by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#79NM6)
Regulations under consideration could affect up to 150 platforms, including LegoPlay, Spotify and eBay, sources sayA substantial expansion of the social media ban for under-16s could inadvertently lead to a ban on YouTube Kids and other sites that had been thought exempt, sources briefed on the government's proposals have said.One source close to the talks said the regulations now under consideration meant up to 150 platforms, including games platforms such as Lego Play, could be covered by the ban, which is set to come into force in March. Continue reading...
XPeng says its $300k low-altitude device will soon be ready for emergency services and recreational use in rural areasPeople could start taking trips in so-called flying cars in China as soon as next summer, the manufacturer of a two-seater vehicle with autopilot model has said.Deli Zhao, the chief executive of the Chinese flying car company XPeng, said the $300,000 (225,000) low-altitude device would be ready for use by recreational users in rural locations and by emergency services in the second half of 2027. After 10 years of development including trials of flying motorbikes at the company's Guangzhou base, it has been approved by China's civil aviation authorities for limited use. Continue reading...
Claude chatbot developer had been reported to be aiming for $2tn IPO on Wall Street before investors cooled on AIAnthropic is seeking a valuation of up to $1.4tn (1.1tn) in its imminent stock market flotation, short of the $2tn that had been expected before investors started to question the durability of the AI boom.The developer of the Claude chatbot was widely reported to be targeting a $2tn initial public offering on Wall Street but its sights have been set lower, according to a US regulatory filing on Tuesday. Continue reading...
As Hollywood begins to adopt the technology, the professionals in most direct jeopardy are the illustrators mapping out directors' first visions. They sketch out what could be lostA film industry dominated by AI is a dystopian prospect: stories and dialogue generated by large language models, populated by reincarnated screen icons and uncanny humanoids. That is in the future, but the real-world impact of AI is already directly affecting jobs behind the scenes, as Hollywood's biggest film-makers begin to adopt the technology. James Cameron - long an advocate for emerging technologies in film-making - is on the board of a gen AI firm, citing his interest in how AI will intersect with CGI; Steven Soderbergh used Meta-powered tech to create animations for his recent documentary about John Lennon; even Christopher Nolan, while dismissing the idea that AI will replace humans as nonsense", conceded that it will create some useful imaging tools".The current canary in the coalmine however is the storyboard artist, whose work gen AI appears to have directly in its sights. Storyboard artists are the illustrators who draw the panels of images with notes and diagrams that map out scenes before they are filmed. Storyboards are used to work out how a film will look, and as a blueprint to communicate a director's vision to cast and crew, and are one of the first steps in bringing a script off the page. Now they appear on the verge of replacement by programmes that use text prompts to create illustrations instead. Even an old-school diehard like Martin Scorsese has got on board; in June he announced a partnership with an AI firm whose text-to-image model he used in the storyboarding process for his next movie. Continue reading...
What young students stand to lose is more than cognitive skill: it's a reliable sense of their own mindsIn August, OpenAI launched Teen Mode - a version of ChatGPT in which every user under 18 will automatically be enrolled - a year after a lawsuit alleged that ChatGPT had contributed to the suicide of a 16-year-old named Adam Raine.For years, the tech industry has contested any causal link between its products and the harms named in a wave of similar lawsuits, each alleging that the companies had not merely failed to protect children but had deliberately designed products to exploit them. Continue reading...
