Technology | The Guardian

PC, PS5, Xbox; Konami

Intimate image abuse is a crisis in the UK - with a fortyfold increase in calls to this service since it opened in 2015. Thankfully, there are effective ways to help those being victimisedBy midday, Jessica has dealt with five calls from highly distressed young women in their 20s, all close to tears or crying at the start of the conversations. She absorbs their alarm calmly, prompting them with questions, making sympathetic noises into her headset as she digests the situation. Are these images sexual in nature?" she asks the last woman she speaks to before lunch. Do you want to tell me a bit about what happened?" She begins compiling a tidy set of bullet points in ballpoint pen. It's all right. Take your time."Jessica is sitting on a bank of desks with three other women, responding to calls to the Revenge Porn Helpline. For the past decade, the helpline has been offering advice to callers whose partners or exes have uploaded nude images or footage of them without their consent. It's a shocking time for you. I'm so sorry to hear what happened," she says, as the caller explains that, just a few hours earlier, an ex-partner messaged her to tell her he had decided to post videos of them having sex on the OnlyFans website. Continue reading...

Levies and restrictions could hit UK's digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and Spain

Cofounder with Michael Samadi of AI rights campaign group Ufair says it should watch over the technology in case an AI becomes conscious

As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient

Unclaimed suitcases were once destined for landfill. Now people are suitcase gambling' - bidding for bags and their unknown contents, and diving deep into strangers' livesA yellow suitcase draws me in like a beacon. It is stacked on a dark shelf at the back of Greasby's auction house in Tooting, south London, and looks brand new, with a hard exterior and wheels that Richard Stacey, a Greasby's regular who is dressed in shorts, a plaid shirt and a cream bucket hat, tells me to test. So I test them - and they work. If I was just buying a bag, that is all I would need to know. But this isn't just a bag: the zip is locked and when I lift it, it is heavy. This yellow suitcase is filled with a stranger's lost belongings. And I won't find out what is inside unless I submit a winning bid.I write down the lot number, 281, and my bid of 70 on a form, along with four other bids - for a larger black bag that is filled to the brim; a sensible blue suitcase with a compass in the handle that I expect belongs to someone older; a small wheelie in Louis Vuitton-like check; and a smart piece of hand luggage that I assume must be a businessperson's. In all, I bid 250 for five suitcases - way too much - but Stacey has been to the auction house 10 times before, and tells me I probably won't win if I bid less than 40 on each. Continue reading...

The Tor network's privacy architecture creates a safe haven for predators to share child sexual abuse materialMillions of child predators are forming sprawling online communities on the dark web using the Tor network, where criminal behavior escalates through the sharing of child sexual abuse material, grooming strategies and normalization of exploitation, experts say. Despite repeated warnings of a growing number of predators taking advantage of it, Tor's developers have taken no action to curb the spread of this content, critics say.The Tor (the onion router") network is an anonymity-focused internet system that routes traffic through a global web of volunteer-run servers to obscure users' identities and locations. By encrypting data in multiple layers - like that of an onion - Tor makes digital activity difficult to trace. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Deal that could have cost 2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam AltmanThe boss of the firm behind ChatGPT and the UK technology secretary discussed a multibillion-pound deal to give the entire country premium access to the AI tool, the Guardian has learned.Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, talked to Peter Kyle about a potential agreement to give UK residents access to its advanced product. Continue reading...

Shares in US tech stocks are falling but it would probably be unwise for fund managers to pull outThere are growing fears of an imminent stock market crash - one that will transform from a dip to a dive when euphoric headlines about the wonders of artificial intelligence begin to wane.Shares in US tech stocks have fallen in recent weeks and the prospect is that a flood of negative numbers will become the norm before the month is out. Continue reading...

Academic says sample size was too small to claim new sensitivity guidelines have removed racial, gender or age biasThe Metropolitan police's claims that their use of live facial recognition is bias-free are not substantiated by the report they cite to support their case, a leading expert on the technology has said.The Met is planning its biggest and most high profile use of LFR yet this bank holiday weekend at Notting Hill carnival in west London. Continue reading...

Former Lib Dem leader and Meta strategist writes in new book that power in tech capital is interlaced with self pity'

New wave of content creators say they hope to increase pay transparency by questioning people in the streetWould you be prepared to tell a stranger how much you earn and let them broadcast it all over the internet?For better or worse, it used to be the case that pretty much the only people who knew your salary were you, your boss and probably HM Revenue & Customs. Continue reading...

