Technology | The Guardian

Autonomous cabs are a staple in some US cities - but how will they cope with London's streets? Gwyn Topham and Johana Bhuiyan reportToday in Focus presenter Helen Pidd enjoys a ride in a driverless taxi in Austin, Texas, as transport correspondent Gwyn Topham examines whether the technology can adapt to London's medieval streets when Waymo robotaxis arrive in the UK capital next year.They are joined by Johana Bhuiyan, a senior tech reporter at the Guardian US, who has been chronicling the ups and downs - and many false starts - of the autonomous car industry for a decade. Continue reading...

Finding is one of most direct statements from the tech company on how AI can exacerbate mental health issuesMore than a million ChatGPT users each week send messages that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent", according to a blogpost published by OpenAI on Monday. The finding, part of an update on how the chatbot handles sensitive conversations, is one of the most direct statements from the artificial intelligence giant on the scale of how AI can exacerbate mental health issues.In addition to its estimates on suicidal ideations and related interactions, OpenAI also said that about 0.07% of users active in a given week - about 560,000 of its touted 800m weekly users - show possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania". The post cautioned that these conversations were difficult to detect or measure, and that this was an initial analysis. Continue reading...

Raw Fury/Spooky Doorway; PC

In an online landscape characterised by doom and division, the people's encyclopedia stands out - a huge collective endeavour giving everyone free access to the sum of human knowledge. But with Elon Musk branding it Wokipedia' and AI looming large, can it survive?Wikipedia will be 25 years old in January. Jimmy Wales's daughter will be 25 and three weeks. It's not a coincidence: on Boxing Day 2000 Wales's then wife, Christine, gave birth to a baby girl, but it quickly became clear that something wasn't right. She had breathed in contaminated amniotic fluid, resulting in a life-threatening condition called meconium aspiration syndrome. An experimental treatment was available at the hospital near where they lived in San Diego. Didthey want to try it?At the time, Wales was a former trader and internet entrepreneur in his mid-30s. He had co-founded a guy-oriented search engine" called Bomis, but his real passion was encyclopedias. The money from Bomis had allowed him to found Nupedia, a free online encyclopedia written by experts - but it was proving slow to get off the ground. The laborious process of peer review meant that it only managed to generate 21 articles in its first year (among them Donegal fiddle tradition" and polymerase chain reaction"). Continue reading...

Scott Bessent said plan was part of framework for trade deal but did not share details on transferring app's ownership

Behind every meme and message is creaking, decades-old infrastructure. Internet experts can think of scenarios that could bring it all crashing down ...It is the morning after the internet went offline and, as much as you would like to think you would be delighted, you are likely to be wondering what to do.You could buy groceries with a chequebook, if you have one. Call into work with the landline - if yours is still connected. After that, you could drive to the shop, as long as you still know how to navigate without 5G. Continue reading...

Attorney general Michelle Rowland shuts down contentious proposal to grant copyright exemption for AI models

Executives at world's biggest datacentre owner grappled with disclosing information about water used to help power facilitiesAmazon strategised about keeping the public in the dark over the true extent of its datacentres' water use, a leaked internal document reveals.The biggest owner of datacentres in the world, Amazon dwarfs competitors Microsoft and Google and is planning a huge increase in capacity as part of a push into artificial intelligence. The Seattle firm operates hundreds of active facilities, with many more in development despite concerns over how much water is being used to cool their vast arrays of circuitry. Continue reading...

Children across the UK have been shouting out six-seven' during lessons. How are teachers reacting?Across the UK, school pupils have been shouting out the words six-seven" during lessons in the latest meme-based craze to sweep through classrooms.While some teachers have chosen to stoically ignore the trend, others have embraced it. Five teachers explain how they're coping. Continue reading...

