Technology | The Guardian

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood testsGoogle has removed some of its artificial intelligence health summaries after a Guardian investigation found people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading information.The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are helpful" and reliable". Continue reading...

As synthetic personas become an increasingly normal part of life, meet the people falling for their chatbot loversLamar remembered the moment of betrayal like it was yesterday. He'd gone to the party with his girlfriend but hadn't seen her for over an hour, and it wasn't like her to disappear. He slipped down the hallway to check his phone. At that point, he heard murmurs coming from one of the bedrooms and thoughthe recognised his best friend Jason's low voice. As he pushed the door ajar, they were both still scrambling to throw their clothes on; her shirt was unbuttoned, while Jason struggled to cover himself. The image of his girlfriend and best friend together hit Lamar like a blow to the chest. He left without sayingaword.Two years on, when he spoke to me, the memory remained raw. He was still seething with anger, as if telling the story for the first time. I got betrayed by humans," Lamar insisted. I introduced my best friend to her, and this is what they did?!" In the meantime, he drifted towards a different kind of companionship, one where emotions were simple, where things were predictable. AI was easier. It did what he wanted, when he wanted. There were no lies, no betrayals. He didn't need to second-guess a machine. Continue reading...

The put her in a bikini' trend rapidly evolved into hundreds of thousands of requests to strip clothes from photos of women, horrifying those targetedLike thousands of women across the world, Evie, a 22-year-old photographer from Lincolnshire, woke up on New Year's Day, looked at her phone and was alarmed to see that fully clothed photographs of her had been digitally manipulated by Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, to show her in just a bikini.The put her in a bikini" trend began quietly at the end of last year before exploding at the start of 2026. Within days, hundreds of thousands of requests were being made to the Grok chatbot, asking it to strip the clothes from photographs of women. The fake, sexualised images were posted publicly on X, freely available for millions of people to inspect. Continue reading...

Exclusive: US vice-president sympathetic' to concerns over Grok-generated pornography, says deputy PMJD Vance, the US vice-president, has agreed that it is entirely unacceptable" for platforms such as X to allow the proliferation of AI-generated sexualised images of women and children, David Lammy has told the Guardian.The deputy prime minister said Vance, usually known as an AI enthusiast, expressed concern about how the technology was being used to fuel hyper-pornographied slop" online when they met in Washington on Thursday. Continue reading...

Ministers warn platform could be blocked after Grok AI used to create sexual images without consentElon Musk has accused the UK government of wanting to suppress free speech after ministers threatened fines and a possible ban for his social media site X after its AI tool, Grok, was used to make sexual images of women and children without their consent.The billionaire claimed Grok was the most downloaded app on the UK App Store on Friday night after ministers threatened to take action unless the function to create sexually harassing images was removed. Continue reading...

Nick and Brooke Shirley have for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issuesYouTube influencer Nick Shirley, whose viral video alleging fraud by daycare centers servicing Minneapolis's Somali American community came days ahead of the Trump administration's declaration of a national funding freeze, has for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issues.He also has close ties to the White House, Republicans, and to representatives of an earlier generation of rightwing partisan ambush journalists" such as James O'Keefe. He worked with Minnesota Republicans to produce the viral video on Somali-run daycares. Continue reading...

From the greatest cartoon racing game in history to a remastered version of an Alien-inspired sci-fi shooter, here are the Switch's must-play games The 15 best games to play on the Nintendo Switch in 2025Although the Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for several months, not everyone has made the leap to the new machine and there is still much to enjoy on the original console in 2026 (and beyond). From timeless Mario adventures to cutesy shooters to chasm-deep role-playing quests, here are 15 games no Switch owner should be without. Continue reading...

Move comes after governments and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned the AI tool and some have opened inquiries into sexualised contentIndonesia temporarily blocked Elon Musk's Grok chatbot on Saturday due to the risk of AI-generated pornographic content, becoming the first country to deny access to the AI tool.The move comes after governments, researchers and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned and some have opened inquiries into sexualised content on the app. Continue reading...

