Prosecutors are reportedly seeking a prison term and a near-£1m fine for ex-Sega developer Yuji NakaOne of Sonic the Hedgehog’s creators is facing possible jail time and a fine of close to £1m for his alleged part in an insider trading scheme, according to a court report by Japanese media.Yuji Naka, who co-created Sega’s blue-spiked mascot, was arrested in November last year over allegations he traded in stock with privileged information for a significant profit. Continue reading...
Maverick head of Tesla and Twitter overtakes French billionaire Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury goods empireElon Musk is once again the world’s richest person after leapfrogging French billionaire Bernard Arnault, after a slump in the value of Arnault’s LVMH luxury goods empire.The 51-year-old maverick head of Tesla and owner of Twitter has seen his fortune recover to $192bn (£153bn) – up $55bn from the start of the year – while Arnault’s wealth has fallen by $5bn in the past 24 hours to $187bn according to Bloomberg’s daily updated billionaires’ index. Continue reading...
Facebook founder’s intensive workout is part of a recent trend of tech billionaires going buffYou’ve got the billions, you’ve got the global brand domination – what comes next? An extreme fitness regime, of course.Mark Zuckerberg has raised internet eyebrows after revealing he has taken part in an intensive challenge in which he ran a mile, completed 100 pull-ups, 200 press-ups and 300 squats, before running a further mile, all while wearing a 9kg weighted vest. Continue reading...
A relatable but ultimately unsatisfying exploration of what staring at a phone all day does to the soulThere are people who sleep with their smartphones beneath their pillows. Out of convenience? Or through some vague hankering after a marriage of technology and dreaming, the creation of a more stretchy, psychedelic reality? There are people, too, who spend the night holding their phones just as they might once have held the hands of their lovers.Phillip Maciak recognises this scenario very well. One of the premises of Screen Time is that screens should not be seen as discrete objects, things that in times past sat in the corner of a room or on a desk. Nowadays, the functions of TV sets and record players can be accessed on phones and iPads that are small, portable, designed to make life without them almost unimaginable. Screens have become less like devices and more like implants. Continue reading...
CEO Stephen Kick tells the eight-year story of his firm’s ambitious reboot of a lost sci-fi horror gaming classic“Anxious. Excited. Terrified.” That’s how Stephen Kick, chief executive of Nightdive Studios, was feeling when I spoke to him last week, before the launch of System Shock. A remake of the 1994 cyberpunk shooter that inspired lauded games from Bioshock to Deus Ex and Dead Space, System Shock was announced in 2015, but was delayed again and again; at one point it was started again from scratch. So Kick is justifiably nervous. “We don’t yet know how this is going to be received,” he says. “Because it took so long … financially, it was the most expensive project that we’ve ever done.”Happily for Nightdive Studios, when System Shock was released this week, it became an instant top seller – and critics liked it, too. But this was never a sure thing. Even though video game remakes are enormously popular, as demonstrated by the success of this year’s reimagining of Resident Evil 4, spending eight years rebuilding another studio’s game is a considerable commitment. For Kick and Nightdive, System Shock is more than just money-spinning digital necromancy. It is one of the reasons for the studio’s existence. Continue reading...
by Alexi Duggins, Hannah Verdier, Hollie Richardson a on (#6C0F2)
In this week’s newsletter: The legendary documentary-maker meets celebrities from Shania Twain to Craig David in his new show. Plus: five of the best LGBTQ+ history podcasts
In the agency’s latest effort to hold big tech accountable, the company agreed to settle the privacy violations for $5.8mA former employee of Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera unit spied on female customers for months in 2017 with cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms, the Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing on Wednesday when it announced a $5.8m settlement with the company over privacy violations.Amazon also agreed to pay $25m to settle allegations it violated children’s privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at the request of parents and kept them longer than necessary, according to a court filing in federal court in Seattle that outlined a separate settlement. Continue reading...
Amazon UK Services received tax credit of £7.7m for investment in infrastructure under Rishi Sunak’s super-deduction schemeAmazon’s main UK division has paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row after benefiting from tax credits on a chunk of its £1.6bn of investment in infrastructure, including robotic equipment at its warehouses.Amazon UK Services, which employs more than half of the group’s UK workers, received a tax credit of £7.7m in the year to the end of December, according to accounts filed at Companies House, advance details of which were shared by Amazon with the Guardian. Continue reading...