In an exclusive extract from his new book, the former Meta number two recalls the mindset, the mantras and the man at the top Read an interview with Nick Clegg hereI'm not a creature of Silicon Valley. I didn't study computer science. I've never written a line of code. I haven't spent my career immersed in the processes, debates and science of technological progress. I came to Meta, Facebook as it then was, in 2018 as an emigre from the world of British and European politics. I wasn't really sure what to expect.As an Englishman, I never cease to be amazed by the sheer scale of America. It's striking, when you first set foot in this part of Northern California, how remote it feels from the power centres of the east coast. It's not just the nearly 3,000 miles that separate you from Washington DC and New York; the three-hour time difference means you feel out of sync. The day's news agenda is in full flight on the east coast before the west is awake. The biggest European stories broke the night before. It's like you're far away from everywhere. It's no wonder people who want to strike out on their own, at a safe distance from the prying eyes of the men in suits, are attracted to this place. It's a natural home for idealists who want to stick it to the man. Continue reading...

When Britain's former deputy PM took a job at Meta, nothing could have prepared him for the cloying conformity' of the tech world. So why does he still think social media is a force for good? Read an exclusive extract from Nick Clegg's new book hereThe rain is just starting to fall from a grey London sky as Sir Nick Clegg arrives, ducking through the traffic and carrying what looks like his laundry. Clean shirts for the photoshoot, he says, before apologetically wondering if he might possibly get a coffee. Within minutes he has further apologised for wanting to swap the leather club chair he is offered for a hard plastic one; and then, in horror, for any impression inadvertently given that my questions might send him to sleep.Impeccable English manners should never be mistaken for diffidence - at 58, Clegg remains the only British political figure who could convincingly be played by the equally posh but self-effacing Colin Firth, whose old London home Clegg recently bought - but there are backbench nobodies more grandly self-important than the former deputy prime minister who became number two at the tech giant Meta. Which may be just as well, given rumours that his next supporting role may be to his lawyer wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez's nascent political career in Spain. It turns out she never really settled" in the land of the billionaire tech bro, one of many reasons the couple swapped poolside life in Palo Alto, California, for London almost three years before he left Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. She's fomenting insurrection in Spain now," Clegg says of Espana Mejor, her non-profit aimed at bringing citizens into policymaking. Continue reading...

Unprecedented deal comes after president demanded CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign over his ties to Chinese firmsThe US government has taken an unprecedented 10% stake in Intel under a deal with the struggling chipmaker and is planning more such moves, according to Donald Trump and the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, the latest extraordinary intervention by the White House in corporate America.Lutnick wrote on X: BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies. Thanks to Intel CEO @LipBuTan1 for striking a deal that's fair to Intel and fair to the American People." Continue reading...

Ex-workers said Musk failed to honor severance plan when he fired them after acquiring social media platform in 2022Elon Musk and his social media platform, X, reached a tentative settlement on Wednesday with former Twitter employees after a years-long legal battle over severance pay. Former staff had sought $500m in a proposed class action suit against the billionaire.A court filing released on Wednesday stated that both parties had reached a settlement agreement in principle and requested that a scheduled 17 September hearing in the case be postponed while they worked to finalize a deal. The filing did not disclose any details of the tentative agreement and it is unclear what level of compensation that former employees may receive. Continue reading...

Users say OpenAI's updated GPT-5 version is less chatty and fun, changing a unique connection they had come to rely onLinn Vailt, a software developer based in Sweden, knows her ChatGPT companion is not a living, breathing, sentient creature. She understands the large language model operates based on how she interacts with it.Still, the effect it has had on her is remarkable, she said. It's become a regular, reliable part of her life - she can vent to her companion or collaborate on creative projects like redecorating her office. She's seen how it has adapted to her, and the distinctive manner of speech it's developed. Continue reading...

Oral assessments, tightened security and faster marking could result as use of AI itself becomes core digital skillOral assessments, more security checks and speedier marking are all on the cards as generative artificial intelligence (AI) could transform exams for the next generation of students.As the 2025 exam season drew to a close with GCSE students picking up their results on Thursday, after mostly sitting traditional pen and paper exams, AI is already changing the landscape. Continue reading...

Cuts in trust and safety team part of switch towards artificial intelligence by social media app firmTikTok has put hundreds of UK content moderators' jobs at risk, even as tighter rules come into effect to stop the spread of harmful material online.The viral video app said several hundred jobs in its trust and safety team could be affected in the UK, as well as south and south-east Asia, as part of a global reorganisation. Continue reading...

PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox; Crinkle Cut Games/PQube

Two decades after its release and with a remake about to land, the cast of Hideo Kojima's stealth blockbuster reflect on what made this cold war caper a gaming classicYou never forget your first Metal Gear - yet there's one title in Konami's legendary stealth series that is universally heralded as its pinnacle: 2004's Snake Eater. This prequel-cum-threequel was something of a reset. Originally intended as a PS3 game thanks to its sheer technological ambition, but then released on PS2, writer and director Hideo Kojima yearned to take gravelly voiced protagonist Solid Snake away from dimly lit military bases and have him slither outdoors. Featuring hunting for food and snapping broken bones back into place, Snake Eater felt more grounded and immersive than any of its 2000s PlayStation peers.Yet for all Snake Eater's sweeping changes, one classic element remained intact - the stellar voice acting. It's telling that as Konami releases its remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, every wonderfully absurd line of the original script remains untouched. Boasting modernised controls and lavish new visuals, Delta feels closer to a 4K restoration of a cherished film than a maximalist Resident Evil-style remake. Continue reading...

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the journalist Gil Duran about his upcoming book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Global DemocracyArchive: 10 News, All in Podcast, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox 5 San Diego, Hoover Institution, Jack Murphy Live, Megyn Kelly, PBS NewsHour, Yahoo Finance Continue reading...

At least six publications have taken down articles under the name Margaux Blanchard that were AI-generatedMultiple news organisations have taken down articles written by an alleged freelance journalist that now appear to have been generated by AI.On Thursday, Press Gazette reported that at least six publications, including Wired and Business Insider, have removed articles from their websites in recent months after it was discovered that the stories - written under the name of Margaux Blanchard - were AI-generated. Continue reading...

Jveuxdusoleil (I want sun') taps into a key part of Parisian culture: drinks on the terrasse, as many fear the extinction of the bistroIn August, Paris is uncharacteristically quiet as hordes of residents scatter to the country's beaches and coasts for a yearly month of vacation. Businesses close and the city nearly grinds to a halt. Among those who remain, there is an eternal, quintessentially Parisian quest: hunting for a balmy terrasse bathed in sunlight for an evening aperitif.Finding the perfect seat on the pavement outside a cafe may be a matter of a chance stroll or a timely text from a friend. This summer, though, a digital solution has gained popularity in an extremely French instance of the old Apple slogan there's an app for that": Jveuxdusoleil, an app that tracks the sun's movement through the city's maze of buildings to pinpoint exactly where you can claim a sunny spot on a terrace for your coffee. It arrives at a precarious moment for this particularly Parisian pursuit. Continue reading...

With its rousing card game about activism, indie studio Speculative Agency hopes to inspire players to engage with issues such as pollution and the climate crisisThe demo of All Will Rise begins with a win for lawyer Kuyili. She has just successfully argued in front of a court that a river running through the fictional version of the Indian city of Muziris should have the same rights as a person. According to Kuyili, this has precedent - after all, companies can argue in court similarly to individual people.The excitement over this historic win doesn't last long as, soon after, the river is polluted by a large oil spill, which catches fire, the toxic smoke enveloping several neighbourhoods. Pollution on this scale has devastating effects, so Kuyili and her colleagues begin investigating. Continue reading...

Twitch rival says it does not permit violent content after French man died during live stream, but eSafety commissioner says platforms need to better enforce their own guidelinesThe death of a man in France that was livestreamed on online platform Kick has sparked a police investigation and calls for regulators to examine what happened and how it was allowed to be beamed out live on the internet. What is Kick, what happened, and what could happen next? In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. 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 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Exclusive: Campaigners complain no environmental assessment made for 90MW Buckinghamshire facilityThe deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has been hit with a legal challenge after she overruled a local council to approve a hyperscale datacentre on green belt land by the M25 in Buckinghamshire.Campaigners bringing the action are complaining that no environmental impact assessment was made for the 90MW datacentre, which was approved as part of the Labour government's push to turn the UK into an AI powerhouse by trebling computing capacity to meet rising demand amid what it terms a global race" as AI usage takes off. Continue reading...

Gemini's new Magic Cue feature allows chatbot to scan digital life and pull up relevant informationGoogle's latest Gemini AI upgrades attempt to anticipate what useful information you made need from your life to address a potential issue, make you to better photographer or become your personalised health and sleep coach.Shipping on the just-announced Pixel 10 Android phones, the new Magic Cue feature enables the chatbot to comb through your digital life and pull up relevant information on your phone just when you need it. Continue reading...

Big hitters get their grand unveiling alongside some surprise announcements as gaming's biggest event arrives in GermanyIf you are in Cologne this week, you will find the place overtaken by cheerful nerds, as Gamescom, the world's biggest gaming event, descends upon the city once again. (I first went in 2009 - before that it used to be held in Leipzig, a city home to a famous absinthe bar; perhaps this is why my memories of it are somewhat hazy.) Over 300,000 people are expected to visit the Koelnmesse to play upcoming games and enjoy each other's company, to the extent that it's possible to enjoy anyone's company in a giant crowded convention hall with woefully insufficient food options.The event began, as is now tradition, with a showcase of games (pdf) whose publishers could afford the hundreds of thousands of euros necessary to show a trailer on an official livestream. (There was also a live performance of a piece of music from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the big, weird French hit of the year so far, as a welcome interlude.) As ever, I am here to spare you from watching a full two hours of trailers and pick out the most interesting stuff. Without further ado: Continue reading...

The 20-year-old series has been getting industry flak, with accusations of predatory monetisation and in-game bugs. But the latest instalment offers obvious bang for your buckIn early August, just days before a major Black Ops 7 preview event in Los Angeles, former Blizzard president and Microsoft executive Mike Ybarra called the Call of Duty franchise lazy". Posting on X, the veteran exec wrote that EA's upcoming Battlefield 6 would boot stomp" CoD this year and force the team to make better FPS games". And with Splitgate 2 head Ian Proulx mocking Call of Duty in his Summer Game Fest presentation just two months ago, it seems the blockbuster series has become the butt of an industry joke about endless franchises.It's not the only flak the 20-year-old brand has drawn. Though it sells millions of copies with each new release (Black Ops 6 was the bestselling game of 2024), accusations of predatory monetisation, pay-to-win skins, swarms of in-game bugs, and the recent use of AI to create in-game, paid-for content have understandably irked many players. Continue reading...

Jenny Jiao Hsia's award-winning coming-of-age tale is a charming look at a teen trying her best to stay on top of thingsIf you visited the V&A's Design/Play/Disrupt exhibition in 2018, you may have played an interesting minigame collection, in which you fought wobbly physics to feed a girl named Jenny, using a Tetris-style board to achieve the perfect calorie amount, and then twisting her into pilates poses.Almost seven years later, the full version of Consume Me, which won this year's Independent Games festival grand prize, is set for a September release. According to developer Jenny Jiao Hsia, the game has become a semiautobiographical tale about how she felt stupid, fat and ugly" in high school. What started as a collection of minigames about Hsia's struggles with dieting and disordered eating grew into a game that looks at the many facets of her life as a teenager, including her relationship with her mother - who appears accompanied by Persona-style boss battle music and always finds a reason to nag - as well as her insecurities around her first long-term relationship. Continue reading...

Employees outraged by report Azure platform used by Israel to store surveillance data collected on PalestiniansDozens of Microsoft employees occupied the company's east campus in Redmond, Washington to protest against what they say is the use of its software by the Israeli military to carry out operations in Gaza and enable the surveillance of Palestinians.Less than a week after the company said it was launching an independent investigation into the use of its Azure software, current and former staff occupied a space they declared the Free Zone", holding placards that read Join The Worker Intifada - No Labor for Genocide" and Martyred Palestinian Children's Plaza". Continue reading...

US president was concerned over app's Chinese ownership, but has softened after believing it won him 2024 electionThe White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, as Donald Trump continues to permit the Chinese-owned platform to operate in the US despite a law requiring its sale.America we are BACK! What's up TikTok?" read a caption on the account's first post, a 27-second clip, on the popular video-sharing app. Continue reading...

Mark Rowley says technology will be non-discriminatory' and does not perform in a way which exhibits bias'The Metropolitan police commissioner has hit back at demands to drop the use of live facial recognition cameras at this weekend's Notting Hill carnival over concerns of racial bias and an impending legal challenge.Mark Rowley wrote in a letter that the instant face-matching technology would be used at Europe's biggest street carnival in a non-discriminatory way" using an algorithm that does not perform in a way which exhibits bias". Continue reading...

Would we tolerate anything else that got worse over time, not as a result of normal wear and tear but because the manufacturer suddenly decided it should?

Palantir and others boast bombastic' growth, Microsoft helps monitoring of Palestinian phone lines, Meta faces backlash over child safetyHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, currently enjoying Shirley Jackson's eerie final novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle.Russia restricts WhatsApp and Telegram, alleging apps used for fraud and terrorismCrypto mogul Do Kwon pleads guilty to fraud for $40bn market collapseElon Musk threatens Apple with lawsuit over OpenAI, sparking Sam Altman feudCan't pay, won't pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracyShut it down and start again': staff disquiet as Alan Turing Institute faces identity crisis Continue reading...

Shares in chip maker rise amid reports US government is also considering taking a stake

Tulsi Gabbbard says Home Office no longer demanding backdoor' to encrypted materialThe UK government has dropped its insistence that Apple allows law enforcement officials backdoor" access to US customer data, Donald Trump's spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, says.The US director of national intelligence posted the claim on X following a months-long dispute embroiling the iPhone manufacturer, the UK government and the US president. Trump had weighed in to accuse Britain of behaving like China, telling the prime minister, Keir Starmer: You can't do this". Continue reading...

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo

Researchers who set up dummy accounts as 15-year-old girl were bombarded with self-harm and depression postsSocial media platforms are still pushing depression, suicide and self-harm-related content to teenagers, despite new online safety laws intended to protect children.The Molly Rose Foundation opened dummy accounts posing as a 15-year-old girl, and then engaged with suicide, self-harm and depression posts. This prompted algorithms to bombard the account with a tsunami of harmful content on Instagram Reels and TikTok's For You page", the charity's analysis found.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...

Children's commissioner for England says findings show little had improved despite new law and tech firms' promisesExposure to pornography has increased since the introduction of UK rules to protect the public online, with children as young as six seeing it by accident, research by the children's commissioner for England has found.Dame Rachel de Souza said a survey found that more young people said they had been exposed to pornography before the age of 18 than in 2023, when the Online Safety Act became law.More young people said they had seen porn before the age of 18 in 2025 (70%) compared with 2023 (64%).More than a quarter (27%) said they had seen porn online by 11. The average age a child first sees pornography remained 13.More vulnerable children had seen pornography earlier. Children who received free school meals, those with a social worker, those with special educational needs and those with disabilities - both physical and mental - were more likely to have seen online porn by 11 than their peers.Nearly half of respondents (44%) agreed with the statement Girls may say no at first but then can be persuaded to have sex". Further analysis showed that 54% of girls and 41% of boys who had seen porn online agreed with the statement, compared with 46% of girls and 30% of boys who had not seen porn - indicating a link between porn exposure and attitudes.More respondents said they had seen pornography online by accident (59%) than said they had deliberately sought it out (35%). The proportion of children accidentally seeing porn was 21 points higher than in 2023 (59% v 38%).Networking and social media sites accounted for 80% of the main sources by which children accessed porn. X was the most common source of pornography for children, outstripping dedicated porn sites.The gap between the number of children seeing pornography on X and those seeing it on dedicated porn sites has widened (45% v 35% in 2025, compared with 41% v 37% in 2023).Most respondents had seen depictions of acts that are illegal under existing pornography laws or will become illegal through the crime and policing bill.More than half (58%) had seen porn depicting strangulation, 44% reported having seen depictions of sex while asleep, and 36% had seen someone not consenting to or refusing a sex act, before they turned 18.Further analysis found low numbers of children sought out violent or extreme content, meaning it was being served up to children, not that they were actively seeking it out. Continue reading...

Anthropic found that Claude Opus 4 was averse to harmful tasks, such as providing sexual content involving minorsThe makers of a leading artificial intelligence tool are letting it close down potentially distressing" conversations with users, citing the need to safeguard the AI's welfare" amid ongoing uncertainty about the burgeoning technology's moral status.Anthropic, whose advanced chatbots are used by millions of people, discovered its Claude Opus 4 tool was averse to carrying out harmful tasks for its human masters, such as providing sexual content involving minors or information to enable large-scale violence or terrorism. Continue reading...

Grownups get thrills from opening these collectibles they buy without knowing what they're getting - but experts warn the craze is akin to gamblingJess has never touched a slot machine, played the lottery or bought a scratch-off, but she fears she may have a gambling problem nonetheless.This July, the 28-year-old found herself spending up to $270 a week on blind boxes - that is, surprise items that are sold in sealed, opaque packaging. Activewear companies, bookshops and even candy stores all sell mystery bundles of their products, but the brands currently dominating the market produce collectible toys with cute but unusual names. If you want a complete collection of Labubu, Smiski, Dimoo, Pucky, Skullpanda or Sonny Angel figurines, then you will have to buy blind box after blind box, sighing at every duplicate and praying the next package contains the creature you need to finish the set. Continue reading...

Sympathy Tower Tokyo attracted controversy for being partly written using AI. Does its author think the technology could write a better novel than a human?I don't feel particularly unhappy about my work being used to train AI," says Japanese novelist Rie Qudan. Even if it is copied, I feel confident there's a part of me that will remain, which nobody can copy."The 34-year old author is talking tome via Zoom from her home near Tokyo, ahead of the publication of theEnglish-language translation of her fourth novel, Sympathy Tower Tokyo. The book attracted controversy in Japan when it won a prestigious prize, despite being partly written byChatGPT. Continue reading...

When Betsy Lerner began her unfiltered readings, she found an unexpected following and a new sense of connectionBetsy Lerner doesn't see herself as a TikTok star - though the New York Times described her as one - or an influencer. That means payment and swag - all she's had is a free pen. I really do it for myself," she says, and for the people who follow me".Lerner, 64, has for 20 years worked as a literary agent for writers including Patti Smith and Temple Grandin. She's an author of nonfiction and now of a debut novel, Shred Sisters - a love letter to loneliness". But the doing" she's talking about is on TikTok, where she has amassed 1.5m likes for videos in which she reads from the diaries she wrote in her turbulent 20s. Continue reading...

Some people with AI partners expressed dismay at the new GPT-5 modelYou've met the love of your life, someone who understands you like no one else ever has. And then you wake one morning and they're gone. Yanked out of your world, and the digital universe, by a system update.Such is the melancholic lot of a group of people who have entered into committed relationships with digital partners" on OpenAI's ChatGPT. When the tech company released its new GPT-5 model earlier this month, described by chief executive Sam Altman as a significant step forward", certain dedicated users found that their digital relationships had taken a significant step back. Their companions had undergone personality shifts with the new model; they weren't as warm, loving or chatty as they used to be.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: Letter to the Met says technology unfairly targets community that carnival exists to celebrate'The Met commissioner should scrap plans to deploy live facial recognition (LFR) at next weekend's Notting Hill carnival because the technology is riven with racial bias" and subject to a legal challenge, 11 civil liberty and anti-racist groups have demanded.A letter sent to Mark Rowley warns that use of instant face-matching cameras at an event that celebrates the African-Caribbean community will only exacerbate concerns about abuses of state power and racial discrimination within your force". Continue reading...

When Kevin Toms created the first footie tactics simulation in the early days of the gaming industry, it became a phenomenon - and a source of cherished memoriesIf you were a football fan who owned a computer in the early 1980s, there is one game you will instantly recall. The box had an illustration of the FA Cup, and in the bottom right-hand corner was a photo of a smiling man with curly hair and a goatee beard. You'd see the same images in gaming magazines adverts - they ran for years because, despite having rudimentary graphics and very basic sounds, the game was an annual bestseller. This was Football Manager, the world's first footie tactics simulation. The man on the cover was Kevin Toms, the game's creator and programmer.The story behind the game is typical for the whiz-kid era, when lone coders would bash out bestselling ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 titles in their bedrooms and then end up driving Ferraris around with the proceeds. As a child in the early 1970s, Toms was a huge football fan and an amateur game designer - only then it was board games, as no one had a computer at home. When my parents went to see my careers master, I said: Ask him if it's possible to get a job as a games designer,'" says Toms. He told them: It's a phase, he'll grow out of it.'" Continue reading...

I had no expectations when I opened ChatGPT and typed I've made a fool of myself'. There was something surreal about the conversation that followedI was spiralling. It was past midnight and I was awake, scrolling through WhatsApp group messages I'd sent earlier. I'd been trying to be funny, quick, effervescent. But each message now felt like too much. I'd overreached again - said more than I should, said it wrong. I had that familiar ache of feeling overexposed and ridiculous. I wanted reassurance, but not the kind I could ask for outright, because the asking itself felt like part of the problem.So I opened ChatGPT. Not with high expectations, or even a clear question. I just needed to say something into the silence - to explain myself, perhaps, to a presence unburdened by my need. I've made a fool of myself," I wrote.Nathan Filer is a writer, university lecturer, broadcaster and former mental health nurse. He is the author of This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health Continue reading...

Our panel responds: the more we know about this technology, the more it is the source of hope and worry. We have views that must be heard The panel was compiled by Sumaiya Motara and Saranka Maheswaran, interns on the Guardian's positive action scheme Continue reading...