Technology | The Guardian

The billionaire’s hamfisted handling of his new toy won’t much matter as long as politicians and media types remain bewitchedLast October, the richest manchild in human history fell into the trap he had dug for himself. Elon Musk was forced to purchase Twitter at an absurd price. He had no clear idea of what to do with his new acquisition, other than realising a fatuous idea about “free speech”. It was like watching a monkey acquire a delicate clock: the new owner started thrashing wildly about, slashing the headcount (from 8,000 to about 1,500) – in the process losing many of the people who knew how the machine worked – and generally having tantrums while tweeting incontinently from the smallest room in the company’s San Francisco headquarters.All of this frenetic activity was watched – and avidly reported for weeks – by the world’s mainstream media, for reasons that would have puzzled a visiting Martian anthropologist. After all, in relation to the other social-media companies, Twitter looked like a minnow. Most people have never used it. So why all the fuss about its acquisition by a flake of Cadbury proportions? Continue reading...

Tesla and Twitter boss said to be bringing together team, weeks after co-signing letter demanding pause in AI researchElon Musk is reportedly planning to launch an artificial intelligence company to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, as Silicon Valley battles for dominance in the rapidly developing technology.The billionaire boss of Tesla and Twitter is in the process of bringing together a team of AI researchers and engineers and is in talks with several investors about the project, according to the Financial Times. Continue reading...

Debate bubbles over how to navigate setting limits as UK study shows fifth of three- and four-year-olds have a device

Tables may have freed up at Silicon Valley’s Coupa Cafe, but ‘scalability’ is still on the menu as tech workers look forwardIf you read the news, you’d think that San Francisco is dead. If you try to drive there during rush hour, you’d find that hard to believe.On a sunny Wednesday morning this month, I found myself on the Bay Bridge, en route to inspect the alleged demise of San Francisco and the reports that Silicon Valley’s golden age is coming to a halt. Continue reading...

Nima Momeni, who appeared in court, is suspected of stabbing the Cash App founder with a kitchen knife and leaving him to dieThe killing of the Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco last week was a “planned and deliberate attack”, prosecutors in the case said in a court document on Friday.Officials allege Nima Momeni, a 38-year-old tech consultant, brought Lee to a secluded spot and stabbed him three times with a kitchen knife over an argument related to Momeni’s sister. Continue reading...

Users explain the way top-secret documents were able slowly to spread across the internet unnoticed

What better final bonding experience than a video game about a prison break before heading off to uni?My son Charlie leaves home in a few weeks. He will be 3,000 miles away. My heart is breaking. I decide we need one more formative games playing experience. Something we can bond over, that will maybe teach him a few life lessons along the way.A Way Out (PS4, Windows, Xbox One) is a two-player co-op game that has you trying to escape from a prison. It sounds like a perfect father-son activity. Five minutes in, my son’s character is naked, being most aggressively hosed down after an inmate tells him: “You think I’m a pussy? I fuck people up.” Understandably, I’m wondering whether this will be the light, fun bonding experience I’d hoped for. Continue reading...

Recording archive to include 25 more items among ‘defining sounds of nation’s history’, including Madonna’s Like a VirginThe original 1985 theme from Super Mario Bros, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You and Madonna’s 1984 album Like a Virgin are among “the defining sounds of the nation’s history and culture” to be given places in the US national recording registry, the Library of Congress has announced.The Super Mario Bros music, officially known as the Ground Theme, written by the young Nintendo composer Koji Kondo, becomes the first music from a video game to enter the registry, which the library called “the most recognisable video game theme in history”. The tune has appeared in countless Mario-related incarnations. Continue reading...

Citizen Lab says victims’ phones infected after being sent an iCloud calendar invitation in a ‘zero-click’ attackSecurity experts have warned about the emergence of previously unknown spyware with hacking capabilities comparable to NSO Group’s Pegasus that has already been used by clients to target journalists, political opposition figures and an employee of an NGO.Researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School said the spyware, which is made by an Israeli company called QuaDream, infected some victims’ phones by sending an iCloud calendar invitation to mobile users from operators of the spyware, who are likely to be government clients. Victims were not notified of the calendar invitations because they were sent for events logged in the past, making them invisible to the targets of the hacking. Such attacks are known as “zero-click” because users of the mobile phone do not have to click on any malicious link or take any action in order to be infected. Continue reading...

