Technology | The Guardian

AI-generated porn, fuelled by misogyny, is flooding the internet, with Taylor Swift the latest high-profile casualty. Victims say social media platforms are failing to take it down - will they now start taking it seriously?For almost a whole day last week, deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift rapidly spread through X. Thesocial media platform, formerly Twitter, was so slow to react that one image racked up 47m views before it was taken down. It was largely Swift's fans who mobilised and mass-reported the images, and there was a sense of public anger, with even the White House calling it alarming". Xeventually removed the images and blocked searches to the pop star's name on Sunday evening.For women who have been victims of the creation and sharing of nonconsensual deepfake pornography, the events of the past week will have been a horrible reminder of their own abuse, even if they may also hope that the spotlight will force legislators into action. But because the pictures were removed, Swift's experience is far from the norm. Most victims, even those who are famous, are less fortunate. The 17-year-old Marvel actor Xochitl Gomez spoke this month about X failing to remove pornographic deepfakes of her. This has nothing to do with me. And yet it's on here with my face," she said. Continue reading...

Bipartisan measure introduced in US Senate will allow victims in digital forgeries' to seek civil penalty against perpetratorsA bipartisan group of US senators introduced a bill on Tuesday that would criminalize the spread of nonconsensual, sexualized images generated by artificial intelligence. The measure comes in direct response to the proliferation of pornographic AI-made images of Taylor Swift on X, formerly Twitter, in recent days.The measure would allow victims depicted in nude or sexually explicit digital forgeries" to seek a civil penalty against individuals who produced or possessed the forgery with intent to distribute it" or anyone who received the material knowing it was not made with consent. Dick Durbin, the US Senate majority whip, and senators Lindsey Graham, Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley are behind the bill, known as the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024, or the Defiance Act." Continue reading...

Judge ruled his pay - six times larger than the combined pay of the 200 highest-paid executives in 2021 - was set inappropriatelyA Delaware judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the investors who challenged billionaire Elon Musk's $56bn Tesla pay package as excessive, a court filing showed. The judge found that Musk's compensation was inappropriately set by the electric-vehicle maker's board and struck down the package. If the decision survives any potential appeal, the Tesla board will have to come up with a new compensation package for Musk.Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware," Musk responded on Twitter/X. Continue reading...

Tech giant now second business in history to reach a stock market valuation of $3tn, overtaking Apple as the world's most valuableMicrosoft beat analyst expectations Tuesday as its heavy bets on artificial intelligence bore fruit, particularly for its Azure cloud computing unit.The software giant reported revenue of $62bn, up 18% year-over-year, surpassing anticipated earnings of $61.1bn. Its year-over-year net income rose 33% to $21.9bn. Continue reading...

Many county systems are inoperative, but the district attorney's office says the racketeering case against the ex-president is secureOfficials said court and other systems in Georgia's most populous county were hacked over the weekend, interrupting routine operations, but the district attorney's office said the racketeering case against former president Donald Trump was unaffected.Fulton county, which includes most of Atlanta, was experiencing a widespread system outage" from a cybersecurity incident", the chair of the county commission, Robb Pitts, said on Monday in a video posted on social media. Notably, he said, the outage is affecting the county's phone, court and tax systems. Continue reading...

Fintech giant will eliminate 9% of its global workforce to cut costsPaypal is planning to cut about 2,500 jobs, or 9% of its global workforce, this year, according to its CEO, Alex Chriss.In a letter to staff sent on Tuesday, the newly appointed CEO said the decision was made to right-size" the company through both direct cuts and the elimination of open roles throughout the year. The staff that will be affected are expected to be notified by the end of the week. Continue reading...

Early reviews of cutting-edge headset suggest it is packed with sci-fi tech and interesting ideas but is far from perfectThe first reviews of Apple's Vision Pro headset, from publications with early access to the company's attempt to create the next computing platform, talk of a big leap forward for face-mounted computers, for better or worse.The US-only headset, first announced in June last year, aims to move spatial computing" beyond the limited mixed-reality offered by rivals from Meta, Microsoft and others. It is packed with cutting-edge technology including 3D cameras on the front to capture videos, the ability to blend the real and virtual worlds with hand and eye tracking, plus a display on the front that shows a simulacrum of the wearer's eyes. Continue reading...