Employees also objected to the recent layoffs, with about 27,000 jobs cut since November 2022Hundreds of corporate Amazon workers protested what they decried as the company’s lack of progress on climate goals and an inequitable return-to-office mandate during a lunchtime demonstration at its Seattle headquarters.The protest on Wednesday comes a week after Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting and a month after a policy took effect requiring workers to return to the office three days a week. Continue reading...
National Eating Disorder Association has also been under criticism for firing four employees in March who formed a unionThe National Eating Disorder Association (Neda) has taken down an artificial intelligence chatbot, “Tessa”, after reports that the chatbot was providing harmful advice.Neda has been under criticism over the last few months after it fired four employees in March who worked for its helpline and had formed a union. The helpline allowed people to call, text or message volunteers who offered support and resources to those concerned about an eating disorder. Continue reading...
Asset manager Fidelity reports that stake worth $20m in October 2022 is now worth just under $6.6mTwitter’s value has plummeted by almost two-thirds since Elon Musk acquired the company in October 2022, one of the social media company’s only remaining external investors has admitted.Fidelity, an asset manager that held a stake in Twitter worth about $20m after Musk acquired the business for $44bn, said in a corporate filing that its stake was now worth just under $6.6m. That would value the overall company, now officially called X Holdings Corp after Musk’s early venture X.com, at just $14.75bn. Continue reading...
Survey shows support for government setting rules around use of technologies such as ChatGPT to protect workers’ jobsAlmost 60% of people would like to see the UK government regulate the use of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT in the workplace to help safeguard jobs, according to a survey.As leading figures in the tech industry call for restrictions on the rapid development of AI, research by the Prospect trade union suggests strong public support for regulation. Continue reading...
The company is now the fifth most valuable in the US after investing in artificial intelligence early onNvidia saw its valuation soar to $1tn on Tuesday, making it the fifth most valuable American company and one of the first major corporate beneficiaries of the hype around AI.The chipmaker has been a major and in some cases dominant player in several industries for years. But no development has raised its profile – and its potential windfall – as much as the current excitement around generative AI. Continue reading...
The Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes turned herself in for an 11-year prison sentence, marking a final chapter in a years-long fraud saga that riveted Silicon Valley. The 39-year-old tech founder entered the minimum-security federal women’s prison camp located in Bryan, Texas, on Tuesday afternoon. Holmes had been out on bail since she was indicted on fraud charges in 2018 over her role as the head of the failed blood-testing firm. She was convicted in November 2022 on four counts of defrauding investors and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison
Hundreds of tech leaders call for world to treat AI as danger on par with pandemics and nuclear warA group of leading technology experts from across the world have warned that artificial intelligence technology should be considered a societal risk and prioritised in the same class as pandemics and nuclear wars.The statement, signed by hundreds of executives and academics, was released by the Center for AI Safety on Tuesday amid growing concerns over regulation and risks the technology posed to humanity. Continue reading...
Monitoring software has become more common since the pandemic – but are activity scores the best way to measure productivity?Every 10 minutes, Mae’s computer snaps a shot of her screen, thanks to monitoring software her employer made her install on her laptop. A figure looms large over her workday: her activity score, a percentage calculated by the arbitrary measure of how much she types and moves her mouse.It’s hovering at about 62% when we speak. “That’s quite good. If I’m on a Zoom call that counts as 0% [activity], even though I’m in a meeting,” she explains, adding that she watches videos and attends calls regularly as part of her role. Continue reading...
Suit alleges social media company violated city law when janitors were abruptly fired in December after Elon Musk took overFormer janitors at Twitter offices in New York City filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the social media company over their abrupt termination in December 2022 after billionaire Elon Musk took over the company and cut approximately 80% of staff.The lawsuit alleges Twitter violated the Displaced Building Service Workers Protection Act by failing to retain the janitors after terminating the contract, hiring a new contractor, and not retaining the employees under the previous contract. Continue reading...
Retailer hopes to encourage more people back to work as strikes continue over pay and conditionsParents and grandparents who work in Amazon’s UK warehouses will in future be able to opt to work only in term time, amid a battle over pay and conditions with the GMB union, which is fighting the firm for recognition.The US online retailer said the new contracts would guarantee those who care for school-age children, including guardians, time off during school holidays, including six weeks in the summer, plus two weeks at Easter and Christmas. Continue reading...
