Flood of unreality is an endpoint of algorithm-driven internet and product of an economy dependent on a few top tech firmsIn the algorithm-driven economy of 2025, one man's shrimp Jesus is another man's side hustle.AI slop - the low-quality, surreal content flooding social media platforms, designed to farm views - is a phenomenon, some would say the phenomenon of the 2024 and 2025 internet. Merriam-Webster's word of the year this year is slop", referring exclusively to the internet variety. Continue reading...
Merlin has been trained to identify the songs of more than 1,300 bird species around the worldWhen Natasha Walter first became curious about the birds around her, she recorded their songs on her phone and arduously tried to match each song with online recordings. After a friend recommended Merlin Bird ID, a free app, she tried it in her London garden and was delighted to discover the birds she assumed were female blackbirds - this is how bad a birder I was" - were actually song thrushes and mistle thrushes.I'm obsessed with Merlin - it's wonderful and it's been a joy to me," says Walter, a writer and human rights activist. This is what AI and machine-learning have been invented for. It's the one good thing!" Continue reading...
If appeal fails, every person in UK who made App Store purchases between 2015 and 2024 could be entitled to compensationApple is seeking to overturn a landmark 1.5bn court ruling on behalf of millions of UK customers, which found the company overcharged them for years in its App Store.The iPhone maker has applied to the court of appeal to challenge a verdict that campaigners heralded as the start of a tidal shift against big tech". Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#72DF5)
Exclusive: Imran Ahmed says US companies are corrupting the system' of politics by seeking to avoid accountabilityA British anti-disinformation campaigner told by the Trump administration that he faces possible removal from the US has said he is being targeted by arrogant and sociopathic" tech companies for trying to hold them to account.Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), is among five European nationals barred from the US by the state department after being accused of seeking to push tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints. Continue reading...
Elon Musk's net worth increased by nearly 50% to $645bn with founders of Google and Amazon also seeing huge wealth gainsA stock market boom in artificial intelligence companies has added more than half a trillion dollars to the wealth of America's tech barons in the past year, data shows.The top 10 US founders and bosses of some of the world's largest technology companies saw their finances swell to nearly $2.5tn, up from $1.9tn, in the year to Christmas Eve, according to figures from Bloomberg. Continue reading...
There was no shortage of fun and video games in the Diamond household in the last 12 months. Which ones did we play so much our thumbs hurt? And which one saved my soul? Let the ceremony begin ...
Since the Enlightenment, we've been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change thatThis summer, I found myself battling through traffic in the sweltering streets of Marseille. At a crossing, my friend in the passenger seat told me to turn right toward a spot known for its fish soup. But the navigation app Waze instructed us to go straight. Tired, and with the Renault feeling like a sauna on wheels, I followed Waze's advice. Moments later, we were stuck at a construction site.A trivial moment, maybe. But one that captures perhaps the defining question of our era, in which technology touches nearly every aspect of our lives: who do we trust more - other human beings and our own instincts, or the machine?Joseph de Weck is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: Pushing Buttons readers on their favourite games of the year, from Death Stranding 2 and Arc Raiders to Ghost of Ytei and moreHappy holidays, Pushing Buttons readers! Once again, we are approaching the cherished time of year between Christmas and New Year when we might actually have the time to play some video games. I hope Santa brought you something new to play, instead of taking one look at all the unplayed games in your Steam library and putting you straight on the naughty list.Over the past few weeks you have been sending in your favourite games of the year. I maintain that you readers have excellent taste: there's crossover with our own Guardian games of the year list, but also plenty here that I haven't played myself. Thank you to everyone who sent in a recommendation, and I hope you find yet another game to add to your pile of shame among the following suggestions. I'll be back next week with a year-in-review issue - in the meantime, go enjoy yourselves! Continue reading...
Zampella created the template for multiplayer shooters that is still used today, and his cinematic and epic military, sci-fi and Star Wars games thrilled and moved millions Vince Zampella dies aged 55 - newsOn Sunday, Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty video game series, died in a car crash in Los Angeles at the age of 55. Though best known for that series of blockbuster military shooters, Zampella touched a huge number of lives - not only the hundreds of people who worked at the game development studios he led under Activision and EA, but the millions of people who played the games that bore his imprint.A lifelong gamer, Zampella had a Pong console as a child, then an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64. He told IGN in 2016 that his favourite game from childhood was Donkey Kong: I would spend hours at the arcade playing it." Zampella's first job in the industry was at GameTek in Miami, which specialised in video-game versions of popular US quizshows. He described his role on the small team as: producer slash customer services slash tester - whatever needed to be done." Continue reading...