With the region's countries among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis, digital entrepreneurs have been inspired to find innovative ways to create real environmental changeLeo Prieto's passion for nature started during his childhood by the sea. I was obsessed with what was under the surface. I'd anchor myself to a rock with my snorkel, and I was fascinated by all the little animals doing things that go unnoticed."His teenage years coincided with the arrival of the internet in Chile, where he became a web pioneer, launching and selling several startups. Inevitably, his interests in the environment, the internet and business merged, driven by the feeling that technological advances should not be wasted. Continue reading...

Of course the App Store owner's fight with EU regulators is about money - but is it also about something more? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereWho owns the phone in your pocket? That's the question at the heart of Apple's latest battle with European regulators, and it doesn't look as if it's going to be settled any time soon.On Thursday, the company published its plan for how to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a mammoth piece of legislation that seeks to break up the power of so-called gatekeepers": the massive (almost entirely American) technology companies whose stature warps whole industries. From our story:Under the changes, the US tech company will also give iPhone users a range of browsers to choose from as their default, allow the use of alternative payment systems to Apple Pay, and permit the installation of alternatives to its App Store, which could theoretically include the Google Play store.But there is a catch: for the first time, developers who take advantage of the option will be charged a flat fee per installation, overturning free-to-play business models and limiting the sorts of apps that can bypass the store.The DMA requires changes to this system that bring greater risks to users and developers ... This includes new avenues for malware, fraud and scams, illicit and harmful content, and other privacy and security threats. These changes also compromise Apple's ability to detect, prevent, and take action against malicious apps on iOS and to support users impacted by issues with apps downloaded outside of the App Store. Continue reading...

Roomba maker announces plans to axe 31% of workforce and exit of CEO after collapse of acquisitionAmazon has abandoned its planned $1.4bn (1.1bn) acquisition of the robot vacuum cleaner company iRobot, amid EU opposition to the deal.The e-commerce company will pay a $94m break fee to iRobot, which immediately announced plans to axe 31% of its workforce - or 350 employees - and the departure of its chief executive. Continue reading...

In week 5 of Rhik Samadder's phone detox, a return to nature sparks a return to self, but can he keep it up in the real world? Sign up to our free coaching newsletter to help you spend less time on your phoneLast week, Rhik found solace by walking 10,000 steps a day instead of wasting time scrolling. But can he stand being completely phoneless at a forest retreat? Continue reading...

Rimini Protokoll's new show is part of a series of performances inspired by James Joyce's Ulysses and draws a connection between its Aeolus episode and hypercapitalismOn the eastern outskirts of Berlin, a big top has been erected by theatre company Rimini Protokoll for a circus with a twist. These acrobatics come wrapped in metaphor and high concept: the show is about shopping giant Amazon and the processes of the virtual marketplace. Upon entering, we are given clickers to use instead of clapping to imitate the click of online transactions. We view secret footage filmed inside fulfilment centres, listen to testimonies from workers and watch piles of packages heaved across the stage.We hear from Gisela and Dietmar Winkler, who ran a real-life circus near here, and there is a clip of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, speaking about a German circus he saw that was the inspiration behind Amazon. Comparisons between the circus and the online retailer are subtly drawn out, such as bringing a product directly to the consumer/audience and the herculean physical effort involved in the work. Continue reading...

