The whistleblower forced US intelligence agencies to admit extensive spying on their own citizens. Some reforms were enacted but Snowden still faces potentially 30 years in prisonIt was the day his life changed forever. When Edward Snowden blew the whistle on mass surveillance by the US government, he traded a comfortable existence in Hawaii, the paradise of the Pacific, for indefinite exile in Russia, now a pariah in much of the world.But 10 years after Snowden was identified as the source of the biggest National Security Agency (NSA) leak in history, it is less clear whether America underwent a similarly profound transformation in its attitude to safeguarding individual privacy. Was his act of self-sacrifice worth it – did he make a difference? Continue reading...
Sam Altman is among the most vocal supporters of artificial intelligence, but is also leading calls to regulate it. He outlines his vision of a very uncertain futureWhen I meet Sam Altman, the chief executive of AI research laboratory OpenAI, he is in the middle of a world tour. He is preaching that the very AI systems he and his competitors are building could pose an existential risk to the future of humanity – unless governments work together now to establish guide rails, ensuring responsible development over the coming decade.In the subsequent days, he and hundreds of tech leaders, including scientists and “godfathers of AI”, Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, as well as Google’s DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis, put out a statement saying that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”. It is an all-out effort to convince world leaders that they are serious when they say that “AI risk” needs concerted international effort. Continue reading...
The new product is far ahead of its competition; however, it is not clear that there is a pressing need for it or that most people can afford itAs people begin to report on their hands-on time with Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the company has produced an incredible piece of hardware.Even in limited demonstrations, users have praised the company’s extraordinary work producing the two postage-stamp-sized screens that sit in each eyepiece and pack in more pixels than a 4K TV; they’ve been stunned by the quality of the “passthrough” video, which shows wearers what’s happening in the outside world in enough detail that they can even use their phones while wearing the headset; and they’ve been impressed by the casual ease with which the gesture controls on the new hardware work, with an array of infrared cameras letting users make small and subtle hand movements to select and scroll rather than relying on bulky controllers. Continue reading...
Securities and Exchange Commission sues platform for allegedly operating as unregistered brokerThe US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Coinbase, the largest American cryptocurrency exchange, for operating as an “unregistered broker, exchange and clearing agency” in violation of US securities regulations.The lawsuit follows a similar action against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, launched by the regulator on Monday. Continue reading...
There’s a disconnect between the eye-watering price of Apple’s new ‘spatial computing’ gadget and the promise of it – but it has some genuinely novel features• Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereYesterday, Apple finally confirmed the worst-kept secret in Silicon Valley, and announced the Vision Pro, its $3,499 virtual reality headset. From our story:The headset allows users to interact with “apps and experiences”, the Apple vice-president of human interface design, Alan Dye, said, in an augmented reality (AR) version of their own surroundings or in a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) space.“Apple Vision Pro relies solely on your eyes, hands and voice,” Dye said. “You browse the system simply by looking. App icons come to life when you look at them; simply tap your fingers together to select, and gently flick to scroll.”EyeSight, which sounded so ridiculous, could actually … work? A curved, outward-facing OLED screen displays the wearer’s eyes to the outside world, giving the impression of the headset as a simple piece of translucent glass. The screen mists over if the wearer is in a fully immersive VR space, while allowing people to have (simulated, at least) eye contact when in AR mode.An array of downward and outward-pointing IR cameras let the headset keep track of your position and gestures at all times, allowing the company to build a controller-free experience without requiring the wearer to hold their hands in their eye-line when using the headset.An AI-powered “persona” (don’t call it an avatar) stands in for you when you make a video call using the Vision Pro. It’s a photorealistic attempt to animate a real picture of you, using the data the headset captures of your eye, mouth and hand movements while you talk. Even in the staged demos, it looked slightly uncanny, but it seems a far smaller hurdle to introduce into the world than trying to encourage people to have business meetings with their Memoji.Should VR headsets have a bulky battery mounted on your head, or should they rely on a tethered cable to a separate PC? Apple thinks there’s a third option: slip the bulky battery in your back pocket, and run the cable up to a lighter, more comfortable set of goggles. It could work. Or it could be the worst of both worlds: a cable that still inhibits movement and comfort, with none of the power of a real tethered VR system. Hey, not all novelty is a slam-dunk. Continue reading...