A look back at the biggest tech stories of the year, from the rise and fall of Musk's Doge to lucrative investments into AIHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy and healthy end of the year. I myself have a cold.Today, we are looking back at the biggest stories in tech of 2025 - Elon Musk's political rise, burst and fall; artificial intelligence's subsumption of the global economy, all other technology, and even the Earth's topography; Australia's remarkable social media ban; the tech industry's new Trumpian politics; and, as a treat, a glimpse of the apocalypse offered by one of Silicon Valley's savviest and strangest billionaires.How an obscure US government office has become a target of Elon MuskHow Elon Musk's billionaire Doge lieutenant took over the US's biggest MDMA company | Technology | The GuardianThe chaos Elon Musk and Doge are leaving behind in WashingtonEggings, swastikas and dog poop: Tesla bears brunt of people's ire against MuskI'm selling the Nazi mobile': Tesla owners offload cars after Musk's fascist-style salutesInside Elon Musk's plan to rain SpaceX's rocket debris over Hawaii's pristine watersElon Musk's SpaceX preparing for flotation that could value it at over $1tn' Continue reading...
US law enforcement officers say Meta and Snapchat routinely delay or reject warrants. The companies disagreeMax Osterman was 18 when he connected with a drug dealer on Snapchat who used the handle skyhigh.303. Max would message him whenever he wanted to buy Percocet, and they would meet. After about a year, and just days after their last exchange, Max collapsed. The pills he ordered had been laced with fentanyl. He died from the overdose in February 2021 at his home in Broomfield, Colorado.The dealer continued selling prescription painkillers until 2023, when he was jailed on two drug distribution convictions. When handing down the sentence, the judge said he was responsible for four deaths, yet he never faced charges for supplying the pills that killed Max. Continue reading...
Criminal ecosystem is made up of mostly male native English language speakers aged from 16 to 25Ransomware hacks, data theft, crypto scams and sextortion cover a broad range of cybercrimes carried out by an equally varied list of assailants.But there is also an English-speaking criminal ecosystem carrying out these activities that defies conventional categorisation. Nonetheless, it does have a name: the Com. Continue reading...
by Dan Milmo. Global technology editor on (#727NS)
ShinyHunters group reportedly behind the hack affecting data of 200m users thought to be from before 2021Hackers have accessed the search history and viewing habits of premium users of Pornhub, one of the world's most popular pornography websites.A gang has reportedly accessed more than 200m data records, including premium members' email addresses, search and viewing activities and locations. Pornhub is a heavily used site and says it has more than 100m daily visits globally. Continue reading...
Family members can be sweet and relentless but how can we aid our relatives in the age of new tech and device addiction Don't get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereI don't want to sound dramatic but, a few weeks ago, something happened that has completely changed how I view online material. I fell for AI-generated content. For someone who is constantly squabbling with older relatives about how little they question what they see online, this was a profoundly unsettling and humbling experience. And it made me think about how, during this holiday period, we could all use this as an opportunity to approach those conversations with the WhatsApp aunties" more sensitively.From WhatsApp Aunties' to AI Aunties' Continue reading...
Andrew Yang's revived pitch suits the automation debate, but UBI can't fix inequalities concentrated tech wealth drivesUniversal basic income (UBI) is back, like a space zombie in a sci-fi movie, resurrected from policy oblivion, hungry for policymakers' attention: brains!Andrew Yang, whose Yang Gang" enthusiasm briefly shook up the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 promoting a Freedom Dividend" to save workers from automation - $1,000 a month for every American adult - is again the main carrier of the bug: offering UBI to save the nation when robots eat all our jobs. Continue reading...
by Eleni Courea Political correspondent on (#725M1)
Rachel Reeves wants to protect consumers by bringing digital money and assets into the regulatory perimeter'Cryptocurrencies will be regulated in a similar way to other financial products under legislation coming into force in 2027.The Treasury is drawing up rules that will require crypto companies to meet a set of standards overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Continue reading...