Want to get your steps in while working or watching TV? Our expert puts walking pads through their paces to find the best for comfort, noise and ease of storage The best treadmills for your homeYou don't necessarily need to walk 10,000 steps a day to improve your health and wellbeing. In fact, the NHS encourages a slightly more manageable target of just 10 minutes of brisk walking daily to introduce more moderate-intensity physical activity and reduce your risk of early death by up to 15%.However, even squeezing in brisk walks" can be a chore, with busy schedules and increasingly desk-bound jobs forcing more of us to remain sedentary for long periods. That is where walking pads come in, being lighter, smaller and often easier to store than bulky and tricky-to-manoeuvre running treadmills. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#79N7N)
Redesigned flagship laptop has a fantastic display, killer performance and the first touchscreen on a Mac, but comes with a serious price tagApple's MacBook Pro has been redesigned for the first time in five years, getting slightly slimmer, significantly lighter and adding a fantastic new OLED display with the first touchscreen on a Mac.The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display comes in two sizes, 14in and 16in, but rather than replacing the standard MacBook Pro they sit alongside them as an even more expensive option. The OLED machines start at 2,899 (3,299/$2,899/A$4,599) - a 400 or equivalent upgrade on the matching spec LCD models - serious prices for serious work machines, not helped by significant cost increases driven by RAMageddon. Continue reading...
Australia's prime minister said its government would set up a new AI safety regulator and Labor would consider six key obligations on AI companies. The review made 18 recommendations. Anthony Albanese said: 'We accept all of the recommendations, and we've commenced work to implement them.'
Campaign over Prop 40, as measure was known, was most expensive in state history, flush with Silicon Valley dollarsCalifornia billionaires won a contentious ballot measure campaign, defeating a proposed one-time tax on their wealth.The bruising campaign over Proposition 40 was the most expensive in state history and witness to back-and-forth dealing from tech billionaires and democratic leaders, including Gavin Newsom, the governor, who steadfastly opposed the measure. While supporters of Prop 40 cast it as a solution to drastic healthcare cuts from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, opponents led by prosperous billionaires mounted an influential campaign saying the billionaire tax was instead an everyone tax". Continue reading...
Donald Trump defended defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing an impeachment resolution from Republican senator Thomas Massie, saying Hegseth 'won two wars'. The president, who said he had spoken to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, said he was 'amazed' by claims Huang conducted an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, and that the FBI was now looking into the issue
Huang built Nvidia as a family business but after the co-founder had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, its board faces a difficult decisionFor more than 30 years, Jensen Huang has been the seemingly unshakable public face of Nvidia. He co-founded the company as a young engineer in 1993 and oversaw its growth into a multitrillion dollar chipmaker and bellwether of the AI industry at large.He's also made it a family business. His children, Madison and Spencer, have taken leadership roles at the firm. While not a company executive, his wife, Lori Mills Huang, leads the family foundation which, as of 2024, controls over 60m Nvidia shares. Continue reading...
Jensen Huang's close relationship with president means Nvidia CEO's affair with woman alleged to be working for Beijing is under intense scrutinyA hand on the back, a kiss on the cheek; the footage of Alice Huang's interaction with Jensen Huang in a Taipei venue last year does not seem particularly remarkable at first glance.But the Nvidia chief executive's revelation on Sunday that he had an affair with Ms Huang has given it new significance. Continue reading...
Not particularly complex' defrosting hack has been attributed to Iran, with presumption it is linked to others across EuropeIranian hackers like to send a message.In 2023 a state-backed group interrupted TV streaming services in the United Arab Emirates to broadcast a deepfake report on the war in Gaza. In the same year, hackers affiliated with Iran displayed the slogan down with Israel" on the screens of water-control equipment made by an Israeli firm. Continue reading...
The lack of public information about the Megaspeed boss is fuelling claims she is a Chinese intelligence assetThere is little public information available about Alice Huang, the woman reportedly at the centre of the Jensen Huang honeypot allegations, a fact that has only added fuel to claims she is a Chinese intelligence asset.She was the chief executive of a Singapore-based datacentre company reportedly suspected of evading US export controls and routing Nvidia chips to China. Continue reading...
Company says schools should control student AI use, but if they block its AI tools, they'll lose access to search engineParents and teachers across the US are criticizing Google's announcement that schools choosing to block AI tools could also lose access to Google Search.Google announced last week a range of new AI tools for schools and classrooms, alongside options allowing teachers and administrators to restrict their use. The company said schools should have control over whether students use AI in the classroom, but that schools that choose to block Google's AI tools will also lose access to its search engine. Continue reading...
