Technology | The Guardian

Purchase of Oxford University spinoff gives Waymo its first presence in the UKWaymo, Google’s self-driving car sibling company, has acquired the Oxford artificial intelligence company Latent Logic for an undisclosed amount, giving Waymo its first presence in the UK.Latent Logic, a spinout company from Oxford University, specialises in “imitation learning”, teaching machines how to act by showing them examples of humans doing the same actions. It was founded in 2017 by the academics Shimon Whiteson and João Messias. Continue reading...

Prof Noel Sharkey says systems so infected with biases they cannot be trustedAn expert on artificial intelligence has called for all algorithms that make life-changing decisions – in areas from job applications to immigration into the UK – to be halted immediately.Prof Noel Sharkey, who is also a leading figure in a global campaign against “killer robots”, said algorithms were so “infected with biases” that their decision-making processes could not be fair or trusted. Continue reading...

Guardian analyses default push notifications for nine of biggest UK news apps

Elon Musk’s ‘pedo guy’ trial revealed that supposed equality between billionaires and mere mortals is a fictionBefore 1948, if a British duke, viscount or baron was accused of a felony, he was tried not alongside the common criminals in the Old Bailey, but by a jury of his peers in the House of Lords.I thought about that two-tiered system of criminal justice quite a bit last week, when I spent four days in a Los Angeles courtroom covering the civil defamation trial of Elon Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX chief had been sued by Vernon Unsworth, a British cave explorer who assisted with the Tham Luang cave rescue, for calling him a “pedo guy” on Twitter. Continue reading...

The alternative search engine markets itself on protecting users’ privacy, but is it worth using?So is DuckDuckGo no good? Surprised you did not mention it. MurrayFollowing last week’s article about privacy and surveillance capitalism, several readers wrote in about the absence of DuckDuckGo, and it was mentioned a dozen times in the comments. I have suggested this privacy-oriented search engine a few times since 2012, and I think it’s worth a go. However, I’m answering Murray’s earlier query along the same lines because I can use his email verbatim rather than cobbling together a joint question from multiple sources. Continue reading...

DIY wireless home security system is a great alarm that’s smart enough without trying to do too muchAmazon’s new Ring Alarm smartens up the traditional home security system without radically changing how it works, combining the best of both worlds into a DIY-friendly wireless alarm arrangement that just works.It’s been a 16-month wait in the UK since the Ring Alarm line of products launched in the US in July 2018, but it has been worth it. Continue reading...

You have been telling us about serious and funny accidents caused by your mobile phones and here is what some of you saidA study in the US has found that since the release of the first iPhone in 2007 phone-related injuries have risen dramatically. The types of injury varied in magnitude from batteries exploding to injuries sustained by walking into a lamppost. The researchers wanted to encourage users to be more aware of the dangers of dividing their attention between tasks, and to educate people on how to prevent such issues.We asked Guardian readers to respond with their own examples of phone-related injuries and were greeted with tales of punching chairs, football-style saves and black eyes. Here are some of our favourites: Continue reading...

PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Communications minister to say digital platforms need to ‘take more responsibility’ on harmful content as new act proposed to boost online safetyThe Morrison government is putting internet giants on notice about cyberbullying, outlining a plan to tackle the problem in a new cyber safety consultation paper released by the communications minister.Cyber safety was one of the only fully formed policies Scott Morrison put forward during the May election campaign, with Paul Fletcher left to implement the proposal. Continue reading...

Faster processor, updated software and good screen make Amazon’s 10in hard to beat for £150Amazon’s cheap-but-good-enough media tablet gets a much-needed speed boost and updated software for 2019, doing just enough to make the Fire HD 10 still the budget tablet to buy for bigger-screen video watching.Now in their ninth-generation, Amazon’s Fire tablets follow a tried and trusted formula: undercut the competition on price with a good enough screen, good enough performance and Amazon’s version of Android, Fire OS, wrapped in a robust plastic body. Continue reading...