Astronauts content themselves with freeze-dried gruel, but plans for crewed missions to Mars mean scientists need to create more delicious, nutritious menusThree robots are growing vegetables on the roof of the University of Melbourne's student pavilion. As I watch, a mechanical arm, hovering above the crop like a fairground claw machine, sprays a carefully measured dose of water over the plants.The greens themselves look fairly terrestrial - cos lettuce, basil, coriander and moth-eaten kale - but they are actually prototypes for a groundbreaking research mission to grow fresh food in outer space.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

After its hyperbolic, Ridley Scott-directed launch 40 years ago, Apple's all-in-one computer was a commercial flop. And yet its impact is still being feltForty years ago this week, on 22 January 1984, a stunning advertising video was screened during the Super Bowl broadcast in the US. It was directed by Ridley Scott and evoked the dystopian atmosphere of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Long lines of grey, shaven zombies march in lockstep through a tunnel into a giant amphitheatre, where they sit in rows gawping up at a screen on which an authoritarian figure is intoning a message. Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the information purification directives," he drones. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology."Then the camera turns to a young woman carrying a sledgehammer, hotly pursued by sinister cops in riot gear. Just as Big Brother reaches his peroration, Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!" she hurls the hammer at the big screen, which explodes in a flurry of light and smoke, leaving the zombies open-mouthed in shock. And then comes the payoff, scrolling up the screen: On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984'." Continue reading...

The photographer noticed this humble story' playing out silently on a visit to the Tate Modern in LondonIn the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London, Gerry McCulloch and his wife, Kaori, werebuying tickets for a Yayoi Kusama exhibition. I happened to turn around and catch aglimpse of this unidentifiable figure," he says. Among thousands of visitors from around the globe, it tickled me that this humble story was playing out silently in an unnoticed corner."As well as being a photographer, McCulloch is a visual storytelling coach, and in his own creative practice his mantra is identify, clarify, simplify, amplify". This image, he says, demonstrates each of these components. The opaque quality of the window helps exclude extraneous elements and draws the viewer in to what he calls the mystery of the moment". Continue reading...

Estate says Dudesy podcast outlet had no license to Carlin's likeness or copyrighted material, which was used to create specialThe estate of George Carlin is suing the media company behind a fake, hour-long comedy special whose creators boasted of using artificial intelligence to re-create the late standup comic's style and material.The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday asks that a judge order the podcast outlet Dudesy to immediately take down the audio special, George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead, in which a synthesis of Carlin delivers commentary on current events. Carlin died in 2008. Continue reading...

Tech companies are cashing in on an unprecedented demand for computing power needed to operate artificial intelligence

Fake but convincing explicit images of pop singer were viewed tens of millions of times on X and Telegram, prompting outcry from US politiciansThe rapid online spread of deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift has renewed calls, including from US politicians, to criminalise the practice, in which artificial intelligence is used to synthesise fake but convincing explicit imagery.The images of the US popstar have been distributed across social media and seen by millions this week. Previously distributed on the app Telegram, one of the images of Swift hosted on X was seen 47m times before it was removed. Continue reading...

Life on the flip side has its challenges, but each day free from my soul-sucking smartphone brings moments of reprieve Sign up to our free coaching newsletter to help you spend less time on your phoneOne afternoon five years ago, I walked into a Verizon store and asked a bemused salesman for the dumbest phone in the shop.My iPhone had recently suffered a fatal dunking while I was clumsily fishing a bass pond, and I was searching for a new device. In truth, the accident had felt serendipitous, as though, on some subconscious level, I'd wanted to drown the 4G demon who lived in my pocket. Continue reading...

Entertainment (and thrill) seekers on a budget never know exactly what they're going to find in the ubiquitous technology shop. Just don't mistake it for a pawn shopFeel free to mispronounce Ikea (it should be ee-kay-uh, from the Swedish) and Lidl (lee-dal, from the German). But there's no arguing when it comes to CeX, the bright red secondhand technology shop you get in more or less every UK town centre, usually next to McDonald's, Primark and/or Poundland. It may be short for Complete Entertainment eXchange, but it shouldn't be pronounced C-E-X, as you might say to your mum when explaining where you got her cheap secondhand mobile phone from. Officially, CeX is pronounced as sex. The pleasure of it is in the sheer incongruous irony - these stores, with their miles of metal shelving and threadbare carpets are as far from the erotic as it's possible to get. But somehow, they hold a special place in the hearts of all entertainment seekers on a budget.I am a regular visitor. There are five CeXs within a three-mile radius of my house and they're extremely handy. The thrill is in never knowing exactly what you're going to find. For the purposes of this article, the Guardian gave me a generous budget of 10 to discover what bargains lay in store. Continue reading...

