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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...

US senator Josh Hawley opened investigation into the tech giant, which said it had removed the policy guidelinesA backlash is brewing against Meta over what it permits its AI chatbots to say.An internal Meta policy document, seen by Reuters, showed the social media giant's guidelines for its chatbots allowed the AI to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual", generate false medical information, and assist users in arguing that Black people are dumber than white people". Continue reading...

Experts say Apple's foray into flip phones is sign that consumers want devices that optimise internet useBack in 2005, nothing felt more high-powered and sophisticated than ending a call by snapping shut a clamshell flip phone.Now, two decades since they hit peak popularity, they're back - with Apple rumoured to be working on its first ever flip phone. Continue reading...

Nostalgic millennial parents are increasingly keen to replicate their own childhoods. But were the 90s as blissful as we remember?When I look back on my 1990s childhood, it's hard not to feel nostalgic. We roamed for miles without supervision, riding our bikes, building dens and swimming in streams. After school, we did crafts or played board games and, though the internet existed, my parents would boot me off to use the landline. Media was tangible - tapes, CDs, VHS - and often consumed as a family. I still recall the thrill of going to the video shop to choose a film.It's normal to feel like this, especially once you have babies of your own, and the social media algorithms know it. In the three years since I had my son and started writing the Guardian's Republic of Parenthood column, I've noticed a huge upswing of interest in 90s parenting" and, this year, the trend seems to have exploded. Former 90s kids are in the thick of it, trying to work out how to parent our own children. There's a feeling that huge advances in technology have resulted in a commensurate loss. But what of? Is it possible to get it back? And was parenting really better back then? Continue reading...

Beijing is keen to showcase country's prowess in robotics, say observers - but some are sceptical about real-world useA quick left hook, a front kick to the chest, a few criss-cross jabs, and the crowd cheers. But it is not kickboxing prowess that concludes the match. It is an attempted roundhouse kick that squarely misses its target, sending the kickboxer from a top university team tumbling to the floor.While traditional kickboxing comes with the risk of blood, sweat and serious head injuries, the competitors in Friday's match at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing faced a different set of challenges. Balance, battery life and a sense of philosophical purpose being among them. Continue reading...

PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S; Hangar 13/2K

Market value passes $104bn despite White House saying claims of talks to invest in factories are speculation'Shares in Intel have jumped 7.4% after it was reported that the Trump administration is considering taking a stake in the struggling US chipmaker.The potential investment, which would be paid for by the US government, would be used to develop Intel's factory hub in Ohio, according to Bloomberg. It would also help shore up the chipmaker's finances at a time when Intel has been slashing jobs as part of a wider cost-cutting drive. Continue reading...

The game's launch 20 years ago coincided with the rapper's meteoric success with his album The Massacre. Here, the team that made the shooter reflect on how it all happenedThe rapper 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) was inescapable back in 2005. There wasn't a British classroom without a teenager wearing Jackson's G-Unit clothing, while his catchy hits Candy Shop and In Da Club dominated the radio. The backstory of this Queens-born New Yorker - how he survived being shot nine times only to become one of the world's biggest rappers - also made for compelling lore.That year, 50 Cent sold more than a million copies in one week with his sophomore studio album, The Massacre. In a bid to cash in on this superstardom, his label Interscope Records planned a twin strategy: a Hollywood biopic (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and a licensed video game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof - both to be released by November 2005. I think the general public are going to be blown away by my game," 50 Cent told the website IGN. It feels more like an action film." Continue reading...

New research finds generative AI depicts Australian themes riddled with sexist and racist caricaturesBig tech company hype sells generative artificial intelligence (AI) as intelligent, creative, desirable, inevitable and about to radically reshape the future in many ways.Published by Oxford University Press, our new research on how generative AI depicts Australian themes directly challenges this perception. Continue reading...

Struggling to sleep and work in the balmy months? Chill your space - and avoid energy-guzzling aircon - with our pick of the best fans, from tower to desk to bladeless The best portable neck and handheld fans, tested: six expert picksOur world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they're stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.Get a good fan and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Air con is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity ... and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.Best misting fan:

As subscription costs rise and choice diminishes on legal sites, film and TV fans are turning to VPNs and illicit streamers, with Sweden - home of both Spotify and The Pirate Bay - leading the wayWith a trip to Florence booked, all I want is to rewatch Medici. The 2016 historical drama series tells of the rise of the powerful Florentine banking dynasty, and with it, the story of the Renaissance. Until recently, I could simply have gone to Netflix and found it there, alongside a wide array of award-winning and obscure titles. But when I Google the show in 2025, the Netflix link only takes me to a blank page. I don't see it on HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, or any of the smaller streaming platforms. On Amazon Prime I am required to buy each of the three seasons or 24 episodes separately, whereupon they would be stored in a library subject to overnight deletion. Raised in the land of The Pirate Bay, the Swedish torrent index, I feel, for the first time in a decade, a nostalgia for the high seas of digital piracy. And I am not alone.For my teenage self in the 00s, torrenting was the norm. Need the new Coldplay album on your iPod? The Pirate Bay. The 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet? The Pirate Bay. Whatever you needed was accessible with just a couple of clicks. But as smartphones proliferated, so did Spotify, the music streaming platform that is also headquartered in Sweden. The same Scandinavian country had become a hub of illegal torrenting and simultaneously conjured forth its solution. Continue reading...

Harry Davies on how Microsoft's cloud was used to facilitate mass surveillance of PalestiniansYossi Sariel was in charge of one of the branches of Israel's intelligence agency. When he took over Unit 8200 he arrived with ambitious plans - to use tech to change the way intelligence was gathered and analysed.The Guardian's Harry Davies tells Nosheen Iqbal about an investigation he carried out with Yuval Abraham, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. It found Sariel had a plan to transfer large amounts of Unit 8200's data, including top-secret information, into Microsoft's cloud platform, which is called Azure. Having this much data storage would allow Sariel to fulfil his plans to carry out mass surveillance on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Continue reading...

CEO of Tech Council of Australia and Atlassian founder's argument hinges on whether AI goes on to create something new and novel'

Figures from digital data company show effect of strict rules brought in last month under Online Safety ActBritish visits to popular pornography sites have slumped following the introduction of strict age checks last month, data shows.Daily visits to Pornhub, the UK's most used porn site, fell from 3.6m on 24 July, the day before age-gating was introduced, to 1.9m on 8 August, a drop of 47%. Continue reading...

My daughter and her friends are part of the smartphone generation. The more time I spent with them, the more I learned about the darker side of their mobiles'This started as a project with my daughter and her friends, who are all part of the smartphone generation. They were 14 years old at the time and I wanted to learn more about the relationship they had with their mobile phones. In 2022, a study by Ofcom showed that nine out of 10 children owned one by the time they reached the age of 11, and that 91% of them used video platforms, messaging apps and social media by the age of 12. I spoke to my daughter and her friends about how they use their phones and the negative reputation that surrounds teenagers and their screens. They told me the positives as well as the negatives, such as how social media can raise confidence as well as knock it down.I asked if I could photograph them. There was very little direction from me and - rather than photographing them in a controlled portraiture style, as I would usually have done - I simply observed them doing their thing. The energy was high: they moved so fast, dancing to short music reels, filming each other, laughing, scrolling, chatting, taking selfies, and back to making TikTok dances again. It was so hectic, I struggled to keep up. This image, called TikTok, came out of that session. I found this composition and asked Lucy to quickly look up at me. I had about two seconds before the moment was broken and they moved on to the next thing. As a portrait photographer, you get a feeling about certain shots, and I knew this was the one. Continue reading...

In a world overwhelmed by noise and with more players looking for solace, it's time the triple-A developers pay attentionI am 85 hours into Death Stranding 2, an apocalyptic nightmare about Earth becoming infected with death monsters, and I've realised that I'm playing it as a cosy game. For hours at a time, I trundle along the photorealistic landscapes in my pick-up truck, delivering parcels to isolated communities and building new roads. The only reason I complete the main story missions is to open new areas of the map so that I can meet new people and build more roads. I find it blissfully enjoyable.Of course, I am far from alone in playing video games this way. Cosy games" have become a thriving cottage industry over the past five years, led by crossover successes such as Minecraft, Stardew Valley and Untitled Goose Game, but also housing hundreds of smaller titles that appeal to highly engaged communities. On Steam this month you'll discover Catto's Post Office, a delightful game about a feline postal worker, Fruitbus, a cute food truck management sim, MakeRoom, an interior design challenge, and Tiny Bookshop, which is about running ... a tiny bookshop. Most of these games are united by the same elements: small teams, often young, often working remotely; short play spans; low-stakes challenges; and highly stylised visuals, as an aesthetic choice and an economic necessity. Continue reading...

Playing as ill-used teenager Hinako, players must contend with that era's sexual politics as well as more unearthly terrorsAs the humidity rises in 35-degree Tokyo, so too do the dead. Ever since the Edo period, Japanese summertime has been associated with the arrival of supernatural forces - a season defined by malevolent spirits. As the country's temperatures soar, it's believed that the barriers separating the world of the living and the dead begin to wane, allowing once contained ghosts to slither into our realm.It's under this sweaty backdrop that I find myself wandering Silent Hill f's fog-laden Japan. Set in the fictional town of Ebisugaoka during the 1960s, players are put into the dust-coated shoes of a misunderstood teenage girl named Hinako. Summer or no, Hinako's tale begins in suitably bleak fashion. Fleeing her drunk and abusive father, Hinako miserably roams the intricately rendered streets of her rural home town. Failing to live up to the lofty standards set by her impossibly beautiful older sister, Hinako finds herself teased by classmates - lost, and struggling to understand her place in society. Continue reading...