Company said ‘personal vendetta’ against Bezos, Amazon and the Washington Post cost it the cloud computing contractAmazon says Donald Trump’s “improper pressure” and behind-the-scenes attacks harmed its chances of winning a $10bn Pentagon contract.The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing contract to Microsoft in October. Continue reading...

Health datasets play a vital role in medical research. If the US has its way, the UK could lose a valuable public resourceAs a society, we are finally acquiring a healthy scepticism about the use and abuse of our personal information. New polling conducted by YouGov for the Institute for Public Policy Research shows that 80% of the public want to see tighter rules applied to how the likes of Facebook and Amazon use their data. Over the weekend, it was revealed that US pharmaceutical companies have already been sold data relating to millions of NHS patients and that Amazon, incredibly, has been given free access to NHS data Hidden away in the secret US-UK trade papers, leaked and revealed by Labour in November, is perhaps the biggest single threat to public data yet seen.Instead of the encroaching privatisation of publicly held data, we should be looking to create a “digital commons” Continue reading...

Murder, torture, child abuse: each day we see things that keep us awake at night. Yet Mark Zuckerberg calls us ‘overdramatic’You may have shrugged when you heard that some Facebook staff are suing the company over working conditions. But welcome to my world – content moderation – where we deal with the worst of humanity so you don’t have to. Naked migrants are being tortured with molten metal in Libya; Facebook’s quality assurance (QA) department is challenging whether that baby in Myanmar is dead; Dave and Doreen are using its report function as a weapon again. All their tedious posts end up on a screen in front of us, punctuated by atrocities, porn and distasteful jokes.Moderators make hundreds of decisions every day. It needs to be done by smart, well-adjusted people Continue reading...

Good sound, solid battery life and effective noise cancelling wrapped up in a tiny, potent packageApple’s true wireless earbuds have gone “pro” and in doing so deliver on the promise of the 2017 originals. The new AirPods Pro are worth the wait.Apple managed two pieces of magic in 2017 with the original £159 AirPods. They just worked without the skips, blips or audio delay, and came in a tiny battery case that kept them charged and safe – a combination that competitors still find hard to match. Continue reading...

Jordan Erica Webber looks at how Twitter’s plans to deactivate unused accounts raised a broader conversation around the intersection of technology and death Continue reading...

From a brilliant e-bike to a robot unicorn and a table lamp that doubles as a wireless speaker… the year’s top devicesThere’s more than meets the eye to these generic-seeming glasses. The Bose Frames contain a small pair of hidden speakers and sensors on their arms. In addition to music listening, you can use them to receive calls and interact with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Continue reading...

When I ended up single in a small town, I turned to a dating app. But finding someone fully and messily human was harder than I thoughtI did not intend to be single in the rural village where I live. I’d moved there with my fiance after taking a good job at the local university. We’d bought a house with room enough for children. Then the wedding was off and I found myself single in a town where the non-student population is 1,236 people. I briefly considered flirting with the cute local bartender, the cute local mailman – then realised the foolishness of limiting my ability to do things such as get mail or get drunk in a town with only 1,235 other adults. For the first time in my life, I decided to date online.The thing about talking to people on Tinder is that it is boring. I am an obnoxious kind of conversation snob and have a pathologically low threshold for small talk. I love people who fall into the category of Smart Sad People Flaunting Their Intelligence With Panache. I love Shakespeare’s fools and Elizabeth Bennet and Cyrano de Bergerac. I love Gilmore Girls and the West Wing and Rick And Morty. I want a conversation partner who travels through an abundance of interesting material at breakneck speed, shouting over their shoulder at me: Keep up. I want a conversation partner who assumes I am up for the challenge, who assumes the best of me. Continue reading...