Analysts say benefits could be felt in under-resourced rural hospitals but warn against AI as a cost-cutting measureFor states to receive certain funding stipulated in the Trump administration's big, beautiful" bill, they must meet three of 10 criteria - including integrating more artificial intelligence (AI) technology in healthcare settings - which experts say could have major benefits and liabilities for under-resourced hospitals, depending on how it's implemented.The Rural Health Transformation Fund is a carveout that will provide $50bn over a period of five years to states who meet certain application criteria, including consumer-facing, technology-driven solutions for the prevention and management of chronic diseases," and providing training and technical assistance for the development and adoption of technology-enabled solutions that improve care delivery in rural hospitals, including remote monitoring, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies". Continue reading...
by Zoe Williams and George Francis Lee on (#72594)
As the exam regulator consults about introducing onscreen exams amid complaints of hand fatigue, a young aspiring journalist goes head-to-head with a self-professed expertThis week it was reported that students could soon be sitting their end-of-year exams on laptops after pupils complained of hand fatigue, saying their muscles are not strong enough".With Ofqual preparing to launch a public consultation on the introduction of onscreen exams, we decided to conduct a test of our own, pitting the Guardian columnist Zoe Williams, a seasoned hack of the pen-and-paper generation, against George Francis Lee, our gen-Z journalist in training. Continue reading...
Exclusive: More than 150 anonymous channels using cheap AI tools to spread false stories about Keir Starmer, study findsYouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos have amassed more than a billion views this year, as opportunists attempt to use AI-generated content to profit from political division in the UK.More than 150 channels have been detected in the last year that promote anti-Labour narratives, as well as outright fake and inflammatory accusations about Keir Starmer. Continue reading...
California governor says order pushes grift and corruption' instead of innovation just hours after president's dictumThe ink was barely dry on Donald Trump's artificial intelligence executive order when Gavin Newsom came out swinging. Just hours after the order went public Thursday evening, the California governor issued a statement saying the presidential dictum, which seeks to block states from regulating AI of their own accord, advances grift and corruption" instead of innovation.President Trump and David Sacks aren't making policy - they're running a con," Newsom said, referencing Trump's AI adviser and crypto czar". Every day, they push the limits to see how far they can take it." Continue reading...
by Dara Kerr and Helen Davidson in Taipei on (#7216A)
Commerce department finalising deal to allow H200 chips to be sold to China as strict Biden-era restrictions relaxedDonald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country.Before Monday's announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China over national security concerns. Continue reading...
Accounts held by users under 16 must be removed on apps that include TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch and Threads under ban
Gen Z are the first generation to have grown up with social media, they were the earliest adopters, and therefore the first to suffer its harms. Now they are fighting backLate one night in April 2020, towards the start of the Covid lockdowns, Shanley Clemot McLaren was scrolling on her phone when she noticed a Snapchat post by her 16-year-old sister. She's basically filming herself from her bed, and she's like: Guys you shouldn't be doing this. These fisha accounts are really not OK. Girls, please protect yourselves.' And I'm like: What is fisha?' I was 21, but I felt old," she says.She went into her sister's bedroom, where her sibling showed her a Snapchat account named fisha" plus the code of their Paris suburb. Fisha is French slang for publicly shaming someone - from the verb afficher", meaning to display or make public. The account contained intimate images of girls from her sister's school and dozens of others, along with the personal data of the victims - their names, phone numbers, addresses, everything to find them, everything to put them in danger". Continue reading...
by Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Michael Steinberge on (#721D3)
How far will tech firm Palantir go to save the West'? With Michael Steinberger and Johana BhuiyanWhy do some consider Palantir the world's scariest company' and who is its chief executive, Alex Karp?Michael Steinberger, the author of The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State, describes Karp's origin story to Nosheen Iqbal and the way that his political positions have changed over the years. The pair also discuss how Palantir was established as a company, the services that it offers, its close relationship to the US military and how Karp has been navigating the second Trump presidency. Continue reading...
Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup - especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100Age is just a number. So don't take this personally." Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news.I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, this was the day Spotify released Spotify Wrapped", its analysis of (in my case) the 4,863 minutes I had spent listening to music on its platform over the past year. And this year, for the first time, they are calculating the listening age" of all their users. Continue reading...
Pulled by Steam and Epic Games Store, indie horror Horses shook up the industry before it was even released. Now it's out, all the drama surrounding it seems superfluousOn 25 November, award-winning Italian developer Santa Ragione, responsible for acclaimed titles such as MirrorMoon EP and Saturnalia, revealed that its latest project, Horses, had been banned from Steam - the largest digital store for PC games. A week later, another popular storefront, Epic Games Store, also pulled Horses, right before its 2 December launch date. The game was also briefly removed from the Humble Store, but was reinstated a day later.The controversy has helped the game rocket to the top of the digital stores that are selling it, namely itch.io and GOG. But the question remains - why was it banned? Horses certainly delves into some intensely controversial topics (a content warning at the start details, physical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery, depiction of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny") and is upsetting and unnerving. Continue reading...