The same technical limits that prevent superintelligence make these systems dangerous. But we know how to regulate themMany Silicon Valley leaders believe superintelligence is an imminent threat to society. The White House even published an accord about it. This isn't enough.Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, estimates the risk of human extinction is at least 10% within the next few decades. The Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, argued that unchecked AI could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems". In response, 1,300 leaders and employees from many leading AI companies signed a letter calling to deliberately pace" development. Continue reading...
Ever since it crashed on to PC and consoles in the late 90s, GTA has been tearing up the game-making rulebook. We explore how its cultural references, rebel spirit and sprawling sense of freedom make it a definitive work of artIn the 00s, when the Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games revealed a new project, video game writers from all over the UK would make the journey to the company's office in London. They would be ushered one by one into a darkened room to sit facing an enormous TV. There would be a dish of sweets on a low bench in front of them but, in the reverential hush that descended, it was never entirely clear if it was acceptable to eat them.After a few moments, the screen would come to life. Rockstar would sometimes begin its presentation not with footage from its new game, but clips from classic movies. This is the context of what we are making, Rockstar was saying, and that is where we belong. Continue reading...
We can't allow our health data to be locked into the control of a US tech firm. It won't be easy, but next spring the job of clawing it back must begin
The writer and podcaster on why politics is made to seem more complicated than it is and his mission to unpack world events for everyoneWhy did you get into comedy?
CEO reportedly had close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to BeijingNvidia said on Sunday it is initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort".The New York Times reported in October that Donald Trump had been briefed last year on intelligence that Huang had a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to Beijing. Continue reading...
From roundabouts to the stock market, relentless streamlining could be making the world more dangerousWe have all been there: packed shoulder to shoulder on the train while the person beside us coughs and sneezes. A protective flu jab offers some reassurance, but so does the thought that there will be a hospital bed for you, should you need it. Yet, in England, about 95% of adult hospital beds were occupied at the height of flu season last year.If hospitals were hotels, that level of occupancy would be good business, and we would commend themfor their efficiency. But do we really want a hospital to have so few beds in reserve that it's just one bad flu week away from having to treat patients incorridors? Continue reading...
MPs, local authorities, lawyers, schools and more are receiving floods of grievances, requests and legal challenges, often complex to read and respond toIt started as a trickle in 2024 and now it's an onslaught." Hollie Wickens, a senior caseworker in a Labour MP's office, is explaining the daily reality of dealing with surging volumes of artificial intelligence-generated correspondence.Half the emails we receive are some form of AI," she says, adding that this has made requests and complaints much more complex and time-consuming to read and deal with, despite her decade of experience in the role. It is definitely more taxing." Continue reading...
As AI exposes flaws in IT systems and geopolitics plays out on the cyber frontline, some experts say the events of recent weeks could soon be a common occurrenceAlex Pearce was doing the morning rounds at his fruit and vegetable wholesale business in London on Monday last week when he noticed something odd.The defrost light on refrigeration unit 2 was on, and the panel reading was 150C. Unit 4 was the same. Continue reading...
by Peter Beaumont Senior international correspondent on (#79M88)
In a war driven by drones and battlefield sensors, access to space is essential. After Starlink speed restrictions and Russian Oreshnik missile strikes, Kyiv is racing to develop its own space capabilitiesFor people in the Russian industrial city of Samara on the banks of the Volga, the first they knew of the Ukrainian attack were detonations that sent a column of smoke into the air.If the Kremlin was vague about the target, video footage on social media soon made it clear what had been hit in the early hours of 15 August: the Progress Rocket and Space Centre, manufacturer of Russia's Soyuz-2 rockets. Continue reading...
Systems provide 360-degree view of airport operations, but concerns have been raised about the technologyThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that the first digital air traffic control towers in the US are officially operational, bringing new technology first to smaller airports in Florida and Alaska as the Trump administration presses ahead with updating the country's ageing aviation infrastructure.The systems are now online at the Bartow executive airport (KBOW) in Florida and the Kenai municipal airport (PAEN) in Alaska, with five additional regional airports slated to receive the technology next. Continue reading...