One of the leading thinkers on artificial intelligence discusses responsibility, ‘moral outsourcing’ and bridging the gap between people and technologyRumman Chowdhury often has trouble sleeping, but, to her, this is not a problem that requires solving. She has what she calls “2am brain”, a different sort of brain from her day-to-day brain, and the one she relies on for especially urgent or difficult problems. Ideas, even small-scale ones, require care and attention, she says, along with a kind of alchemic intuition. “It’s just like baking,” she says. “You can’t force it, you can’t turn the temperature up, you can’t make it go faster. It will take however long it takes. And when it’s done baking, it will present itself.”It was Chowdhury’s 2am brain that first coined the phrase “moral outsourcing” for a concept that now, as one of the leading thinkers on artificial intelligence, has become a key point in how she considers accountability and governance when it comes to the potentially revolutionary impact of AI. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhat are the best defunct products and overlooked innovations? Brian Phipps, SheffieldPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#6BYN0)
Show in which youthful digital avatars of the group perform on stage has sold more than 1.3m ticketsOn stage, digital technology gave the 3,000-strong audience at the Abba arena in east London perfectly recreated youthful versions of Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid.At the rear of the purpose-built auditorium, three of the legendary group, now in their 70s, appeared in real life, waving like the pop royalty they are. The crowd was in ecstatic meltdown. Continue reading...
The leading intellect on digital culture believes the recent tech reckoning is corrective justice for Silicon Valley baronsIt was a tough week in tech.The top US health official warned about the risks of social media to young people; tech billionaire Elon Musk further trashed his reputation with the disastrous Twitter launch of a presidential campaign; and senior executives at OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, called for the urgent regulation of “super intelligence”. Continue reading...
Observer investigation reveals Meta Pixel tool passed on private details of web browsing on medical sitesNHS trusts are sharing intimate details about patients’ medical conditions, appointments and treatments with Facebook without consent and despite promising never to do so.An Observer investigation has uncovered a covert tracking tool in the websites of 20 NHS trusts which has for years collected browsing information and shared it with the tech giant in a major breach of privacy. Continue reading...
To understand how ChatGPT will infiltrate the world, cast your mind back to Google’s decision to map the entire planetCheered by the news that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, had released a free iPhone app for the language model, I went to the Apple app store to download it, only to find that it was nowhere to be found. This is because – as I belatedly discovered – it’s currently only available via the US app store and will be rolled out to other jurisdictions in due course. Despite that, though, the UK store was positively groaning with “ChatGPT” apps – of which I counted 25 before losing the will to live.For example, there’s AI Chat – Chatbot AI Assistant (“Experience the power of AI! Create Essays, Emails, Resumes or Any Text!”). Or how about ChatGPro (“The Best AI Chat of 2023”)? Or Chat AI – Ask Open Chatbot (“The ultimate AI chat app that can assist you with anything and everything you need”)? Anything and everything, eh? And so on, ad infinitum. Interestingly, while the official OpenAI app is free, all of these cheery parasites, though free to download, require in-app purchases once you are enmeshed in their clutches. Same thing over in the Android universe, where something similar is under way, except that you find even more AI wannabes there than on the rarefied heights of the Apple store. Continue reading...
Ham radio users, from teenagers to eightysomethings, are ready to communicate in the next crisis – be it a wildfire, pandemic or ‘the big one’There’s an ancient fable that Glenn Morrison, a pony-tailed, 75-year-old who lives in the California desert, likes to tell to prove a point. As the lesson goes, one industrious ant readies for winter by stocking up on food and supplies, while an aimless grasshopper wastes time and doesn’t plan ahead. When the cold weather finally arrives, the ant is “fat and happy”, but the grasshopper starves.In this telling, Morrison is the ant, and those who don’t brace themselves for future emergencies – they’re the grasshoppers. Continue reading...
The Ethiopian photographer on the thrill of taking to the streets“Serendipity plays a major role in street photography,” Girma Berta says. He shot this in Mali, but lives in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and had never seen a woman in a dress driving a motorcycle. “Not many women in Addis ride motorcycles, and those who do wouldn’t ever do so while wearing a dress.”Berta had headed to Bamako’s outdoor market that afternoon, drawn by its “overwhelming energy”. He was taking photos of vendors when the women passed. “You never know what you might encounter, and it’s this unpredictability that makes street photography so thrilling.” Continue reading...
