Technology | The Guardian

Apple releases beta updates to OS X operating system, including a redesigned emoji keyboard with long-awaited skin tone modifiersApple’s racially diverse emoji have landed, and they come in five shades of skin. Continue reading...

From Stephen Hawking to Spike Jonze, the existential threat posed by the onset of the ‘conscious web’ is fuelling much debate – but should we be afraid?When Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk all agree on something, it’s worth paying attention.All three have warned of the potential dangers that artificial intelligence or AI can bring. The world’s foremost physicist, Hawking said that the full development of artificial intelligence (AI) could “spell the end of the human race”. Musk, the tech entrepreneur who brought us PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX described artificial intelligence as our “biggest existential threat” and said that playing around with AI was like “summoning the demon”. Gates, who knows a thing or two about tech, puts himself in the “concerned” camp when it comes to machines becoming too intelligent for us humans to control. Continue reading...

The Oxfordshire charity devises specialist game control setups for people with physical disabilities – try telling them games are a waste of timeLee is a lifelong gamer; he also has spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that causes progressive muscle weakness. When his condition meant that he was no longer physically able to play games, he became depressed – he felt like part of who he was had slipped away. Now, with a combination of a mouth-controlled joystick and a series of micro-switches he is playing again. He has just completed Grand Theft Auto V. “There are no more limitations,” he says.The staff at SpecialEffect have dozens of stories like this. Set up in 2007 by Dr Mick Donegan, a specialist in assistive technology, the charity uses a range of specialist interfaces to help people with disabilities who want to play video games but can’t use standard controllers. They have palm and chin joysticks, they have button pads that can be pressed with feet, and voice control systems. Some setups implement technologies developed by other organisations, some are custom built by resident engineer Barrie Ellis and his small in-house team, who’ll often happily rip apart standard peripherals before reconfiguring them into more accessible gadgets. Continue reading...