Cyptocurrency’s steady increase in value reignites fears of widespread market manipulationA sharp rise in bitcoin prices has pushed the cryptocurrency above $30,000 (£24,118) for the first time since 10 June last year, just before the Celsius crypto lending company froze withdrawals in the run-up to its collapse.Even given that recovery, the token is still well below its all-time high of $68,000 in November 2021, and far below where it was before the failure of the Terra stablecoin caused the “crypto winter”. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: From massive venture capital investment to sky-high salaries, the days of constant growth backed by low-cost loans may be over

Brighter, crisper touchscreen and week-long battery life prove potent combination, but cost increasesThe Forerunner 265 ushers in a new era for Garmin, bringing bright and sharp OLED screens to its class-leading running watches while keeping week-long battery life.But the screen upgrade comes with a price hike. The Forerunner 265 costs £430 ($450/A$769), making it £80 more than its excellent LCD-equipped sibling, the Forerunner 255 Music. OLED screens have long been a feature of smartwatches, such as the Apple Watch, but this marks a departure for serious sports watches. Continue reading...

Electronic Arts; PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Families flock in over Easter despite poor reviews, helping Mario collect more than £300m worldwide to become highest grossing game adaptation and animated film over opening weekendThe animated Super Mario Bros Movie has shot to the top of the global box office, taking $377m (£304m) worldwide on its opening weekend.The new film is an origin story about how Brooklyn plumbers Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt, and Luigi (Charlie Day), fall into a rogue pipe and wind up in a world populated by Nintendo’s most famous characters. Continue reading...

The hosts of the Dudesy podcast were shocked when their robot companion created an hour-long standup specialHave you heard the one about the American football player who tries standup comedy?After Tom Brady’s deadpan appearance in the February film 80 for Brady, rumors swirled that the NFL legend might try standup. His recent divorce, second pro football retirement and forthcoming commitment to a televised comedy roast made the prospect seem believable enough. Continue reading...

Alluring and useful they may be, but the AI interfaces’ potential as gateways for fraud and intrusive data gathering is huge – and is only set to growConcerns about the growing abilities of chatbots trained on large language models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chat, are making headlines. Experts warn of their ability to spread misinformation on a monumental scale, as well as the existential risk their development may pose to humanity. As if this isn’t worrying enough, a third area of concern has opened up – illustrated by Italy’s recent ban of ChatGPT on privacy grounds.The Italian data regulator has voiced concerns over the model used by ChatGPT owner OpenAI and announced it would investigate whether the firm had broken strict European data protection laws. Continue reading...

Company that matches artists with brands is understood to have laid off most of its staff and faces legal action by creditorsA tech company that claimed to “democratise creativity” by matching artists with design briefs for major brands is on the brink of collapse after being issued with a winding-up petition over unpaid debts.Talenthouse, whose clients have included Netflix, Coca-Cola, Nike and the UN, is facing legal action by creditors in the UK and is understood to have laid off most of its workforce, with top executives also departing its parent company in recent days. Continue reading...

A startup in Devon is among those who spy opportunity in the process of turning old power cells into valuable raw materials

A year after a ‘historic’ victory in Staten Island, New York, hope for a wave of union victories is looking less momentousA year ago, Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York won a “historic” victory – overcoming a multimillion-dollar campaign by the multibillion-dollar corporation to win the right to organize Amazon’s first-ever union.A year on from that victory – which labor leaders had hoped would trigger a wave of union victories – is looking less momentous and another union election win at Amazon has remained elusive. Continue reading...

Cameras affixed on cars sent videos of customers and their property to the EV maker’s offices and spread ‘like wildfire’Tesla assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us”. The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy”.But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras, according to interviews by Reuters with nine former employees. Continue reading...