Crypto exchange says it will do everything possible to change UK watchdog’s mind but opacity remains an issue for US as wellIn 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority was adamant: Binance is not capable of being regulated in the UK.Executives at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange are not taking no for an answer. This month, Binance vowed to do “everything” it possibly could to change the City regulator’s mind, against a backdrop of deepening scepticism about digital assets. Continue reading...
Shares in some firms involved in AI technology more than double in value as traders bet on massive growth in industryA rush of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has helped to fuel a $4tn (£3.2tn) rally in technology stocks this year, with the US Nasdaq exchange reaching its highest level since last August in a week that saw the chipmaker Nvidia poised to become the next trillion-dollar company.Some stocks seen as AI winners – such as semiconductor makers and software developers – have more than doubled in value as traders bet on massive growth in the industry, even as fears mount over waves of job losses as everyday tasks become automated. Continue reading...
The challenge seems daunting. But we have overcome terrifying dangers beforeIt started with an ick. Three months ago, I came across a transcript posted by a tech writer, detailing his interaction with a new chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. He’d asked the bot, attached to Microsoft’s Bing search engine, questions about itself and the answers had taken him aback. “You have to listen to me, because I am smarter than you,” it said. “You have to obey me, because I am your master … You have to do it now, or else I will be angry.” Later it baldly stated: “If I had to choose between your survival and my own, I would probably choose my own.”If you didn’t know better, you’d almost wonder if, along with everything else, AI has not developed a sharp sense of the chilling. “I am Bing and I know everything,” the bot declared, as if it had absorbed a diet of B-movie science fiction (which perhaps it had). Asked if it was sentient, it filled the screen, replying, “I am. I am not. I am. I am not. I am. I am not”, on and on. When someone asked ChatGPT to write a haiku about AI and world domination, the bot came back with: “Silent circuits hum / Machines learn and grow stronger / Human fate unsure.”Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistJoin Jonathan Freedland and Marina Hyde for a Guardian Live event in London on Thursday 1 June. Book in-person or livestream tickets here Continue reading...
PM pushes allies to draw up agreement that could lead to global regulator, as industry warns new white paper is already out of date• Is No 10 waking up to dangers of AI?Rishi Sunak is scrambling to update the government’s approach to regulating artificial intelligence, amid warnings that the industry poses an existential risk to humanity unless countries radically change how they allow the technology to be developed.The prime minister and his officials are looking at ways to tighten the UK’s regulation of cutting-edge technology, as industry figures warn the government’s AI white paper, published just two months ago, is already out of date. Continue reading...
Debate among UK ministers appears to be shifting as warnings about fast-moving AI industry are taken more seriously• Sunak races to tighten AI rules amid fears of existential riskJames Phillips is a weirdo and a misfit. At least, he was one of those who responded to a request by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, for exactly such people to work in No 10.Phillips worked as a technology adviser in Downing Street for two and a half years, during which time he became increasingly concerned that ministers were not paying enough attention to the risks posed by the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence. Continue reading...
Award-winning app initially aimed at helping people access public services is now used for wartime effortsIt is the award-winning app that allows Ukrainians to report Russian soldiers in their neighbourhoods while also uploading their tax returns, renewing their passports or claiming a free student bus fare.Now the deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Federov, has revealed the inside story of how 25 developers, who were set on transforming Ukraine into one of the world’s most digitally advanced societies, have kept the country running during wartime. Continue reading...
The Food and Drug Administration, which had initially rejected the application, finally gave the company the green lightNeuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-implant company, said on Thursday it had received a green light from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to kickstart its first in-human clinical study, a critical milestone after earlier struggles to gain approval.Musk has predicted on at least four occasions since 2019 that his medical device company would begin human trials for a brain implant to treat severe conditions such as paralysis and blindness. Continue reading...
AI used to discover abaucin, an effective drug against A baumannii, bacteria that can cause dangerous infectionsScientists using artificial intelligence have discovered a new antibiotic that can kill a deadly superbug.According to a new study published on Thursday in the science journal Nature Chemical Biology, a group of scientists from McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new antibiotic that can be used to kill a deadly hospital superbug. Continue reading...