Documents, believed to be genuine, were used by Jeremy Corbyn to lambast Tory party

Amazon says in response it ‘strictly prohibits’ counterfeit products and invests heavily to protect customers from them

The company had cancelled plans for a headquarters in Queens 10 months ago, after backlash from residents and politiciansNew York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “waiting on the haters to apologize” after Amazon announced it would open corporate offices in New York City after all, nearly a year after the internet giant abruptly reversed a decision to build a second headquarters there.Me waiting on the haters to apologize after we were proven right on Amazon and saved the public billions https://t.co/AC64pG0nZI pic.twitter.com/xzCepkX4AV Continue reading...

Vernon Unsworth’s legal team had sought at least $190m in damages after Tesla CEO called him ‘pedo guy’Elon Musk did not defame the British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth by calling him a “pedo guy” on Twitter, a Los Angeles jury found Friday.Musk shook hands with his lawyer at the close of the four-day trial in Los Angeles. He did not address Unsworth, whose team had told the court earlier on Friday the Tesla CEO should pay at least $190m in damages for his tweets about the diver. Continue reading...

A Los Angeles jury is expected to weigh in later on Friday whether the Tesla CEO defamed Vernon Unsworth on TwitterElon Musk should pay the British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth at least $190m in damages for calling him a “pedo guy”, Unsworth’s attorney argued in closing arguments of the Tesla CEO’s defamation trial.The amount of monetary damages came on Friday as the trial, which began on Tuesday, came to a close. The jury is expected to start deliberations later in the day. . Musk is in court for the final arguments, and his attorneys will respond on Friday. Continue reading...

The dating platform an analysis of user data and activity in the last year, that tells us how the world dated on the app in 2019Are you a vegan who likes kombucha? Are you real, lit, or looking for a real lit match? Do you even know what these words mean? If not, you probably need to lower your expectations on Tinder. Yesterday, the dating platform – which has an estimated 50 million users worldwide – released its Year in Swipe roundup: an analysis of user data and activity in the last year, that tells us how the world dated on the app in 2019.From Kombucha to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we’ve gone through the data to tell you what people were talking about the most in 2019 on Tinder. Continue reading...

Xbox One (version tested), Switch, PC, PS4; Hello There Games/Wired Productions

Electoral commission admits it doesn’t have the resources to scrutinise covert campaigns to influence votersAustralia’s electoral authorities lack the resources and powers to investigate the opaque funding used to spread political ads on Facebook, an inquiry has heard.The use of paid political advertising on the social network has posed challenges for democracies across the globe, including Australia, because it can allow unknown sources to use money to influence voters. Continue reading...

The rideshare company released its first-ever safety report in the wake of a House committee calling for improved policyMore than 3,000 Uber passengers reported sexual assaults in 2018, the ride-sharing company revealed in its first-ever safety report on Friday. Nine passengers were murdered and 58 riders were killed in crashes last year, the report said.These incidents, which include 229 rapes, represent just a fraction of the more than 1.3bn rides Uber facilitated in the US in the past year, but they come at a time when the company is increasingly under scrutiny for worker and rider safety conditions. Continue reading...

Vernon Unsworth, who assisted in the Thailand cave rescue, had deemed Musk’s miniature submarine a ‘PR stunt’Elon Musk’s attorney pressured a British cave explorer to apologize for criticizing Musk’s miniature submarine, in the third day of Vernon Unsworth’s defamation trial.“Do you believe Mr Musk is so cold-hearted that he was sending over this sub with no regard for the children’s lives?” Bill Price asked Vernon Unsworth in a Los Angeles federal court on Thursday. “Are you willing to apologize to Mr Musk for saying that it was just a PR stunt?” Continue reading...

The platform has come under fire after an unsubstantiated story about women being abducted in white vans went viral – but these stories still remain on FacebookFacebook has come under fire this week after a hoax story about women being abducted in white vans went viral on its platform. The site’s algorithms are thought to have perpetuated the circulation of the story.The story resulted in a TV appearance on Monday by Baltimore’s mayor, Jack Young, who warned citizens that the white vans are abducting women for sex trafficking and selling their body parts, even though the claims have not been substantiated. “It’s all over Facebook,” he told a local news station. Continue reading...

US experts report sharp increase in mobile casualties since rise of the iPhone in 2007

Have you ever had an accident because of your smartphone? Whether funny or serious, we’d like to hear from youPerhaps you have walked into a lamppost while scrolling on Instagram. Or dropped your phone on your nose while texting in bed. If so, you are not alone – a study shows that mobile-related injuries are increasing.The research, which analyses data from US emergency departments over 20 years, shows the number of accidents has soared in recent years. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Israel-based group has gained access to at least 21 pages, using them to launch coordinated false stories to their 1 million followers around the world

Israeli-based group uses Facebook to spread disinformation to more than a million followers around the world, singling out Muslim US congresswomen

Inventor of the first practical computer programming languageTony Brooker, who has died aged 94, was a pioneer of computer programming and education. He designed and implemented the world’s first high-level programming language, at Manchester University, and was later founding professor of computer science at Essex University.In 1947, when Brooker took up his first academic post, as assistant lecturer in engineering mathematics at Imperial College, University of London, computers were in the air. He joined Professor KD Tocher and another student, Sidney Michaelson, in building the Icce (Imperial College Computing Engine, pronounced “icky”). In 1949 Brooker became a research assistant at the Cambridge University mathematical laboratory and took charge of its differential analyser, a prewar analogue computer. Continue reading...

Tesla CEO faces questions over whether ‘pedo guy’ tweet was defamatory and if he tried to take credit for Thai cave rescueDid Elon Musk “try to take credit in any way for the rescue operation” that saved 12 young Thai footballers and their coach from imminent death in the Tham Luang cave network last summer? Did he deserve any? And if he didn’t, who did?Those were the questions at the center of the billionaire’s second day of testimony in the defamation case brought by Vernon Unsworth, a British cave explorer, against the Tesla entrepreneur. Unsworth told the federal court in Los Angeles that Musk’s 15 July 2018 tweet calling him “pedo guy” made him feel “humiliated, ashamed, dirty”. Continue reading...

Larry Page and Sergey Brin have handed over control of Alphabet to Sundar PichaiTwenty-one years after founding Google in a messy garage in Menlo Park, California, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have stepped down from day-to-day management of the company to assume the role of “proud parents – offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!”Page and Brin’s decision to hand over control of Google, and its parent company Alphabet, to long-standing lieutenant Sundar Pichai is the end of an era for the search engine giant, which had been built in their image and followed their personal values. Continue reading...

Former moderator suing social network in Ireland over health impact of scouring websiteA former Facebook moderator is suing the company, alleging that his work scouring the site of violent and obscene content caused his post-traumatic stress disorder.Chris Gray, who now works as a tour guide, is seeking damages from both Facebook Ireland and CPL, the contracting firm that directly employed him. The case, filed on Wednesday in the Irish high court in Dublin, is thought to be the first time a former moderator has taken the social network to court. Continue reading...

PM signals he is preparing to shut Chinese firm out after lobbying from Donald TrumpBoris Johnson has cast doubt on whether the UK will allow Huawei to invest in its 5G network, suggesting it might “prejudice” the Five Eyes intelligence relationship, after Donald Trump applied pressure for other countries to adopt the US ban.In his strongest signal so far that he is preparing to shut Huawei out of the network, Johnson said that security concerns were paramount in the decision about the Chinese company. Continue reading...

The company’s CEO waxes lyrical about the urgent threat to our environment, but it makes fixing its products prohibitively expensive

Billionaire entrepreneur admits he ‘would say very little at all if I just said sense’When Elon Musk took the stand on Tuesday, the question was whether he defamed a British cave explorer by calling him a “pedo guy”, but at times it seemed the real issue was more fundamental – the fragility of male egos.“This is a case about insults between two men,” said Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, in his opening statement to the jury in a federal courthouse in Los Angeles on the first day of the trial. Continue reading...

LA court hears the billionaire testify in Vernon Unsworth’s lawsuit over comments after Thai cave rescueIt was a gripping tale of peril and prowess that captivated the world for more than two tense weeks in the summer of 2018. Twelve boys and their football coach were lost in a subterranean maze in the Tham Luong caves in Thailand. An international team of cave divers raced to rescue them before monsoon rains were due to flood the caves. The story was destined to be fodder for a Hollywood blockbuster – and that was before an eccentric billionaire got involved.On Tuesday, a postscript to the feelgood tale of the Tham Luang cave rescue played out in a federal courthouse in Los Angeles as the trial began in a defamation case brought by the British caver Vernon Unsworth against Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk. Continue reading...

Current Google CEO will also manage Alphabet under one role in bid to ‘simplify management structure’

Frequent critic of Kremlin interference in the UK was sent suspicious email from MoscowThe Labour candidate Ben Bradshaw has said he has been the victim of a suspected Russian cyber-attack after he received an email from Moscow with attachments containing sophisticated malware.Bradshaw – who has repeatedly raised the subject of Kremlin interference in British politics, including in the EU referendum – received the email at his election gmail address. The sender – “Andrei” – claimed he was a whistleblower from inside Vladimir Putin’s presidential administration. Continue reading...

The employee-activists accuse the company of attempting to quash employee organizing, in violation of federal labor lawsThe four worker-activists who were fired by Google during Thanksgiving week plan to file federal charges alleging that their former employer fired them to quash worker organizing, in violation of federal labor laws.Google told its staff of approximately 100,000 last week that the employees were fired for “clear and repeated violations of our data security policies”, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg. But in defiant interviews with the Guardian on Monday, the workers rejected that justification as a pretext. Continue reading...

Video-sharing site restricted posts by users it identified as disabled, fat or LGBTQ+TikTok has admitted censoring posts by users it identified as disabled, fat or LGBTQ+ as part of a misguided effort to cut down on bullying on the platform.According to a report from the German site NetzPolitik.org, the video-sharing site artificially limited the reach of users who it thought would be vulnerable to bullying if their videos reached a wide audience. Continue reading...

The firm’s overworked warehouse staff have had to pee in old water bottles while their CEO is paid in a second what they earn in five weeksJeff Bezos, says the TUC, earns as much in a second as one of his warehouse workers would earn in five weeks. It makes his performative philanthropy – such as his Bezos Day One charity, which helps families in low-income areas – slightly nauseating. If he hadn’t set Amazon up to maximise his power and overvalue his contribution, he wouldn’t have helped to create the disempowerment and exploitation he claims to want to overcome.Serf-like conditions for Amazon warehouse staff, the atmosphere of hyper-surveillance in which every motion is monitored to check that it’s fast enough, are piled on top of the low wages to ram home to each employee how dispensable they are. But then, think of the free delivery. Continue reading...

DPD says drones are quicker and safer than driving a van up mountain roads in winter

YouTube chief executive officer confirmed in interview there were ‘ads of Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube’Google and YouTube have pulled hundreds of ads for Donald Trump over the last few months, according to 60 Minutes on CBS.Related: Trump heads to UK for Nato summit as impeachment deadline looms – live Continue reading...

European commission surveys companies about agreements they have made to share dataThe European commission is launching a new investigation into Google, examining the company’s data collection practices, according to a report from Reuters.During the past week, the competition commission has sent out questionnaires to companies that work with Google asking them about the agreements they have made to share data with the search firm. Continue reading...

Zuckerberg says ‘people should be able to judge for themselves the character of politicians’ and compares alternative to censorshipFacebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has defended the company’s decision to not take down political advertising that contains false information – and compared the alternative to censorship.Related: BBC tells Tories to take down Facebook ad featuring its presenters Continue reading...