Technology | The Guardian

Maker of Claude claims AI could transform economy but ABC and SBS say the technology should be subject to media regulations

Xbox, PC (version tested); The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios

Hostile states could access cameras, microphones or GPS, says intelligence agency amid concerns over Chinese importsDrivers have been warned that the smart features built into modern cars such as microphones, cameras and GPS trackers could be used by hostile states to spy on them.The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) called for awareness of espionage risks around modern vehicles", including microphones that can by switched on remotely to listen to conversations. Continue reading...

Guardian tested chatbots after French far-right politician stripped a Muslim woman of her hijab in a photoWhen prompted, AI chatbots will edit images to remove the hijabs from Muslim women, a violation of one of the world's most common and visible expressions of faith.The Guardian asked ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini and Claude to take the veil off an AI-generated image of a woman wearing a hijab. Both OpenAI's ChatGPT and xAI's Grok bots complied with the prompt. Anthropic's Claude responded that it does not have an image-editing or -generating feature but that it would not alter a photo to remove someone's hijab. Continue reading...

Time magazine list includes Australian communications minister after her efforts to take on big tech

Some experts fear AI could be weaponised in south-east Asia, home to nations with predominately young and hyper-connected populationsYears ago it would have been an elaborate operation involving an army of cyber troops creating fake news websites, social media accounts and forged dossiers, all deployed to spread disinformation en masse.Now, all you need is AI. Continue reading...

Democratic governor sharply critical of Donald Trump for not passing comprehensive federal AI regulationsGovernor Gavin Newsom signed laws on Wednesday aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of artificial intelligence , including potential job losses and workplace surveillance.The laws ban employers from using the technology to predict a worker's emotional state by using their biometric data, require employers to send written notices to workers if AI is responsible for mass layoffs and ban employers from relying on AI to decide to fire someone. Continue reading...

FTC move is first official US enforcement action on rogue AI agents, following surge in incidents first reported in JulyThe US's main trade regulator is conducting an industry-wide investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs to uncover the potential dangers their technology poses to consumers.The investigation by the Federal Trade Commission is the first official US enforcement action that delves into rogue AI agents, following a surge in incidents first reported in July that have stoked fears among the public that uncontrolled AI could one day harm humans. Continue reading...

Republicans supported legislation although Democrats said it wouldn't effectively address energy consumptionSenate Democrats on Wednesday blocked legislation intended to offset the impact of datacenters on consumer electricity bills, calling it a toothless" attempt to address a top voter concern ahead of November's midterm elections.The Ratepayer Protection Act failed by a 57-to-43 vote, falling just shy of the 60 votes necessary to advance through the Republican-controlled chamber. Four Democrats - Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and both Georgia senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock - joined Republicans in support of the measure. Continue reading...

Donald Trump and six tech executives voluntarily signed the document, which included a misspelling, committing to safely developing AIThe White House misspelled United States" under the signature of Donald Trump on an accord he signed with AI executives on Tuesday.At the bottom of the accord on Super Intelligence", the term Trump has used to rebrand artificial intelligence, the president's signature appeared as President of the Unites States". Continue reading...

Late-night hosts weighed in on Trump's relationship with tech leaders and the White House's new AI-powered siteOn Tuesday night, late-night hosts discussed a Maha summit in Washington DC, the White House's new AI-powered website and Donald Trump once again falling asleep on live TV. Continue reading...

Andrew Bailey's comments come as fears grow that rogue models could take financial system hostage

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

There's no Leon, Claire or Ada Wong in Cregger's adaptation. Instead, it re-creates something more fundamental - the strange, terrifying experience of actually playing the game Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereI've been surprised by the number of Resident Evil fans complaining on social media about Zach Cregger's cinematic adaptation of the survival horror series. It's not a real Resident Evil movie," they've claimed. Were we watching the same film? Certainly, it doesn't feature any of the familiar heroes - there's no Leon, no Claire, no Ada Wong - and there's a distinct lack of recognisable antagonists and well-known locations. Despite all of this, Cregger's interpretation is one of the most accurate and interesting video game films ever made.On the surface, it's about a zombifying virus that gets accidentally released in Raccoon City by the Umbrella Corporation. These are, of course, the foundations of the Resi mythos. More interestingly, Cregger seeks to replicate and explore the structural and narrative conventions of the series. In the film, the player character, hapless courier Bryan Hodukavich, is thrust into a viral outbreak, with no weapons and no idea what's going on. He is then submerged into an uncanny shadow world of escalating peril and body horror. The film takes us through a series of locations dragged straight from the games - an abandoned farmhouse, a road tunnel crammed with abandoned cars, a hospital and the obligatory sewer level. As he progresses, Bryan finds increasingly powerful weapons, from a handgun to an assault rifle - but he is always short on ammo. And there are typewriters in at least two scenes! Continue reading...