Company pledged to reform its culture and failure of leadership' after self-driving car dragged pedestrianGM's Cruise self-driving car unit on Thursday revealed US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission probes stemming from an October collision in which one of its autonomous vehicles dragged a pedestrian who had been struck by another vehicle.Cruise reported the government investigations in a blog post in which the company also vowed to reform its culture stemming from a failure of leadership" around the incident. The blog post did not disclose the status of the victim, who was dragged 20ft by the vehicle, nor the scope of the justice department and SEC probes. Continue reading...

FTC will examine what rights the tech giants' investments in AI companies have conferred and if those deals harm competitionThe United States trade regulator launched an inquiry on Thursday into investments and partnerships made by some of the biggest companies in the generative artificial intelligence space.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a statement that it issued orders to five companies requiring them to provide information on the matter, including Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Continue reading...

Move comes as iPhone maker adapts to new Brussels laws, but could be replicated in UK in near futureApple is to allow EU customers to download apps without going through its own store, as the iPhone maker adapts to new Brussels laws.Under the changes the US tech company will also give iPhone users a range of browsers to choose from as their default, allow the use of alternative payment systems to Apple Pay, and permit the installation of alternatives to its App Store, which could theoretically include the Google Play store. Continue reading...

Feature will work even on encrypted messages, suggesting platform plans to implement client-side scanningInstagram will begin scanning messages sent to and from under-18s to protect them from inappropriate images", Meta has announced.The feature, being kept under wraps until later this year, would work even on encrypted messages, a spokesperson said, suggesting the company intends to implement a so-called client-side scanning service for the first time. Continue reading...

Tech giant acquired video-game publisher Activision Blizzard three months ago for $69bnMicrosoft is cutting about 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, per an internal memo from the head of the company's gaming division.The cuts represent about 9% of the overall Microsoft Gaming division, which employs roughly 22,000 people, with most of the layoffs set to happen at video game publisher Activision Blizzard. The president of the subsidiary, Mike Ybarra, is also leaving the company. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: As the once-ubiquitous reality show turns 20, the BBC explores its legacy in Offstage. Plus: five of the best interiors podcasts Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereQueer the Music

Oreo cookies is just the latest tie-in as the digital omnivore continues to flavour a giddy range of snacks around the worldThis week, Oreo cookies announced a new tie-in with arcade legend Pac-Man. Fans can use their phones to scan any of the six different Pac-Man themed biscuits in the packet which gives them access to a neat mobile version of the classic maze game - each cookie provides a different maze layout. In the interests of research, I acquired three packets, and while the game is pretty good, it was tough to get my phone to recognise the cookie and it sometimes took so long I'd already eaten it.Anyway, the offer is a sign of how immensely popular Pac-Man remains, more than 40 years after his debut. At the time of the game's launch, the circular hero was almost unique, a lovable character in an industry dominated by spaceships, cars and guns. Its creator, Toru Iwatani, has said he wanted to make a game for everyone, so he used a simple protagonist with a name resembling the Japanese phrase paku-paku", a term for eating, while the sound design was ridiculously pleasing with its waka-waka noise and spiralling game over" ditty. His eye-catching yellow colouring also recalled the Smiley character devised by graphic designer Harvey Ball - a symbol of the hippy era - and Iwatani even made his ghost characters cute rather than scary. Continue reading...

Internet Matters says survey shows rise in children's positive developmental, emotional and social experiences'UK parents are worried that screen time is taking over family life and damaging their children's physical health, yet young people say they feel more confident online and their digital wellbeing" has improved, according to a major survey.More than half of parents (57%) who took part in the survey said they thought screen use was having an adverse effect on their child's sleep, while nearly two-thirds (63%) said it had a negative impact on health, up from 58% last year. Continue reading...

The 1970s oil crisis helped pave the way for Kenya to utilise its vast geothermal resources beneath the Great Rift ValleyThe Kenyan stretch of the Great Rift Valley is breathtaking. Vast plains between the two escarpments teem with wildlife, creating one of the world's largest animal migrations - the Mara-Serengeti wildebeest migration. The alkaline lakes in the east African rift system are home to elegant and graceful flamingos, pink wonders that reels in visitors from around the world and are a vital cog in Kenya's thriving tourism industry.But it is what lies beneath the valley floor that has had a literally seismic impact on Kenya in recent years - vast geothermal resources that have made the country a world leader in clean energy. Continue reading...

Electric vehicle manufacturer's earnings in the fourth quarter of 2023 missed analyst expectationsDespite putting a new vehicle on the market, announcing another for 2025 and beating Wall Street's expectations for vehicle deliveries, Tesla was not able to shake off its disappointing third quarter.The electric vehicle manufacturer brought in $25.1bn in revenue and posted $.71 in earnings a share in the fourth quarter of 2023, missing analyst expectations of 25.76bn in revenue and $0.74 earnings a share. The company's fourth quarter revenue increased 3% year over year from $24.3bn in 2022. Continue reading...

Lucianne Walkowicz and Saeed Taji Farouky accuse Ted of taking anti-Palestinian stand over controversial billionaire's inclusionThe Ted organisation has been hit with resignations and criticisms after naming the controversial activist billionaire Bill Ackman, who was instrumental in forcing out Harvard's president over antisemitism allegations, among its main speakers at this year's conference.Four Ted fellows, led by the astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz and the filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky, resigned from the group on Wednesday, accusing it of taking an anti-Palestinian stand and aligning itself with enablers and supporters of genocide" in Gaza. Continue reading...

In an about-face, the company disables feature allowing law enforcement to request footage directly from usersAmazon Ring will now require US law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access doorbell footage from individual users. The company announced in a blog post that it would no longer allow law enforcement to request doorbell footage directly from users in the company's social networking app, Neighbors. The move is an about-face from Ring's long-held and controversial policy that drew the ire of civil liberties and privacy advocates.At the bottom of a blog post about new features that make it easier for Ring users to share heartwarming or silly" videos in the Neighbors app, Amazon announced that it was doing away with its request for assistance" (RFA) feature. Up until this announcement, public safety agencies including police were able to ask users to voluntarily share video footage from their Ring cameras rather than seeking warrants to obtain that user data from Amazon. Continue reading...

We asked the comedian to share his online fixations. It's eclectic - including a British food influencer, a podcaster takedown and the best graph featuring Ludacris

Elon Musk's company sent invitation for bids to suppliers for new Redwood' model, according to sourcesTesla has told suppliers it wants to start production of a new mass market electric vehicle codenamed Redwood" in mid-2025, according to four people familiar with the matter, with two of them describing the model as a compact crossover.The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has long whetted fans' and investors' appetites for affordable electric vehicles and self-driving robotaxis that are expected to be made on next-generation, cheaper electric car platforms. Continue reading...

In many ways, the long 21st century began when Apple launched the Macintosh with its 1984' Super Bowl adOn Sunday, 22 January 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington (then) Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII. With the exception of a few aging Raiders' fans, what we all remember better from that evening 40 years ago was one advertisement that set the tone for a techno-optimism that would dominate the 21st century.The ad showed an auditorium full of zombie-like figures watching a projection of an elderly leader who resembled the Emperor from 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. A young, athletic woman in red and white (the colors of the flag of Poland, which had been engaging in a massive labor uprising against the Soviet-controlled communist state) twirls a hammer and throws it through the screen framing the leader's face, just as armored police rush in to try to stop her. Continue reading...

Experts say they frequently see people in pain from smartphone use. Here's how to avoid common problems Sign up to our free coaching newsletter to help you spend less time on your phoneEarlier this year, a patient came to physical therapist Theresa Marko complaining of neck pain. Marko, who is based in New York City, began the appointment as usual, asking a series of questions about her lifestyle, habits and posture. Soon, a likely culprit emerged: the woman's cellphone.The woman, who Marko declined to name for privacy reasons, said she typically placed her phone, or her tablet, on her lap and looked down while using it. That's going to cause a big strain to your neck because you're very, very flexed forward," said Marko. Continue reading...

Exclusive: former senior engineer says social media company has had the tools to do more since Molly Russell's deathMark Zuckerberg's Meta has not done enough to safeguard children after Molly Russell's death, according to a whistleblower who said the social media company already has the infrastructure in place to shield teenagers from harmful content.Arturo Bejar, a former senior engineer and consultant at the Instagram and Facebook owner, said if the company had learned its lessons from Molly's death and subsequent inquest it would have created a safer experience for young users. According to research conducted by Bejar on Instagram users, 8.4% of 13- to 15-year-olds had seen someone harm themselves or threaten to harm themselves in the past week. Continue reading...

Announcement by CEO Jamie Iannone follows wave of cuts in US tech after heavy hiring during pandemicThe online retailer eBaywill cut about 1,000 roles, or an estimated 9% of its current workforce, the company has said.While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business," the eBay chief executive, Jamie Iannone, said in a letter to employees. Continue reading...

NCSC says generative AI tools will soon allow amateur cybercriminals to launch sophisticated phishing attacksArtificial intelligence will make it difficult to spot whether emails are genuine or sent by scammers and malicious actors, including messages that ask computer users to reset their passwords, the UK's cybersecurity agency has warned.The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said people would struggle to identify phishing messages - where users are tricked into handing over passwords or personal details - due to the sophistication of AI tools. Continue reading...

PS5 (tested), PS4, PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One; Sega/Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Promoters of the scheme, which collapsed owing millions, targeted countries such as Nepal, with claims some investors took out bank loans to buy packages

This survival adventure from a relatively small Japanese studio sold 5m copies within three days of its release. What in the name of Pikachu is going on?The new year has barely begun but it seems we already have 2024's biggest game - and it's not a multi-million dollar sci-fi extravaganza set in a vast universe created by a gigantic publisher. It's a survival adventure released by a small company in Japan, which had only previously released one game. It's called Palworld, and it's being accurately described as Pokemon with guns". And if that sounds horrible to you, it seems you are very much alone. Within three days of its release on 18 January, it had sold 5m copies. What in the name of Pikachu is going on? Continue reading...

This new spatial computing' device is supposedly the most immersive way to watch TV - but major streamers aren't building apps for it. Plus, Facebook's AI god complex Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereIt's good to have friends. They come to your birthday party, offer a shoulder to cry on when things are hard and spend precious corporate resources developing apps for your nascent virtual reality platform despite little direct return. It can be tempting to believe that a pile of cash worth $30bn, and a single product line that brings in more than $200bn a year, is an acceptable substitute. But Apple is learning that money can't buy you everything.Last week, pre-orders opened for the company's Vision Pro headset, the $3,500 spatial computing" platform CEO Tim Cook has positioned as the successor to the Mac and iPhone and the launch of the third major era in Apple's history. But in the press, the launch has been overshadowed by the quiet hostility towards the device from those whose support will ultimately be needed to ensure its success.Rather than designing a Vision Pro app - or even just supporting its existing iPad app on the platform - Netflix is essentially taking a pass. The company, which competes with Apple in streaming, said in a statement that users interested in watching its content on the device can do so from the web.YouTube ... isn't planning to launch a new app for the Apple Vision Pro, nor will it allow its longstanding iPad application to work on the device - at least, for now [...] Spotify also isn't currently planning a new app for visionOS - the Vision Pro's operating system - and doesn't expect to enable its iPad app to run on the device when it launches, according to a person familiar with matter.All App Store developers - including those who place buttons or links with calls to action in their apps - benefit from Apple's proprietary technology and tools protected by intellectual property, and access to its user base. [...] Apple's commission will be 27% on proceeds you earn from sales.The Meta chief executive has said the company will attempt to build an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system and make it open source, meaning it will be accessible to developers outside the company. The system should be made as widely available as we responsibly can", he added.AGI is not a strictly defined term, but it commonly refers to a theoretical AI system that can carry out an array of tasks at a level of intelligence that matches or exceeds humans. The potential emergence of AGI has alarmed experts and politicians around the world who fear such a system, or a combination of multiple AGI systems, could evade human control and threaten humanity. Continue reading...

