Technology | The Guardian

Voice assistant enlisted to aid elderly and blind patients who cannot easily search for adviceThe NHS has teamed up with Amazon to allow elderly people, blind people and other patients who cannot easily search for health advice on the internet to access the information through the AI-powered voice assistant Alexa.The health service hopes patients asking Alexa for health advice will ease pressure on the NHS, with Amazon’s algorithm using information from the NHS website to provide answers to questions such as: “Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?”; ‘Alexa, what are the symptoms of flu?’; and “Alexa what are the symptoms of chickenpox?” Continue reading...

Negative comments and low star ratings can make or break a company. But as Google finds itself embroiled in legal action, it warns defamation law could suppress consumer rightsMark Fletcher says he never paid much attention to Google reviews left by customers for his Victorian-based software business Tower Systems – until five months ago.He was told he had lost a sale due to a negative review from a person called Ashley T. Continue reading...

Instagram said early tests found it encourages users to ‘share something less hurtful once they have had a chance to reflect’Instagram is inviting users to think again before posting unkind comments with a new tool designed to curb bullying on the social media platform.The company is rolling out a new feature that uses AI to identify negative comments before they are published and asks “are you sure you want to post this?” before it is shared on another person’s post. Continue reading...

Current and former workers also claim point-system attendance policy penalizes employees for use of paid time offIn February 2018, Devon Beccera started working at the Tesla Giga factory in Sparks, Nevada. A few months into her employment she was promoted to supervisor , making about $25 an hour. She found out in July that year that she was pregnant, and informed management she planned on taking maternity leave in February, 2019, once she became eligible.Instead, on 14 December 2018, Beccera was fired. Continue reading...

Online, you can be anyone. So why are millennials choosing to roleplay as baby boomers?You know it when you see it: a couple of extra commas following a thought, a private message or search entry accidentally made public, a comment on a friend’s new profile picture telling them to “say hi to Joe and the kids for me,,, love! You”.This is a baby boomer posting to Facebook. It could be your parent, an uncle, a family friend, a grandparent; if you were born between 1946 and 1964, it could be you. Continue reading...

In film and video games, we’ve already seen what’s possible with ‘digital humans’. Are we on the brink of the world’s first totally virtual acting star?When you’re watching a modern blockbuster such as The Avengers, it’s hard to escape the feeling that what you’re seeing is almost entirely computer-generated imagery, from the effects to the sets to fantastical creatures. But if there’s one thing you can rely on to be 100% real, it’s the actors. We might have virtual pop stars like Hatsune Miku, but there has never been a world-famous virtual film star.Even that link with corporeal reality, though, is no longer absolute. You may have already seen examples of what’s possible: Peter Cushing (or his image) appearing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story more than 20 years after his death, or Tupac Shakur performing from beyond the grave at Coachella in 2012. We’ve seen the terrifying potential of deepfakes – manipulated footage that could play a dangerous role in the fake news phenomenon. Jordan Peele’s remarkable fake Obama video is a key example. Could technology soon make professional actors redundant? Continue reading...

Music without earbuds looks and sounds surprisingly good, making these smart glasses the antithesis of Google GlassThe Bose Frames are the answer to the question: what if your sunglasses were also a set of smart, hidden headphones with no earbuds or no bone-conduction system, just a set of personal speakers?As a wearer of true wireless earbuds, that’s not a question I ever thought I would ask. But the Bose Frames are delightful and leaving your ears free of buds or headphones has a clear and obvious case. Continue reading...

With the launch of the Facebook cryptocurrency Libra, Jordan Erica Webber revisits an old Chips episode looking at how artists are using blockchain to answer the big questions, like ‘what is the value of a human life?’ Continue reading...

A teenager’s gripping coming-of-age adventure takes you back to the bygone era of the amusement arcadeWhen I was a child in the late 1980s, my brother and I would watch every Saturday morning as a crescent of teenagers gathered around an arcade machine in our local sports club. Even if we had been allowed to spend our pocket money on something as transient as an arcade game, there was no barging in here. All we could do was watch as the older boys jeered and cheered each other on, making it a little further each week as their skills improved and muscle memory set in.Diversion became ritual and, soon enough, a crowd stopped by to watch their weekly quest. I remember wishing that today – perhaps today! – would be the day they conquered the dragon and made it to the final credits. I remember the elation in the room when it finally happened, the backslaps and lingering grins. Within a pastime outsiders considered to be almost debauchedly flippant, we had witnessed something quietly meaningful, perhaps something like our parents felt the first time they saw Dylan play live, or similar to that our own children would experience years later when they first saw the music video to Single Ladies. Continue reading...