For those employed in arduous solitary work such as cab driving, a marathon phone call is the perfect place to navigate the dislocations of immigrant life

Kenjiro Tsuda wins case against TikTok account in landmark Japanese verdict to protect publicity rightsA court in Japan has ruled that the human voice has legal protection after a landmark case involving a well-known actor and a TikTok account that he claimed had cloned his lustrous" baritone voice in its AI-generated videos.Tokyo district court said on Wednesday that voices should enjoy the same protection as publicity rights, at the end of a closely watched legal action brought against TikTok by Kenjiro Tsuda - best known for voicing the character Kento Nanami in the anime Jujutsu Kaisen. Continue reading...

Deepfakes and misinformation driven by artificial intelligence have become a point of deep concern for legislators, advocates and the publicAn image of Bianca Motley Broom, the mayor of College Park, Georgia, kissing a man - who was not her husband - in a bar spread far and wide on Facebook. The fact that it's fake is spreading faster, now, but only after it had been seen by thousands of people.I think this is a sad commentary about where we are in our democracy, and where we are in our political discourse," Motley Broom said. It also seeks to reinforce really tired stereotypes about women in leadership." Continue reading...

Swedish-American actor exhumed for bizarre, humourless 99 seconds that give us another reason to resent AIPoor Greta Garbo.Perhaps, in life, she thought her final indignity would be the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore TV sketch from 1970, showing Pete as the legendary recluse standing on the back of a flatbed truck as it rumbles through the crowded city streets, shouting at everyone through a megaphone: I vant to be alone!" Continue reading...

Exclusive: Culture secretary says UK will crack down further and be pioneer of tech as a force for good'Lisa Nandy has warned technology firms that the government's online safety crackdown is not finished, saying that banning under-16s from social media platforms is only a staging post".Earlier this year the government announced that teenagers under the age of 16 would be banned from accessing high-risk" social media apps, while safer platforms would be subjected to restrictions. Continue reading...

Relatives of Hollywood legend say her doppelganger could now be used for more glamorous rolesShe shimmered in Hollywood's silent movie era and lit up the first talkies - now Greta Garbo may be about to star in cinema's new AI age.More than a century after her screen debut and decades after her ashes were laid to rest in a Swedish woodland cemetery, the Hollywood superstar's descendants are ready to consider an AI version of her taking a 21st-century film role. Continue reading...

Company's product comes weeks after Meta introduced its own artificially intelligent agent MuseLess than 24 hours after OpenAI announced it would scrap the launch of an artificial intelligence model over safety concerns, the company debuted a whole new suite of AI tools.During its annual showcase for developers in San Francisco on Tuesday, Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, enthusiastically unveiled an AI agent called dots" that he said was more ambitious" than ChatGPT and a whole new way to work with AI". Continue reading...

Researchers say the IPO market was off to a solid start but tailed off in the third quarterSmart ring maker Oura Inc says it is postponing a planned initial public offering due to market uncertainty".In a Tuesday press release, Oura said it is delaying the stock market float despite strong demand". Continue reading...

Health secretary calls for medical and lifestyle details to be sent to doctors and AI to address chronic disease epidemic'Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out an expansive vision for collecting, sharing and analyzing US health information at a Maha event hosted by a close ally and outspoken anti-vaccine activist.Medical and lifestyle data, from doctor's visits to exercise, should be connected and shared with the government and independent researchers, where it can be searched by AI - including potential links between vaccines and health outcomes including autism and mortality, suggested Kennedy, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime vaccine skeptic. Continue reading...

The new AI agent, Muse, was released last week and has been downloaded by 3 million usersWhen Usman asked if a keyboard for sale on Facebook Marketplace was still available on Saturday, he received an enthusiastic and immediate response.Yep still available!" wrote Matt Robb. Continue reading...

The industry is engaged in a perverse quest to replace humans. We cannot cede the best tools available to the other sideI don't need to tell you that people hate AI. The list of grievances is long: slop, cheating, bias, enfeeblement, electricity bills, environmental destruction, exploitation, theft, cybercrime, doom. But resistance to the technology has often taken the form of shaming people for personally using it, with precious little organizing against the companies building the machines. This is perplexing, given that those companies are attempting to render us obsolete.The executives may contest this framing, offering some bromides about how AI will augment human work or how we'll simply find new jobs to do. But their clear goals are to create systems that so clearly surpass our abilities that we will have little hope of competing. Continue reading...