Information-dense' AI responses are most persuasive but these tend to be less accurate, says security reportChatbots can sway people's political opinions but the most persuasive artificial intelligence models deliver substantial" amounts of inaccurate information in the process, according to the UK government's AI security body.Researchers said the study was the largest and most systematic investigation of AI persuasiveness to date, involving nearly 80,000 British participants holding conversations with 19 different AI models. Continue reading...
Move follows Guardian revelations of Israel's mass surveillance of Palestinians using Microsoft cloudIrish authorities have been formally asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by the Israeli Defense Forces.The complaint has been made by the human rights group the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) to the Data Protection Commission, which has legal responsibility in Europe for overseeing all data processing in the European Union. Continue reading...
AVS Group, which runs 18 websites, has 72 hours to make changes required by UK's Online Safety ActA pornography company that runs 18 adult websites has been fined 1m by the watchdog Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks, in the largest fine yet under the UK's Online Safety Act.The Belize-based AVS Group has been hit with the punishment, plus a further 50,000 for failing to respond to information requests. Continue reading...
As the Grand Theft Auto co-writer launches a new project, he reflects on his hugely successful open-world adventures and where game design might go next Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt is hard to think of a more modern entertainment format than the open-world video game. These sprawling technological endeavours, which mix narrative, social connectivity and the complete freedom to explore, are uniquely immersive and potentially endless. But do they represent a whole new idea of storytelling?This week I met Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar and lead writer on Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, who has been in London to talk about his new company, Absurd Ventures. He's working on a range of intriguing projects, including the novel and podcast series A Better Paradise (about a vast online game that goes tragically wrong), and a comedy-adventure set in an online world named Absurdaverse. He told me that, 15 years ago, he was doing press interviews for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion packs when he had something of a revelation about the series. Continue reading...
Tech companies including Apple and Google made it clear they would not comply due to privacy concernsIndia's government has backtracked on an order for all smartphones to be pre-installed with a state-owned security app after a mass outcry over privacy concerns and refusal by technology companies to comply.The department of telecommunications confirmed it had revoked its previous order for all technology companies to mandatorily install the government's Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app on to every smartphone in India within 90 days. Continue reading...
Critics voice concern as government says its Sanchar Saathi app combats cybersecurity threats for 1.2bn telecom usersIndia's telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates.In tackling a recent surge of cybercrime and hacking, India is joining authorities worldwide, most recently in Russia, to frame rules blocking the use of stolen phones for fraud or promoting state-backed government service apps. Continue reading...
by Chris Stein in Middleburg, Virginia on (#71TVW)
John McAuliff won against a Republican by focusing on something affecting all his constituents: the cost of energyJohn McAuliff, a 33-year-old small business owner and former civil servant, was one of the more unlikely Democrats to win election to Virginia's legislature this month, after a campaign in which he could, at times, come off a bit like a Republican.McAuliff was among the 13 Democrats elected to the legislature in Virginia's elections earlier this month, as part of a blowout victory for the party that gives it firm control of the southern state's government. Along with wins in New Jersey, California and elsewhere, the results put some wind back into Democrats' sails nationwide, a year after their drubbing at the hands of Donald Trump and the Republicans. Continue reading...
Workers say the firm's warp-speed' approach fuels pressure, layoffs and rising emissionsMore than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing serious concerns" about AI development, saying that the company's all-costs justified, warp speed" approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth."The letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon workers anonymously, and comes a month after Amazon announced mass layoff plans as it increases adoption of AI in its operations. Continue reading...
Our writer trialled the most powerful robot vacuums - some of which even mop your floors - and these are the ones he rates The best window vacs for clearing condensation: seven expert picks for streak-free shineRobot vacuum cleaners take the drudge work out of cleaning your floors and carpets. No more tiresome weekly stints of vacuuming, and no more last-minute panic sessions when you have visitors on the way. Instead, your compact robot chum regularly trundles out from its dock, sucking up dust, hair and debris to leave your floors looking spick and span.Over the past few years, robot vacuums have become much more affordable, with basic units starting at about 150. They're also doing more than they used to, mopping areas of hard flooring and charging in sophisticated cleaning stations that empty their dust collectors and clean their mop pads for you.Best robot vacuum cleaner overall:
When the people making AI seem trustworthy are the ones who trust it the least, it shows that incentives for speed are overtaking safety, experts sayKrista Pawloski remembers the single defining moment that shaped her opinion on the ethics of artificial intelligence. As an AI worker on Amazon Mechanical Turk - a marketplace that allows companies to hire workers to perform tasks like entering data or matching an AI prompt with its output - Pawloski spends her time moderating and assessing the quality of AI-generated text, images and videos, as well as some factchecking.Roughly two years ago, while working from home at her dining room table, she took up a job designating tweets as racist or not. When she was presented with a tweet that read Listen to that mooncricket sing", she almost clicked on the no" button before deciding to check the meaning of the word mooncricket", which, to her surprise, was a racial slur against Black Americans. Continue reading...
Prepare to have your perspective shattered by the comedian's visits to our US tech overlords. The upcoming advancements for those with disabilities are life-changingWashing machines liberated women to get soul-crushing jobs that ate up their free time. Social media gave the world one revolution - before it destabilised democracies everywhere else. Now AI is here, and its main job seems to be replacing screenwriters. It's easy to fall into techno-pessimism, but new documentary Seeing into the Future (Sunday 23 November, 8pm, BBC Two) has a different angle. For disabled people, tech has already brought about life-changing advancements. And we haven't seen anything yet.It is presented by comedian and Strictly winner Chris McCausland, who is blind. Some of the most casually astonishing scenes occur early on, showing how he uses his phone - essentially, an eye with a mouth. What T-shirt is this?" he asks, holding up a garment. Agrey T-shirt with a graphic logo of Deftones," his phone obliges. It can even tell him if the shirt needs ironing. But it's where all this is going that fascinates McCausland, so he heads to the US, to see what's in development at the houses of our tech overlords. Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: When the video-sharing site launched in 2005, there were fears it would replace terrestrial television. It didn't just replace it - it invented entirely new forms of content. ASMR, anyone? Don't get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereBarely a month goes by without more news of streaming sites overtaking traditional, terrestrial TV. Predominant among those sits YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion monthly viewers. For people my age - a sprightly 28 - and younger, YouTube is less of an app or website than our answer to radio: the ever-present background hum of modern life. While my mum might leave Radio 4 wittering or BBC News flickering in the corner as she potters about the house, I've got a video essay about Japan's unique approach to urban planning playing on my phone. That's not to say I never watch more traditional TV (although 99% of the time I'm accessing it through some other kind of subscription streaming app), but when I get home after a long day and the thought of ploughing through another hour of grim prestige fare feels too demanding, I'm probably watching YouTube. Which means it's very unlikely that I'm watching the same thing as you.When Google paid $1.65bn for the platform in 2006, (just 18 months after it launched) the price seemed astronomical. Critics questioned whether that valuation could be justified for any video platform. The logic was simple - unless YouTube could replace television, it would never be worth it. Nearly two decades on, that framing undersells what actually happened. YouTube didn't just replace television - it invented entirely new forms of content: vodcasts, vlogs, video essays, reaction videos, ASMR and its heinous cousin mukbang. The platform absorbed new trends and formats at lightning speed, building what became an alternative online mainstream". Before podcasters, TikTokers, Substackers and even influencers, there were YouTubers. Continue reading...
Users noted that in a raft of now-deleted posts, the chatbot would frequently rank Musk top in any given fieldElon Musk's AI, Grok, has been telling users the world's richest person is smarter and more fit than anyone in the world, in a raft of recently deleted posts that have called into question the bot's objectivity.Users on X using the artificial intelligence chatbot in the past week have noted that whatever the comparison - from questions of athleticism to intelligence and even divinity - Musk would frequently come out on top. Continue reading...
While a robot pop star may be novelty now, young people are maturing with a scorn for generic digital productsXania Monet is the latest digital nightmare to emerge from a hellscape of AI content production. No wonder she's popular ... but how long will it last?The music iteration of AI actor" Tilly Norwood, Xania is a composite product manufactured of digital tools: in this case, a photorealistic avatar accompanied by a sound that computers have generated to resemble that of a human voice singing words. Continue reading...
The hot spot seemed the perfect place for Yuletide-loving royalists. But, as with the Eiffel Tower in Beijing and some of the most picturesque windmills in the Netherlands, there was much less to it than first met the eye ...Name: Buckingham Palace Christmas market.Age: Brand new this year. Continue reading...
A lawsuit over automated shopping reveals a deeper struggle over who will control the next generation of AI and what happens when autonomous agents start acting on our behalfHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery.Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stayElon Musk's Grok AI briefly says Trump won 2020 presidential electionAI is guzzling energy for slop content - could it be reimagined to help the climate?How Google's DeepMind tool is more quickly' forecasting hurricane behaviorAnthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in USSoftBank sells stake in Nvidia for $5.8bn as it doubles down on OpenAI betsUS markets struggle amid tech sell-off and economic uncertainty Continue reading...
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