Cries of ‘stupid autocorrect!’ will be banished as a result of an AI-powered upgrade that will let users swear if they want toApple has announced it will upgrade its autocorrect feature that annoyingly corrects one of the most common expletives to “ducking”.“In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s software chief at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino on Monday. Continue reading...
by Kiran Stacey Political correspondent on (#6C2EN)
Exclusive: party calls for developers without a licence to be barred from working on advanced AI toolsThe UK should bar technology developers from working on advanced artificial intelligence tools unless they have a licence to do so, Labour has said.Ministers should introduce much stricter rules around companies training their AI products on vast datasets of the kind used by OpenAI to build ChatGPT, Lucy Powell, Labour’s digital spokesperson, told the Guardian. Continue reading...
Headset priced at $3,500 allows users to ‘browse the system simply by looking’ and tapping their fingers to select, says AppleApple has lifted the lid on the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley and revealed the Vision Pro, a $3,499 VR headset.“With Vision Pro, you’re no longer limited by a display. Your surroundings become an infinite canvas,” the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, said. “Vision Pro blends digital content into the space around us. It will introduce us to Spatial Computing.” Continue reading...
Hack attributed to criminal gang hit MOVEit software used by third-party payroll provider ZellisBritish Airways, Boots and the BBC are investigating the potential theft of personal details of staff after the companies were hit by a cyber-attack attributed to a Russia-linked criminal gang.BA confirmed it was one of the companies affected by the hack, which targeted software called MOVEit used by Zellis, a payroll provider. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brussels correspondent on (#6C287)
Call comes amid moves to combat disinformation from Russia, while Twitter is warned to comply with new digital content lawsSocial media companies including Google and Facebook have been urged by the EU to “immediately” start labelling content and images generated by artificial intelligence as part of a package of moves to combat fake news and disinformation from Russia.At the same time, the EU has warned Twitter that it faces “swift” sanctions if it does not comply with new digital content laws that come into effect across the bloc on 25 August. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6C1X8)
Users of the social media app have faced legal consequences for posts – some private – that are critical of Saudi authoritiesSaudi state media issued an explicit warning that it is a criminal offense to “insult” authorities using social media apps such as Snapchat, the California-based messaging app whose chief executive recently forged a new “cooperation” deal with the kingdom’s culture ministry.The threat – which was originally televised in April and then deleted – has gained new resonance as more cases emerge in which Snapchat users and influencers in the kingdom have been arrested by authorities and, in some cases, sentenced to decades-long prison sentences. Continue reading...
There was a known fault with screens, but the free repair only applies to models produced earlierRecently my three-year-old £1,300 Apple MacBook Pro’s backlight stopped working, rendering the screen completely black and usable. The laptop still works if attached to another screen, so the computer itself is clearly fine.When I took my device into an Apple store, the technician kindly informed me that the problem I am having is a repeated, known one with 13-in MacBook Pro laptops and that Apple has a service programme that offers to fix these affected screens for free. Continue reading...
by Kari Paul and Maanvi Singh in San Francisco on (#6C1W5)
The billionaire’s record has raised concerns over Neuralink’s ability to responsibly oversee the development of such an invasive deviceElon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink last week received regulatory approval to conduct the first clinical trial of its experimental device in humans. But the billionaire executive’s bombastic promotion of the technology, his leadership record at other companies and animal welfare concerns relating to Neuralink experiments have raised alarm.“I was surprised,” said Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist at Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute about the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to let the company go ahead with clinical trials. 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, SheffieldSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
Security services fear the new technology could be used to groom vulnerable peopleThe creators of artificial intelligence need to abandon their “tech utopian” mindset, according to the terror watchdog, amid fears that the new technology could be used to groom vulnerable individuals.Jonathan Hall KC, whose role is to review the adequacy of terrorism legislation, said the national security threat from AI was becoming ever more apparent and the technology needed to be designed with the intentions of terrorists firmly in mind. Continue reading...