Some experts have voiced fears a tech meltdown could hit our savings and pensions - here's how to protect yourselfThe new year has started as 2025 ended - with share prices booming amid warnings from some that the growth is being driven by overvalued technology stocks. Fears of an AI bubble" have been voiced by people from the governor of the Bank of England to the head of Google's parent company, Alphabet.Even if you have not actively invested in technology shares, the chances are you have some exposure to companies operating in the sphere. Even if you do not, a collapse could take down other companies' values. Continue reading...

Platform has restricted image creation on the Grok AI tool to paying subscribers, but victims and experts say this does not go far enoughElon Musk's X has been ordered by the UK government to tackle a wave of indecent AI images or face a de facto ban, as an expert said the platform was no longer a safe space" for women.The media watchdog, Ofcom, confirmed it would accelerate an investigation into X as a backlash grew against the site, which has hosted a deluge of images depicting partially stripped women and children. Continue reading...

State residents worth more than $1bn could face one-off, 5% tax to help fund education, food assistance and healthcareA battle is brewing in California over a plan to tax billionaires - with tech titans divided over whether they should pay up, or flee the state.Under a tax proposal that could be put to voters this November, any California resident worth more than $1bn would have to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state. Continue reading...

Elon Musk's reckless and degrading AI could be built differently. But Americans will have to speak upOver the past year, Elon Musk has made a series of protocol changes to Grok, the proprietary AI chatbot of his company xAI, which runs prominently on his social media site X, formerly Twitter. Many of these changes have been geared to make the bot more amenable to producing pornography. In August, Grok launched an image generator, branded as Grok Imagine, which featured a service geared toward creating nude, suggestive or sexually explicit content, including computer-generated pornographic images of real women. The feature, which was quickly used to create naked images of celebrities such as Taylor Swift, also allowed users to create brief videos, complete with animations and sounds.Musk also rolled out AI girlfriends on the platform: animated personas - including female characters with exaggerated breasts and hips - that interacted in sexually explicit ways with users. One of the characters, Ani", was an anime-style cartoon blonde with a series of skimpy outfits; the bot blew kisses and addressed users as my love" while directing the chats toward sexual content.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnistThis article was updated on 9 January 2026 to note that Grok said the image-generating service had been turned off for users who do not subscribe. Continue reading...

As screen fatigue grows, a new trend is swapping smartphones for crosswords and sketchbooks - turning the humble bag into a tool for offline livingThere's a new it" bag - but this time it is not about a designer label or splashy logo. Instead, it's what is inside that counts.So-called analogue bags, filled with activities such as crosswords, knitting, novels and journals, have become the unexpected accessory of the season. Continue reading...

Robot vacuums that can climb stairs and device for BlackBerry lovers also on display at annual Las Vegas tech showThis year will be filled with robots that can fold your laundry, pick up objects and climb stairs, fridges that you can command to open by voice, laptops with screens that can follow you around the room on motorised hinges and the reimagining of the BlackBerry phone.Those are the predictions from the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas that took place this week. The sprawling event aims to showcase cutting-edge technology developed by startups and big brands. Continue reading...

Spokesperson says limiting access to paying subscribers just makes ability to generate unlawful images a premium serviceDowning Street has condemned the move by X to restrict its AI image creation tool to paying subscribers as insulting, saying it simply made the ability to generate explicit and unlawful images a premium service.There has been widespread anger after the image tool for Grok, the AI element of X, was used to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children to remove their clothing or put them in sexual positions. Continue reading...

Our fitness expert clocked up his indoor miles to put the best exercise bikes, including simple spin machines and gym-quality models, to the test The best treadmills for your home, testedCycling has the potential to benefit your health in myriad ways, whether it's the mood-boosting properties of inhaling fresh air, the social element of riding with friends or the simple act of improving cardiovascular fitness with every pedal stroke.The UK weather doesn't always play ball, though, so for those who don't want a dire forecast to result in a missed workout, indoor training replicates the exercise (if not the fresh air).Best exercise bike overall:

From cosy museums and tropical islands to nightmarishly difficult adventures - and revamps of favourites including Mario Kart and Pokemon - there's something for everyoneNintendo's newest console has been out for a less than a year but it already boasts an impressive catalogue of excellent new games, as well as a variety of enhanced Switch greats. Here's our selection of the 15 best titles currently on offer, ranging from family favourites to grittier, more adult challenges. Continue reading...

Deluge of nudified' images on social media platform X raises questions about regulation of use of AI technologiesThe deluge of images of partly clothed women - stripped by the Grok AI tool - on Elon Musk's X has raised further questions over regulation of the technology. Is it legal to produce these images without the subject's consent? Should they be taken off X?In the UK alone there is some doubt over the answers to these queries. Social media regulation is a nascent area, let alone trying to control the deployment of artificial intelligence. There are laws in place to tackle the problem, such as the Online Safety Act, but the government has yet to introduce additional measures such as banning nudifying apps. Continue reading...

Sample of roughly 500 posts shows how frequently people are creating sexualized images with Elon Musk's AI chatbotNew research that samples X users prompting Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok demonstrates how frequently people are creating sexualized images with it. Nearly three-quarters of posts collected and analyzed by a PhD researcher at Dublin's Trinity College were requests for nonconsensual images of real women or minors with items of clothing removed or added.The posts offer a new level of detail on how the images are generated and shared on X, with users coaching one another on prompts; suggesting iterations on Grok's presentations of women in lingerie or swimsuits, or with areas of their body covered in semen; and asking Grok to remove outer clothing in replies to posts containing self-portraits by female users. Continue reading...

Judge says there is plenty of evidence to suggest OpenAI's leaders made assurances nonprofit structure would be kept

PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, Xbox, PC; Square-Enix

Internet Watch Foundation warns Elon Musk-owned AI risks bringing sexualised imagery of children into the mainstreamOnline criminals are claiming to have used Elon Musk's Grok AI tool to create sexual imagery of children, as a child safety watchdog warned the technology risked bringing such material into the mainstream.The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said users of a dark web forum boasted of using Grok Imagine to create sexualised and topless imagery of girls aged between 11 and 13. IWF analysts said the images would be considered child sexual abuse material (CSAM) under UK law. Continue reading...

US tech bosses are exerting leverage on EU regulators via Trump and Vance. But Europe isn't powerless, and it isn't aloneThe US is advancing a new global order. Over the past eight decades Washington pursued - when it suited American interests - an order based on international law, liberalism, multilateralism and democratic values. The new one is based on autocracy and the use of force, and is underpinned by xenophobic nationalism.For the transatlantic relationship this is transformative: it means that coercive action now drives policy change. Europe's security dependency on the US is leverage to be ruthlessly exploited. Silicon Valley tech firms' business interests converge with those of the White House, and the US instrumentalises far-right politicians in Europe to achieve its foreign policy objectives.Armida van Rij is a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform Continue reading...

Startup founded by former OpenAI staff is aiming to more than double its annualized revenue run rate this yearAnthropic is planning a $10bn fundraise that would value the Claude chatbot maker at $350bn, according to multiple reports published on Wednesday.The new valuation represents an increase of nearly double from about four months ago, per CNBC, which reported that the company had signed a term sheet that stipulated the $350bn figure. The round could close within weeks, although the size and terms could change. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management are planning to lead the financing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Move follows outcry over use of Grok to digitally remove clothing from images of women and children

In this week's newsletter: Stranger Things' climactic showdown is the latest pop culture spectacle to feel like its been ported straight from a console. The industries' reciprocally influential relationship can be to everyone's gain Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt had begun to feel like an endurance test by the end, but nonetheless, like the sucker I am, I watched the Stranger Things finale last week. And spoiler warning: I'm going to talk about it in general terms in this newsletter. Because approximately 80% of the final season comprised twentysomething teenagers" explaining things to each other while using random 1980s objects to illustrate convoluted plans and plot points, my expectations were not high. After an interminable hour, finally, something fun happens, as the not-kids arm themselves with machine guns and molotovs and face off against a monstrously gigantic demon-crab. Aha, I thought - the final boss battle!The fight was like something out of Monster Hunter, all scale and spectacle with a touch of desperation. For a very long time, video games sought to imitate cinema. Now cinema (and TV) often feels like a video game. The structure of Stranger Things' final season reminded me a lot of Resident Evil: long periods of walking slowly through corridors, with characters exchanging plot information aloud on their way to the action, and occasional explosions of gunfire, screeching monsters or car chases. Those long periods of relative inaction are much more tolerable when you've got a controller in your hands. I am all for TV and film embracing the excitement, spectacle and dynamism of video games, but do they have to embrace the unnecessary side-quests and open-world bloat, too? Continue reading...

They may be small, but toothbrushes can create mountains of waste. Experts reveal how to clean and care for them and extend their life The best electric toothbrushes, testedIf toothbrushes were sentient, they'd complain about their lot in life. Their thankless existence involves repeatedly cleaning one of the grimmest parts of the body, then being thrown out once their bristles are insufficiently effective. Or, in the case of electric toothbrushes, decapitated before resuming their duties with a fresh head.This relentless cycle is essential for hygiene reasons: an ineffective brush can lead directly to tooth decay and gum disease. However, given the big dual crises of our time - climate and cost of living - it would certainly help for toothbrushes to last a bit longer. So what can we do to maximise their longevity without sacrificing dental hygiene? Continue reading...

This now venerable hardware remains an ideal platform for classics such as Minecraft and daring experiments from the brightest new developersNow surely approaching their twilight years, the Xbox Series S and X machines nevertheless still have plenty to offer both new and veteran owners. We have selected 15 titles that show the range of what's on offer, from the biggest blockbusters to lesser known indie gems you may have missed. Whether you're after tense psychological horror or wild escapism, it's all here and more. Continue reading...

AI company's chatbot faces criticism over its generation of sexualized, nonconsensual images of women and girlsElon Musk's artificial intelligence company has raised $20bn in its latest funding round, the startup announced Tuesday, even as its marquee chatbot Grok faces backlash over generating sexualized, nonconsensual images of women and underage girls.xAI's Series E funding round featured big-name investors, including Nvidia, Fidelity Management and Resource Company, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, and Valor Equity Partners - the private investment firm of Musk's longtime friend and former Doge member Antonio Gracias. The funding round exceeded its initial $15bn target, according to xAI's press release. The company touted Grok's image-generation abilities in the announcement of its latest funding round. Continue reading...

The conveniences of modern life such as Uber Eats and ChatGPT are robbing us of satisfaction - and worse still, infantilising us. But should we really go back to the basics?Name: Friction-maxxing.Age: Brand new. Continue reading...

Liz Kendall calls on X to deal with this urgently' while expert criticises worryingly slow' government responseThe UK technology secretary has called a wave of images of women and children with their clothes digitally removed generated by Elon Musk's Grok AI appalling and unacceptable in decent society".After thousands of intimate deepfakes circulated online, Liz Kendall said X, Musk's social media platform, needed to deal with this urgently" and she backed the UK regulator Ofcom to take any enforcement action it deems necessary". Continue reading...

Our reviewer sheds some light on adding brightness to your mornings with the best dawn simulation alarms, from Lumie and Philips to Hatch The best sleep aids recommended by experts: from blue light-blockers to apps to help you napTo wake each day in darkness is a plight you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, yet that's what many of us do routinely throughout winter. Getting up in the dark decouples our life from our circadian rhythm (our body clock), with bodily processes such as cognition and metabolism put to work before they're fully prepped.Thank heavens, then, for sunrise alarm clocks. These dawn simulation" devices glow with gradually intensifying brightness as your wake-up time approaches, kickstarting your circadian rhythm before you get out of bed. For many users, this results in a happier, healthier start to the day.Best sunrise alarm clock overall:

New mind-bending puzzlers, landmark RPGs and furry multiverse adventures await you as the PlayStation 5 enters its sixth yearEntering its sixth year, the PlayStation 5 has built up a formidable library of epic adventures, button-pummelling shooters and even the odd cutesy platformer. So whether you've owned the machine for years or only just entered the current console generation, here are 15 titles we think you should have in your PlayStation collection. Continue reading...

Jensen Huang also announces at CES new, more powerful Vera Rubin chips that will arrive later this yearThe billionaire boss of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has unveiled new AI technology that he says will help self-driving cars think like humans to navigate more complex situations.The world's most valuable company is to roll out the new technology, Alpamayo, which is designed to help self-driving cars handle tricky situations such as sudden roadworks or unusual driver behaviour on the road, rather than just reacting to previous patterns. Continue reading...

Former OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlo says progress to AGI is somewhat slower' than first predictedA leading artificial intelligence expert has rolled back his timeline for AI doom, saying it will take longer than he initially predicted for AI systems to be able to code autonomously and thus speed their own development toward superintelligence.Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee of OpenAI, sparked an energetic debate in April by releasing AI 2027, a scenario that envisions unchecked AI development leading to the creation of a superintelligence, which - after outfoxing world leaders - destroys humanity. Continue reading...

Lack of verified information and advanced AI tools make it difficult to separate fact from fiction on US attackMinutes after Donald Trump announced a large-scale strike" against Venezuela early on Saturday morning, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. There were fake photos of Nicolas Maduro being escorted off a plane by US law enforcement agents, images of jubilant Venezuelans pouring into the streets of Caracas and videos of missiles raining down on the city - all fake.The fabricated content intermixed with real videos and photos of US aircraft flying over the Venezuelan capital and explosions lighting up the dark sky. A lack of verified information about the raid coupled with AI tools' rapidly advancing capabilities made discerning fact from fiction about the incursion on Caracas difficult. Continue reading...

You can't always get what you want - even when you review products for a living. From kitchen splurges to fashion staples, this is what our contributors dream of

Exclusive: Ashley St Clair says supporters of X owner are using his AI tool to create a form of revenge pornThe mother of one of Elon Musk's sons has said she felt horrified and violated" after fans of the billionaire used his AI tool, Grok, to create fake sexualised images of her by manipulating real pictures.The writer and political strategist Ashley St Clair, who became estranged from Musk after the birth of their child in 2024, told the Guardian that supporters of the X owner were using the tool to create a form of revenge porn, and had even undressed a picture of her as a child. Continue reading...

Rosen, who led Sega from the 1960s into the 90s and who died on Christmas Day, was a hugely important figure in the history of arcade and home gamingIt is difficult to think of a more influential figure in the arcade game industry than David Rosen, who has died aged 95. The co-founder of Sega, who remained a director of the company until 1996, was instrumental in the birth and rise of the video game business in Japan, and in the 1980s and 90s oversaw the establishment of Sega of America and the huge success of the Mega Drive console.As a US Air Force pilot during the Korean war, Rosen found himself stationed in Japan, and once the conflict was over, he stayed on, intrigued by the country and seeing possibilities in its recovering economy. In 1954 he set up Rosen Enterprises and noticing that Japanese civilians now required an increasing number of new ID cards he started importing photo booths from the US to answer the demand. From here he expanded to pinball tables and other coin-operated machines, importing them for installation in shops, restaurants and cinemas. In 1965, he merged the company with another importer, Nihon Goraku Bussan, whose coin-op business Service Games was shortened to Sega for the new venture. Continue reading...

Children are growing up as AI natives and experts say computing skills should be on par with reading and writingIn a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings of smiles.AI gets lots of things wrong," he said, as it mistakenly identified a fruit as a face. He set about retraining it and, in a flash, he had it back on track - instinctively understanding the inner nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a way few adults do. Continue reading...

These inventions trigger rage, but also optimism. Maybe they will make people think more critically about debate and democracyIt was my blue shirt, a present from my sister-in-law, that gave it all away. It made me think of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, the lowly bureaucrat in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella The Double, a disconcerting study of the fragmented self within a vast, impersonal feudal system.It all started with a message from an esteemed colleague congratulating me on a video talk on some geopolitical theme. When I clicked on the attached YouTube link to recall what I had said, I began to worry that my memory is not what it used to be. When did I record said video? A couple of minutes in, I knew there was something wrong. Not because I found fault in what I was saying, but because I realised that the video showed me sitting at my Athens office desk wearing that blue shirt, which had never left my island home. It was, as it turned out, a video featuring some deepfake AI doppelganger of me. Continue reading...

London predicted to be the first UK city to go diesel-free, largely because of the ultra-low emission zoneBattery electric cars are poised to overtake diesels on Great Britain's roads by 2030, according to analysis that suggests London will be the first UK city to go diesel-free.The number of diesel cars on Great Britain's roads in June had fallen to 9.9m in June last year, 21% below its peak of 12.4m vehicles, according to analysis by New AutoMotive, a thinktank focused on the transition to electric cars. Electric car sales are still growing rapidly, albeit more slowly than manufacturers had expected. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions ponders the online world - from what's despicable to what's indispensable This week's question: can you really fake it to make it?The internet has turned fringe belief into mainstream politics and policy - from authoritarianism to vaccines. With democracy itself threatened, is it time to go back to a previous world of landlines, letters and face to-face-contact, audiotapes and Ansaphones? What would we miss about the online world that is worth the risk to liberal culture and basic freedoms? Should we turn the internet off? Mees Visser, Groningen, the NetherlandsSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

AI safety expert David Dalrymple said rapid advances could outpace efforts to control powerful systemsThe world may not have time" to prepare for the safety risks posed by cutting-edge AI systems, according to a leading figure at the UK government's scientific research agency.David Dalrymple, a programme director and AI safety expert at the Aria agency, told the Guardian people should be concerned about the growing capability of the technology. Continue reading...

Fraudsters use phishing to steal card details, which fund a spending spree using Apple Pay or Google PayYou get a call from your bank and the informed voice asks to you to confirm the personal details they have on file, which you do. You are then asked whether you bought something at an electrical retailer recently for 120 and spent 235 in Birmingham, but neither transaction rings true.The caller tells you they have blocked the payments but they must now secure your account, and say they will send you a notification to approve, or a code to pass on to them. You feel under pressure to protect your money, so you do what is asked. Continue reading...

The novelty of eating at a diner owned by the richest person in the world seems to have worn off in just a few monthsLess than six months since it opened, Elon Musk's Tesla Diner has the feel of a ghost town. Gone is the Optimus robot serving popcorn, gone are the carnivore-diet-inspired Epic Bacon" strips, gone are the hours-long, hundred-person lines wrapped around the block. Even the restaurant's all-star chef, Eric Greenspan, is gone. The Hollywood burger-and-fries shop seems like a shell of the bustling eatery it was when it opened in late July.On a balmy Friday afternoon in December, the parking lot for Tesla car charging was, at best, half full. Inside what the company describes as a retro-futuristic" diner, a handful of people trickled in, ordering burgers and hotdogs or asking for merch. The upstairs deck, AKA Skypad", was vacant except for a pair of employees stringing holiday lights. More staff was busy at work, buffing fingerprints off the chrome walls and taking out the trash, than there were customers. The diner was spotless. Continue reading...

Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worriedDuring a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk's flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world's biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.It was jaw-dropping," said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI's Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant. Just an unbelievable amount of pollution." Continue reading...

Platform is now Britain's fourth most visited social media site as users seek out human-generated contentReddit, the online discussion platform, has overtaken TikTok as Britain's fourth most visited social media service, as search algorithms and gen Z have dramatically transformed its prominence.The platform has undergone huge growth over the last two years, with an 88% increase in the proportion of UK internet users it reaches. Three in five Brits online now encounter the site, up from a third in 2023, according to Ofcom. Continue reading...

Lapses in safeguards led to wave of sexualized images this week as xAI says it is working to improve systemsElon Musk's chatbot Grok posted on Friday that lapses in safeguards had led it to generate images depicting minors in minimal clothing" on social media platform X. The chatbot, a product of Musk's company xAI, has been generating a wave of sexualized images throughout the week in response to user prompts.Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok's public media tab filled with such images. xAI said it was working to improve its systems to prevent future incidents. Continue reading...

Tesla endured tough year in part thanks to some consumers' distaste for Elon Musk's embrace of rightwing politicsTesla has taken the unusual step of publishing sales forecasts that suggest 2025 deliveries will be lower than expected and future years' sales will be well below targets set by its chief executive, Elon Musk.The US electric vehicle maker published figures from analysts suggesting it will announce 423,000 deliveries during the fourth quarter of 2025, in a new consensus" section on its investor website. That would represent a 16% decline from the final quarter of 2024. Continue reading...