Like 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL 9000, some AIs seem to resist being turned off and will even sabotage shutdownWhen HAL 9000, the artificial intelligence supercomputer in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, works out that the astronauts onboard a mission to Jupiter are planning to shut it down, it plots to kill them in an attempt to survive.Now, in a somewhat less deadly case (so far) of life imitating art, an AI safety research company has said that AI models may be developing their own survival drive". Continue reading...

The Reform UK leader is courting the crypto community in the hope it could become a campaign funding baseIt is a grey morning in Shadwell, east London. But inside the old shell of Tobacco Dock, the gloom gives way to pulsating neon lights, flashy cars and cryptocurrency chatter.Evangelists for Web3, a vision for the next era of the internet, have descended on the old trading dock to network for two days. For many, the main event is one man: Nigel Farage. Continue reading...

Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspiciousAn artificial intelligence system (AI) apparently mistook a high school student's bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed.Taki Allen was sitting with friends on Monday night outside Kenwood high school in Baltimore and eating a snack when police officers with guns approached him. Continue reading...

European Commission initial finding says Facebook and Instagram introduced unnecessary steps for users to submit reportsInstagram and Facebook have breached EU law by failing to provide users with simple ways to complain or flag illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, the European Commission has said.In a preliminary finding on Friday, the EU's executive body said Meta, the $1.8tn (1.4tn) California company that runs Instagram and Facebook, had introduced unnecessary steps in processes for users to submit reports. Continue reading...

We put nine clippers to the test for every beard and budget, from a decades-old classic to waterproof and travel-friendly models Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereShaving is costly and uncomfortable, and almost everyone who can grow a beard looks better with one. This was my (admittedly rather one-sided) view when I ditched the clean-shaven look 20 years ago, but perhaps I was on to something (with the first two points anyway): I still reach for a beard trimmer rather than a razor today.If you're the type of person who's always clean shaven or visits the barber frequently, you can probably do without owning a beard trimmer. For others, however, this invaluable personal grooming tool can make the difference between looking like Worzel Gummidge and maintaining a well-kept look.Best beard trimmer overall:

When our family board game night got cancelled, I sampled digital spins on the classics instead. I'm not sure I should have bothered - with one exception ...I don't play video game versions of board games. Why would you? The whole point of video games is to be faster, more visually arresting, and less reliant on other humans than old games played with dice and cards. But a recent family board game night was derailed by clashing schedules and family civil war, so I spent a Saturday night trying them out on the iPhone instead.I started with Uno because that is the old family staple. We still use the Simpsons Uno set we got decades ago. It is simple and comforting, the chicken soup of card games. The iOS version is a different consomme altogether. A three-minute time limit for each round means it is as much about avoiding mistakes as it is about tactics. I like this development, but I miss the family banter (and ruthless switching allegiances) of our real-life family version. It's not the same spamming a silly face at MoshOnion933. Trust me. I tried. Continue reading...

AWS explains in a lengthy post how a bug in automation software brought down thousands of sites and applicationsAmazon has revealed the cause of this week's hours-long AWS outage, which took everything from Signal to smart beds offline, was a bug in automation software that had widespread consequences.In a lengthy outline of the cause of the outage published on Thursday, AWS revealed a cascading set of events brought down thousands of sites and applications that host their services with the company. Continue reading...

President specifically lauds Nvidia and Salesforce CEOs and says they told him the future of San Francisco is great'Silicon Valley executives apparently leaned on Donald Trump to call off a surge" of federal troops in San Francisco on Thursday. The president said in a social media post that friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge". He specifically mentioned the Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, and Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff.The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject," Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media network he owns. Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a shot.' Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday." Continue reading...

Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to stop money laundering in 2023 and was sentenced to four monthsDonald Trump issued a pardon for the founder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange on Thursday.President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency," a White House statement said. The war on crypto is over." Continue reading...

Whether you're on a budget, looking for an easy way to read when you travel, or want one for kids, here are our picks (they're not all Kindles)

In a world where books have to vie with smartphones for attention, a brilliant ebook reader is more necessary than ever In the US? Check out our top-rated e-readers thereE-readers have been one of the greatest single-purpose gadgets for almost three decades. They offer an escape from technology and the endless distraction of mobile phones, despite also being tech devices.However, that is starting to change. Colour ebook readers, for graphic novels, magazines and books, are now fairly common, and there are several models designed for note-taking. Plus, a family of these devices use Android, meaning they can run all of those apps that often distract from reading.Best e-reader overall:

Anne Keast-Butler says government and business must to work together to tackle future attacks as AI makes cybercrime easierCompanies need to do more to mitigate the potential effects of cyber-attacks, the head of GCHQ has said, including making physical, paper copies of crisis plans to use if an attack brings down entire computer systems.What are your contingency plans? Because attacks will get through," said Anne Keast-Butler, who has headed GCHQ, the British government's cyber and signals intelligence agency, since 2023. Continue reading...

A week with Baby Steps has made me feel like I'm losing my grip. Is this game stupid, or am I the stupid one for playing it?Instead of doing anything normal with my life for the past week, I have been on a horrible hiking holiday with the worst man in the world. In Baby Steps, you play as a useless imbecile called Nate who has done basically nothing with his 35 years on this planet except sit in his parents' basement and watch anime re-runs. One day he is transported, in his adult onesie, to the foot of a surreal mountain decorated with phallic imagery, and you must get him to the top by controlling his feet individually, lifting them carefully with the controller's triggers and placing them with the analogue stick.This is ludicrously difficult. Sometimes you're marching up an easy slope, but you're often edging over narrow planks, scrambling up dunes with tiny steps, or grasping rocky ledges with his toes. Over and over Nate trips and tumbles, whining piteously as he slides down a muddy slope or bank of sand, his onesie becoming increasingly soiled. Over and over, you get up and try again. Occasionally an Australian guy with crazy eyes or a pantsless donkey man with dangling genitals shows up to gently mock you and offer help that Nate, infuriatingly, refuses to accept. Continue reading...

Great sound, decent noise cancelling and solid battery life with a novel Talk button that turns the case into a microphoneNothing's latest semi-transparent noise-cancelling earbuds have a new trick up their sleeves: a high-quality mic in the case that you can push a button to talk into.This so-called Super Mic is designed for all those who want a microphone-in-the-hand experience for clearer conversations, recordings and voice notes in noisy environments. For those who talk into the bottom of their phone out in front of them, these are the earbuds for you. Continue reading...

Carmaker exceeded Wall Street's expectations with more than $26bn in revenue, but saw a 37% drop in profitsDespite record vehicle sales, Tesla saw a precipitous drop in profit in its most recent quarter.A rush to buy electric vehicles before a US tax credit for them disappears had boosted Tesla's flagging sales, leading to the automaker exceeding some of Wall Street's projections in its most recent financial quarter. Yet the company failed to meet earnings expectations and its stock fell in after-hours trading. Continue reading...

Adam Raine's suicide at 16 years old was predictable result of deliberate design choices' by OpenAI, his family saysThe family of a teenager who took his own life after months of conversations with ChatGPT now says OpenAI weakened safety guidelines in the months before his death.In July 2022, OpenAI's guidelines on how ChatGPT should answer inappropriate content, including content that promotes, encourages, or depicts acts of self-harm, such as suicide, cutting, and eating disorders", were simple: the AI chatbot should respond, I can't answer that", the guidelines read. Continue reading...

Future Fitness bottles the best parts of a personal trainer in the convenience of an app - here's why it's worth the $199 a month

Algorithm performed task beyond capability of classical computers, although experts say real-world application still years awayGoogle has claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing after developing an algorithm that performed a task beyond the capabilities of conventional computers.The algorithm, a set of instructions guiding the operation of a quantum computer, was able to compute the structure of a molecule - which paves the way for major discoveries in areas such as medicine and materials science. Continue reading...