In a giant factory in California, thousands of screens, PCs and other old or unwanted gadgets are picked apart for materials. But what about the billions of other defunct (or not) devices?In the lobby of Fresno airport is a forest of plastic trees. A bit on the nose, I think: this is central California, home of the grand Sequoia national park. But you can’t put a 3,000-year-old redwood in a planter (not to mention the ceiling clearance issue), so the tourist board has deemed it fit to build these towering, convincing copies. I pull out my phone and take a picture, amused and somewhat appalled. What will live longer, I wonder: the real trees or the fakes?I haven’t come to Fresno to see the trees; I’ve come about the device on which I took the picture. In a warehouse in the south of the city, green trucks are unloading pallets of old electronics through the doors of Electronics Recyclers International (ERI), the largest electronics recycling company in the US. Continue reading...
Experts say the fallout from powerful AI will be less a nuclear bomb and more a creeping deterioration of societyAlarm over artificial intelligence has reached a fever pitch in recent months. Just this week, more than 300 industry leaders published a letter warning AI could lead to human extinction and should be considered with the seriousness of “pandemics and nuclear war”.Terms like “AI doomsday” conjure up sci-fi imagery of a robot takeover, but what does such a scenario actually look like? The reality, experts say, could be more drawn out and less cinematic – not a nuclear bomb but a creeping deterioration of the foundational areas of society. Continue reading...
Since the first podcast was released two decades ago this month, the medium has upended pop culture in countless unexpected ways, from revolutionising standup comedy to providing storytelling fuel for drama and documentaryDo you remember life before podcasts? Yes, obviously, is likely to be the short answer. Podcasting is still a relatively youthful medium, after all. In fact, it is exactly 20 years this month since the format’s invention: Open Source – a politics and culture discussion show hosted by the journalist Christopher Lydon – debuted in the summer of 2003, and is widely considered the first ever podcast. (Not that it was actually called podcasting at that point; the term was coined the following year by Ben Hammersley in an article for the Guardian.)Yet if you are one of the approximately 20 million people in the UK who listen to podcasts – and especially if you’re a heavy user like me (I listen while I am cleaning, cooking, eating, walking, on the bus, having a bath – essentially anything that doesn’t engage my word brain) – the art form will have subtly but comprehensively changed the flavour of your everyday life. For many of us, podcasts have become constant companions, fostering parasocial relationships, exposing us to candid conversations and unearthing thrilling, sometimes salacious stories. Continue reading...
The film-maker captured her striking image while visiting a Tanzanian village healer who diagnoses patients by fair means or fowlEarlier that day, film-maker Kaja Kraska had accompanied her new friend Muanauru to the market to buy a chicken. Now, it was sitting on Muanauru’s head.It was summer 2020 and Kraska was with her husband, Mateus, in Mambo, a village in Tanzania’s Usambara mountains. They create documentaries across the world for their YouTube channel Globstory. After a first Covid lockdown that had confined them to Poland, they decided to visit Tanzania, in part because of its unusual response to the pandemic. Continue reading...
Parents and schools across Greystones adopt voluntary ‘no-smartphone code’ in bid to curb peer pressureOn the principle of strength in numbers, parents in the Irish town of Greystones have banded together to collectively tell their children they cannot have a smartphone until secondary school.Parents’ associations across the district’s eight primary schools have adopted a no-smartphone code to present a united front against children’s lobbying. Continue reading...