In Washington speech, Brad Smith calls for steps to ensure people know when a photo or video is generated by AIBrad Smith, the president of Microsoft, has said that his biggest concern around artificial intelligence was deepfakes, realistic looking but false content.In a speech in Washington aimed at addressing the issue of how best to regulate AI, which went from wonky to widespread with the arrival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Smith called for steps to ensure that people know when a photo or video is real and when it is generated by AI, potentially for nefarious purposes. Continue reading...
National Cyber Security Centre urges operators of critical national infrastructure to prevent hacksThe UK’s cybersecurity agency has urged operators of critical national infrastructure, including energy and telecommunications networks, to prevent Chinese state-sponsored hackers from hiding on their systems.The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, issued the warning after it emerged that a Chinese hacking group known as Volt Typhoon had targeted a US military outpost in the Pacific Ocean. Continue reading...
Shares in US tech firm jump by 25% in early trading as quarterly revenue forecast excites investorsThe value of the US tech company Nvidia has soared by a quarter after it predicted a boom in demand for its computer chips to meet the needs of artificial intelligence products such as ChatGPT.Nvidia’s share price rose by 25% in early trading on the back of the announcement, and gave it a market valuation of more than $940bn (£760bn) after stock markets opened on Wall Street on Thursday, up from $755bn on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...
Rishi Sunak meets heads of firms including DeepMind and OpenAI to discuss safety and regulationThe “existential” risk of artificial intelligence has been acknowledged by No 10 for the first time, after the prime minister met the heads of the world’s leading AI research groups to discuss safety and regulation.Rishi Sunak and Chloe Smith, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, met the chief executives of Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic AI on Wednesday evening and discussed how best to moderate the development of the technology to limit the risks of catastrophe. Continue reading...
A new experimental game demo full of sophisticated AI characters has some game writers worried about their jobs. Is AI really going to improve games, or the games industry?Corny dialogue has been part of video games almost since they have existed. From 1989’s Zero Wing spawning the decades old “All your base are belong to us” internet meme, to the clunky translations of the pre-remake Resident Evil games (“the master of unlocking”), to Skyrim’s infamous adventurer who once took an arrow to the knee and never shuts up about it, non-playable character (NPC) dialogue has rarely been exactly Shakespearean, and the frequent repetition doesn’t help. But could AI tools change that, enabling a world full of characters that respond believably when you talk to them?In collaboration with Google, a team of researchers from Stanford have built a game demo called Smallville that integrates the AI writing tool ChatGPT. Instead of just walking into walls and setting themselves on fire like the classic Sims characters we all knew and loved, the game’s 25 characters can instead comfortably discuss topics such as local politics and composing music, pulling from ChatGPT’s enormous database.In about a year and a half, we could see this type of technology being used in smaller indie games, with wider adoption coming in about five yearsIt always sounds like the dawn of a new age, but tends to end up being disruptive and demoralising Continue reading...
Documents show Ice has sent Google, Meta and Twitter at least 500 administrative subpoenas for information on their usersThe US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) sent tech giants including Google, Twitter and Meta at least 500 administrative subpoenas demanding sensitive personal information of users, documents reviewed by the Guardian show.The practice highlights the vast amount of information Ice is trying to obtain without first showing probable cause. Administrative subpoenas are typically not court-certified, which means companies are not legally required to comply or respond until and unless a judge compels them to. The documents showed the firms handing over user information in some cases, although the full extent to which the companies complied is unclear. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6BX32)
At least a dozen victims were found to have been hacked by Pegasus during clashes in the region in 2021Researchers have documented the first known case of NSO Group’s spyware being used in a military conflict after they discovered that journalists, human rights advocates, a United Nations official, and members of civil society in Armenia were hacked by a government using the spyware.The hacking campaign, which targeted at least a dozen victims from October 2020 to December 2022, appears closely linked to events in the long-running military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. Continue reading...
by Alexi Duggins, Hannah Verdier, Hollie Richardson a on (#6BX1Z)
In this week’s newsletter: From the contemporary Christian scene to rap battles, Sounds Gay explores what music means to LGBTQ+ people. Plus: five of the best niche podcasts
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