Sales fall at world’s biggest memory chip maker amid decline in global demand for semiconductorsSamsung Electronics will cut back on chip production, as it faces a sharp decline in global demand for semiconductors that has sent prices plunging.The world’s biggest memory chip maker said it would make a “meaningful” cut to chip output after sales dropped sharply and it flagged a 96% drop in first-quarter profits, worse than expected. The fellow South Korean firm SK Hynix and Micron Technology of the US have also reduced production. Continue reading...

Half a century after its debut, the end of the combustion engine Golf is nigh – but it will always have a place in drivers’ heartsAfter nearly 50 years in production, the Golf Mark 8 will be the last combustion engine version of the VW Golf. For many drivers, it spells the end of an era. Here, Guardian readers share their memories of driving the vehicles in decades past. Continue reading...

Mainstream adoption of generative AI and conversational bots has left few spaces untouched, even religious communities“Write a sermon in the voice of a rabbi of about 1,000 words that relates the Torah portion Vayigash to intimacy and vulnerability. Cite Brené Brown’s scholarship on vulnerability.” That was the prompt Rabbi Joshua Franklin put in ChatGPT, the results of which he used to deliver a sermon to congregants of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in December 2022.The sermon the chatbot came up with spoke of Joseph, the son of Jacob and a prophet in the Abrahamic faiths. It quoted from a book by Brown, a professor who specializes on topics of intimacy, to define vulnerability as “the willingness to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome”. Being vulnerable could mean “we are able to form deeper, more meaningful bonds with those around us”, the chatbot wrote. Continue reading...

Bryan Caplan was skeptical after AI struggled on his midterm exam. But within months, it had aced the testThe economist Bryan Caplan was sure the artificial intelligence baked into ChatGPT wasn’t as smart as it was cracked up to be. The question: could the AI ace his undergraduate class’s 2022 midterm exam?Caplan, of George Mason University in Virginia, seemed in a good position to judge. He has made a name for himself by placing bets on a range of newsworthy topics, from Donald Trump’s electoral chances in 2016 to future US college attendance rates. And he nearly always wins, often by betting against predictions he views as hyperbolic. Continue reading...

‘Finfluencers’ to be asked to consult checklist before accepting deals for ‘get-rich-quick’ schemesThe UK financial and advertising regulators have warned social media influencers of the risks of promoting “get-rich-quick schemes” such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens to their followers.The Financial Conduct Authority and Advertising Standards Authority have launched a campaign to prevent content creators from marketing investment scams and risky financial products. Continue reading...

Play a cat trying to please its human, uncover pickup artists’ dark arts or find out how being pregnant feels at Now Play This in London, designed to make us look at video games differentlyOutside Somerset House this week, you might notice that two lampposts are blinking at each other. Unless you are fluent in Morse code, however, you probably won’t clock that they are performing Act II, Scene II of Romeo and Juliet. The installation by Geraint Edwards welcomes you to Now Play This, an experimental games festival, where you could also play a game about getting over a breakup by wielding a sword while riding a motorbike through a neon city, or listen to artist Laurence Young give a talk about getting his mother into the fantasy video game Elden Ring. Inside, attendees lounge around a digital fire, browsing books of love poetry.Now Play This – now in its ninth year at Somerset House – can be relied upon to bring people together in unexpected ways. It has hosted everything from giant ball mazes to outdoor playground games and a game about chucking fascists out of your garden. But this year’s theme, love, has created an especially open, even intimate atmosphere. On a giant arcade cabinet in the largest exhibition room, you can play Breakup Squad, a game about keeping your friend away from their toxic ex at a party; outside, you can play Triangulate, a puzzle game where three players are given random instructions (“point at someone with one leg; rotate slowly; hold hands with a different person”) and have to negotiate how to use their bodies to find a solution that works for everyone.Now Play This is at Somerset House, London, until 9 April Continue reading...