Roger Haines writes that there is no evidence of AI sentience, while Prof Paul Huxley recalls Asimov’s laws of robotics, and Phyl Hyde says fears of AI are being overblownRegarding Jonathan Freedland’s article about AI (The future of AI is chilling – humans have to act together to overcome this threat to civilisation, 26 May), isn’t worrying about whether an AI is “sentient” rather like worrying whether a prosthetic limb is “alive”? There isn’t even any evidence that “sentience” is a thing. More likely, like life, it is a bunch of distinct capabilities interacting, and “AI” (ie disembodied artificial intellect) is unlikely to reproduce more than a couple of those capabilities.That’s because it is an attempt to reproduce the function of just a small part of the human brain: more particularly, of the evolutionarily new part. Our motivation to pursue self-interest comes from a billion years of evolution of the old brain, which AI is not based upon. The real threat is from humans misusing AI for their own ends, and from the fact that the mechanisms we have evolved to recognise other creatures with minds like ours are (as Freedland highlighted) too easily fooled by superficial evidence.
by Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent on (#6C149)
Show contestant says she did not expect the level of cruel comments about her appearanceWhen Coco Lodge decided to go on Love Island, she knew she was going to be judged on her behaviour. But what she did not expect was the level of trolling and cruel comments she received about her appearance.The 28-year-old graphic designer, who entered the ITV show as a Casa Amor bombshell last year, spent several months reckoning with her time in the Mallorca villa. Continue reading...
Right now artificial intelligence is too busy painting and giving factually spurious answers to basic questions to pose much of a threat to humanity, but in video games, AIs have gone furtherGLaDOS is surely video games’ most recognisable megalomaniacal AI, the creatively sadistic robot with a soothingly monotone, heartily evil voice that has been left in sole charge of a lab for far too long. Let’s be honest, her cheerfully murderous attitude towards humanity isn’t entirely unjustified. Continue reading...
The adverse effects on children’s mental health are well known, and pre-teens are too young to safely navigate the internetBut everyone has one,” pleads my son as his father and I tell him, for the umpteenth time, that no, he will not get a smartphone. Not now and probably not for a few more years. Despite our firm resolve, it is hard not to feel sorry for him. As the end of year 6 draws closer, the weeks are peppered with stories of new classmates whose parents have, as one friend texted recently, “cracked”. WhatsApp groups are springing up so that friends going to different secondaries can easily keep in touch. It is a world of interaction he will remain ignorant of, but, much though it pains me to see the turmoil it causes, I feel vindicated each time I read about the detrimental impact that smartphones are having on children.One report published earlier this year from the children’s commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, revealed that nearly a third of young people will have viewed pornography by the age of 11. Such content, De Souza clarifies, will not be the equivalent of “top-shelf” material some parents may have viewed in their youth and which today would be considered quaint. It is material in which “depictions of degradation, sexual coercion, aggression and exploitation are commonplace, and disproportionately targeted against teenage girls”.Lola Okolosie is an English teacher and writer focusing on race, politics, education and feminism Continue reading...
Investors claim Tesla chief used Twitter, paid influencers and his TV appearance to manipulate price of cryptocurrencyElon Musk is being accused of insider trading in a proposed class action lawsuit by investors. They say the Tesla CEO manipulated the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, costing them billions of dollars.In a Wednesday night filing in Manhattan federal court, investors said Musk used Twitter posts, paid online influencers, his 2021 appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and other “publicity stunts” to trade profitably at their expense through several Dogecoin wallets that he or Tesla controls. Continue reading...
The world’s richest person lapsed into an unusual silence on social media during his trip to the electric carmaker’s second largest marketFollowers of Elon Musk didn’t know what to expect from his trip to China. Would he speak about Tesla, a company with a large market and manufacturing footprint there? Or SpaceX, with its symbiotic relationship with the American state? Or even Twitter, the social network he bought because “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy”?The one thing no one expected: silence. Continue reading...
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...
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