Tech companies like the idea, as they largely eliminate community opposition, and could cut down on utility costsWhile Elon Musk has often touted putting datacenters in space, reports suggest that another geographic area may soon become a widespread target: our lakes and oceans.Two underwater datacenters are already in operation off the coast of China, and recent reports suggest that the Trump administration is considering plans for four proposed underwater, sealed-pod datacenters to be built off the shores of Maine and Alaska. Continue reading...
by Arwa Mahdawi with visuals by Kriston Jae Bethel on (#79KJE)
Semi-retired professor Carolyn Marvin became a local celebrity facing down Philadelphia's growing robot delivery army: It's my first amendment right to protest'One of you needs to be on the lookout for cops, while I block the robot, OK?"It is a crisp fall morning in Philadelphia. Tucked away in a dingy alley, opposite a garage called Patriot Parking, 78-year-old Carolyn Marvin is laying out some ground rules for a robot-disrupting expedition. Once a suitable target is identified, we will follow it to a busy sidewalk and Marvin will stand in front of the robot, blocking its way. The photographer and I will take turns ensuring we're not all carted off by the police. Continue reading...
Tech giant leaped to shore up relationship even as company was roiled by worker protest over its role in the warA year into the war in Gaza, the networks of Israel's military intelligence community were plagued with technical problems. There were major, multi-hour outages to their systems, and repeated crashes. Built-in debugging mechanisms failed.The problems, which started as intelligence operations were undergoing updates to digital infrastructure, became so persistent as to undermine the confidence" of Israeli intelligence agencies in one of their top network providers: the multinational tech conglomerate Cisco. Continue reading...
Fans trying to access latest releases are being priced out in a cut-throat market driven by crypto-like hypeThe runaway demand for Pokemon cards is because they are being hyped like crypto", according to one young fan who had spent the night queueing outside a London store to make sure he did not miss out on the latest card release.Before its 10am opening on Friday, the line outside the pop culture store Forbidden Planet in central London snaked past five others and, despite its strict sales policy, was probably 50/50" fans and resellers, said Kai, who had been there since 3am. Continue reading...
DataVita has revised plan for Chapelhall development to be wholly powered by 1GW of renewable energyA datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has admitted that the scheme will be entirely served by the National Grid.DataVita, a key plank of the UK's AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project would draw 1GW - the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or Britain's largest windfarm - from green sources. But when the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, it said the arrangement was subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes". Continue reading...
Power and water constraints are pressuring what seemed like a juggernaut of growth for the region just months agoIn early 2026, Thailand's datacentre industry was on a roll. The country's board of investment had recently announced approval of datacentre projects from Tiktok, a UAE-based Skyline datacentre and Singapore's Bridge datacentres, totalling a planned investment of $27bn.As the year has passed, however, what once seemed like a new industrial juggernaut has ground to a halt. Thailand paused construction on 49 projects and approval decisions on 117 more in September 2026, amidst growing concern about the lack of sufficient details for regulation and monitoring. It is not alone in reconsidering datacentre projects. In neighbouring Indonesia, the governor of the country's most populous province of West Java halted construction on a datacentre due to lack of permits and an incomplete environmental assessment process. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#79K9T)
Samuel Gibbs doubted he could cut costs and still keep warm by putting tech in control. The results surprised himCan smart thermostats and AI reduce your heating bills? Every manufacturer claims the answer is yes, quoting average savings in the 25%, or 180 a year range. But all of these promises are heavily caveated and, with energy costs changing regularly, it can be very difficult to tell what is having an impact.To find out if technology can really help, I spent the last two years comparing my miserly manual control and basic heating schedule to an AI-governed system. The results surprised me. Continue reading...
Susan Lawrence, elected to Wolverhampton city council, sits on committee overseeing financial reporting of multimillion-pound budgetA woman who promoted a notorious cryptocurrency scam has been elected as a Reform UK councillor and now sits on the audit and risk committee of a major city council.Susan Lawrence was one of the main UK promoters of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency scheme, which was named in US court documents as an alleged pyramid and Ponzi scheme" that cheated investors worldwide out of a staggering" $1.89bn (1.41bn). Continue reading...