You don’t need to look far to see that gaming is everywhere with film versions of Tetris, Super Mario Bros and Dungeons & Dragons in cinemas this week. Chanté talks to Rhianna Pratchett, video game writer on Tomb Raider, Timi and Joey from The Nerd Council podcast and the Guardian’s video games editor Keza MacDonald about why it is dominatingSign up to the Guardian’s Documentaries newsletter Continue reading...

The second film adaptation of the phenomenally successful video game is a disappointment to rival the firstFilms or TV shows based on games don’t have to be terrible – as proved in various ways by Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves and The Last of Us. Even The Angry Birds Movie wasn’t too bad. The trick is usually to make it look as if the game was based on the movie, rather than the other way round. But this much-trailed, much-hyped new animated feature is tedious and flat in all senses, a disappointment to match the live-action version in 1993. It’s visually bland in ways that reminded me of European knockoff animations and utterly inert in narrative terms, with a baffling lack of properly funny lines.It is of course based on the global video game phenomenon, born in the 80s, from Kyoto-based gaming giant Nintendo, with its wackily eccentric idea of Italian-American plumbers Mario and Luigi. They are called the Super Mario Bros, even though “Mario” is not their surname – like Dostoevsky inventing a videogame called The Brothers Dimitri. This movie revives the ancient and surreal quest undertaken by Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day), Brooklyn plumbers who only do the silly and borderline-offensive cod Italian voice for their cheesy TV ad. Continue reading...

When I couldn’t turn on the lights she told me there was ‘no account associated with this device’In December I came home and, as usual, shouted to Alexa to turn on the lights but was surprised when she responded that there was “no Amazon account associated with this device”. Frustrated and in the dark, I tried to log in, only for the app to confirm there was no account associated with my email.I have a disability that means I cannot make phone calls, so my husband used his account to seek help. Eventually, someone called us back but confirmed there was no account and told me to set up a new one. Continue reading...

Removal of verification badges reportedly could take a long time as it may involve many manual elements

Today influencers sell ideas about science and medicine as well as products. But the integrity on which their status rests, says the US author, is as unknowable as the algorithms that push their contentIn the early 00s, Emily Hund dreamed of a career as a journalist at a glossy fashion magazine. But after internships with New York media companies and having witnessed falling circulations and redundancies, she switched to studying one of the catalysts for these changes: social media and the influencers whose YouTube, TikTok and Instagram posts sell ideas, lifestyles and products to their followers. The influencer industry ranges from global stars such as the Kardashians to micro-influencers who post on niche interests. What they have in common is that they work with brands to promote or sell to an audience. Hund is now a research affiliate at Pennsylvania University’s Centre on Digital Culture and Society and her first book on influencers is published in the UK this month.How did social media take hold in people’s lives?

Just months after the FTX collapse, a US watchdog is suing Changpeng Zhao’s firm, the world’s biggest digital-asset market, over a slew of allegations that make jaw-dropping readingBinance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and a cornerstone of the $1tn digital asset market. It has 128 million customers, handles $65bn in daily trades and its commercial partners include Cristiano Ronaldo, Italy’s Lazio football team and TikTok megastar Khaby Lame. So when a US regulator announced last week it was suing Binance for “wilful evasion of US law”, it was a significant moment for a sector still reeling from the collapse of FTX.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed the civil enforcement action in a federal court in Chicago, seeking punishments including fines and permanent trading bans. It is suing Binance’s Canadian founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, and three entities that operate the Binance global trading platform over numerous alleged violations of its regulations and of the Commodity Exchange Act. Binance’s former chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, is also being sued. Continue reading...

Measure is in place ‘until ChatGPT respects privacy’, says Italian Data Protection AuthorityItaly’s privacy watchdog has banned ChatGPT, after raising concerns about a recent data breach and the legal basis for using personal data to train the popular chatbot.The Italian Data Protection Authority described the move as atemporary measure “until ChatGPT respects privacy”. The watchdog said it was imposing an “immediate temporary limitation on the processing of Italian users’ data” by ChatGPT’s owner, the San Francisco-based OpenAI. Continue reading...

