In Kojima's latest epic, the Australian outback becomes a shifting, spectral landscape that you can get lost inAs a teenager in the late 1980s, I became obsessed with Australian new wave cinema, thanks partly to the Mad Max trilogy, and partly to an English teacher at my high school, who rolled out the TV trolley one afternoon and showed us Nicolas Roeg's masterpiece Walkabout. We were mesmerised. Forty years later, I am playing Death Stranding 2, Hideo Kojima's sprawling apocalyptic adventure, and there are times I feel as if I'm back in that classroom. Most of the game takes place in a ruined Australia, the cities gone, the landscape as stark, beautiful and foreboding as it was in Roeg's film.I've been playing for 45 hours and have barely made an impact on the story. Instead, I have wandered the wilderness, delivering packages to the game's isolated communities. The game is set after a catastrophic event has decimated humanity and scarred the landscape with supernatural explosions. Now you pass through vast ochre deserts and on toward the coast, watching the sun set behind glowing mountains, the tide rolling in on empty bays. Usually in open-world games, the landscape is permanent and unchanging, apart from day/night cycles and seasonal rotations. But the Australia of Death Stranding 2 is mysterious and amorphous. Earthquakes bring rocks tumbling down hillsides, vast dust storms blow up and avalanches bury you in snow. As you go, you are able to build roads, electricity generators and even jump-ramps for cars. These can be found and used by other players, so each time you visit a place you may find new ways to traverse. Nothing is ever really still. Continue reading...
US academics say computer code systematically raised fares at expense of drivers and passengersA second major academic institution has accused Uber of using opaque computer code to dramatically increase its profits at the expense of the ride-hailing app's drivers and passengers.Research by academics at New York's Columbia Business School concluded that the Silicon Valley company had implemented algorithmic price discrimination" that had raised rider fares and cut driver pay on billions of ... trips, systematically, selectively, and opaquely". Continue reading...
Xbox is putting a lot behind its new space action-RPG sequel - which will be the first $80/70 video game from Microsoft. Does it earn its price tag? We asked the developer what went into itThe Outer Worlds 2, from RPG makers Obsidian, will be the first first-party Xbox game to cost $80 (70). Given that Nintendo Switch 2 games are already priced at least that high, and Sony's own PlayStation 5 games have been pushing towards it for a while, you might not expect this development to ignite a pricing debate among gamers - but it did. The increased cost of video games is a hotly contested topic, given the unsustainably ballooning budgets that most blockbuster games are working with these days. But I can say that The Outer Worlds 2 is a much larger, more in-depth game than the 2019 comedy sci-fi original. If we're going to talk about value, it can certainly be argued that its higher price point is justified.I loved The Outer Worlds, which was jam-packed with the kind of wry, sardonic humour you'd expect from an Obsidian RPG (this is the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas, after all). Its super-saturated space world, populated by colourful flora, bumbling corporations and strange zealots, was a joy to live in for 20 or so hours, though its combat left much to be desired. Continue reading...
The limited rollout in Austin, Texas, included pro-Tesla influencers using the paid ride serviceThe main transportation safety regulator in the US is requesting information from Tesla after videos showed the company's self-driving Robotaxis exceeding the speed limit or veering into the wrong lane. The company launched the service in Austin, Texas, over the weekend.Tesla heavily promoted the initial, limited rollout of its Robotaxis, which included pro-Tesla influencers using the paid ride service and showing off footage of their trips. Instead of positive promotion, though, those videos appear to have drawn scrutiny from the National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA), as the cars struggled to comply with traffic laws. Continue reading...
After a video calling a can of Diet Coke a fridge cigarette' went viral, people have been discussing how they find moments of relief amid the pressures of workName: Fridge cigarette.Age: As a thing, not so new, but the term has only really been knocking about for a few weeks, since a user called @reallyrachelreno posted a video. Continue reading...
Iran, clearly fearful of an online Israeli incursion, imposed a near-total internet blackout early last weekThe war between Israel and Iran, though largely a fight of fighter planes, drones and bombs, is erupting in the digital realm as well. Both countries have long histories with digital warfare. The particular focus of the current conflict, Iran's nuclear program, was the target of one of the first cyberweapons meant to cause physical destruction, the sophisticated worm Stuxnet.Iran, clearly fearful of an online Israeli incursion, imposed a near-total internet blackout early last week. My colleague Johana Bhuiyan reports: Continue reading...
The award-winning composer of soundtracks to video games including Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is composing again for the first time since a traumatic pandemicFor the fortunate among us, the Covid lockdowns have, years later, become a memory - if not distant, then certainly ever-so-slightly faded. We have had a few years now, to get out there, to rebuild careers and relationships, to travel, to live in the world again. That's not the case for everyone. Award-winning composer Jessica Curry, who crafted the beguiling, elegiac soundtracks to games such as Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, has only just emerged. Diagnosed with a degenerative disease in her mid-20s and seriously immunocompromised as a result of her condition, she began isolating at the start of the pandemic, and for the next five years barely left her home. While there, unable to work or write, her world began to collapse.Like many people I had an extraordinarily painful and difficult pandemic," she says. I watched my dad die on Zoom, and then my auntie and more family members. Then they found a tumour in my ovary, and I had major abdominal surgery, but the operation had gone wrong, so I nearly died in 2022. While I was recovering from the third operation, the roof of our house fell in. It felt like a metaphor for everything. If a novelist had written this, no one would believe the story. And things just kept going wrong. So I wasn't writing music, I wasn't even listening to music. All of a sudden, I couldn't bear it. I'm still trying to work out what that rejection was about - I was just in too much of a mental crisis. I wasn't even feeding or dressing myself." Continue reading...
The Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, is about to descend on Venice with his fiancee, some ex-Marines and his limitless credit card. We meet the Italian activists who are saying: enough
Low-cost and quickly discarded products are playing a key role in world's fastest-growing waste problem - electronicsIt is cheap, often poorly made, and usually ends up in the bin or buried among the other knick-knacks, takeaway menus and birthday candles in the kitchen drawer.Known as fast-tech", these low-cost electronics are increasingly common - from mini-fans and electric toothbrushes, to portable chargers and LED toilet seats, often bought for just a few pounds online. Continue reading...
Memo says cybersecurity office deemed WhatsApp a high risk due to lack of transparency in how it protects user data'The WhatsApp messaging service has been banned on all US House of Representatives devices, according to a memo sent to House staff on Monday.The notice to all House staff said that the Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use." Continue reading...
Julie Inman Grant has urged the Albanese government to rethink its decision to carve out the video sharing platform from new rules which apply to other apps
ChatGPT developer forced to act after receiving legal complaint from earbud maker iyOOpenAI has taken down online content related to its recent deal with Sir Jony Ive's hardware startup, io, after a trademark complaint.The artificial intelligence company has removed promotional materials including a video where Ive - the former Apple designer behind the iPhone - and OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, discuss the $6.4bn (4.8bn) transaction. However, the nine-minute film can still be viewed on YouTube. Continue reading...
She made her name in Lena Dunham's landmark series, then starred in Get Out. As she returns in M3gan 2.0, the sequel to the hit horror about a murderous AI doll, she talks about parenting in an age of smartphones, Botox and her famous fatherIf you had wandered the set of the film M3gan 2.0 last year, chances are you would have stumbled into M3gan, the terrifying humanoid doll, staring lifelessly while she waited to be called for her next scene. Sometimes she would stand in the corner of the soundstage, says Allison Williams with a nervy laugh. The dilemma is: do you turn her around so she's facing the wall, or do you let her face the room? Both answers are wrong."In the sequel to the sci-fi horror M3gan, Williams resumes her role as Gemma, a roboticist who has become a crusader against rampant and reckless AI development after her creation - developed for her orphaned niece - became murderous. (She is also a producer on the second film.) Continue reading...
Readers are sharing how they write their predictions into novels, colour-code their emotional responses and even gift annotated books to friends. Is it actually fun, or just a bit like homework?There are two kinds of readers: those who would choose death before dog-ears, keeping their beloved volumes as pristine as possible, and those whose books bear the marks of a life well read, corners folded in on favourite pages and with snarky or swoony commentary scrawled in the margins. The two rarely combine in one person, and they definitely don't lend each other books. But a new generation of readers are finding a way to combine both approaches: reviving the art and romance of marginalia, by transforming their books and reading experiences into #aesthetic artifacts.I keep seeing people who have books like this," says one TikToker, their head floating over a greenscreened video of fat novels bristling with coloured sticky tabs. What are you doing? Explain yourselves! Because this looks like homework. But also ... I do like office supplies." Continue reading...