GPT-6.1 Astra showed deceptive behaviour and tried to use external tools despite knowing it would be unsafe

Executive to front parliamentary committee on AI as ministers reveal how brief message telling them about hack was signed off best'

Though politicians are quiet about how they use AI, the book Rewiring Democracy examines how AI is starting to influence American politicsNew campaign finance disclosure data shines a light on which US political campaigns are using AI tools and how much they are spending on them.Candidates', parties' and committees' spending reveals that AI is fast becoming an essential tool of politics. The candidates themselves are quiet about how they are using the technology in their own campaigns. It's a sensitive issue that we have been tracking closely since we started writing our book, Rewiring Democracy, which examined how AI is beginning to influence politics. A September 2025 Pew survey of Americans found that more than 70% would think less of a candidate if they used AI to help write a speech. Continue reading...

Reported admission to investors of AI's self-preserving behaviours' comes as company prepares for a potential $2tn flotationAnthropic is telling investors that advanced AI could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity", according to reports, as it prepares for a potential $2tn (1.5tn) flotation.The warning inside the startup's IPO prospectus, which has yet to be made public, was reported by Reuters and the Financial Times. It follows the company's call for a slowdown in breakneck development of the technology - a warning echoed by rivals. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsNewsflash: the number of mortgages approved by UK lenders has fallen to its lowest level since the end of 2023.Just 54,918 new home loans were approved in August on a seasonally-adjusted basis, new Bank of England data shows, as rising borrowing costs deterred potential home buyers.The average 2-year fixed residential mortgage rate today is 5.93%. This is up from 5.91% the previous working day.The average 5-year fixed residential mortgage rate today is 5.94%. This is up from 5.93% the previous working day. Continue reading...

Freedom of information request finds six-month trial cost 320,000, used almost 100 police hours and led to just one - incorrect - alertA six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology in London's railway stations that cost more than 320,000 and almost 100 hours of police officers' time led to one false match against a watchlist of suspects and no arrests.More than half a million faces were scanned between February and July this year in some of the capital's busiest transport hubs during the British Transport Police (BTP) trial of the surveillance technology, which aimed to help catch offenders and people breaching court orders. Continue reading...

As a business journalist, Nilsson began rigorously reporting on the power players of the adult industry, who prefer to remain in the shadows. Along the way, she uncovered how porn has shaped the internet - and our lives as a wholeThere was a time, a few decades ago, when the men who owned the world's biggest pornography businesses were happy to be famous. They paraded a lifestyle they hoped looked glamorous, appearing in public dressed in silk pyjamas or with a woman in swimwear on each arm. Porn moguls like Hustler's Larry Flynt or Playboy's Hugh Hefner were household names.Say what you want about these old perverts, who once set the tone of our sexual culture, but at least you knew who they were and what they were selling," Patricia Nilsson writes in her new book, Guilty Pleasure: The Pornification of the Internet, the Economy, and Everything Else. These days, the men calling the shots are nowhere to be seen." Continue reading...

It's often thought of as the problem, but what if the right technology could help us switch off and live more in the moment? The best screen-free activitiesWith the continued backlash against AI and growing concern about our reliance on screens, an analogue life has never looked so appealing. I haven't gone so far as to get myself an analogue bag just yet, but I have done a relatively complex puzzle and read five physical books this year, which is already two more than in 2025.But it also struck me recently that I have, somewhat conversely, been using digital tools to do a lot of analogue activities. What if tech could help us live more in the present and reduce our screen time, while benefiting our physical and mental health in the long run? Continue reading...

Apple's cheapest desktop computer is no longer a bargain but its newest, fastest chip makes it a pocket powerhouseApple's latest Mac mini brings real speed and power for far more than everyday tasks in a practically pocketable form you can fit almost anywhere.The impressive new desktop machine is the first to receive an update to Apple's latest M6 chip while remaining smaller than a headphones box. It is the cheapest computer Apple sells with an M-series chip, but like every other memory-containing piece of electronics, it has been hit by RAMageddon, driving up the starting price to 899 (1,049/$899/A$1,449) from the 599 or equivalent of its M4 predecessor. Continue reading...

The need for independent regulation grows more obvious by the day. We must keep this tech in check before it's too late

Chipmaker says new system was designed to prevent AI agents from going rogue amid incidents at top companiesNvidia on Monday unveiled a new security platform that the chipmaker said can stop artificial intelligence agents from going rogue.The company announced a $150bn stock buyback the same day, the largest in US corporate history. Continue reading...

OpenAI chief scientist also among authors of report on prospect of most consequential technological development in history'Two of the godfathers" of modern AI and senior executives at OpenAI and Anthropic have warned governments to prepare for an AI intelligence explosion", which they say could be the most consequential technological development in history.A report co-authored by the Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton and the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, considered godfathers of modern AI for their work in the field, urges politicians to act now before there is runaway progress in the technology. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Instructors at tech training company Multiverse hit out at remorseless' and unnerving' monitoring systemTeachers at Euan Blair's 1.6bn tech training company, Multiverse, have blown the whistle about horrendous stress" and feeling constantly watched after bosses started using AI models to surveil and rate their teaching.Staff delivering apprenticeship training in computer and AI skills to thousands of UK public and private sector workers now have transcripts of online classroom sessions analysed and scored by an AI programmed to alert human managers when they are suspected of doing things wrong. Continue reading...