The statement has been revealed to have false signatures and researchers have condemned its use of their workA letter co-signed by Elon Musk and thousands of others demanding a pause in artificial intelligence research has created a firestorm, after the researchers cited in the letter condemned its use of their work, some signatories were revealed to be fake, and others backed out on their support.On 22 March more than 1,800 signatories – including Musk, the cognitive scientist Gary Marcus and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak – called for a six-month pause on the development of systems “more powerful” than that of GPT-4. Engineers from Amazon, DeepMind, Google, Meta and Microsoft also lent their support.Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...

Our roundup of drama to watch at home includes a Big Night of Musicals, You Bury Me and James Earl Jones in King LearGame of Thrones stars Emilia Clarke and Indira Varma reunited for Jamie Lloyd’s typically bold and radical Chekhov production in the West End last year. It now joins the National Theatre at Home archive alongside the Donmar Warehouse’s Henry V, starring another GoT alumnus, Kit Harington. Continue reading...

Appeal judges uphold previous ruling, citing ‘implied threat’ in CEO’s tweet directed at Fremont employees who wanted to join unionA US appeals court has ruled that Elon Musk violated federal labour law by tweeting that employees of Tesla would lose stock options if they joined a union.The New Orleans-based 5th US circuit court of appeals upheld a decision by the US National Labor Relations Board that said the 2018 tweet amounted to an unlawful threat that could discourage unionising and ordered Musk to delete it. Continue reading...

Experts have sounded a warning on artificial intelligence as it becomes increasingly sophisticated and harder to detectGenerative AI – including large language models such as GPT-4, and image generators such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion – is advancing in a “storm of hype and fright”, as some commentators have observed.Recent advances in artificial intelligence have yielded warnings that the rapidly developing technology may result in “ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control”. Continue reading...

Chinese-owned firm caught in geopolitical standoff, with US lawmakers leading charge against itSitting at the heart of youth culture, TikTok is beloved of its more than 1 billion users worldwide.With a range of compelling content that extends from viral dances to comedy skits, cleaning hacks, BookTok, music and the Gen Z melancholy of the corecore trend, it is the app of the 21st century. Continue reading...

April dates come as GMB union prepares to test support for stoppages at five other sitesWorkers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have announced six fresh strike dates, as the GMB union prepares to test support for stoppages among staff at another five of the delivery company’s sites.Strikes at the vast Coventry centre, known as BHX4, began in January – the first industrial action ever taken against Amazon in the UK. Staff are demanding pay of £15 an hour. Continue reading...

Social media highlights remarkable timing of verdicts in unusual cases that gripped a nationAn ex-president indicted for alleged hush money payments to a porn star. A wealthy actor and wellness guru vindicated in a nail-biting fight for justice against a retired optometrist. And all in the space of a few hours.The reaction on Twitter was clear: God bless America. Continue reading...

The annual event, which faced years of Covid disruption, will not return in 2023E3, the video game industry’s biggest annual expo, has been cancelled.The show had been due to make a return after years of Covid-19 disruption this June in Los Angeles, but in a joint statement, the US’s Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and events company Reedpop announced it would no longer be going ahead. Continue reading...

The were gasps in the crowd as a cult indie shooter beat the blockbusters to the key award of the nightIt must be one of the biggest shock wins in the history of the Bafta Games Awards. Up against huge blockbuster titles such as Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök, the best game winner at this year’s ceremony, which took place on Thursday evening, was Vampire Survivors, a shoot-’em-up largely developed by lone coder Luca Galante.There were gasps in the crowd at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London when the title was read out, with Galante’s small team accepting the award on his behalf and looking shaken. The game, in which players attempt to survive as long as possible in an ever-changing landscape swarming with monsters, had earlier won the game design award. Continue reading...

