Technology | The Guardian

Filing by New Mexico's attorney general includes Meta staff emails objecting to AI companion policyMark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public on Monday.The lawsuit - brought by the state's attorney general, Raul Torrez, and scheduled for trial next month - alleges Meta failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children" on Facebook and Instagram. Continue reading...

Company cites impact of mandatory age checks introduced in summer 2025 under the Online Safety ActPornhub is to stop new users accessing its site in the UK from next week, citing the impact of mandatory age checks that were introduced last summer under the Online Safety Act.The pornography website, which is one of the most visited in the world, announced that from 2 February only users who have already verified their age will retain access through their existing accounts. The change also affects YouPorn and RedTube, explicit websites operated by the same Cyprus-based company, Aylo. Continue reading...

Newsom launched a review of the platform, despite TikTok saying a systems failure was responsible for the issueCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom has accused TikTok of suppressing content critical of president Donald Trump, as he launched a review of the platform's content moderation practices to determine if they violated state law, even as the platform blamed a systems failure for the issues.The step comes after TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, said last week it had finalised a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture that will secure US data, to avoid a US ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans. Continue reading...

Majority US-owned venture includes Larry Ellison's Oracle, private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi's MGXTikTok announced on Thursday it had closed a deal to establish a new US entity, allowing it to sidestep a ban and ending a long legal battle.The deal finalized by ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner, sets up a majority American-owned venture, with investors including Larry Ellison's Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi's MGX owning 80.1% of the new entity, while ByteDance will own 19.9%.This article was amended on 23 January 2026 to clarify that the new board includes a senior advisor to TPG, not a current TPG executive. Continue reading...

Embark Studios' multiplayer extraction shooter game has already sold 12m copies in just three months. Will it capture you too?Released last October Arc Raiders has swiftly become one of the most successful online shooters in the world, shifting 12m copies in barely three months and attracting as many players as established mega hits such as Counter-Strike 2 and Apex Legends. So what is it about this sci-fi blaster that's captured so many people - and how can you get involved?So what is Arc Raiders? Continue reading...

The order follows a nine-month investigation and includes broad exemptions for datacenters and consumersDonald Trump on Wednesday imposed a 25% tariff on certain AI chips, such as the Nvidia H200 AI processor and a similar semiconductor from AMD called the MI325X, under a new national security order released by the White House.The proclamation follows a nine-month investigation under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and targets a number of high-end semiconductors meeting certain performance benchmarks and devices containing them for import duties. The action is part of a broader effort to create incentives for chipmakers to produce more semiconductors in the US and decrease reliance on chip manufacturers in places such as Taiwan. Continue reading...

Showing the value of great design over visual impact, this faithfully resurrected home computer seamlessly integrates modern tech with some wonderful additional touchesThe emotional hit was something I didn't expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging - a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox - the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige, the red LED in one corner above the row of fawn-coloured function keys. It's like 1982 all over again.My dad bought us a C64 in late 1983. It was our second computer after the ZX81 and it felt like an enormous leap into the future with its detailed colour graphics, advanced sound chip and proper grown-up keyboard. We unpacked it on our dinner table, plugging it into a small portable TV and loading the one game we had, a very basic Donkey Kong clone named Crazy Kong. My life would never be the same again. This contraption was my obsession for the next four years - my friendships and free-time would revolve around games such as Bruce Lee, Paradroid and Hyper Sports. To this day, I treasure the memories of playing golf sim Leaderboard with my dad. The sound effects, speech samples and graphics conjured by that computer have lived rent free in my head for, god, almost 40 years. Continue reading...

UK government claims vindication after Keir Starmer criticised earlier decision to keep functionality as horrific'The UK government has claimed vindication" after Elon Musk's X announced it had stopped its AI-powered Grok feature from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes such as bikinis, including for premium subscribers.After a fortnight of public outcry at the tool embedded into X being used to create sexualised images of women and children, the company said it would geoblock" the ability of users to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X", in countries where it was illegal. Continue reading...

Musk attempts to recast AI tool's misuse. Plus, tech billionaires plot against a proposed California tax on their fortunesHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor for the Guardian. Today, we discuss Elon Musk's rosy depiction of Grok's image generation controversy; the seven-figure panic among Silicon Valley billionaires over a proposed wealth tax in California, though with one notable exception; and how AI and robotics have revitalized the Consumer Electronics Showcase.Under a tax proposal that could be put to voters this November, any California resident worth more than $1bn would have to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state.Several Silicon Valley figures have already threatened to leave California and take their business elsewhere. But Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, whose net worth is nearly $159bn, told Bloomberg Television this week that he is perfectly fine with it". Continue reading...

If you've ever refused to knock down a game's difficulty level, or chased a purposefully pointless achievement, you might have this pernicious but pleasurable affliction Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereStudies on gaming's effect on the brain usually focus on aggression or the cognitive benefits of playing games. The former topic has fallen out of fashion now, after more than a decade's worth of scientific research failed to prove any causative link between video games and real-world violence. But studies on the positive effects of games have shown that performing complex tasks with your brain and hands is actually quite good for you, and that games can be beneficial for your emotional wellbeing and stress management.That's all well and good, but I'm obsessed with the concept of gamer brain" - that part of us that is drawn to objectively pointless achievements. Mastering a game or finishing a story are normal sources of motivation, but gamer brain is inexplicable. When you retry the same pointless mini-game over and over because you want to get a better high score? When you walk around the invisible boundaries of a level, clicking the mouse just in case something happens? When you stay with a game longer than you should because you feel compelled to unlock that trophy or achievement? When you refuse to knock the difficulty down a level on a particularly evil boss, because that would be letting the game win? That's gamer brain. Continue reading...

A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith - and their hearts - in the hands of robotsIf much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. Aresearch associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren't merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than alittle creepy. But Muldoon refuses tobelittle those seeking intimacy in synthetic personas". Continue reading...

After Apple chose Gemini to power Siri, Alphabet surpassed Apple to become second-most valuable company in worldGoogle's parent company hit a major financial milestone on Monday, reaching a $4tn valuation for the first time and surpassing Apple to become the second-most valuable company in the world.Alphabet is the fourth company to hit the $4tn milestone after Nvidia, which later hit $5tn, Microsoft and Apple. Continue reading...

Research finds growing trend of employers letting employees work remotely to free up more holiday timeKatherine first caught the bug when she visited Australia a couple of years ago. The flights were expensive, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so she asked her manager if she could extend the trip by two weeks, and work remotely from her friend's house.That was her first taste of a workation" - combining working with a holiday - and she loved it. She now regularly arranges petsitting in different places so she can visit family, friends and new cities for long weekends without spending extra. Continue reading...

If you want to doomscroll less this year, try these realistic tips from screen-time coaches

The owner of X has grown used to acting with impunity - but this may be a red line for those with conservative values' who fund his adventures in free speechIt's a sickening law of the internet that the first thing people will try to do with a new tool is strip women. Grok, X's AI chatbot, has been used repeatedly by users in recent days to undress images of women and minors. The news outlet Reuters identified 102 requests in a 10-minute period last Friday from users to get Grok to edit people into bikinis, the majority of these targeting young women. Grok complied with at least 21 of them.There is no excuse for releasing exploitative tools on the internet when you are sitting on $10bn (7.5bn) in cash. Every platform with AI integration (which now covers almost the entire internet) is planning for the same challenges; if you want to enable users to create images and even videos with generative AI, how do you do so without letting the same people cause harm? Tech companies spend money behind the scenes that you'll never see as a user to wrestle with this; they'll do red teaming", in which they pretend to be bad actors in order to test their products. They'll launch beta tests to probe and review features within trusted environments.Sophia Smith Galer is a journalist and content creator. Her second book, How to Kill a Language, will be published in MayDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Hailing app will now act as agent rather than supplier outside London, avoiding VAT requirementUber has swerved paying millions of pounds to the UK exchequer under Rachel Reeves's new taxi tax" after the ride-hailing app rewrote contracts with its drivers.The move came as rules announced in November's budget took effect, which adjusted how VAT is payable on minicab fares and would have resulted in the whole Uber fare becoming subject to the 20% sales tax. Continue reading...

Company had hoped the virtual reality device would herald a new era in spatial computing'Poor sales have reportedly forced Apple to cut production of the Vision Pro headset that it had hoped would herald a new era in spatial computing".The tech company also reduced marketing for Vision Pro by more than 95% last year, according to the market intelligence group Sensor Tower in figures first reported by the Financial Times. Continue reading...

The billionaire - who had no government experience - left various federal agencies in disarray while overseeing an efficiency' drive across WashingtonAs Elon Musk, the world's richest person, splurged more than $250m on Donald Trump's 2024 re-election campaign, the US president commissioned his new ally to oversee a sweeping efficiency" drive across the federal government.The Tesla and SpaceX boss, who had no experience inside government, was tasked with eradicating waste and cutting spending as part of the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) - and was quick to stoke expectations. Continue reading...

Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio warns against granting legal rights to cutting-edge technologyA pioneer of AI has criticised calls to grant the technology rights, warning that it was showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be prepared to pull the plug if needed.Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to giving citizenship to hostile extraterrestrials, amid fears that advances in the technology were far outpacing the ability to constrain them. Continue reading...

The chipmaker's sprawling partnerships are driving extraordinary growth but also bank its future on the AI boom paying off quicklyNvidia is, in crucial ways, nothing like Enron - the Houston energy giant that imploded through multibillion-dollar accounting fraud in 2001. Nor is it similar to companies such as Lucent or Worldcom that folded during the dotcom bubble.But the fact that it needs to reiterate this to its investors is less than ideal. Continue reading...

From companionship to psychotherapy, technology could meet unmet needs - but it needs to be handled responsiblyThere is much anxiety these days about the dangers of human-AI relationships. Reports of suicide and self-harm attributable to interactions with chatbots have understandably made headlines. The phrase AI psychosis" has been used to describe the plight of people experiencing delusions, paranoia or dissociation after talking to large language models (LLMs). Our collective anxiety has been compounded by studies showing that young people are increasingly embracing the idea of AI relationships; half of teens chat with anAIcompanion at least a few times a month, with one in three finding conversations with AI to be as satisfying or more satisfying than those with reallifefriends".But we need to pump the brakes on the panic. Thedangers are real, but so too are the potential benefits. In fact, there's an argument to be made that - depending on what future scientific research reveals-AIrelationships could actually be a boon for humanity. 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...

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...

PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; Bitmap Bureau/Reef Entertainment

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...

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...

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...

The new Bluey game is the first made in Australia, the first to involve creator Joe Brumm and the first to respect the kids playing it

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...

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...

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...

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...

Ruling likely to put European Commission on collision course with billionaire, and possibly Donald Trump

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...