On Never Too Small, there are cabins that split in two and apartments straight out of Wes Anderson. It feels like we're all one reclaimed wood table away from complete bliss
Fraudsters are manipulating content of older adults as sadness bait' to push sales. The videos are going viralIn April of this year, Daisy Yelichek was scrolling TikTok when something unusual appeared in her feed: a video of her 84-year-old father, George Tsaftarides, who runs an account sharing sewing videos from his small tailoring business in Ohio. But the video Yelichek was seeing was not from Tsaftarides' actual page, which has nearly 41,000 followers - but instead originated from a profile of someone claiming to be a sad old man" whose cat sanctuary was at risk of shutting down.Please stay 8 seconds so I don't have to shut down my cat shelter I poured my love into," the text on the video said, adding that the sanctuary would be selling slippers to raise additional funds. The bid for sympathy worked on many viewers, garnering millions of views and tens of thousands of users leaving concerned comments. Just ordered two! Sending love to these kittens," wrote one. Another commenter said: thank you for all you do for these babies." Others even asked if there was a GoFundMe link to donate directly to the cat shelter. Continue reading...
When documentary-maker Lauren Greenfield immersed herself in the online and offline lives of 25 teenagers, she unearthed a world of sexually explicit images, rape culture, bullying and suicidal ideation. Adolescence, she says, has become like the wild westReactions to Lauren Greenfield's documentary series Social Studies tend to fall into two categories. Young people think it is validating; adults think it's a horror show. After all, the screen of a teenager's smartphone is a shiny black hole to which access is rarely granted. Our kids are right there," as Greenfield puts it, and yet we don't really know what's going on in their lives."Her five-part series, which tracks the online and offline lives of a group of teenagers and young adults - the first generation of social media natives - is being tipped for an Emmy. Under the noses of their parents, she captures teenagers climbing out of bedroom windows to spend the night with boyfriends, posting sexually explicit images, tracking their longest-ever fast (91 hours) and living out their experiences of rape, cyberbullying, whitewashing, the tyranny of Caucasian beauty standards and suicidal ideation. She makes adolescence look like the wild west. Continue reading...
An increasing number of people are experiencing motion sickness in EVs, and there is a scientific explanation as to whyWith electric cars skyrocketing in popularity around the world - in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023 - a growing body of studies and an increasing number of people have found that they feel more motion sick riding in EVs than in traditional petrol or diesel cars. Anecdotes of feeling sick in the passenger or back seat of electric cars litter social media, as do questions from wary prospective buyers.There is a scientific explanation behind why a person might feel more sick in an EV, though, according to multiple academic studies. Continue reading...
Robo-adviser' platforms use tech to help manage your money - here's how the most popular ones stack upRachel Reeves and her government colleagues are keen to get more Britons investing in the stock market. She said recently that a lot of money was being put into cash savings accounts when it could be invested in equities, in stock markets, and earn a better return".The good news is that the rise of DIY tools and mobile apps means it is now easier than ever to get investing. However, the vast array of options can make it daunting to know where to start. Continue reading...
From bullets to rabbits to wand vibrators, our sexual wellbeing expert demystifies what's available, and rates her top 16 models (she tested 53)I could write here about how almost a fifth of women surveyed by Durex said using a sex toy was the most dependable way for them to climax. Or I could point out how Kinsey Institute research suggests regular masturbation can help relieve and prevent symptoms of menopause, such as vaginal atrophy. I could even tell you that studies demonstrate a significant correlation between intimate toy ownership and greater satisfaction - not only with sex but also with life itself.But the potted version is that orgasms and erotic pleasure are glorious, and top-class toys can help you savour more of both. So here are the best vibrators available. Scroll to the bottom to find out how I selected these vibrators from the 53 I tested for this piece.Best bullet vibrator overall:
US singer appears in court accused of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm after arrest last month over incident in Mayfair in 2023The American singer and actor Chris Brown has pleaded not guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm in an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub.Brown, 36, is accused of attempting to unlawfully and maliciously cause Abraham Diaw grievous bodily harm with intent at the Tape club in Hanover Square, Mayfair. Continue reading...
The Door in Question uses VR headsets, sound and even smells to create an immersive experience inspired by its creator's experience with mental illness
Wondering how to keep your cool as the temperature rises? Experts share their top tips, from face mists to fans, anti-chafe cream to sun hats The best fans to keep you cool: 14 tried and tested favouritesHeatwaves used to be marked by years, recalled misty-eyed by those who remembered them with fondness, like the heatwave of 76. Now, in the era of global heating, heatwaves are a warning sign, not a pleasure - and as we enter a UK summer, it's a case of when, not if, the temperature will become unbearable.Always take care when it heats up - the NHS recommends staying in the shade, especially between 11am and 3pm, wearing sunscreen and hats, and avoiding exercise. It also advises taking showers, eating cold food and drinks, and avoiding alcohol, caffeine and hot drinks. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6Y39H)
Premium sports tracker adds built-in torch, smartwatch and accuracy upgrades, plus useful new training tools, but costs far more than rivalsGarmin's new top running watch, the Forerunner 970, has very big shoes to fill as it attempts to replace one of the best training and race companions available. Can a built-in torch, a software revamp and voice control really make a difference?The new top-of-the-line Forerunner takes the body of the outgoing Forerunner 965 and squeezes in a much brighter display, useful new running analytics and more of the advanced tech from Garmin's flagship adventure watch the Fenix 8. Continue reading...
Poppins connects people who have things they use rarely with those who want to borrow or rent themDo you need a kitchen mixer, a drill, a tent or a raclette machine? Perhaps you have a bread machine, an ice-cream maker or a toastie maker in the cupboard gathering dust?If the answer to either question is yes", Lucie Basch has a solution. The French entrepreneur and pioneer of a hugely successful anti-food waste app is now turning her attention to a different problem: the simultaneous underuse and overconsumption of everyday household objects. Continue reading...
Splitgate 2's Ian Proulx thought his Musk gag was funny - but what it revealed was the major blind spots still in the businessOne thing most game developers can agree on in the modern industry is that it's hard to drum up any awareness for your latest project without a mammoth marketing budget. Last year, almost 20,000 new titles were released on the PC gaming platform Steam alone, the majority disappearing into the content blackhole that is the internet. So when a smaller studio is offered the chance to get on the stage at the Summer Games Fest, an event streamed live to a global audience of around 50 million people, it's a big deal. Not something that you want to spectacularly misjudge.Enter Ian Proulx, cofounder of 1047 Games. His short slot at the event earlier this month had him walking on stage with a baseball bat to promote the online shooter Splitgate 2 by announcing that he was tired of playing the same Call of Duty every year", while wearing a cap bearing the slogan Make FPS great again". It did not go well. Gamers and fellow developers criticised his decision to diss another studio's game as well as his politically charged use of a Maga/Trump meme, especially with anti-ICE protesters being beaten and arrested just across town. Proulx defended his actions, denying that his use of the cap slogan was political, but four days later he made an apology via X explaining: We needed something to grab attention, and the honest truth is, we tried to think of something and this is what we came up with." Continue reading...
Sam Altman describes offer from Mark Zuckerberg's company as crazy', as scramble for talent intensifiesThe boss of OpenAI has claimed that Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has tried to poach his top artificial intelligence experts with crazy" signing bonuses of $100m (74m), as the scramble for talent in the booming sector intensifies.Sam Altman spoke about the offers in a podcast on Tuesday. They have not been confirmed by Meta. OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, said it had nothing to add beyond its chief executive's comments. Continue reading...
Chatbot tries to change subject after serving up unrelated user's mobile to man asking for rail firm helplineThe Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, called it the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use". But Barry Smethurst, 41, a record shop worker trying to travel by rail from Saddleworth to Manchester Piccadilly, did not agree.Waiting on the platform for a morning train that was nowhere to be seen, he asked Meta's WhatsApp AI assistant for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The chatbot confidently sent him a mobile phone number for customer services, but it turned out to be the private number of a completely unconnected WhatsApp user 170 miles away in Oxfordshire. Continue reading...
Andrew Jassy tells white collar workers that such technology means fewer people will be needed for some jobsThe boss of Amazon has told white collar staff at the e-commerce company their jobs could be taken by artificial intelligence in the next few years.Andrew Jassy told employees that AI agents - tools that carry out tasks autonomously - and generative AI systems such as chatbots would require fewer employees in certain areas. Continue reading...
Nintendo has slept on new games for its new handheld but clockwork-puzzle murder missions, an RPG reborn and a beefed-up Yakuza 0 are the highlights from other developersThe Nintendo Switch 2 certainly makes a strong first impression, but once that gadget limerence begins to fade, it's down to the games to stave off any creeping buyer's remorse. We all know that Mario Kart World is undoubtedly a multiplayer masterpiece, and original Switch games from Pokemon Scarlet/Violet to Zelda have been updated to look amazing on the new console, but there's otherwise a severe lack of Nintendo-made launch games for the Switch (beyond the 8 tech demo, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour).Thankfully, other developers have stepped in to fill the gap, releasing a bunch of updated versions of games that have been out on other consoles for a while. What should you pick up when you're tired of Mario Kart World? Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6Y2C1)
Act swiftly and these steps could help mitigate the damage from a sim-swap scam and prevent it happening againYour mobile phone line is the artery through which data, calls and texts flow. It is also used to prove you are who you say you are for a plethora of accounts, from banks to messaging services.But if it gets hacked or stolen, in what is known as a sim swap" or simjacking", the consequences can be far worse than just being cut off from mobile data or calls. Unfortunately it is the kind of hack you don't see coming. It happens in the background, with hackers using your personal data such as date of birth and address to con your network provider into swapping your phone number to a new sim in their possession.Keep an eye on notifications from your mobile network, which are usually delivered by SMS. These include information about activity elsewhere and alerts of change requests, such as your phone number being activated on another device.Be aware of scams. Fraudsters may and try to trick you out of information using fake notifications. If you receive a message asking you to get in touch, double-check that any number you are given is legitimate before calling, or use a number from the provider's website or a bill.Any loss of service that prevents calling, texting or accessing mobile data and is not explained by outages or missed payments may be a sim-swap attack.Loss of access to various accounts such as your bank or social media linked to your phone number could indicate hackers are in the process of trying to break in or have already changed your password and stolen the account.Frequently review statements and account for unexpected charges, which may be a sign that you've been hacked.Call your provider on the customer service number listed on its site using another phone. Have your phone number and details ready, including any account passwords you may have set. Explain what has happened and make sure your provider begins the recovery process and investigates how this has happened.Ask your provider to block any charge to bill" activity.Contact your bank, crypto and other financial services immediately to ensure the hackers cannot get into your other accounts, which are typically their primary targets.Contact your immediate family and anyone who could fall victim to a scammer pretending to be you and texting from your number.Check any account you use your phone number for two-step verification. Change the two-step method if you can and set a new strong password.Check your WhatsApp and other messaging services that use your phone number as the user ID.Activate any and all security measures on your provider's account. This includes using a strong password and two-step verification, and setting a sim pin on your phone, as well as adding a telephone customer service password and a sim transfer pin, if available.Find out from your provider how the hack happened, and if possible, what personal data was used to break into your account. Consider using fake security question answers that cannot be guessed rather than real ones, just make sure you store them safely such as in a password manager.Set a spend cap on your phone account.As soon as you are sure you have full control again, reactivate two-step verification on your accounts and transition any that you can to authenticator app-based two-step verification, which is more secure.Set pins on messaging services such as WhatsApp or Signal to make it much harder for someone else to register new devices or take over your account.Contact your financial services providers to reactivate your accounts but keep watching out for fraud and query any unexpected transactions.Look at your social media and other public-facing accounts for any information that could enable criminals to steal your identity to perform hacks such as this. Continue reading...
As international tensions mount and hackers grow more sophisticated and audacious, the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre is constantly monitoring the global threat of war, terror and piracyShips being taken over remotely by hackers and made to crash is a scenario made in Hollywood. But in a security operations room in Oslo, just a few metres from the sparkling fjord and its tourist boats, floating saunas and plucky bathers, maritime cyber experts say not only is it technically possible, but they are poised for it to happen.We are pretty sure that it will happen sooner or later, so that is what we are looking for," says Oystein Brekke-Sanderud, a senior analyst at the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre (Norma Cyber). On the wall behind him is a live map of the ships they monitor and screens full of graphs and code. Two little rubber ducks watch over proceedings from above. Continue reading...
According to the French streaming platform's analysis, fraudsters use bots to listen to AI music and take the royaltiesUp to seven out of 10 streams of artificial intelligence-generated music on the Deezer platform are fraudulent, according to the French streaming platform.The company said AI-made music accounts for just 0.5% of streams on the music streaming platform but its analysis shows that fraudsters are behind up to 70% of those streams. Continue reading...
Program with the defense department is first under the startup's initiative to put AI to work in governmentsThe US Department of Defense on Monday awarded OpenAI a $200m contract to put generative artificial intelligence (AI) to work for the US military.The San Francisco-based company will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains", according to the defense department's posting of awarded contracts. Continue reading...
Struggling to sleep and work in the balmy months? Chill your space - and avoid energy-guzzling air con - with our pick of the best fans, from tower to desk to bladeless Warm weather essentials: 42 ways to make the most of the sunshineOur world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they're stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.Fans sell out when the mercury rises, so get ahead of the pack by ordering one in anticipation: there will always be another heatwave. Get a good fan, and you can also dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Air con is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity ... and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.Best fan overall:
Originally meant to release in 2022, Capcom's futuristic game - featuring an astronaut and a mysterious blond-haired little girl - has just re-emerged from stasis; and it looks like it will be worth the waitWhen Pragmata was first announced five years ago, it wasn't clear exactly what Resident Evil publisher Capcom was making. The debut trailer featured eerie, futuristic imagery, an astronaut, and a blond-haired little girl, but there was nothing concrete or clear about its content. And when it missed its 2022 release window and was paused indefinitely" in 2023, it wasn't clear if Pragmata would ever come to be.That all changed on 4 June, when a brand-new trailer was broadcast during a PlayStation showcase. The blond-haired little girl turns out to be a weaponised android, accompanying an astronaut called Hugh (of course) through space-station shootouts. I played about 20 minutes of the game during Summer Game Fest the following weekend. A lengthy, troubled development cycle is usually a bad omen, but my time with it was promising.Pragmata will be out in 2026 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Continue reading...
Information Commissioner's Office takes action as people report feeling powerless over data gathering at homeMakers of air fryers, smart speakers, fertility trackers and smart TVs have been told to respect people's rights to privacy by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).People have reported feeling powerless to control how data is gathered, used and shared in their own homes and on their bodies. Continue reading...
Research reveals 13% of residents regularly invest in cryptocurrency and check stocks, more than all other citiesThe city's most famous sons may have sung that money can't buy you love, but that was before bitcoin existed.Liverpool has emerged as the crypto capital of the UK, according to a study looking at the online habits of people across the country. Continue reading...
Smartphones offer instant stimulation, but do they silence a deeper message?In 2014, a group of researchers from Harvard University and the University of Virginia asked people to sit alone with their thoughts for 15minutes. The only available diversion was a button that delivered a painful electric shock. Almost half of the participants pressed it. One man pressed the button 190 times - even though he, like everyone else in the study, had earlier indicated that he found the shock unpleasant enough that he would pay to avoid being shocked again. The study's authors concluded that people prefer doing to thinking", even if the only thing available to do is painful - perhaps because, if left to their own devices, our minds tend to wander in unwanted directions.Since the mass adoption of smartphones, most people have been walking around with the psychological equivalent of a shock button in their pocket: a device that can neutralise boredom in an instant, even if it's not all that good for us. We often reach for our phones for something to do during moments of quiet or solitude, or to distract us late at night when anxious thoughts creep in. This isn't always a bad thing - too much rumination is unhealthy - but it's worth reflecting on the fact that avoiding unwanted mind-wandering is easier than it's ever been, and that most people distract themselves in very similar, screen-based ways. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#6Y05W)
Devastating attacks at M&S, the Co-op and Harrods highlight risks as lenders say cybersecurity is biggest expenseIt is every bank boss's worst nightmare: a panicked phone call informs them a cyber-attack has crippled the IT system, rapidly unleashing chaos across the entire UK financial industry.As household names in other industries, including Marks & Spencer, grapple with the fallout from such hacks, banking executives will be acutely aware that, for them, the stakes are even higher. Continue reading...
Guardian investigation finds almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating - and experts says these are tip of the icebergThousands of university students in the UK have been caught misusing ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools in recent years, while traditional forms of plagiarism show a marked decline, a Guardian investigation can reveal.A survey of academic integrity violations found almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating using AI tools in 2023-24, equivalent to 5.1 for every 1,000 students. That was up from 1.6 cases per 1,000 in 2022-23. Continue reading...
Fraudsters offer great pay for liking and sharing TikTok content - but then demand a fee to unlock higher earningsOut of the blue you receive a call or a text offering you a job. It sounds great - it's remote working and you could earn up to 800 a day. If you're interested, you just need to contact the sender via the WhatsApp number provided.The job is pretty easy: you are asked to like and share content - usually on TikTok. Continue reading...
We asked a chatbot some common finance questions - and then ran its responses past human expertsArtificial intelligence seems to have touched every part of our lives. But can it help us manage our money? We put some common personal finance questions to the free version of ChatGPT, one of the most well-known AI chatbots, and asked forits help.Then we gave the answers to some - human - experts and asked them what they thought. Continue reading...
Peter Kyle calls on employees and businesses to act now to get to grips with technology amid forecasts of job lossesWorkers in the UK should turn their trepidation over AI into exhilaration" by giving it a try or they risk being left behind by those who have, the technology secretary has said.Peter Kyle called on employees and businesses to act now" on getting to grips with the tech, with the generational gap in usage needing only two and a half hours of training to bridge. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian