Technology | The Guardian

The judge rejected Musk's request for a preliminary injunction but fast-tracked the dispute for a trialA US judge on Tuesday denied Elon Musk's request for a preliminary injunction to pause OpenAI's transition to a for-profit model but agreed to hear a trial in the fall of this year, the latest turn in the high-stakes legal fight.The tech billionaire does not have the high burden required for a preliminary injunction" to block the conversion of OpenAI, said Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a US district judge in Oakland, California. Continue reading...

The PlayStation Portal offers a new way to play PS5 games at home or on the go. But it struggles to match the seamless gaming experience I yearn forHappy Monster Hunter Wilds week to all who celebrate: Capcom's thrilling action game has sold 8m units in three days, which means that quite a lot of you are likely to be playing it. I'm a huge fan of this series and am delighted by the latest entry, but after filing the review last week, I've barely had a minute to play it since it came out. Regular readers will know that this is a familiar problem for me: I have two kids, so my gaming time is tight, and the living room TV is very often in use.I anticipated this, so in the run-up to Monster Hunter Wilds' release, I spent 200 on a PlayStation Portal - essentially a screen sandwiched between two halves of a PlayStation 5 controller. I can't decide whether it's one of the most unwieldy things that Sony has ever come out with, or one of the most elegant. It lets me stream games from my PS5, so the console can be whirring away under the TV and I can be on the sofa with my little screen, swinging a transforming axe at a dreadful octopus. Continue reading...

The comedian and broadcaster thanks the internet for its service, by which he means burping videos, stupid accents and classic fails

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; Two Point Studios/Sega

How a group of Silicon Valley math prodigies, AI researchers and internet burnouts descended into an alleged violent cultYears before she became the peculiar central thread linking a double homicide in Pennsylvania, the fatal shooting of a federal agent in Vermont and the murder of an elderly landlord in California, a computer programmer bought a sailboat.The programmer was known to friends, foes and followers as Ziz. She had come to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016 as part of an influx of young people arriving to study the dangers that artificial intelligence could pose to humanity. Continue reading...

Sales of battery-powered cars jumped in February, with Model 3 and Model Y most popular after Mini CooperSales of Teslas in the UK rose by more than a fifth last month as demand for battery-powered cars increased, despite the prospect of a buyer backlash over Elon Musk's controversial and divisive behaviour since becoming a key figure in Donald Trump's administration.Almost 4,000 Teslas were sold in the UK in February, with the Model 3 and Model Y proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper, according to the latest new car registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Continue reading...

Card game Balatro was a huge hit last year - but a year-long struggle with the European age ratings board has exposed how well-meaning rules can have unintended consequencesOver the last few months, the makers of a popular card game have been wrestling with the byzantine process that surrounds video game age classifications. Age ratings are intended to help parents determine whether or not a game is appropriate for their children. But in practice, an erroneous label doesn't just mislead consumers - it can be the difference between success or failure.Balatro is an award-winning poker game made by an anonymous game developer known as LocalThunk, in which the only guiding principle is chaos. In each match the player must divine the best possible poker hand out of a randomised draw, but the conditions fluctuate constantly. In one round, the game might prevent you from using an entire suit or junk all your face cards, while the next round might challenge you to achieve an eyebrow-raising score with only a single hand. As the game progresses, players accrue jokers for their deck that add yet more wild rules. Continue reading...

Europe is on high alert after a series of outages to cables and pipelines. This visual guide explains what happened and what's being done Continue reading...

Survey of bosses and staff finds that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI planSome companies are stuck in neutral" in their approach to artificial intelligence, according to Microsoft's UK boss, who said a significant number of private and public sector organisations lack any formal AI strategy.A Microsoft survey of nearly 1,500 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors, as well as 1,440 employees, found that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan. Roughly the same proportion report a growing gap in productivity - a measure of economic efficiency - between employees who use AI and those who do not. Continue reading...

Georgia-based group used deepfake videos and false news featuring Martin Lewis, Zoe Ball and Ben Fogle to promote fraudulent crypto schemes

Musk plans cost-cutting - and Americans will end up footing the bill; the business of immigration surveillance; and a fond farewell to SkypeHello, and welcome back. In this week's Techscape: the cost of Elon Musk's cost-cutting, the emotional shutdown of Skype, and a new documentary on immigration and surveillance.Donald Trump's administration could rack up a monumental" bill and is breaking the law by firing government workers on spurious grounds, according to a top labor lawyer.Officials have cited poor performance" when terminating thousands of federal workers. In many cases it's not true, according to employees embroiled in the blitz, many of whom are now seeking legal advice.I'm selling the Nazi mobile': Tesla owners offload cars after Elon Musk's fascist-style salutesTrump cabinet flunkies hail wannabe Caesar and Elon, his oligarch pal Continue reading...

With Trump's tariffs and DeepSeek's AI tech in the news, China waits to see how the Communist party plans to revitalise a stagnating economyAs thousands of delegates from across China arrive in Beijing this week to participate in the annual parliamentary session, there is a barely perceptible shift in the mood in the capital. Though few ordinary Chinese pay much attention to goings-on inside the Great Hall of the People, the imposing 1950s modernist building that flanks the western edge of Tiananmen Square, the ripple effects of this week's conclave can be felt across the city.Security is heightened. Extra uniformed personnel have been deployed to stand guard on Beijing's bridges - lest anyone attempt a stunt inspired by Peng Lifa's protest at Sitong Bridge ahead of the 20th party congress in 2022. Guards at busy subway stations subject commuters to random scans of their identification cards. Continue reading...

While millions live with regular blackouts and limited energy, plants are being built to satisfy the global demand for digital storage and processing - piling pressure on an already fragile systemThirty-six hours by boat from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, Deodato Alves da Silva longs for enough electricity to keep his tucuma and cupuacu fruits fresh. These highly nutritious Amazonian superfoods are rich in antioxidants and vitamins, and serve as a main source of income for farmers in Silva's area. However, the lack of electricity to refrigerate the fruit makes it hard to sell their produce.Silva's fruit-growing operation is located in the village of Boa Frente, in Novo Aripuana municipality, one of Brazil's most energy-poor regions, where there is only one diesel-powered electricity generator working for a few hours a day. Continue reading...

Powered chiefly by enthusiasm and primitive publishing tech, these publications shaped the future of video games mediaIn the summer of 1985, I made the long pilgrimage from my home in Cheadle Hulme to London's glamorous Hammersmith Novotel for the Commodore computer show. As a 14-year-old gamer, this was a chance to play the latest titles and see some cool new joysticks, but I was also desperate to visit one particular exhibitor: the publisher Newsfield, home of the wildly popular games mags Crash and Zzap!64. By the time I arrived there was already a long queue of kids at the small stand and most of them were waiting to have their show programmes signed by reigning arcade game champion and Zzap reviewer, Julian Rignall. As an ardent subscriber, I can still remember the thrill of standing in that line, the latest copy of the mag clutched in my sweaty hands. I wouldn't feel this starstruck again until I met Sigourney Weaver a quarter of a century later.It turns out I'm not the only one who remembers that day. In his wonderful new book, The Games of a Lifetime, Rignall himself recalls the shock of being swamped by fans. We just didn't expect anything like that," he writes. I had no idea readers would be so interested in us. But I loved it." Continue reading...

Choose the speed that's right for you, beware of price rises at renewal time and consider ditching your landlineIn the age of true fibre broadband the speeds available can be tremendous - and providers often try to upsell people to expensive, higher-speed packages. One way to save money is to pay for only the speed you need. For most households a speed of 100Mbps is likely to be enough, although it depends on the number of people who will use the internet at the same time, the kinds of devices you use, whether you play online games and the services you require. Continue reading...

Insight' labeled the argument center-left' and created a reply insisting AI will make storytelling more democraticBeneath a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece about the dangers of artificial intelligence, there is now an AI-generated response about how AI will make storytelling more democratic.Some in the film world have met the arrival of generative AI tools with open arms. We and others see it as something deeply troubling on the horizon," the co-directors of the Archival Producers Alliance, Rachel Antell, Stephanie Jenkins and Jennifer Petrucelli, wrote on 1 March. Continue reading...

Fifteen years since Microsoft's motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use itReleased in 2010 and bundled with the Xbox 360, the Kinect looked like the future - for a brief moment, at least. A camera that could detect your gestures and replicate them on-screen in a game, the Kinect allowed players to control video games with their bodies. It was initially a sensation, selling 1m units in its first 10 days; it remains the fastest-selling gaming peripheral ever.However, a lack of games, unreliable performance and a motion-control market already monopolised by the Nintendo Wii caused enthusiasm for the Kinect to quickly cool. Microsoft released a new version of the Kinect with the Xbox One in 2013, only for it to become an embarrassing flop; the Kinect line was unceremoniously discontinued in 2017. The Guardian reached out to multiple people involved in the development of the peripheral, all of whom declined to comment or did not wish to go on record. Instead, the people keenest to discuss Microsoft's motion-sensing camera never used it for gaming at all. Continue reading...

UN-commissioned study in UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand finds satisfaction rises with ageFor more than half a century, the midlife crisis has been a feature of western society. Fast cars, impulsive decisions, and peak misery between the age of 40 and 50. But all that is changing, according to experts.In a new paper commissioned by the UN, the leading academics Jean Twenge and David Blanchflower warn that a burgeoning youth mental health crisis in six English-speaking countries worldwide is upending the traditional pattern of happiness across our lifetimes. Continue reading...

Information Commissioner's Office says it aims to learn about wider market by looking into two sites plus ImgurTikTok is to be investigated by the UK's data protection watchdog, which is looking into whether social media algorithms are serving up inappropriate or harmful content to children.Growing concerns over how social media platforms are using data generated by children's online activity have prompted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to launch an investigation into the Chinese platform, along with the forum site Reddit and the image-sharing site Imgur. Continue reading...

TUC says proposals on copyright and AI framework must go further to stop exploitation by rapacious tech bosses'Action is needed to protect workers in creative industries amid huge changes in technology and artificial intelligence, unions have urged.The TUC said there was an urgent need to put in place proper guardrails" for workers ranging from artists, writers and journalists to teachers and academics. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency slipped into technical bear market, before Donald Trump talked up plans for Crypto Strategic ReserveBitcoin has recorded its largest monthly loss since June 2022, pushing it into a bear market as the euphoria over cryptocurrencies after Donald Trump's election win faded, before the president pumped it up again on Sunday.The price of bitcoin fell by 17.5% in February, the biggest monthly drop since June 2022, and its 11th worst month in the last decade, as negative sentiment gripped financial markets. Continue reading...

Air fryers have taken over our kitchens, but which wins the crown for the crispiest cooking? Our expert peeled 5kg of potatoes to find out The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and testedAir fryers inspire the sort of feelings that microwaves did in the 1980s. I vividly remember those new-fangled boxes being spoken about often, either dismissively or with delight. A rash of cookbooks followed, and dinner changed across the land. Fast-forward a few decades and air fryers have become the same kind of kitchen disruptors", offering time-saving convenience and healthier cooking, but with the added allure of easily achieved, mouth-watering crispiness.Since launching with a single-drawer design, air fryers have evolved. Sizes range from compact to XL, while drawer configurations can be double, split or stacked. Alongside air frying, many will grill, roast and bake, and some will dip to lower temperatures for dehydrating, fermenting and proving dough. One we tested features steam cooking, allowing you to whip up dim sum as easily as a roast dinner, while another included racks for cooking on four levels.Best air fryer overall:

Tesla once appeared the future of vehicles. Then Musk's salutes and support at Trump's inauguration left owners feeling saddled with a symbol of hate'

Dismissing 6,700 IRS workers during tax season is a recipe for chaos but AI's disruption will be much more widespreadThe Trump administration recently announced that it would be laying off approximately 6,700 workers at the Internal Revenue Service, about 8% of the people employed by the agency. Tens of thousands of federal employees at other agencies are also losing their jobs.The timing could not be worse. We're in the middle of the tax season with corporations and individuals facing filing deadlines in March and April. Millions of returns will need to be processed. Refunds will be due. Questions will need to be answered. But that's not all. Continue reading...

The Albanese government is banking on direct-to-device access to satellite connections to improve coverage

As AI grows increasingly prevalent, some are showing their children tools from ChatGPT to Dall-E to learn and bondJules White used to believe his 11-year-old son needed to know how to code to be successful. Now, though, the Vanderbilt computer science professor says it's more crucial for James to learn a new, more useful skill: how to prompt artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots.Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, White has been showing his son the ropes of generative AI. He began by demonstrating to James how ChatGPT can create games using photos of toys on the floor of their house. Later, White exposed him to AI's hallucinatory flaws by having his son debunk ChatGPT-generated world record claims with verified information from the Guinness Book of World Records. After more than two years of experimentation, White's son, now in fifth grade, has learned how to integrate AI into a range of everyday activities, from crafting study materials to determining the cost of shoes without a price tag. Continue reading...

Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: Putin is on the inside now'

Criminal justice specialists call for new approach to identify emerging type of murderer with no prior convictionsThe rise of 0 to 100" killers who go from watching torture, mutilation and beheading videos in their bedrooms to committing murder suggests there could be a link between extreme violence online and in real life, experts have said.Criminal justice experts advocated a new approach, inspired by counter-terrorism, to identify an emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions, after cases such as Nicholas Prosper, who killed his mother and siblings and planned a primary school massacre. Continue reading...

Potential uses for gadget could include online shopping, weight management and sensory testing, say researchersIf your colleague bores you to tears with pictures of their lunch, then a new gadget could make your life even worse.Scientists have developed a device to recreate the flavours of food and drink, allowing them to be shared remotely in a matter of seconds - but they have not yet cracked spicy food. Continue reading...

Internet calling service that disrupted landline industry to close in May as tech giant says it will focus on TeamsSkype will ring for the last time on 5 May as owner Microsoft retires the two-decade-old internet calling service that redefined how people connect across borders.Shutting down Skype will help Microsoft focus on its homegrown Teams service by simplifying its communication offerings, the office software giant said on Friday. Continue reading...

Users of Reels report feeds dominated by violent and graphic footage after apparent algorithm malfunctionMark Zuckerberg's Meta has apologised after Instagram users were subjected to a flood of violence, gore, animal abuse and dead bodies on their Reels feeds.Users reported the footage after an apparent malfunction in Instagram's algorithm, which curates what people see on the app. Continue reading...

The technology, just released in Europe and the UK, clearly has the potential to transform the film, TV and advertising industries

Sadler's Wells, London

Sora would not exist without its training data,' said peer Beeban Kidron, citing another level of urgency' to debateThe artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT has launched its video generation tool in the UK amid a deepening row between the tech sector and creative industries over copyright.Beeban Kidron, the film director and crossbench peer, said the introduction of OpenAI's Sora in the UK added another layer of urgency to the copyright debate", in a week the government faced strong criticism over its plans for letting AI firms use artists' work without permission. Continue reading...

Americans are using their wallet to hurt where it matters - including during Friday's planned economic blackout'

From the raw materials required to the machines that make them, every part of the chip supply chain is fiercely contested in the global race for tech supremacyA small town in the Netherlands hosts the only factory that produces the only chip-making machines that generate a type of light found nowhere naturally on Earth: extreme ultraviolet, a light emitted by young stars in outer space.This light, known as EUV, is the only way to make one of the world's most valuable and important technologies at scale: cutting-edge semiconductor chips. The factory is forbidden from selling its EUV machines to China. Continue reading...

Geo Group, an Ice partner, is moving at unprecedented speed' to build out its monitoring, executive chair saysThe Geo Group, the largest single private contractor to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said it was building out its surveillance business to be able to monitor hundreds of thousands or millions more immigrants than it already does.The Geo Group, a private prison corporation and parent company of BI Inc, has contracted with Ice for nearly 20 years to manage the agency's electronic monitoring program. It currently tracks approximately 186,000 immigrants using devices such as ankle monitors, smart watches and a facial recognition app, according to public Ice data. Due to increasing demand from Donald Trump's administration, which has promised mass deportations, company executives said that they expect that number to grow past its previous peak of 370,000 to 450,000 immigrants within the next year. The remarks were made during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

Funds would be used to create holding company for 26-year-old's growing empire of video and food businessesThe world's biggest YouTube star, MrBeast, is planning to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a move that would reportedly value his company at roughly $5bn (3.9bn).The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is said to have spoken with several wealthy individuals and financial firms about taking part in the investment round. Continue reading...

From the cutest postapocalyptic world to multiplayer mayhem and a modern family classic, here are the Switch's must-play gamesWhen we think of Nintendo we picture serene and cosy cartoon adventures filled with cute creatures and lovable Italian stereotypes. But while there is plenty of Mario on the Switch, the console offers a diverse range of delights for newcomers and longtime gaming veterans. Here are the 15 essentials. Continue reading...

In 1935, Derek Harris was born - and so was the K6 red phone box. Now, Harris is spending his 90th year ensuring this beloved local facility isn't lostThe battleground at the heart of a struggle between an 89-year-old man and a multi-billion pound multinational is a small junction in a Norfolk village, where a red phone box stands. And at the red phone box, sheltering from the wind, is Derek Harris. Last month, he learned that BT (formerly British Telecom) was threatening to close the phone box in the village of Sharrington, where he has lived for 50 years, when he saw it on the agenda of the parish council meeting. I thought: I'd better do something about this,'" says Harris.He has described it as a David and Goliath" campaign. It is that, and - as becomes clear on this sunlit but biting February day - so much more. We will talk mortality and reprieves, heritage and value. I'll leave with a renewed sense of how it's possible to feel real affection for an inanimate object, and why having a mission matters. Continue reading...

The US agency said it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as TraderTraitor'North Korea was behind the theft of approximately $1.5bn in virtual assets from a cryptocurrency exchange, the FBI has said, in what is being described as the biggest heist in history.The haul, which reportedly has since lost some of its value, exceeded the previous record sum of $1bn stolen by the dictator Saddam Hussein from Iraq's central bank before the 2003 war, and underlines the North's growing expertise in cybercrime. Continue reading...

Investors were eyeing the firm for signs of slowing demand after revelation high-end chips not necessary, but found fewNvidia surpassed investor expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024 with a 78% jump in revenue year over year.The company reported $39.3bn in revenue, beating analyst projections of $38.25bn. It also reported $0.89 in earnings a share on Wednesday, beating expectations of $0.84. Continue reading...

Special adviser showed instinctive feel for authoritarianism as he addressed the president's first full cabinet meetingOn Tuesday, just over a mile from the White House, the classicist Mary Beard spoke to an audience about Roman emperors. An autocrat is somebody who kills you when he's being his most generous," she remarked. You go to dinner, you think, wow, this is wonderful! But the generosity of the autocrat is always potentially lethal."On Wednesday, Donald Trump held his first full cabinet meeting. The mood was warm and convivial and, some might say, generous. Housing secretary Scott Turner offered a prayer that included: Thank you, God, for President Trump." Continue reading...

Cross-party committees urge ministers to drop plans to force creators to opt out of works being used to train AITwo cross-party committees of MPs have urged the government to prioritise ensuring that creators are fairly remunerated for their creative work over making it easy to train artificial intelligence models.The MPs argued there needed to be more transparency around the vast amounts of data used to train generative AI models, and urged the government not to press ahead with plans to require creators to opt out of having their data used. Continue reading...

This attempt to discover the identity of the cryptocurrency's originator is clearly a labour of love. But all the information is old and it's so padded out it's the TV equivalent of a Zoom call that could have been an emailWho is Satoshi Nakamoto? It's a mystery that has vexed the internet since long before crypto went mainstream, via Silicon Valley bros and that weird period where celebrities got really into NFTs. Finding out the identity of the person who designed bitcoin - the decentralised, multitrillion-dollar currency - would be a big (and potentially dangerous) deal. Think WikiLeaks, if Julian Assange was also a potential kidnapping target with a handsome digital ransom fee. It is also - you may be unsurprised to hear - a mystery that this digital two-parter from Channel 4 does not get to the bottom of. At the outset, its journalist host, Gabriel Gatehouse (known for the BBC's Trump podcast, The Coming Storm), warns viewers that: The film you're about to watch - in fact, this whole series - consists almost entirely of middle-aged white guys talking about tech", as their middle-aged, white-guy faces flash up on screen. That wouldn't be so much of an issue if any of these cypherpunk" pioneers - or Gatehouse himself - had anything to say that hadn't already been debunked on Reddit.It's not the interviewees' fault. Gatehouse blames a possible omerta code for their silence, but with Satoshi potentially a target for all manner of cartels, criminals and governments, why would any of these computer scientists - namely fellow Briton Adam Back, who ducks and dives away from Gatehouse at a conference in Miami - give anything away? In lieu of revelations, we get an Adam Curtis-inspired visual treatment to distract us - all film noir clips juxtaposed with old cartoons and animations of faceless automatons marching in lockstep. Continue reading...

Its investment in indie darlings and big-name talent suggested the streamer wanted big stakes in the gaming industry, but layoffs, lousy ties-in and leadership changes suggest that is changingWhen Netflix first started adding video games to its huge catalogue of streaming TV shows and films, it did so quietly. In 2021, after releasing an impressive experiment with the idea of interactive film in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in 2018 and a free Stranger Things game in 2019, Netflix began expanding more fully into interactive entertainment.The streamer's gaming offering, for a long time, was its best-kept secret. Whoever was running it really had an eye for quality: award-winningly brilliant and relatively little-known indie games comprised the majority of its catalogue, alongside decent licensed games based on everything from The Queen's Gambit to the reality dating show Too Hot to Handle. Subscribers could play games such as Before Your Eyes, a brief and touching story about a life cut short; Spiritfarer, about guiding lost souls to rest and Into the Breach, a superb sci-fi strategy game with robots v aliens. The company bought or invested in several game studios known for making critically acclaimed work, including London-based Ustwo games (which was behind Monument Valley). It also established a studio in California to work on blockbuster games, staffed by veteran developers. Continue reading...

Government employees fight the Trump administration's chaos by organizing and publishing information on BlueskyAfter seeing Elon Musk's X post on Saturday afternoon about an email that would soon land in the inboxes of 2.3 million federal employees asking them to list five things they did the week before, a clandestine network of employees and contractors at dozens of federal agencies began talking on an encrypted app about how to respond.Employees on a four-day, 10-hours-a-day schedule wouldn't even see the email until Tuesday - past the deadline for responding - some noted. There was also a bit of snark: bonus points to anyone who responds that they spent their government subsidy on hookers and blow," one worker said. Continue reading...

Tech company blames phonetic overlap' for problem where US president's name appearsApple has promised to fix a bug in its iPhone automatic dictation tool after some users reported it had suggested to them Trump" when they said the word racist".The glitch was first highlighted in a viral post on TikTok, when the speech-to-text tool sometimes briefly flashed up the word Trump" when they said racist", and was later repeated by others on social media. Continue reading...

Survey of 1,000 students shows explosive increase' in use of generative AI in particular over past 12 monthsBritish universities have been warned to stress-test" all assessments after new research revealed almost all" undergraduates are using generative artificial intelligence (genAI) in their studies.A survey of 1,000 students - both domestic and international - found there had been an explosive increase" in the use of genAI in the past 12 months. Almost nine out of 10 (88%) in the 2025 poll said they used tools such as ChatGPT for their assessments, up from 53% last year. Continue reading...

Decision to shutter development studios comes as gamers cut back on new purchases and instead opt for proven titlesWarner Bros Discovery is shutting down three of its video game development studios in a move aimed at boosting profitability for its gaming division amid a sluggish recovery in the market, a spokesperson for the company's games unit said on Tuesday.The studios to be closed are Player First Games, WB Games San Diego and Monolith Productions. Development on Monolith's Wonder Woman game will also halt, following the shuttering. Continue reading...