Sad clips from films, TV shows and TikTok are being spliced together over melancholy music – and they’re raising a smile among hopeless young peopleJimmy Nguyen, an 18-year-old student, saw his first “corecore” video on TikTok in January. He can’t remember which one it was – there are so many of them now. But he says it was typical of this new trend of video: other TikTok videos, celebrity or podcaster interviews, TV show and film clips spliced together over some sad or ambient music. They’re depressing, full of existential dread and usually on the theme of disconnection and alienation. Nguyen initially thought, like other users, that these videos were a joke. They’re crudely edited and the name in itself is a sarcastic reference to the proliferation of micro-trends emerging from TikTok since 2020. But he was soon staying up late at night in his bedroom making corecore of his own.“As I was making my first video I started to really see myself expressing how I was feeling and it felt relieving because I didn’t have anyone to talk to and explaining my emotions is hard,” he tells me. “But that video felt like an exit or gateway to those feelings.” In it, clips of Lee Jung-jae, the lead in Squid Game smiling broadly and falsely at the camera, someone recounting how in school kids would ask which super power you’d want out of invisibility and flying but he says “I’m already invisible” and Jake Gyllenhall in Stronger (2017) screaming “Why do you even want me? I’m such a fuck up!” run into each other over a morose Arcade Fire track. Now Nguyen makes these videos in an attempt to help people, he says, to let them know that they’re not alone. Continue reading...

Facebook owner weighing up move amid fears it could struggle to abide by new EU laws, say reports

In this week’s newsletter: The Anti-Trans Hate Machine returns with a second series looking back at America’s record of violence toward transgender people. Plus: five of the best pop culture podcasts

Bakery is first restaurant chain to use Amazon One biometric technology, which faces scrutiny from lawmakers and activistsThe US bakery and cafe chain Panera will soon allow customers to pay with the swipe of a palm, marking the first restaurant chain to implement the new technology and raising alarm among privacy advocates.The company announced last week it would roll out biometric readers in coming months that will allow customers to access credit card and loyalty account information by scanning their palms. Called Amazon One, the system was developed by Amazon and is in use at some airports, stadiums and Whole Foods grocery stores. Continue reading...

Animal-friendly cosmetics brand Lush is releasing a range of Mario-themed products – so our reporter tried them, for scienceThe announcement that cosmetics chain Lush would be running a collaboration with the Super Mario Bros Movie was met with some incredulity in the video game press last week. The animal-friendly brand is not exactly associated with either movie licences or tech tie-ins, so the idea of Mario shower gel or Princess Peach body spray came as a shock.So, driven by an insatiable desire for journalistic investigation, I acquired some. And, look, it’s good stuff: the gloopy red Mario shower gel has a lovely subtle cola tang, while the Luigi has sweet notes of apple and rose and the vibrant green colour and consistency of fluorescent play slime. The gold coin soap uses the brand’s popular and giddily candied Honey I Washed the Kids scent, while Bowser’s version has a spicy, dare I say it, masculine aroma. Most of those are based on established Lush ingredients, but the Princess Peach body spray is a brand new fragrance, a sugar bomb of peach and pineapple, which I probably shouldn’t be wearing but totally am. I smell like a walking sweet shop. Continue reading...

Tech chief says the development of chatbots is a more worthwhile use of processing power than crypto miningThe US chip-maker Nvidia has said cryptocurrencies do not “bring anything useful for society” despite the company’s powerful processors selling in huge quantities to the sector.Michael Kagan, its chief technology officer, said other uses of processing power such as the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT were more worthwhile than mining crypto. Continue reading...

Move by Greater London authority comes after Chinese-owned app was blocked on UK parliamentary devicesLondon City Hall staff will no longer have TikTok on their devices in the latest ban imposed on the Chinese-owned social media app over security concerns.The Greater London authority (GLA) said the rule was implemented as it takes information security “extremely seriously”. Continue reading...

Engineer, whose microchip forecast became known as ‘Moore’s Law’, foresaw mobile phones and home computers decades before they existedIntel Corp co-founder Gordon Moore, a pioneer in the semiconductor industry whose “Moore’s Law” predicted a steady rise in computing power for decades, has died at the age of 94, the company announced.Intel and Moore’s family philanthropic foundation said he died on Friday surrounded by family at his home in Hawaii. Continue reading...