2023's top streamers include Taylor Swift, the Miley Cyrus hit Flowers, Bad Bunny's album Un Verano Sin Ti and The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Continue reading...
The graphic designer and comedian (AKA elliotisacoolguy) lives online. His list includes several human-sounding animals - and one animal-sounding human
Invitation comes after tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect Israeli kibbutz that was attacked by HamasHamas has invited Elon Musk to Gaza to witness the devastation of the Palestinian territory under Israeli attack after the hi-tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect a kibbutz targeted by Hamas.We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility," Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in a press conference in Beirut on Tuesday. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6GQ8F)
Security researchers say two pro-democracy activists were subjected to attempted state-sponsored hackingCritics of Serbia's nationalist government who have documented the country's endemic corruption were targeted with military-grade spyware earlier this year, according to new findings by security researchers.The attempted hacking of two Serbian pro-democracy activists - who have asked not to be named to protect their safety - was ultimately not successful because both individuals' Apple iPhones had been updated with the latest iOS software, which the researchers said protected the devices from being infiltrated. Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: Changpeng Zhao has pleaded guilty to breaking US anti-money-laundering laws but will the enforcement end there? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereBinance is guilty. The world's largest crypto exchange admitted to a range of violations in a massive US court action, including unlicensed money transmitting, sanctions violations and anti-money laundering (AML) violations. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, near-universally known as CZ, personally pled guilty to his failure to maintain money-laundering controls.The failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform", the US secretary of the treasury, Janet Yellen, said. From our story:As part of a guilty plea, Zhao agreed to pay a $50m fine and would be barred from any involvement in the business. Binance too agreed to plead guilty, accept the appointment of a monitor and pay a criminal fine of nearly $1.81bn as well as a $2.51bn order of forfeiture to settle three criminal charges.Zhao wrote in a tweet: Today, I stepped down as CEO of Binance. ... I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself ... I can't see myself being a CEO driving a startup again."On March 8, 2022, one of these video-conference meetings was scheduled. Mr Moniruzzaman, now employed by Nvidia, attended the video-conference call... and shared his computer screen during the call. When he minimized the PowerPoint presentation he had been sharing, however, he revealed one of Valeo's verbatim source code files open on his computer. So brazen was Mr Moniruzzaman's theft, the file path on his screen still read ValeoDocs." Valeo participants on the video-conference call immediately recognized the source code and took a screenshot before Mr Moniruzzaman was alerted of his error. By then it was too late to cover his tracks. Continue reading...
Non-binding 20-page agreement signed by 18 countries says companies must develop AI that keeps public safe from misuseThe United States, the United Kingdom and more than a dozen other countries on Sunday unveiled what a senior US official described as the first detailed international agreement on how to keep artificial intelligence safe from rogue actors, pushing for companies to create AI systems that are secure by design".In a 20-page document unveiled on Sunday, the 18 countries agreed that companies designing and using AI need to develop and deploy it in a way that keeps customers and the wider public safe from misuse. Continue reading...
The latest episode should jolt us out of our complacency and force us to confront the dangers of monopoly capitalismThe theatrics of OpenAI's seeming implosion amid the firing of its CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, Microsoft's dramatic offer to poach its top executives and staff, and Altman's triumphant return following the ouster of the board has all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster.But the drama unfolding should put the spotlight on the tyranny of the tech titans that control critical aspects of the AI ecosystem.Courtney C Radsch is director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute Continue reading...
Firing of the CEO behind ChatGPT company sent shock waves through Silicon Valley - only for him to be reinstated days laterWhen Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the stage in San Francisco nine days ago he hinted at another significant development in the world of artificial intelligence.Four times now in the history of OpenAI, the most recent time was just in the last couple weeks, I've gotten to be in the room, when we sort of push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward, and getting to do that is the professional honour of a lifetime," he told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. Continue reading...
Gang thought to be from Russia or CIS has attacked companies and institutions in several countriesA new name was added to the cyber-rogues' gallery of ransomware gangs this week after a criminal group called Rhysida claimed responsibility for an attack on the British Library.The library confirmed that personal data stolen in a cyber-attack last month has appeared for sale online. Continue reading...
Trade unionists from US and Europe stand with staff at Coventry hub over local pay dispute amid global day of actionHundreds of strikers outside Amazon's Coventry warehouse were joined on Black Friday by trade unionists from Europe and the US as part of a global campaign calling for better working conditions at the internet retailer.Wearing orange beanie hats branded with the GMB union logo, activists from Germany, Italy and California, on strike at their respective Amazon workplaces, expressed solidarity with the Coventry strikers, who have taken 28 days of industrial action since January. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#6GJQ3)
Ransomware group Rhysida claims responsibility for hack and has posted images from library's HR filesThe British Library has confirmed that personal data stolen in a cyber-attack has appeared online, apparently for sale to the highest bidder.The attack was carried out in October by a group known for such criminal activity, said the UK's national library, which holds about 14m books and millions of other items. Continue reading...
Inventor is suing publisher over rogues' gallery' article that stated he championed Vote Leave before moving global HQ to SingaporeAn article that featured Sir James Dyson in a rogues' gallery" and stated that he had championed Vote Leave ... before moving his global head office to Singapore" was damaging and distressing" to the inventor and entrepreneur, the high court has heard.In a written statement to the court, Dyson described a Daily Mirror article published last year as a personal attack on all that I have done and achieved in my lifetime" and said it was highly distressing and hurtful". Continue reading...
Two new books explore the history of the tape and how it helped spread hip-hop, thrash metal and experimental music around the world one mixtape at a timeEveryone who grew up with a tape deck remembers mixtapes, or compilation tapes, as we used to call them in the UK. They remember sitting with a pile of records or CDs, assembling the perfect order, sending the right message. The narrator of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity, Rob Fleming, had a set of parameters that had to be observed: You can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs, and ... oh, there are loads of rules."My first girlfriend and I had a cassette," remembers Britt Daniel, frontman of Spoon. She'd put a song on it, then give it to me. I'd keep hold of it for a couple of days, then put a song on and give it back to her. They were all message songs - my communication skills were not top-notch, but it was very sweet." Continue reading...
Chief executive confirmed that Google pays Apple a 36% revenue share to remain Safari's default search engineGoogle's CEO, Sundar Pichai, testified Tuesday as a witness in the antitrust trial between the company he leads and Fortnite developer Epic Games, which has accused the internet search giant of abusive, monopolistic practices enacted through its app store. The trial could force Google to alter the business and distribution model of its Google Play store, which controls the vast majority of app downloads for Android phones.Asked by Google's attorney whether Google intentionally stifles competition, as Epic has alleged, Pichai said it does not. Continue reading...
As Booths returns to fully-staffed tills at many of its stores, shoppers with varying opinions have their sayBooths, a high-end supermarket chain in northern England, has announced it is removing self-checkouts in the majority of its stores. The retailer said it was not a fan of the machines and prided itself on great customer service and you can't do that through a robot".It is believed to be the first supermarket chain in the UK to return to fully-staffed tills, so the Guardian asked people for their views about self-checkouts. Here, four of them share their experiences of the machines and the effect they have on their supermarket shop. Continue reading...
Record companies will be able to request removal of content that mimics an artist's unique singing or rapping'Record companies can request the removal of songs that use artificial intelligence-generated versions of artists' voices under new guidelines issued by YouTube.The video platform is introducing a tool that will allow music labels and distributors to flag content that mimics an artist's unique singing or rapping voice". Continue reading...
Photographs were seen as less realistic than computer images but there was no difference with pictures of people of colourIt sounds like a scenario straight out of a Ridley Scott film: technology that not only sounds more real" than actual humans, but looks more convincing, too. Yet it seems that moment has already arrived.A new study has found people are more likely to think pictures of white faces generated by AI are human than photographs of real individuals. Continue reading...
The company has lost much of its value after market scepticism about startups' prospectsThe future of the British brand Zapp looked promising as its top team gathered around one of its electric mopeds and stared up at a billboard bearing its logo close to Times Square, New York, in May. They threw their arms aloft as they marked the six-year-old company's listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, in a deal valuing it at $573m (467m). Another billboard declared: Simply Electric. No compromise." On social media, Zapp wrote: All excited and ready for the next chapter! Live life unplugged."Six months on, the stock has hit the skids, and now has a market cap of $12.5m, according to the Nasdaq, and Zapp looks increasingly like it will join a host of British vehicle companies which have seen their US listing turn into an investors' short stay car park. Continue reading...
Observer investigation reveals UK Biobank opened its biomedical database to insurance firms despite pledge it would not do soSensitive health information donated for medical research by half a million UK citizens has been shared with insurance companies despite a pledge that it would not be.An Observer investigation has found that UK Biobank opened up its vast biomedical database to insurance sector firms several times between 2020 and 2023. The data was provided to insurance consultancy and tech firms for projects to create digital tools that help insurers predict a person's risk of getting a chronic disease. The findings have raised concerns among geneticists, data privacy experts and campaigners over vetting and ethical checks at Biobank. Continue reading...
by Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson, Adam Robe on (#6G9VW)
Novelists and poets, Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen Marche and others, consider the threats and thrilling possibilities of artificial intelligenceChatGPT seems to have blindsided us all. In less than a year it has proved that it can make writers redundant, which is one of the reasons why the Writers Guild of America recently went on strike, and why a group of novelists, including Jonathan Franzen, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin, are pursuing a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company that owns the chatbot. The worry is that its monster brain is rapaciously, unscrupulously scanning the internet and suctioning up all the knowledge and writing contained therein, including copyrighted works, which it then metamorphoses into its imitations of creative writing - poems, novels, scripts, essays, you name it. Imitation that appears to be original writing. Continue reading...
Thiel says in an interview that Trump had called him earlier this year to solicit $10m and that he turned down the requestPeter Thiel, the tech billionaire who supported Donald Trump in 2016 and sunk millions more into underperforming Maga candidates in subsequent election cycles, has confirmed rumors that he is stepping away from 2024 political funding.In an interview with the Atlantic, Thiel said voting for Trump was like a not very articulate scream for help" and that things had not turned out the way he had hoped when he donated $1.25m to Trump and Trump-affiliated political funds eight years ago. Continue reading...
American arm of ICBC is latest victim of hackers and is investigatingThe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's US arm was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted trades in the US Treasury market on Thursday, the latest in a string of victims ransom-demanding hackers have claimed this year.ICBC Financial Services, the US unit of China's largest commercial lender by assets, said it was investigating the attack that disrupted some of its systems, and making progress towards recovering from it. Continue reading...
In one well-to-do London street, eagerness to make the shift from boilers is dampened by worries about disruption and hidden costsAs a snapshot of bourgeois Britain, Park House Gardens would be hard to beat. A quiet cul-de-sac of 1930s art deco semis in the south-west London borough of Twickenham leads down to the River Thames. The street's residents include architects and artists, local authority safeguarding administrators and NHS chief operating officers.On paper, it should be the simplest of tasks for Colin Thomas, head of service delivery at Octopus energy, to sell the idea of switching from gas boilers to air source heat pumps here. The people who live in Park House Gardens know all about climate change and want to do their bit in the battle to achieve carbon net zero. And with homes changing hands for about 1.5m, they generally do not have to count every penny. Continue reading...
The 73-year-old had been slated to speak at a business conference when he suffered a minor but real stroke'Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was hospitalized for a minor but real stroke" on Thursday in Mexico City while he was in the city to speak at a business conference. After a brief stay in the hospital, he said he was flying home," according to ABC News.Wozniak, 73, told ABC he was at his computer in the morning when he felt vertigo and dizziness. He had been scheduled to speak at the World Business Forum in Mexico City, a two-day gathering billed as the world's most important management event. Other advertised speakers were Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance who was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Continue reading...
Historian and Sapiens author says sophistication of technology makes it difficult to forecast its dangersArtificial intelligence could cause a financial crisis with catastrophic" consequences, according to the historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, who says the technology's sophistication makes forecasting its dangers difficult.Harari told the Guardian a concern about safety testing AI models was foreseeing all the problems that a powerful system could cause. Unlike with nuclear weapons, there was not one big, dangerous scenario" that everyone understood, he said. Continue reading...
Hollywood's old guard have been finding a new audience through frank opinions, unlikely videos and fan interactionWhen the time comes to remember him, Martin Scorsese's legacy will be that of a pioneer. In his lifetime, Scorsese managed to harness the untapped power of an art form that had long since fallen into a bloated state of rote disrepair. Scorsese grabbed that art form with both hands, and became a superstar by refining and revitalising it.That art form is, of course, TikTok. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian