Information Commissioner's Office imposes largest fine yet for a breach of children's privacyThe UK information regulator has fined the social news service Reddit 14.5m for using the data of children under the age of 13 unlawfully and potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content.The hefty punishment from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the largest fine yet for a breach of children's privacy and comes after the US-based company introduced age checks in July, including age verification to access mature content. Prior to this, the ICO said, there were a large number of children under 13 on the platform and Reddit did not have a lawful basis for processing their personal information". Continue reading...
Shares in Uber, Mastercard and American Express fall on back of apocalypse scenario posted on SubstackUS stock markets have been hit by a further wave of AI jitters, this time from yet another viral - and completely speculative - warning about the impact of the technology on the world's largest economy.The latest foreboding is from Citrini Research, a little-known US firm that provides insights on transformative megatrends'". Its post on Substack, which it called a scenario, not a prediction", rattled investors by portraying a near future in which autonomous AI systems - or agents - upend the entire US economy, from jobs to markets and mortgages. Continue reading...
We report from California's Silicon Valley, where billionaires pour money into midterms, and the AI Impact summit, where India pushes back on AI monopoly' held by US and ChinaHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, we're examining the tech industry's push for influence in two places separated by a time difference of 13 hours and 30 minutes. The first is where tech sees its next big market, the second its home turf. My colleague Robert Booth reports from last week's India AI Impact summit, where tech companies pledged to spend tens of billions in the coming year to build customer bases and datacenters in the subcontinent. Dara Kerr and Lauren Gambino reported from Silicon Valley, where billionaires are marshalling their wealth to influence California's politics at greater levels than they ever have before.Nascent tech, real fear: how AI anxiety is upending career ambitionsHow the anxiety over AI could fuel a new workers' movementThe bogus four-day workweek that AI supposedly frees up' Continue reading...
Facebook owner's investment described by semiconductor company as big bet' on artificial intelligenceThe owner of Facebook has agreed to buy $60bn (44.5bn) of artificial intelligence chips from the US semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices - despite fears about the vast sums committed to AI infrastructure projects.It is one more massive deal in a year in which US tech companies are expected to spend $660bn on AI assets, and may represent part of a broader pivot in Meta's AI strategy, said Alvin Nguyen, an analyst at Forrester. Continue reading...
Before she took her own life at 14, Molly Russell accessed thousands of harmful posts on Instagram and Pinterest. A new documentary recreates the inquest where her father was told the images were safeMolly Russell was 14 when she took her own life in 2017 after months of viewing content relating to self-harm and suicide on social media. Nearly a decade later, her best friends from school, interviewed for this documentary, have grown into articulate, impressive women in their early 20s. Watching them, you can't help but be struck all over again by the terrible tragedy of Molly's death and the loss to her family, who will never see the young woman Molly would be now. Her father, Ian Russell, says life before Molly's death was absolutely normal; in the years since, he has become a leading campaigner for better online protection for children.On the night Molly died, Russell says, they sat down together as a family, in front of the TV. Molly's last message to her friend Nieve was two laughing emojis. She had been feeling depressed, but no one suspected how bad it was. Nor were they aware of the content being fed to Molly by Instagram and Pinterest's algorithms. In the months before her death she accessed thousands of harmful social media posts. One reads: Dear me, I hate you. You're weak. You deserve the pain. You'll never be good enough. I hope you die." At the inquest into Molly's death, Meta's head of health and wellbeing policy, Elizabeth Lagone, told the court the majority of posts Molly saw were safe" for children. Nothing to see here. Continue reading...