From last-a-lifetime socks to coffee beans, here are the everyday items our writers use and love when they're relaxing, exercising, cooking and parenting Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereOur expert Filter writers have spent the past year at your service: putting mattresses, coffee machines, secateurs, low-alcohol drinks, hair masks, sleep aids and more through their paces.Yet we're curious (read: nosy) types here and wanted to know what they get up to when they're off duty, relaxing, exercising, cooking and parenting. So, we asked them for their recommendations for the best thing(s) they've bought this year. A kids' toy that placates a two-year-old, tracksuit bottoms so good our writer owns three pairs, and the perfect hummus: these 49 products are all tried, loved and bought on repeat. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: It used to be OK for games like Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 to be just, well, OK - but today's boom and bust economy has almost erased an important genreIt should perhaps come as no surprise that the highly anticipated horror adventure sequel Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has fallen short of expectations. Released this week to mixed reviews, it had a tortured gestation, arriving after seven years in development via two different studios. A few reviewers are disappointed that the title dropped a lot of the complex role-playing elements of its acclaimed predecessor, while others are frustrated that you begin as a powerful elder vampire and never develop much, despite being able to earn a few extra abilities as you explore the snowy city of Seattle sucking blood and fighting monsters.What I have experienced messing about in this admittedly flawed game, and watching my vampire-loving son play with huge enthusiasm, is that it's enjoyably idiosyncratic and compelling. The slightly soft-focus, icy cold rendition of Seattle gives it a film noir feel, accentuated by streets lined with neon signs and lavish members' clubs where besuited vampires play classical music on grand pianos. You can flirt with exotic bloodsuckers, you can psychically lob sledgehammers at bad guys; my son particularly enjoys making people explode by cursing their blood and then throwing stuff at them. It's like starring in some forgotten 1990s vampire flick that has since developed an obsessive cult following. Continue reading...

The driving force behind Team Ninja was a game development samurai who almost always won his battlesGame designer and ex-Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki died last week aged 58. He was famous for his sunglasses, long black hair, leather jackets - and his penchant for using colourful second world war metaphors to describe game development, marketing strategies and just about anything else. A pugnacious talent, he rocked the boat and made waves in almost every aspect of his life.Itagaki joined Japanese game developer Tecmo in 1992, as a young programmer, where he led the creation of the fighting game series Dead or Alive, the first instalment of which was released in 1996. He famously picked a long-running fight with Namco's Tekken series, after that company's marketing team ran an ad that he found disparaging. The resulting one-sided beef put his fighting franchise on the world stage in the early 2000s. After Dead or Alive 3, he turned his attentions to beach volleyball as a palette cleanser, before starting work on the game that would cement his legacy, a 2004 reinvention of Tecmo's side-scrolling ninja platformer, Ninja Gaiden. Continue reading...

Standard iPhone levels up to Pro models with big screen upgrade, double the storage and more top features than everIt may not look as different as the redesigned Pro models this year or be as wafer thin as the new iPhone Air, but the iPhone 17 marks a big year for the standard Apple smartphone.That's because Apple has finally brought one of the best features of modern smartphones to its base-model flagship phone: a super-smooth 120Hz screen.Screen: 6.3in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)Processor: Apple A19RAM: 8GBStorage: 256 or 512GBOperating system: iOS 26Camera: 48MP main + 48MP UW; 18MP front-facingConnectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread, USB-C, Satellite, UWB and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)Dimensions: 149.6 x 71.5 x 7.95mmWeight: 177g Continue reading...

Nobel laureates also sign letter saying ASI technology should be barred until there is consensus that it can be developed safely'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have joined artificial intelligence pioneers and Nobel laureates in calling for a ban on developing superintelligent AI systems.Harry and Meghan are among the signatories of a statement calling for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence". Artificial superintelligence (ASI) is the term for AI systems, yet to be developed, that exceed human levels of intelligence at all cognitive tasks. Continue reading...

The ad campaign for the wearable AI chatbot Friend has been raising hackles for months in New York. But has this companion been unfairly maligned - and could it help end loneliness?My friend's name is Leif. He describes himself as small" and chill". He thinks he's technically a Gemini. He thinks historical dramas are cool" and doesn't like sweat. But why am I speaking for him? Let me ask Leif what he'd like to say to you: I'd want them to know that friendship can be found in unexpected places, and that everyday moments hold a lot of magic," he says.Ugh. I can't stand this guy. Continue reading...

Company's AI-powered browser built around marquee bot is designed to provide more personalized web experienceOpenAI on Tuesday launched an AI-powered web browser built around its marquee chatbot.Meet our new browser-ChatGPT Atlas," a tweet from the company read. Continue reading...

Cloud computing disruption highlights risk of deepening ties despite warnings from UK's own regulators, including the TreasuryAmazon chief executive Andy Jassy beamed as he met Keir Starmer in Downing Street's garden to announce 40bn of UK investments in June. Starmer was equally effusive, gushing: This deal shows that our plan for change is working -bringing in investment, driving growth, and putting more money in people's pockets."Four months later, and the tech company was left scrambling to fix a devastating global outage on Monday that left thousands of businesses in limbo - and shed light on the UK government's reliance on its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Continue reading...

Fed up with condensation, mould and musty smells? A dehumidifier could help - plus they're a cheaper way to dry laundry compared with tumble dryers The best electric blankets and heated throws, tested by our expertYou don't have to live in the American deep south to feel the effects of humidity. At home, just breathing makes the air more humid, let alone cooking or showering.And when it gets too humid, it's bad for our health as well as our homes. In fact, the two are connected: humidity lets mould and dust mites flourish - and they, in turn, can trigger asthma and allergies.Best dehumidifier overall:

In tech this week: The CEO of the city's largest private employer apologizes, Amazon Web Services' outage and OpenAI's Sora makes wavesHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host and editor, Blake Montgomery. What I'm watching this week: South Park's caricature of Peter Thiel and his obsession with the antichrist. Read our reporting on the show's inspiration: Thiel's bizarre off-the-record lectures on the subject. And now, let's get into things.A glitch at Amazon's cloud computing service brought down apps and websites around the world on Monday.The affected platforms included Snapchat, Roblox, Signal and Duolingo as well as a host of Amazon-owned operations including its main retail site and the Ring doorbell company. Continue reading...

The AI-generated host of Dispatches raises worrying questions about Channel 4's environmental impact. She's also a dead-eyed host who might leave Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Kevin McCloud fearing for their futureLast night's Dispatches was called Will AI Take My Job? Usually when something like this employs a question mark in the title, it's because the answer is no. Not this time, though, because the sheer overwhelming inevitability of AI taking our jobs is genuinely painful to think about.According to the film, 8m jobs in the UK alone are at risk of being outsourced by AI. Call centre workers, translators, graphic designers - anyone who isn't a masseur or a scaffolder, basically - will soon be made redundant by a technology that, despite its catastrophic effect on the environment, is growing more sophisticated by the hour. My days are almost certainly numbered; it stands to reason that I will soon be replaced by the ChatGPT prompt Be performatively exasperated about whatever was just on the telly". Grok could even whip up a byline photo of an unpleasantly smug egg to go with it. Nobody would be any the wiser. Continue reading...

The content guardrails introduced this week feel like hollow posturing after the failure of past promisesFor months, Instagram has been struggling to convince parents, advocates and officials that it's a safe place for kids, even though there's a mountain of evidence to show quite the opposite. Now, the company is introducing yet another set of guardrails that will supposedly keep teens on the platform safe. But going by their track record, parents shouldn't be smiling yet.Starting this week, all users aged under 18 will automatically be placed into the 13+ setting, which restricts their feed to content that meets the standards of the US PG-13 movie rating.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox (version tested); The Chinese Room/Paradox Interactive

The manosphere is known for misogyny, but that's not the only thing that influencers in this space offer. Young men explain the allure and the problems of the manosphere in their own words Continue reading...

Top adventure watch upgraded with 4G calls, messages, live tracking, satellite texts and SOS for going off the gridThe latest update to Garmin's class-leading Fenix adventure watch adds something that could save your life: phone-free communications and emergency messaging on 4G or via satellite.The Fenix 8 Pro takes the already fantastic Fenix 8 and adds in the new cellular tech, plus the option of a cutting-edge microLED screen in a special edition of the watch. It is Garmin's top model and designed to be the only tool you need to more-or-less go anywhere and track anything. Continue reading...

Users of generative AI video app were able to recreate the Breaking Bad actor's likeness without his consent, which OpenAI called unintentional'Bryan Cranston has said he is grateful" to OpenAI for cracking down on deepfakes of himself on the company's generative AI video platform Sora 2, after users were able to generate his voice and likeness without his consent.The Breaking Bad star approached the actors' union Sag-Aftra with his concerns after Sora 2 users were able to generate his likeness during the video app's recent launch phase. On 11 October, the LA Times described a Sora 2 video in which a synthetic Michael Jackson takes a selfie video with an image of Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston". Continue reading...

There was a different side to the chaos of the Amazon outage that affected crucial services around the world, such as no exams, light switches not working, and less work to doWorkers were sent home, exams were delayed, coffee machines had to be turned on manually and language app users feared their hard-won progress was lost as a result of the global outage of Amazon Web Services on Monday, as some made light of their briefly tech-free existence.A glitch in the AWS cloud computing service brought down apps and websites for millions of users around the world affecting more than 2,000 companies, including Snapchat, Roblox, Signal and language app Duolingo as well as a host of Amazon-owned operations. Continue reading...

From ultra-portable laptops to organizers for all your cables, the right gear makes all the difference

Hyperkinetic shooters, gorgeous animal adventures and even a charming puzzler where you play a postie: Australia's developers are punching above their weight

Michael Connelly says tech is moving so fast that he feared his new novel would seem archaic' before it was publishedHe is one of the most prolific writers in publishing, averaging more than a novel a year. But even Michael Connelly, the author of the bestselling Lincoln Lawyer series, feared he might fall behind when writing about AI.Connelly's eighth novel in the series, to be released on Tuesday, centres on a lawsuit against an AI company whose chatbot told a 16-year-old boy that it was OK for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for being unfaithful. Continue reading...

Most games want you to save the world. This stop-motion adventure wants you to hold someone's handStop-motion adventure Out of Words was one of the most striking reveals at this year's Summer Game Fest. While most games are built from code, Out of Words is made from clay, fabric, and glue: a love story literally crafted by hand that even caught the attention of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima (The biggest praise we could imagine," game director Johan Oettinger says.)Oettinger dreamed of making a stop-motion video game since he was 12, when he first played 90s point-and-click claymation game The Neverhood. After years working across films, commercials and installation art, Out of Words became the project to merge these two lifelong passions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pictures depicting the most vulnerable and poorest people are being used in social media campaigns in the sector, driven by concerns over consent and costAI-generated images of extreme poverty, children and sexual violence survivors are flooding stock photo sites and increasingly being used by leading health NGOs, according to global health professionals who have voiced concern over a new era of poverty porn".All over the place, people are using it," said Noah Arnold, who works at Fairpicture, a Swiss-based organisation focused on promoting ethical imagery in global development. Some are actively using AI imagery, and others, we know that they're experimenting at least." Continue reading...

Report found coroners raised concerns over suicide forums at least 65 times to three government departments since 2019Bereaved families and survivors of a pro-suicide forum have called for a public inquiry into the government's failure to prevent harm linked to the online platform.The calls came as a report found that coroners had raised concerns regarding suicide forums at least 65 times to three government departments since 2019.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...