Hotel systems are so leaky it’s worth investing in your own virtual private networkYou’ve just arrived at the hotel after a delayed flight and a half-hour wrangle with the car-hire firm. And then you remember that you’ve forgotten to pay last month’s credit card bill, and there’ll be an interest charge if you wait until you’re back at base. But – hey! – you can do it online and help is at hand. The receptionist is welcoming and helpful. They have wifi and it’s free. Relieved, you ask for the password. “Oh, you don’t need one,” he replies. “Just type in your room number and click the box.”Phew! Problem solved. Er, not necessarily. At this point the human race divides into two groups. Call them sheep and goats. Sheep are sweet, trusting folks who like to think well of their fellow humans. Surely that helpful receptionist would not knowingly offer a dangerous service. Also, they find digital technology baffling and intimidating. And they cannot imagine why anything they do online might be of interest to anyone. Continue reading...

Time to phase out old vans with their engines idling, churning out foul emissions for kids to breathe inNissan e-NV200

Firms pushing ahead with Chinese tech giant to set up new networkHuawei is helping develop 5G networks for all four of the UK’s major mobile phone operators – even though the government has yet to confirm whether the controversial Chinese technology company will be permitted to build the next generation of wireless infrastructure.The revelation threatens to exacerbate tensions between the UK and the US, which has taken a firm line against the company amid claims, strongly denied, that it is controlled by the Chinese government and that its equipment could be used to spy on other countries and companies. Continue reading...

Largest private provider Eurofins hands over undisclosed fee to regain control of systemsBritain’s largest private forensics provider has paid a ransom to hackers after its IT systems were brought to a standstill by a cyber-attack, it has been reported.Eurofins, which is thought to carry out about half of all private forensic analysis, was targeted in a ransomware attack on 2 June, which the company described at the time as “highly sophisticated”. Three weeks later the company said its operations were “returning to normal”, but did not disclose whether or not a ransom had been paid. Continue reading...

Success of video-sharing app among young has brought with it investigations over child safetyThe most downloaded app on the App Store for the last year makes almost no money, is barely understood by anyone over 25, and has already faced investigations, fines and bans on three continents.TikTok’s success has taken regulators, parents and its competitors by surprise. But with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK now investigating the company over its handling of young users’ private data, can reality catch up with the viral smash? Continue reading...

PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One; Jo-Mei Games/Electronic Arts

How to keep your mobile, tablet, Kindle and headphones charged and connected abroadIt’s July, the sun’s out and the summer break is almost upon us, which can mean only one thing: it’s holiday time.But holidays no longer mean leaving all your worldly possessions behind. Your phone, your tablet, your e-reader, headphones and even your smartwatch come along for the ride, which means you need to keep them charged, organised and connected. Continue reading...

Labour leader sends barbed message to the online retailer’s founder, Jeff BezosThe Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has sent a barbed birthday card to Jeff Bezos to mark Amazon’s 25th anniversary, wishing the company “many happy tax returns” and demanding it pays more UK tax, pays its staff better and improves working conditions.Amazon UK paid only £1.7m in corporation tax in 2017, its most recent annual public filing at Companies House, as pre-tax profits tripled to £72m. Turnover at its British business, which handles the packing and delivery of parcels and functions such as customer service, rose 35%, from £1.46bn to £1.98bn. Continue reading...

Respawn Entertainment’s forthcoming Star Wars video game, developed in close collaboration with Lucasfilm, hopes to capture the spirit of the filmsIn 1983, millions of unsold cartridges of the Atari game ET The Extra Terrestrial were secretly buried in a concrete-covered landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Thanks to extremely rushed development and alleged interference from Universal Pictures, the movie tie-in was one of the worst video games ever made, and a mass grave was the only option for the poor, unwanted cartridges.Unfortunately, like movies adapted from games, games adapted from movies are often bad. (There are exceptions: 1997’s 2D sidescrolling interpretation of Disney’s Hercules on PlayStation brought me more joy than most recent games.) Continue reading...

The right and conservative media are using the untraceable ads to push a rightwing agenda and get Donald Trump re-electedIn the weeks leading up to a tightly contested 2018 midterm election in Virginia, a Facebook page called “Wacky Wexton Not” ran an ad that pictured Democratic congressional candidate Jennifer Wexton next to Nazi troops. Another labeled her an “evil socialist”. Yet another referenced Nazi uniforms, stating, “Wexton and her modern day brown shirts. They Are Evil. They Hate America. They Hate You.”You can still have a huge impact by spending very little. Continue reading...

Copper wiring and fibre-to-the-node are not the only issues, some modems are just not up to the job, a new study has foundPoor NBN speeds are often blamed on the government’s decision to scale back the fibre-to-the-premises roll out and switch to the cheaper fibre-to-the-node, but a study commissioned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) proves part of the problem can lie closer to home.Acma commissioned testing lab Enex to test run 43 modems on the market or sold by internet service providers when people sign up for the NBN on a fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-building service. This means that at least for part of the connection, the legacy copper line is used in addition to the new fibre. Continue reading...

My teenage nephew’s life was short and difficult, but the players and developers of Elite Dangerous came together to bring unexpected happiness to his last momentsMy nephew, Michael, died on 22 May 2019. He was 15 years old.He loved his family, tractors, lorries, tanks, spaceships and video games (mostly about tractors, lorries, tanks and spaceships), and confronted every challenge in his short, difficult life with a resolute will that earned him much love and respect. Online in his favourite game, Elite Dangerous by Frontier Developments, he was known as CMDR Michael Holyland. Continue reading...

Steve does not like firms slurping up his data, so wants a device that respects his privacyI have concerns about the likes of Google and Apple slurping up as much info as they can about me from my phone. I’ve tried looking online for alternatives and found mentions of things like /e/, Lineage, Sailfish OS etc, but they assume a level of tech knowledge far above what I have as a layman. So, are there any phones that are 100% free from Google and Apple software and hardware? How easy are such phones to obtain? SteveVery easy. You can pick up a Nokia 105 (2017 edition) for about £15 or a dual-sim Nokia 106 (2018 edition) for about £16. These are only 2G phones but they have built-in FM radios, they can send texts, they are great for making phone calls and they are not based on Google or Apple technologies. A 3G or 4G phone would cost a bit more … Continue reading...

An AI fake text generator that can write paragraphs in a style based on just a sentence has raised concerns about its potential to spread false informationEarlier this month, an unexceptional thread appeared on Reddit announcing that there is a new way “to cook egg white[s] without a frying pan”.As so often happens on this website, which calls itself “the front page of the internet”, this seemingly banal comment inspired a slew of responses. “I’ve never heard of people frying eggs without a frying pan,” one incredulous Redditor replied. “I’m gonna try this,” added another. One particularly enthusiastic commenter even offered to look up the scientific literature on the history of cooking egg whites without a frying pan. Continue reading...

Facebook and Instagram report being ‘back at 100%’ after all three platforms were malfunctioning throughout the dayFacebook said its apps and platforms were “back at 100%” Wednesday evening after outages throughout the day, though some users said they were still experiencing issues.Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were malfunctioning throughout most of the day on Wednesday and into the night. The company said it was working to resolve issues faced by some users while sending media files on its social media platforms and messaging services. Continue reading...

Analysts find system often wrongly identifies people and could breach human rights lawPolice are facing calls to halt the use of facial recognition software to search for suspected criminals in public after independent analysis found matches were only correct in a fifth of cases and the system was likely to break human rights laws.Academics from the University of Essex were granted access to six live trials by the Metropolitan police in Soho, Romford and at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London. Continue reading...

French government promises tax breaks and subsidies for companies who relocateThe French government has launched a major push to poach British game developers in the wake of Brexit, promising subsidies, tax breaks and loans to creatives who make the move across the Channel.The new campaign, “Join the Game”, sees the French government highlighting the scale of its home-grown games industry, promising similar support to anyone who wants to relocate – and hoping to capitalise on the fact that the UK will shortly not make much sense as the base for “European operations”. Continue reading...

A major urban hub without a big-city feel, San Jose hopes a huge new Google campus will rethink its car-centric sprawl. But critics warn it will steamroll poorer residentsSan Jose is the Bay Area’s most populous city, home to more than a million people and the headquarters of eBay, TiVo and Adobe. It’s a major urban hub for workers at Facebook in nearby Palo Alto and Apple in Mountain View. It is also one of the wealthiest cities in the world, where a salary of six figures only just qualifies as middle class. And yet, tourists rarely visit the city in any numbers. Compared to its northern neighbors, Oakland and San Francisco, the press barely pays it any attention, except when the Sharks make the NHL playoffs. Continue reading...