Add percussive therapy to your post-workout routine with our expert picks, including mini and deep-tissue models. Plus, a brand new frontrunner now in top spot The best running shoes, testedMassage guns are often pitched at the highly active. They can help you warm up for workouts, accelerate recovery and generally keep things loose and injury-free. However, you don't have to be training for an Ironman triathlon to benefit from a percussive pummelling. A good session can also alleviate the general soreness, stiffness and pain that comes from desk-bound days and the daily grind - all without having to cough up for a spell on a masseuse's table or be handled by a stranger.These personal-care power tools use rapid, repetitive pressure and vibrations to penetrate tired muscles, with a selection of heads, variable speeds and even automated routines to tailor treatments towards tight trouble spots. Dozens of massage guns are available from various brands, and you can spend anything from 50 to 500. But not all muscle massage guns are made equal.Best massage gun overall:
We explore the strange food-obsessed world of a new game whose tech was once called an insult to life itself' by Hayao Miyazaki, the film-maker behind Spirited AwayA strange piece of software has recently landed on the PC gaming store Steam. And software" feels like the cleanest way to describe it. Existing somewhere between a full-blown life sim, a science project and a kind of haunted fish tank, Anlife: Motion-learning Life Evolution probably would have disappeared without making much impact if it wasn't for one unusual factor. Several years ago some of its creators were absolutely roasted on camera by one of the genuine legends of Japanese animation.Back in 2016, Hayao Miyazaki, the director of movies such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, was shown new technology that used AI in order to animate models. Faced with a zombie that utilised its head to move by knocking its skull against the ground and wriggling its body like a fish, Miyazaki declared what he had seen was an insult to life itself". It's hard not to watch the clip without feeling slightly seared - but now, a decade later, the ashen-faced developers from that room have sufficiently recovered to make their work widely available. Continue reading...
Detectives say tools supplied by Palantir were integral to convictions of a criminal gang that stole 800,000It was fraud on a grand scale. The Fuck the Police" criminal gang based in Luton and Romania stole 800,000 in more than 3,000 withdrawals from cash machines in dozens of locations throughout 2024.The police investigation matched the crime in its complexity. When detectives in Bedfordshire seized the suspects' two dozen smartphones, they were faced with a mountain of potential digital evidence - 1.4 terabytes of information, according to the authorities, connecting co-conspirators across eastern England and the Bacau region of Romania. Continue reading...
Anthropic says three Chinese firms used distillation' technique to extract information from its Claude chatbotUS artificial intelligence company Anthropic said on Monday it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. OpenAI leveled similar charges last month.Anthropic said DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax used a technique known as distillation" - using outputs from a more powerful AI system to rapidly boost the performance of a less capable one. Continue reading...
Ofgem says about 140 proposed projects, driven by AI use, could require more power than current peak demandThe amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in Great Britain would exceed the national current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity - 5GW more than the country's current peak demand. Continue reading...
Last Week Tonight host delved into the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in relation to the Epstein files and Musk's poisonous ownership of XOn his new episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver wasted no time digging into the files related to late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, which have once again ensnared former prince Andrew.Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known after being stripped of his royal titles for his connection to Epstein, was arrested last week - the first arrest of a senior member of the royal family in modern history - on allegations that that he had shared confidential material with Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy. Continue reading...
Amid talk of artificial intelligence taking our jobs, the big unasked question is: how will we be fed?How will we be fed? That's the biggest question not seriously being addressed amid all this talk about whether or not artificial intelligence will end up taking over all of our jobs.Formidable though the technology appears, similar fears have popped up repeatedly since the Industrial Revolution, and most working-age adults remain employed. Still, what is sorely missing is a serious debate about what to do if this future in fact materializes. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions asks whether we could cope with a world where computer gave up saying no ...Readers reply: what would be the most socially useful way to spend a billion dollars?After years of computer saying no, and giving us all migraines and premature grey hair, I'm starting to worry that computer - or rather AI large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini - are taking too much of a fancy to playing nice and saying yes. I confess to using both of these programs, but I've noticed that, well, it's as if they're trying to please, with statements like You're absolutely right, Jeff," and That's pretty much right." Often, when I ask, Would you mind thinking for a bit longer on that?", I then get another response saying: Jeff, you're absolutely right, again, to query that result. It turns out I was a bit hasty in my reply ..."If the world runs even more on information filleted out from the sump of the internet by LLMs, what are the consequences? Can we look forward to a future in which AI is more concerned with appearing sympathetic (getting good reviews?) than being factual? Er, a bit too human? Jeff Collett, Edinburgh Continue reading...
With sensors that cool the air as it nears your head, this high-end tool promises gentler styling for sensitive scalps The best hair dryers for smooth, speedy styling at homeTell most hair-care enthusiasts you want to upgrade your hair dryer, and I'd bet good money you'll be asked, Will you buy a Dyson?" That would have been a ludicrous question more than a decade ago when the brand specialised in vacuum cleaners, but not since it took the luxury hair-care market by storm in 2016 with its Supersonic hair dryer.The Supersonic ripped up the hair-dryer rulebook, with its distinctive design, lightweight feel and quiet operation. Eight years after the original, Dyson launched the Supersonic Nural: an upgraded version with new tricks up its sleeve. Continue reading...