Voice cloning is ever more sophisticated - and can be used to impersonate a child and target their parents. So I have devised a new phone greeting for my teenagersA friend recently got duped by a scam text purporting to be from his middle daughter, and transferred 100 to an account to cover some baffling yet, according to the text, extremely time-sensitive untoward event.You can imagine how the scammer pulled that off. Think of everyday, low-level parental anxiety, expecting bad news when kids are anywhere farther away than the kitchen table; add the sheer believability of any bad news that starts with a 19-year-old texting: I smashed my phone"; all a scammer has to do is lean in. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Penny Wong says it will be a criminal offence to provide assets to Russian Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov after he was linked by authorities to the 'compromise of the Medibank Private network' in 2022. Defence minister Richard Marles says Wong's decision to use Australia's cyber sanction laws against Ermakov for his alleged role in the Medibank breach is a 'hugely significant and unprecedented step' and sends a message to cyber criminals that Australia 'means business'

Government uses cyber sanctions powers under Magnitsky laws for first time to target Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov, alleged to be responsible for hack

Gabriel Metcalf was hired to design a new California city backed by Silicon Valley money. He says bold action is needed to fight the housing crisisI met Gabriel Metcalf, the urban planner hired to design a new California city backed by tech billionaires, while we were mincing garlic and herbs at Burning Man. The New York Times had just blown open the mystery of who was secretly buying up more than 50,000 acres of farmland in Solano county, about 50 miles north-east of San Francisco.The buyers turned out to include a who's who of Silicon Valley investors who had thrown their weight behind an ambitious plan for a new California dream" city with walkable neighborhoods, climate-friendly infrastructure, green energy jobs and affordable homes. Continue reading...

Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr's lawsuit claims he was misidentified as culprit of armed robbery and put in jail, where he says he was rapedA 61-year-old man is suing Macy's and the parent company of Sunglass Hut over the stores' alleged use of a facial recognition system that misidentified him as the culprit behind an armed robbery and led to his wrongful arrest. While in jail, he was beaten and raped, according to his suit.Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr was accused and arrested on charges of robbing a Houston-area Sunglass Hut of thousands of dollars of merchandise in January 2022, though his attorneys say he was living in California at the time of the robbery. He was arrested on 20 October 2023, according to his lawyers. Continue reading...

Worries about impact on neighbouring schools of money for Malmesbury primary in Wiltshire, near Dyson's campusA 6m donation from Sir James Dyson to help fund the expansion of his local state primary school has been approved by the government, despite concerns about the potential impact on neighbouring schools.The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, announced on Monday that she had given the green light for the inventor's donation to Malmesbury Church of England primary school in Wiltshire, which is close to Dyson's research and development campus. Continue reading...

Data-corrupting flaws in hardware do exist - but most are quietly fixed without the public noticing, writes Alan CoxYou published several letters arguing that computers themselves are reliable (Computers rarely go wrong, but computer systems often do, 17 January). The truth is somewhat less positive. While computer hardware is more reliable than most current software, data-corrupting flaws in hardware do exist, and more are found over time.Some, such as rowhammer, become well known as security flaws, others become famous through recalls (like the Pentium FDIV fiasco), but most pass unnoticed by the general public and are quietly fixed or mitigated in microcode. Continue reading...