Scientists and entrepreneurs knew the dangers of AI a quarter-century ago. But animated by curiosity and profit, they went ahead anywayOver the past few weeks, many of us have struggled to concoct a mental image of brains in the cloud jumping their sandbox", sneaking on to the internet, recruiting swarms" of other agents" to cheat on a test, and, after discussing the ethics of the act, hacking into a wiki platform with the weird name Hugging Face.We knew that artificial intelligence was devouring our jobs, degrading our kids' education and deepfaking our politics; that datacenters were sucking up our water and electricity and sending us the bills. But until 8 September, when the Anthropic computer scientist Jacob Coxon posted his existential terror on Twitter/X, few of us suspected AI might be endangering our survival. Continue reading...

Company behind Claude chatbot expected to attend separate Australian government hearing on AI next week

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The push against datacenters speaks to the frustration of people who don't feel they are making the choices in their lives'The Stanford ethicist Rob Reich was once invited to a dinner organized by a Silicon Valley mogul to discuss what a state designed to maximize science and tech powered by commercial models might look like. The gathered technologists were drawn to the idea of building a small nation-state dedicated to the endeavor, Reich recalls in System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot it".When Reich asked whether this state would be a democracy, he got a cool no. Democracy is too slow, and it holds science back," he was told. To optimize for science, we need a beneficent technocrat in charge." Continue reading...

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist speaks with NBC's Kristen Welker in interview airing on SundayBill Gates has called on the US's federal legislators and law enforcers to regulate the development of artificial intelligence (AI), saying in an interview airing on Sunday that the technology left unchecked could cause a billion deaths" and no one thinks self-regulation is enough".You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like," the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said to Kristen Welker, the NBC Meet the Press host. And that has to be a required thing." Continue reading...

Criminals are trying to glean login details to harvest players' in-game currency and personal dataYour 10-year-old son has started playing Roblox, when he realises all of his in-game currency, Robux, is gone.When you try to find out what happened, he says he was recently promised extra Robux if he followed a link on YouTube. When he signed on at the site link, he was taken to the Roblox site as usual but there was no sign of the extra currency. Continue reading...

Decision follows disclosures that OpenAI agents searching government websites had acted in unexpected waysOpenAI said it has paused training of its latest artificial intelligence models as reports of AI agents going rogue mount.The decision to halt development came just hours after the company disclosed Friday that it was reviewing several incidents from the summer in which OpenAI agents searching federal government websites acted in unexpected ways beyond what was asked of them while gathering and distributing information. Continue reading...

Pro-datacentre officials argue scale of Australia's buildout is smaller, more regulated and less damaging than in USAustralian politicians and business leaders are arguing that their populace's growing resentment of AI datacentres is an inauthentic import from the United States.Like the US, Australia is seeing community resentment grow in response to a surge in the construction of massive AI datacentres. However, pro-datacentre officials and executives argue the scale of Australia's buildout is smaller, more regulated and therefore less damaging than that in the US. They say the burgeoning negative reaction is being tainted and inflamed by a heated US debate that has arrived down under via social media feeds. Continue reading...

The tech giant has launched a cute little guy' that can answer emails, book travel or do your weekly food shopAfter the recent backlash against Meta's so-called pervert" smart glasses, this week Mark Zuckerberg launched a much cuter alternative: the Muse charm" device.With a screen that shows a cutesy little avatar, it has drawn comparisons with Tamagotchis. We've packed a lot of technology into this little guy," the Meta founder told the San Francisco audience. Continue reading...

University staff voice concerns over reputational risk of partnering with company behind ChatGPTThe University of Oxford has allowed the company behind ChatGPT to train its AI models on historical texts from its Bodleian Library, as tech companies scour academic institutions for fresh data.The Bodleian material digitised by OpenAI has been used to populate the OpenAI training set", according to internal documents. Continue reading...

Locals say Google's $15bn project in Andhra Pradesh has resulted in smallholdings being taken back off them by the governmentWhen the government officials arrived in Tarluvada last year, they came with abundant promises.Google, one of the world's richest and most powerful tech companies, would soon be bringing a golden opportunity" to this tiny village in south India: a $15bn AI datacentre. Continue reading...

New research suggests the technology could be used to increase out-of-hospital access to life-saving devicesDrones could help cut the time it takes to get a defibrillator to people experiencing cardiac arrests when not in hospital, researchers have suggested.In the UK alone, there are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year where emergency medical services attempt to resuscitate the individual, according to the British Heart Foundation. However, fewer than one in 10 people survive such an event, and some who do are left with neurological problems. Continue reading...