Overdependence on chatbots is a growing problem, and though your boyfriend's ADHD may be a factor, he needs to find the root of his anxietyMy boyfriend of eight years, who is 44, has ADHD and runs his own business. He's always struggled with admin and mundane tasks, but AI has revolutionised how he works. Now I'm worried he can't seem to do anything without AI. He is a heavy ChatGPT user and uses it even when there's a better non-AI alternative (eg he'll ask it for train times rather than using Trainline, even though it's less accurate). He just got his ChatGPT Wrapped and he's in the top 0.3% of users worldwide.I worry about his ability to think independently, as well as the environmental impact. I know it's auseful tool for him at work, but he uses it for everything in life. Continue reading...
Families are navigating the tough choice between unimaginable riches and the identity that comes with landWhen two men knocked on Ida Huddleston's door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries.According to Huddleston, the men's client, an unnamed Fortune 100 company", sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more would require signing a non-disclosure agreement. Continue reading...
Creators say they're offering Africans a hopeful, utopian feeling' of retrieving objects looted by colonial armiesA new South African video game lets players take back African artefacts held in western museums in a series of heists, amid a growing campaign to repatriate treasures looted by colonial armies.Players of Relooted become South African sports scientist and parkour expert Nomali, as she leaps and dives through museums to retrieve 70 real objects. They include an Asante gold mask that was taken by the British army when it destroyed the Asante empire's capital, Kumasi, and is now in the Wallace Collection in London. Another object is the skull of the Tanzanian king Mangi Meli, which was taken to Germany after its colonial regime executed him in 1900. Continue reading...
Iran has shown how plausible blackouts now are, with far-reaching consequences for the internet as we know itDuring the height of Iran's blackout in January, people could still access a platform that, in some senses, was like the internet.Iranians could message family members on a government-monitored app and watch clips of Manchester United on a Farsi-language video-sharing site. They could read state news and use a local navigation service. Continue reading...
After meeting with unspecified tech leaders, senator calls for urgent policy action as companies race to build ever more powerful systemsBernie Sanders has warned that Congress and the American public have not a clue" about the scale and speed of the coming AI revolution, pressing for urgent policy action to slow this thing down" as tech companies race to build ever-more powerful systems.Speaking at Stanford University on Friday alongside congressman Ro Khanna after a series of meetings with industry leaders in California, Sanders was blunt about what he called the most dangerous moment in the modern history of this country". Continue reading...
Company behind ChatGPT last year flagged Jesse Van Rootselaar's account for furtherance of violent activities'ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has said it considered alerting Canadian police last year about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country's history.OpenAI said last June the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar via abuse detection efforts for furtherance of violent activities". Continue reading...
Narendra Modi's thirst to supercharge economic growth is matched by US desire to inject AI into world's biggest democracyIndia celebrates 80 years of independence from the UK in August 2027. At about that same moment, early versions of true super intelligence" could emerge, Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, said this week.It's a looming coincidence that raised a charged question at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, hosted by India's prime minister, Narendra Modi: can India avoid returning to the status of a vassal state when it imports AI to raise the prospects of its 1.4 billion people? Continue reading...
Reported issues at Amazon Web Services raise questions about firm's use of artificial intelligence as it cuts staffAmazon's huge cloud computing arm reportedly experienced at least two outages caused by its own artificial intelligence tools, raising questions about the company's embrace of AI as it lays off human employees.A 13-hour interruption to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) operations in December was caused by an AI agent, Kiro, autonomously choosing to delete and then recreate" a part of its environment, the Financial Times reported. Continue reading...
German Doner Kebab aims to open at 25 new sites this year with self-service screens and healthy options aimed at gen ZThey are already packing our groceries and delivering shopping. Now robots are coming to the kebab shop, alongside self-service screens and loyalty apps, as takeaways look for ways to tackle rising costs.German Doner Kebab (GDK), a perhaps surprisingly British-owned chain that has been springing up across the country, has turned to technology to keep its fast food business buzzing in the face of rising costs and tough times on the high street. Continue reading...
If you're aiming to heat the human, not the home - or just love snuggling under something cosy - these are our best buys from our test of 24 The best heated clothes airers to save time and money when drying your laundryAside from hugging a fluffy hot-water bottle, sipping whisky and ramping up the thermostat, an electric blanket or heated throw is the best way to ward off the winter chill.When you consider that more than half of a typical household's fuel bills goes on heating and hot water, finding alternative ways to keep warm - and heating the person, rather than the whole home - seems like a good idea. Many of the best electric blankets and heated throws cost about 2p to 4p an hour to run, so it's hard to ignore their potential energy- and money-saving benefits.Best electric blanket overall:
AI has convinced computer science students to shift majors and white-collar workers to change careers, while some are embracing itMatthew Ramirez started at Western Governors University as a computer science major in 2025, drawn by the promise of a high-paying, flexible career as a programmer. But as headlines mounted about tech layoffs and AI's potential to replace entry-level coders, he began to question whether that path would actually lead to a job.When the 20-year-old interviewed for a datacenter technician role that June and never heard back, his doubts deepened. In December, Ramirez decided on what he thought was a safer bet: turning away from computer science entirely. He dropped his planned major to instead apply to nursing school. He comes from a family of nurses, and sees the field as more stable and harder to automate than coding. Continue reading...
There was a backlash when No 10 invited online content creators inside its doors. But in a fast-changing media landscape, this solves two problems at onceLast year, No 10 took an unprecedented step: it invited content creators to cross the threshold of Downing Street.Naturally, the creators all filmed themselves outside the famous door. Once inside, their most treasured possessions, their phones, were taken from them and exchanged for government-approved devices, so they could continue to take photos and record video without breaching security guidelines. At the reception, creators from areas as wide as science, education and travel took part in a networking session at the heart of government.Kirsty Major is a deputy Opinion editor for the Guardian Continue reading...
The updated QuickShot II brings retro gameplay into the modern era while preserving the no-frills button smashing and endearing flaws that fans lovedNostalgia is big in the modern games industry. It's ironic that the most technologically obsessed art form on the planet is just as watery-eyed about the past as cinema and music. And to prove it here is the new version of the legendary QuickShot II, a plasticky joystick from the early 1980s that wasn't even that good the first time round. It was, however, cheap and it resembled an actual fighter plane control stick with its multiple fire buttons and ergonomic shaft. If you wanted a rugged and precise controller you'd go for the Competition Pro, but that one didn't let you pretend to be in Star Wars or Airwolf. Plus, the QuickShot II had suckers on its base so you could stick it to your cockpit control panel - sorry, I mean MDF computer table.The new QuickShot II from Retro Games and Plaion Replai is almost an exact replica in terms of its dimensions. You can grasp it in your fist and wrap your thumb and forefinger around its large red buttons. Yes, you can stick it to your table; the designers have even included the original auto-fire switch at the rear for players who weren't prepared to hit the fire button repeatedly while playing Green Beret. Continue reading...
LA County says the gaming company does not carry out adequate moderation and its age-verification systems are not fit for purpose, which Roblox deniesOfficials in Los Angeles have said they are suing Roblox, alleging the popular online platform exposes children to sexual content, exploitation and online predators.In a lawsuit, Los Angeles County said the company does not carry out adequate moderation and its age-verification systems are not fit for purpose. Continue reading...
Freedom.gov appears to be administered by a branch of the Department of Homeland SecurityThe US has built a portal that will allow Europeans to view blocked content including alleged hate speech and terrorism, according to Reuters.The portal, freedom.gov", will allow worldwide users to circumvent government controls on their content. The site features a graphic of a ghostly horse galloping above the Earth, and the motto: Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready." Continue reading...
From TikTok deepfakes to smears put out by the White House, fake videos modeled on Black archetypes are running rampant - putting Black users at riskLate last year, as a US government shutdown cut off the Snap benefits that low-income families rely on for groceries, videos on social media cast the fallout in frantic scenes. Imma keep it real with you," a Black woman said in a viral TikTok post, I get over $2,500 a month in stamps. I sell 'em, $2,000 worth, for about $1,200-$1,500 cash." Another Black woman ranted about taxpayers' responsibility to her seven children with seven men, and yet another melted down after her food stamps were rejected at a corn-dog counter.Visible watermarks stamped some videos as AI-generated - apparently, too faintly for the racist commentators and hustlers more than happy to believe the frenzy was real. You got people treating it like a side hustle, selling the stamps, abusing the system," the conservative commentator Amir Odom whinged. Fox News reported on the Snap deepfakes as if they were authentic, before issuing a correction. Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt claimed people were using Snap to get their nails done, to get their weaves and hair". (Lost in the outrage was a basic fact: white Americans make up 37% of Snap's 42 million beneficiaries.) Continue reading...
New technology has workers spooked, but experts say it's creating an opening for a resurgence in worker powerIn 2026, it's a scary time to work for a living.Gone are the days of quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, and the highly visible union-organizing battles that began the decade and signaled that perhaps worker power was on the rise again in the US. Instead, much of that momentum is being crowded out of our minds by anxieties: a worsening affordability crisis, geopolitical instability and the specter of artificial intelligence looming over the workplace. Continue reading...
Television outranks laptops, tablets and smartphones across all age groups, according to audience reviewThe television has replaced laptops, tablets and smartphones as the most common device for UK viewers to watch YouTube at home, according to data confirming the platform's place as a living room mainstay.More than half of all YouTube viewing through a domestic wifi connection is now done through the traditional TV, making it the top-ranking YouTube device across all age groups. Continue reading...
Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threatFor nearly two decades, the US quietly funded a global effort to keep the internet from splintering into fiefdoms run by authoritarian governments. Now that money is seriously threatened and a large part of it is already gone, putting into jeopardy internet freedoms around the world.Managed by the US state department and the US Agency for Global Media, the programme - broadly called Internet Freedom - funds small groups all over the world, from Iran to China to the Philippines, who built grassroots technologies to evade internet controls imposed by governments. It has dispensed well over $500m (370m) in the past decade, according to an analysis by the Guardian, including $94m in 2024. Continue reading...
PM says measure, also applied to deepfake nudes, is needed owing to a national emergency' of online misogynyDeepfake nudes and revenge porn" must be removed from the internet within 48 hours or technology firms risk being blocked in the UK, Keir Starmer has said, calling it a national emergency" that the government must confront.Companies could be fined millions or even blocked altogether if they allow the images to spread or be reposted after victims give notice. Continue reading...
Pritzker's move reflects increasing public pushback against resource-hungry facilities used to power the AI boomThe Illinois governor JB Pritzker proposed a two-year break from offering tax incentives for datacenters, a reflection of increasing public pushback against the massive, resource-hungry facilities used to power the modern AI boom.Pritzker made the proposal, which will need the backing of state lawmakers, during his annual state of the state address, which covers Illinois budget and policy plans. The plan was first reported by NBC News. Continue reading...
State regulators walk back suspension threat and say Tesla has stopped misleading drivers about the safety of its carsTesla will avoid a 30-day suspension of its dealer and manufacturer licenses in California, its biggest market, after the US electric vehicle maker stopped using the term autopilot" in the marketing of its vehicles in the state.Tesla now uses the term supervised" in references to its full self-driving technology and has stopped using autopilot" entirely in its marketing in the state. Continue reading...
Meta chief says it has improved identifying underage users but adds I always wish we could have gotten there sooner'The Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, testified at a landmark trial of social media companies on Wednesday. Plaintiffs' lawyers grilled Zuckerberg about internal complaints that not enough was being done to verify whether children under 13 were using the platform.Zuckerberg claimed Meta had improved in identifying underage users but also said: I always wish that we could have gotten there sooner." Continue reading...
We all know one - and there's a good chance you fall into the category yourself. Here's how to recognise if you're a walking, talking red flag' ...Name: Finger princess.Age: The term circulated this month, but the behaviour has been escalating across digital communication for some time. Continue reading...
We boiled litres of water to find the best electric kettles, from hard-water heroes to vintage-style, repairable and wifi-connected models The best air fryers, tried and tested for crisp and crunchDespite the march of progress, the humble kettle remains a kitchen staple. It's what we turn to in times of strife, when spirits are flagging, or to start our day. And when a visitor calls, one of the first things we do is put the kettle on.While many small appliances have evolved beyond their original form, the kettle's basic principles remain largely unchanged. Water goes in and heats up until a thermostat switches it off; the water then pours out, and we enjoy a cuppa. However, the technology that goes into a kettle has been slowly improving: better insulation to keep water hotter for longer and reduce reboils; different temperature settings to suit every drink from green tea to herbal brews; and more features such as filters and concealed elements to keep scale out of our cups.Best kettle overall:
Business leaders tout AI as a path to shorter weeks and better balance. But without power, workers are unlikely to share the gainsThe front-page headline in a recent Washington Post was breathless: These companies say AI is key to their four-day workweeks." The subhead was euphoric: Some companies are giving workers back more time as artificial intelligence takes over more tasks."As the Post explained: more companies may move toward a shortened workweek, several executives and researchers predict, as workers, especially those in younger generations, continue to push for better work-life balance."Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...
The drama about two startup innovators defeated by their egotistical overreach feels as if it presages these AI timesThe crisis facing a couple of middle-aged Belgian tech bros in the 1990s might be better suited to a European streaming-TV drama - maybe with the two antiheroes' travails confined to the first episode, setting up a lengthier intergenerational drama taking us to the present. Nonetheless, here it is: a feature film in the Berlin competition from screenwriter Angelo Tijssens and director Anke Blonde, handsomely produced and shot, and impeccably acted. But it's also weirdly parochial, leaving you with the sense that it has not reached beyond its immediate concerns; and it's not clear as to why, exactly, we need a fictionalised crisis from the 90s inspired by a real-life financial fraud scandal.Well, perhaps the point is that very smallness and sadness: a pathetic tale of the first, almost-forgotten dotcom bust, which holds an omen for our AI-obsessed present. Arieh Worthalter and Jan Hammenecker play Geert and Luc, two balding guys who, in the late 90s, are Belgium's pinup boys of tech innovation. Their startup company has gone public and made them both very rich, and all their local friends, family and businesses have plunged every cent of their savings into shares. Geert and Luc are now poised to turn the mud of Flanders into a European Silicon Valley. Continue reading...
Milano Cortina has cuttingedge replays, chasecam drones and exuberant commentary bringing a wave of unexpected nostalgia for anyone who grew up on 90s extremesports games Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAs someone whose childhood holidays consisted of narrowboating along the Grand Union canal or wandering the harbour-side at Whitby looking for vampires, I have never been on a skiing break. The idea of plummeting down a hill on anything but a plastic sledge is totally alien to me. And yet, my wife and I have been gripped by the Winter Olympics, especially the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events. And I think I know why. Those events are really channelling the look and feel of the wintery sports sims I've always loved - especially those that arrived during a golden period in the mid-1990s.This was the era in which snowboarding was exploding in popularity, especially among twentysomethings with disposable incomes and no responsibilities - which coincidentally was the games industry's target market at the time. Perhaps the first title to take advantage of this trend was Namco's 1996 arcade game Alpine Surfer, which challenged players to stand on a snowboard-shaped controller and swoop as quickly as possible down a mountainside - it was one of the most physically exhausting coin-ops I ever played. Later that year came the self-consciously hip PlayStation sim Cool Boarders, and then in 1998, my absolute favourite, 1080 Snowboarding on the N64, with it's intuitive analog controls and incredibly authentic sound effects of boards cutting through deep, crisp snow. Continue reading...
Substances include chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of malesYou wear them at work, you wear them at play, you wear them to relax. You may even get sweaty in them at the gym.But an investigation into headphones has found every single pair tested contained substances hazardous to human health, including chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of males. Continue reading...
Eye-catching martial arts performance at China gala had viewers and experts wondering what else humanoids can doDancing humanoid robots took centre stage on Monday during the annual China Media Group's Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. Not one fell over.The display was impressive, but prompted some to wonder: if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do? Continue reading...
Google, Anthropic and OpenAI bosses to mingle with global south leaders wrestling for control over technologySilicon Valley tech billionaires will land in Delhi this week for an AI summit hosted by India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, where leaders of the global south will wrestle for control over the fast-developing technology.During the week-long AI Impact Summit, attended by thousands of tech executives, government officials and AI safety experts, tech companies valued at trillions of dollars will rub along with leaders of countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, where average wages dip well below $1,000 a month. Continue reading...