Acts of greyzone aggression aim to spread panic. Europe has to show the saboteurs that we are resilientIt was as though a ghostly hand had switched the settings on supermarket freezers across Europe from freeze" to defrost". From Finland to Ireland, they suddenly began heating up, many reaching 50C and food worth millions of euros had to be thrown away. But no actual hand was needed to cause the meltdown. This was a cyber-attack, or rather a chain of attacks. Like pretty much everything else in 2026, supermarket freezers are digitally enabled. That makes them smarter and more efficient, but like everything else that is connected to the internet, it also makes them more vulnerable.Russian hacktivists claimed they were behind some of the supermarket sabotage, but no one knows for sure. It could also be Iran, Iranian proxies, North Korea - or unaffiliated bedroom hackers. When Transport for London suffered a devastating hack two years ago, the culprits turned out to be two British teenagers. Governments regularly warn retailers and other companies about cyber-attacks and even provide cyber-defence training to businesses. The lessons of costly ransomware and cyber-attacks also mean many big organisations and retailers have become much better at keeping their payments and logistics systems safe.Elisabeth Braw is a Swedish security expert and the author of The Undersea War: The International Battle for Supremacy at the Bottom of the World Continue reading...
Asian and European markets follow US tech rout with many analysts predicting more waves of selling to comeEuropean and Asian stock markets fell sharply on Friday after the Democrats' decisive victory in the midterms triggered a rout in US tech stocks a day earlier.A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stock markets on Friday. The investor sentiment then reached London, where the market was, at one stage, poised for its worst day since March. Continue reading...
Men allegedly impersonated voices and images of executives to convince employees to send large paymentsThree foreign nationals were arrested and charged with using AI to allegedly impersonate corporate CEOs and attorneys to steal over $100m, according to an indictment that was newly unsealed by the US Department of Justice.According to a press release from the United States attorney's office for the southern district of New York, three men - Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit - were arrested for using AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives and attorneys at various companies in order to convince employees to send over large payments. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. The alleged fraud took place between 2024 and 2026. Continue reading...
Tech industry fears delays to its multi-trillion dollar infrastructure buildout meant to power artificial intelligenceSeveral newly elected Democrats and Senator Bernie Sanders have renewed calls for datacenter moratoriums in the days after the US midterm elections. The sweeping Democratic victory, which was buoyed in part by backlash to the tech industry, has added momentum to efforts to slow down the multi-trillion-dollar buildout of the controversial facilities.On the social media platform X, Sanders posted a call for an immediate national datacenter moratorium this week. Americans don't want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity's future," Sanders said on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Separate actions also take place outside fence and across Europe in backlash against impact of AI boomActivists have stormed the site of a Microsoft datacentre being built in Amsterdam, as the backlash to the social and environmental harms of the AI boom spreads across Europe.Protesters from Geef Tegengas, a Dutch direct action group, clashed with police while breaking into a construction site at Westpoort, Amsterdam, where some members climbed a crane, lit flares and tied helium balloons to equipment. Continue reading...
by Aisha Down Global technology reporter on (#79K33)
There are more than 100,000 words and phrases that the tech giant has restricted its predictive text from completing, research showsAustralia is a very bad place to question your sexuality on MDMA with NSA spies" might be a text you would wish to send to your friends, if you have had an extraordinarily complicated night out in Sydney.But your iPhone won't help you spell any of it if you try to swipe-type it - that is, by gliding a finger across a keyboard as opposed to pecking out a word. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent on (#79JWJ)
After Thursday's share price plunge on Wall Street, could the volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?Global financial markets have been thrown into a tailspin as investors bet on an AI slowdown after the US midterm elections.This is not the first time stock markets have wobbled in recent months due to concerns over a tech bubble. But could this volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown? Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian