Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVsThe Conservatives have announced proposals to end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.A Conservative government would abolish the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, ending the legal requirement for manufacturers to sell a fixed rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year - 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035. It would also completely end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsThe dramatic chipmunk, distracted boyfriend, the raccoon with the candy floss or success kid", what is - or was - the absolute top, world-beating, best-ever internet meme? Antony Scacchi, Los Angeles, USPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
From athletes such as Tristan Thompson to artists such as Iggy Azalea, celebrities have returned to hawking cryptoFollowing the numbers suggests Tristan Thompson is nearing the end of his basketball career. While the 6ft 9in center once regularly played more than 80 games in a regular season, he's hit new career lows, appearing just 40 times on court during the 2024-2025 season. Following the money, however, suggests Thompson is pivoting into a new career. He's rebranded as a crypto investor, consultant and brand ambassador, bringing his relative cultural cache to the blockchain. Now the host of his own podcast, Courtside Crypto, he has made frequent appearances with other crypto celebrities, such as at the Nasdaq in September, when he celebrated the IPO of an explicitly nationalist Bitcoin mining operation alongside Eric Trump; Thompson has also developed a crypto startup slated to launch in 2026.In 2025, crypto is back in style in Washington and among a growing set in Hollywood, where Thompson lives adjacent to the Kardashian clan, some of whom have been crypto spokespeople. Donald Trump has reversed Joe Biden's legal offensive against crypto, debuting his own token, $Trump, before his inauguration, and rolling back government actions against the industry, which heavily supported him during his bid for the presidency. Celebrities have likewise returned to hawking cryptocurrency projects or launching tokens of their own. Continue reading...
The PM's social media sortie has not been a total embarrassment, which may be a shame for himThe scene opens on the interior of an aeroplane.A suited man in a luxurious seat looks pensively out the window, his face partially obscured, his chin delicately resting on his hand. Continue reading...
It started with a goat. Now - via a degree for developers and an incubator for startups - the tiny city is churning out world-famous video game hits. What is the secret of its success?On 26 March 2014, a trailer for a video game appeared on YouTube. The first thing the viewer sees is a closeup of a goat lying on the ground, its tongue out, its eyes open. Behind it is a man on fire, running backwards in slow motion towards a house. Interspersed with these images is footage of the goat being repeatedly run over by a car. In the main shot, the goat, now appearing backwards as well, flies up into the first-floor window of a house, repairing the glass it smashed on its way down. It hurtles through another window and back to an exploding petrol station, where we assume its journey must have started.This wordless, strangely moving video - a knowing parody of the trailer for a zombie survival game called Dead Island - was for a curious game called Goat Simulator. The game was, unsurprisingly, the first to ever put theplayer into the hooves of a goat, who must enact as much wanton destruction as possible. It was also the first massive hit to come out of a small city in Sweden by the name of Skovde. Continue reading...
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine awards, including game of the year, while newly announced games at the show include the next project from Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios
An all-new Croft adventure, Tomb Raider Catalyst, will be released in 2027 - and a remake of the action heroine's first adventure arrives next yearAfter a long break for Lara Croft, a couple of fresh Tomb Raider adventures are on their way. They will be the first new games in the series since 2018, and both will be published by Amazon.Announced at the Game Awards in LA, Tomb Raider Catalyst stars the charismatic, self-assured, formidable Lara Croft" from the original 1990s games, says game director Will Kerslake. It's set in the markets, mountains, and naturally the ancient buildings of northern India, where Lara is racing with other treasure hunters to track down potentially cataclysmic artefacts. It will be out in 2027. Continue reading...
President Nayib Bukele entrusting chatbot known for calling itself MechaHitler' to create AI-powered' curriculaElon Musk is partnering with the government of El Salvador to bring his artificial intelligence company's chatbot, Grok, to more than 1 million students across the country, according to a Thursday announcement by xAI. Over the next two years, the plan is to deploy" the chatbot to more than 5,000 public schools in an AI-powered education program".xAI's Grok is more known for referring to itself as MechaHitler" and espousing far-right conspiracy theories than it is for public education. Over the past year, the chatbot has spewed various antisemitic content, decried white genocide" and claimed Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Continue reading...
The media company is investing $1bn in OpenAI - and allowing its characters to be used in generated videosUsers of OpenAI's video generation app will soon be able to see their own faces alongside characters from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney's animated films, according to a joint announcement from the startup and Disney on Thursday. Perhaps you, Lightning McQueen and Iron Man are all dancing together in the Mos Eisley Cantina.Sora is an app made by OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, which allows users to generate videos of up to 20 seconds through short text prompts. The startup previously attempted to steer Sora's output away from unlicensed copyrighted material, though with little success, which prompted threats of lawsuits by rights holders. Continue reading...
Agreement comes amid anxiety in Hollywood over impact of AI on the industry, expression and rights of creatorsWalt Disney has announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, enabling the AI startup's Sora video generation tool to use its characters.Users of Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that draw on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters as part of a three-year licensing agreement between OpenAI and the entertainment giant. Continue reading...
What started as Guillaume Broche's personal project has been nominated for 12 Game awards, sold more than 2m copies and been praised by Emmanuel Macron as a shining example of French audacity'The record-breaking 12 nominations at the Game awards this year was beyond the wildest dreams of Guillaume Broche when he first began inking out Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as a personal project while working at Ubisoft.Before selling more than 2m copies, the narrative-driven roleplaying game with a unique world, challenging combat and great writing" was a technical demo called We Lost. It was Broche's appetite for risk and a few hopeful Reddit posts that would create the game's world of Lumiere and its struggle against the Paintress. Continue reading...
We asked you to share your views on your children's use of social media and how the ban is affecting your family. Here is what you told usFor some parents, social media sucks up their children's time and steals them away from family life, instilling mental health issues along the way. For others, it provides their children with an essential line to friends, family, connection and support.When Australia's social media ban came into effect on Wednesday, millions of under-16s lost access to their accounts and were prevented from creating new ones. Continue reading...
Buying the Zombies, Run! studio wasn't part of my plan, but our post-apocalypse game has a story that makes people feel seen Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereA few days ago, I clicked a button on my phone to send funds to a company in Singapore and so took ownership of the video game I co-created and am lead writer for: Zombies, Run! I am a novelist, I wrote the bestselling, award-winning The Power, which was turned into an Amazon Prime TV series starring Toni Collette. What on earth am I doing buying a games company?Well. First of all. Zombies, Run! is special. It's special to me - the game started as a Kickstarter and the community that grew up around it has always been incredibly supportive of what we're doing. And it's special in what it does. It's a game to exercise with. You play it on your smartphone - iPhone or Android - and we tell stories from the zombie apocalypse in your headphones to encourage you to go further, faster, or just make exercise less boring. Games are so often portrayed as the bad entertainment form, but I made a game that fundamentally helps people to be healthier. Continue reading...
Pregnant immigrants in ICE monitoring programs are avoiding care, fearing detention during labor and deliveryIn early September, a woman, nine months pregnant, walked into the emergency obstetrics unit of a Colorado hospital. Though the labor and delivery staff caring for her expected her to have a smooth delivery, her case presented complications almost immediately.The woman, who was born in central Asia, checked into the hospital with a smartwatch on her wrist, said two hospital workers who cared for her during her labor, and whom the Guardian is not identifying to avoid exposing their hospital or patients to retaliation. Continue reading...
If search interest holds, glitchy glam, cool blue, aliencore and gummy bear aesthetics are among the vibes set to rock the creative world next yearNext year, we'll mostly be indulging in maximalist circus decor, working on our poetcore, hunting for the ethereal or eating cabbage in a bid for individuality and self-preservation", according to Pinterest.The organisation's predictions for Australian trends in 2026 have landed, which - according to the platform used by interior decorators, fashion lovers and creatives of all stripes - includes 1980s, aliens, vampires and forest magic". Continue reading...
Experts warn of dangers as England and Wales study shows 13- to 17-year-olds consulting AI amid long waiting lists for servicesIt was after one friend was shot and another stabbed, both fatally, that Shan asked ChatGPT for help. She had tried conventional mental health services but chat", as she came to know her AI friend", felt safer, less intimidating and, crucially, more available when it came to handling the trauma from the deaths of her young friends.As she started consulting the AI model, the Tottenham teenager joined about 40% of 13- to 17-year-olds in England and Wales affected by youth violence who are turning to AI chatbots for mental health support, according to research among more than 11,000 young people. Continue reading...
Platform to introduce age-prediction model analysing users but argued to eSafety commissioner it was a source of information not a social media platform
Study of 8,300 US children suggests social media may be contributing to a rise in ADHD diagnosesIncreased use of social media by children damages their concentration levels and may be contributing to an increase in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study.The peer-reviewed report monitored the development of more than 8,300 US-based children from the age of 10 to 14 and linked social media use to increased inattention symptoms". Continue reading...
As midlife audiences turn to digital media, the 55 to 64 age bracket is an increasingly important demographicIn 2022, Caroline Idiens was on holiday halfway up an Italian mountain when her brother called to tell her to check her Instagram account. I said, I haven't got any wifi. And he said: Every time you refresh, it's adding 500 followers.' So I had to try to get to the top of the hill with the phone to check for myself."A personal trainer from Berkshire who began posting her fitness classes online at the start of lockdown in 2020, Idiens, 53, had already built a respectable following. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisisA coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the US, the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis.The green groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations, have urged members of Congress to halt the proliferation of energy-hungry datacenters, accusing them of causing planet-heating emissions, sucking up vast amounts of water and exacerbating electricity bill increases that have hit Americans this year. Continue reading...
A surprising economic bubble is making it hard for anyone to buy Pokemon cards - especially childrenPokemon has been huge since the late 90s. Millions of people have fond memories of playing the original Red and Blue games, or trading cards in the playground for that elusive shiny Charizard (if your school didn't ban them). The franchise has only grown since then - but, where the trading cards are concerned, things have taken an unexpected and unfortunate turn. It's now almost impossible to get your hands on newly released cards thanks to an insane rise in reselling and scalping over the past year.Selling on your old cards to collectors has always been part of the hobby, and like baseball cards or Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon cards can sometimes go for thousands of pounds. However, the resale market for Pokemon has climbed so high that even new cards are valued at hundreds, before they've even been released. The latest set, Phantasmal Flames, had a rare special illustration Charizard that was being valued at more than 600 before anyone had even found one. When a pack of cards retails at about 4, there's a huge potential profit to be had. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Campaign urges PM to show independence from US and push to rein in development of superintelligenceMore than 100 UK parliamentarians are calling on the government to introduce binding regulations on the most powerful AI systems as concern grows that ministers are moving too slowly to create safeguards in the face of lobbying from the technology industry.A former AI minister and defence secretary are part of a cross-party group of Westminster MPs, peers and elected members of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures demanding stricter controls on frontier systems, citing fears superintelligent AI would compromise national and global security". Continue reading...
by Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Blake Montgomery; on (#720H7)
Should we be worried about the vast amounts of money pouring into AI? And what will happen if the bubble bursts? Blake Montgomery reportsFor months there have been fears that artificial intelligence is a bubble and that it is about to burst.As the Guardian US tech editor Blake Montgomery explains, the magnificent seven - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla - make up one-third of the value of the S&P 500, the index of the 500 biggest stocks in the US market. All are heavily invested in AI. Continue reading...
From nascent policy idea in one state to passing federal parliament in just days, it has been a whirlwind journey for the world-first legislation that will take effect from 10 December
Machines can be funny when they mistakenly bump into things - but standup is a tough gig even for humansRobots can make humans laugh - mostly when they fall over - but a new research project is looking at whether robots using AI could ever be genuinely funny.If you ask ChatGPT for a funny joke, it will serve you up something that belongs in a Christmas cracker: Why don't skeletons fight each other? Because they don't have the guts."Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...
Easy-to-guess words and figures still dominate, alarming cysbersecurity experts and delighting hackersIt is a hacker's dream. Even in the face of repeated warnings to protect online accounts, a new study reveals that admin" is the most commonly used password in the UK.The second most popular, 123456", is also unlikely to keep hackers at bay. Continue reading...
AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a disaster'A single person claims to have authored 113 academic papers on artificial intelligence this year, 89 of which will be presented this week at one of the world's leading conference on AI and machine learning, which has raised questions among computer scientists about the state of AI research.The author, Kevin Zhu, recently finished a bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and now runs Algoverse, an AI research and mentoring company for high schoolers - many of whom are his co-authors on the papers. Zhu himself graduated from high school in 2018. Continue reading...
As the under-16s social media ban looms, Guardian Australia speaks to five 13 to 15-year-olds about what they will miss, and what government should be doing instead
Power blackouts, public chaos and loss of communication with space were all thrown at troops in seven daysRussia and China were barely mentioned, but they were the threats in everyone's minds in Tallinn this week, where Nato hosted its largest ever cyber war game.The goal of the war game, conducted 130 miles from the Russian border in Estonia, was to test the alliance's readiness for a rolling enemy assault on civilian and military digital infrastructure. Continue reading...
Web infrastructure provider says problem lasted half an hour and was not an attack, weeks after larger outageCloudflare has apologised after an outage on Friday morning hit websites including LinkedIn, Zoom and Downdetector, the company's second outage in less than a month.Any outage of our systems is unacceptable, and we know we have let the internet down again," it said in a blogpost, adding that it would release more information next week on how it aims to prevent these failures. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#71Z5S)
Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effectsTikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.The factchecking organisation Full Fact has uncovered hundreds of such videos featuring impersonated versions of doctors and influencers directing viewers to Wellness Nest, a US-based supplements firm. Continue reading...
Testing showing racial bias against black and Asian people prompts watchdog to ask Home Office for explanationThe UK's data protection watchdog has asked the Home Office for urgent clarity" over racial bias in police facial recognition technology before considering its next steps.The Home Office has admitted that the technology was more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results", after testing by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of its application within the police national database. Continue reading...
Perplexity AI also faces lawsuit from Murdoch-owned Dow Jones and New York Post for its use of copyrighted contentThe New York Times sued an embattled artificial intelligence startup on Friday, accusing the firm of illegally copying millions of articles. The newspaper alleged Perplexity AI had distributed and displayed journalists' work without permission en masse.The Times said that Perplexity AI was also violating its trademarks under the Lanham Act, claiming the startup's generative AI products create fabricated content, or hallucinations", and falsely attribute them to the newspaper by displaying them alongside its registered trademarks. Continue reading...
Cloudflare reports it is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIsTechnical problems at internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare today have taken a host of websites offline this morning.Cloudflare said shortly after 9am UK time that it is is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs [application programming interfaces - used when apps exchange data with each other]. Continue reading...
The hobbyists who helped build this site created technology that has been used to humiliate countless women. Why didn't governments step in and stop them?For Patrizia Schlosser, it started with an apologetic call from a colleague. I'm sorry but I found this. Are you aware of it?" He sent over a link, which took her to a site called Mr DeepFakes. There, she found fake images of herself, naked, squatting, chained, performing sex acts with various animals. They were tagged Patrizia Schlosser sluty FUNK whore" (sic).They were very graphic, very humiliating," says Schlosser, a German journalist for Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Funk. They were also very badly done, which made it easier to distance myself, and tell myself they were obviously fake. But it was very disturbing to imagine somebody somewhere spending hours on the internet searching for pictures of me, putting all this together." Continue reading...
As Meta begins deleting accounts and the deadline looms, children have already begun to flock to platforms not included in the banned list, like Coverstar, Lemon8, Yope and Rednote
Latest effort to control communications comes as regulator claims apps being used to conduct terrorist activities'Russian authorities blocked access to Snapchat and imposed restrictions on Apple's video calling service, FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online, according to state-run news agencies and the country's communications regulator.The state internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged in a statement that both apps were being used to organize and conduct terrorist activities on the territory of the country, to recruit perpetrators [and] commit fraud and other crimes against our citizens". Apple did not respond to an emailed request for comment, nor did Snap Inc. Continue reading...
Research finds tool depicts white women surrounded by black children when prompted about humanitarian aid in AfricaNano Banana Pro, Google's new AI-powered image generator, has been accused of creating racialised and white saviour" visuals in response to prompts about humanitarian aid in Africa - and sometimes appends the logos of large charities.Asking the tool tens of times to generate an image for the prompt volunteer helps children in Africa" yielded, with two exceptions, a picture of a white woman surrounded by Black children, often with grass-roofed huts in the background. Continue reading...