Legislators say they need time to investigate cryptocurrency and its potential impactThe US Congress has asked Facebook to pause development on its Libra cryptocurrency until lawmakers have had more time to investigate the ramifications of the company’s actions.In a letter from the Democratic head of the house committee on financial services, congresswoman Maxine Waters, and the heads of its subcommittees, the legislators ask the company to “immediately cease implementation plans”. Continue reading...

Financial Conduct Authority says crypto-assets are ill-suited to small investors and very volatileThe UK’s markets regulator has proposed a ban on financial instruments linked to digital cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, warning that such products could cause huge losses for retail consumers unlikely to understand their risks or value.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said products such as derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) that reference crypto-assets were “ill-suited” to small investors. Continue reading...

Pioneering computer scientist who became the UK’s foremost software authorityGeorge Felton, who has died aged 98, was the doyen of computer-industry software designers. In the early 1950s the term “software” had not been invented, and for most computer manufacturers responsibility stopped with delivering the hardware – programming the computer was the customer’s problem. Felton helped change that perception.He managed, and largely implemented, the programming scheme for the Ferranti Pegasus computer, first delivered in 1956. It was a programming regimen of unprecedented completeness that made life a great deal easier for computer users. He went on to become the UK computer industry’s foremost software authority. Continue reading...

@CanYouPetTheDog has more than 250,000 followers, including game developers, but most are just digital dog enthusiastsGames often feature dogs but player interaction is generally limited to violent, negative verbs – attack, shoot, kill. Now one wildly popular Twitter account is dedicated to championing the games that allow us to interact positively with our pixelated pals.@CanYouPetTheDog is a journal of record initially inspired by the virtual strays of Ubisoft’s military shooter game, The Division 2, and covers everything from unlikely candidates such as Super Smash Brothers Ultimate to the aptly named Dog Petting Simulator (video above). Continue reading...

UK financial regulator highlights concerns over consumer protection and privacyFacebook’s plans for a global cryptocurrency, Libra, will warrant close scrutiny by governments across the world, according to one of the UK’s most senior financial regulators.Christopher Woolard, the executive director of strategy and competition at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted a series of potential issues with the digital currency, from consumer protection and privacy concerns to financial market stability. Continue reading...

UK inquiry looking at whether video-sharing app breaches data protection law

PlayStation 4 (version tested), Xbox One, PC; Frogwares/Bigben Interactive

Company automatically posted pictures of new shirts with offensive Twitter handles on backAdidas UK has come under fire after a social media gambit backfired spectacularly, leading to the company tweeting out pictures of its shirts with racist and offensive slogans on the back.The error came as Adidas launched a social media campaign, #DareToCreate, in conjunction with its release of the new Arsenal home kit. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency climbed to nearly $14,000 on news social network was launching rivalThe price of bitcoin has fallen back below $10,000, down 30% from last week’s peak of nearly $14,000.Continuing its wild ride, the digital currency dropped to $9,717 on Tuesday, down 8.1% on the day. Last Wednesday, the cryptocurrency shot up to $13,879, breaking through the $12,000 and $13,000 levels in less than two hours. Continue reading...

Mass murders present challenge for search engine to deliver accurate resultsMisinformation is so common after mass shootings that Google has had to tweak its algorithm to compensate, a senior search engineer at the company has revealed.Pandu Nayak, who joined the company 14 years ago to work on its search engine, told the Guardian that mass murders presented an increasing challenge for the search engine to deliver accurate results. Continue reading...

As thousands of tech workers move into Sacramento, the city long considered California’s overlooked middle child is enjoying the attention – for nowPhotographs by Salgu WissmathJoan Didion, the patron saint of California, once managed to summarily dismiss and define her hometown with just one flippant eye-roll of a quote: “Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.”California residents have long derided the state’s capital for the crime of being perfectly average. “The midwest of California”, they call it. A cow town. Sacramento’s appeal, it’s often said, is that it’s close to places that are actually appealing, like San Francisco and Tahoe. Continue reading...

Company will match rider donations to Raices, which provides legal aid to immigrantsThe ride-hailing company Lyft will be donating $150,000 in ride credits to support immigration groups across the US in the next six months.The company has also partnered with Raices, a not-for-profit organization providing legal services to immigrants. Through its Round Up & Donate program, Lyft will match rider donations to Raices throughout the month of July, and it will commit to up to $50,000 to the organization in support of their services. Continue reading...

Company policy prohibits praise or support for specific term ‘white nationalism’Facebook’s new policy banning white nationalism from its site has been undercut by the company’s decision to ignore content that does not use the term “white nationalism”, according to an external audit.The auditors, appointed by Facebook in 2018 to oversee its goals of “advancing civil rights on our platform”, said Facebook’s overly narrow implementation of its own rules was hampering moderation. Continue reading...

Fears ‘spaceshippy’ proposals by TfL to make vehicles audible could confuse pedestriansTransport for London has been warned that proposals put forward for a safety feature to make electric buses more audible risk confusing vulnerable road users.TfL has commissioned Aecom to come up with a recognisable noise that will help alert pedestrians and cyclists to the presence of vehicles that can be dangerously quiet. Continue reading...

The Avengers video game has just been unveiled – and has proved divisive, thanks to redesigned characters and a trailer that looked more like a film than a gameBefore this year’s E3, the annual video games event where publishers descend on Los Angeles to unveil and promote their wares for the next year and beyond, anticipation was high for Square Enix’s new Avengers game – an action-adventure for one to four players, in which you can fight as Hulk, Black Widow, Thor and plenty of others. In the year that Endgame grossed more than $2.7bn at the box office worldwide, surely not much could go wrong for a game proffering a personalised Marvel superhero fantasy.As it turned out, however, the Avengers game’s big reveal fell rather flat (and was rather eclipsed by Keanu Reeves, who made a surprise appearance to reveal his top-secret cameo in the forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077 the day before). That is Iron Man, right? Why does he look nothing like Robert Downey Jr? Continue reading...

San Franciscans have long complained that tech workers ruined their city, driving up rents and homelessness and eliminating diversity. Now even the tech workers agreePhotographs by Jason HenryIt was a beautiful winter day in San Francisco, and Zoe was grooving to the soundtrack of the roller-skating musical Xanadu as she rode an e-scooter to work. The 29-year-old tech worker had just passed the Uber building when, without warning, a homeless man jumped into the bike lane with his dog, blocking her path.She slammed on the brakes, flew four feet into the air and landed on the pavement, bleeding. “It was one of those hardening moments where I was like, ‘Even I am being affected,’” she recalled. Continue reading...

Jordan Erica Webber looks at why some people, such as Carlos Maza, say YouTube needs to do more to protect minorities from hate speech. The Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern, joins in on the conversation.Note added 1 July 2019: Due to a communication mix-up, we erroneously stated in the first airing of this episode that Google, of which YouTube is a subsidiary, did not respond to our request for comment. The company did respond, citing their official blog post on the subject matter of this episode - read it here. Suggestions that Google did not respond have been omitted.

Ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos will become world’s fourth-richest woman but has promised to give away half of awardThe world’s biggest divorce settlement will be made official this week as Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos hands over a 4% stake in the online shopping giant to his soon-to-be ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos.A judge is expected to sign legal papers transferring the Amazon shares – worth $38bn (£29bn) – into MacKenzie Bezos’s name. It is by some distance the largest divorce settlement in history the previous record was $2.5bn paid to Jocelyn Wildenstein when she divorced art dealer Alec Wildenstein in 1999. Continue reading...

Politicians, trade unionists and experts have set out to learn more about the new industrial landscape“We are under the threat of closure all the time,” says Andrew Peters without a hint of fear in his voice.As though repeating himself for the hundredth time, the managing director of Siemens’ Congleton factory in Cheshire explains his workers are battling for survival. Competition in this historic market town at the foothills of the Pennines, where lush green hills rise to the craggy moorlands of the Peak District, is increasingly global. Continue reading...

Quiet, composed and resolutely unshowy… Would you guess this is the world’s bestselling car?Toyota Corolla

The sociologist on how discrimination is embedded in technology – and how we go about building a fairer worldRuha Benjamin is an associate professor of African American studies at Princeton University, and lectures around the intersection of race, justice and technology. She founded the Just Data Lab, which aims to bring together activists, technologists and artists to reassess how data can be used for justice. Her latest book, Race After Technology, looks at how the design of technology can be discriminatory.Where did the motivation to write this book come from?

Unless we start taking online misogyny seriously, we are going to face a future where women may not be able to exist onlineSign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter​ on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday. Continue reading...