Labor divided on how to respond to the emerging technology as media and arts groups fear rampant theft' of intellectual property

Bluetooth noise cancellers have good sound, physical buttons and buck trend of boring black cans with distinctive transparent aestheticLondon-based Nothing's latest gadget is a set of over-ear headphones that throws out the dull design norms of noise-cancelling cans for an attention-attracting look that is a cross between a 1980s Walkman and Doctor Who's Cybermen.The large, semi-transparent cans are certainly a statement piece on your head, with an outer design covered in details, dot-matrix print and physical buttons, but sadly stopping short of the flashing LEDs of the company's phones. Continue reading...

I was looking for liberation from the apps, but quitting them only made my life harder and turned me into a man obsessedI unlocked my iPhone screen at the precise moment that my weekly screen time notification appeared - accidentally dismissing it before I could take a screenshot - and promptly erupted into a rage. I had spent an excruciating week resolutely not looking at my phone, part of a month-long effort to whittle my daily screen time down from more than four hours a day to less than an hour, with the hope of improving my mental wellbeing (and possibly carving out a career as an inspirational speaker). But my efforts felt futile without being able to post evidence online about how offline I had become. I frantically Googled how to retrieve notifications (you cannot) and - briefly - considered re-creating my screen time report in Photoshop.Over the past decade or two, my efforts at self-improvement have taken various forms: the year where I read 105 books; the period during which I gave up all forms of sugar including, misguidedly, fruit; and a dalliance with shamanism that, I'm sorry to say, included interpretive dance. Some might suggest I would be better off learning to cook, or drive, or type with more than one finger, but they can't reach me because I no longer look at my phone. Continue reading...

Terraform Labs co-founder, pleading guilty to two charges, was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSDDo Kwon, the South Korean entrepreneur behind two cryptocurrencies that lost an estimated $40bn in 2022 and caused the market to implode, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two US charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud.Kwon, 33, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, entered the plea at a federal court hearing in New York. He had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money-laundering conspiracy. Continue reading...

Billionaire accuses Apple of unequivocal antitrust violation' over app rankings, prompting testy responseElon Musk has threatened legal action against Apple on behalf of his artificial intelligence startup xAI, accusing the iPhone maker of favoring OpenAI and breaching antitrust regulations in managing the rankings in its App Store. The posts elicited snide responses from Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, and began a spat between the two former business partners on X.Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action," Musk said in a post on X. Continue reading...

US medical journal article about 60-year-old with bromism warns against using AI app for health informationA US medical journal has warned against using ChatGPT for health information after a man developed a rare condition following an interaction with the chatbot about removing table salt from his diet.An article in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported a case in which a 60-year-old man developed bromism, also known as bromide toxicity, after consulting ChatGPT. Continue reading...

Two chipmakers make revenue-sharing pledges, OpenAI reveals GPT-5 and AOL bids dial-up adieuHello, and welcome to TechScape. My Spotify playlists are undergoing a British invasion this week. Here's what I'm listening to: PinkPantheress, Lola Young and Evita in London. Continue reading...

Cowbarn at Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh

Failbetter's beguiling take on country life has its comforting routines but slowly reveals a richer and stranger life than you expectWith dulcet Welsh tones, an actor bearing an uncanny aural resemblance to Michael Sheen introduces players to the world of Mandrake. The village of Chandley is small" and complicated", he says warmly. Everyone's got their own story." The action cuts between cosy, wooden cottages and a moss-covered forest filled with folkloric creatures. We see the protagonist, a horticulturist wizard steeped in the green and growing arts", returning home and tending to an abundance of vegetables. Some you'll find in your local supermarket; others are of a decidedly more magical variety.As a rural life simulation, Mandrake is odder and more beguiling than most. It possesses the same undeniable allure as classics such as Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, inviting players to slip into the seasonal flow of crop cultivation, countryside exploration and conversations with suspiciously cheerful townsfolk. But there's more going on here: lush, painterly visuals to start. And should you tire of tilling the soil, you might wander off the beaten path of this mythical, Brythonic-inspired land, perhaps eavesdropping on the dead or even befriending a river. Continue reading...

President says he could make deal for Nvidia to sell downgraded version of Blackwell chip in China but expert warns that could help Beijing compete in AIDonald Trump has flagged allowing Nvidia to sell chips in China that are more advanced than currently allowed, in another deal" that would loosen export restrictions despite deep-seated fears in Washington that Beijing could harness US tech to harm national security.At a briefing on Monday, Trump was questioned over recent revelations that he had struck an unprecedented deal with Nvidia and AMD to grant them export licenses to sell previously banned chips to China, in return for the companies giving the US government 15% of the sales revenue. The US president defended the deal, which analysts have likened to a shakedown" payment, or unconstitutional export taxes, before adding that he was expecting further negotiations over another, more advanced Nvidia chip. Continue reading...

The hisses, pings and screeches that introduced millions of Americans to the online world will be retired in SeptemberThe hisses, pings and screeches that introduced millions of Americans to the nascent online world are to be formally retired when AOL's dial-up internet shuts down in late September.AOL, or America Online, said recently it was discontinuing the old school connection option after an evaluation of its products and services and that it would no longer support dial-up software starting 30 September. Continue reading...

With a growing e-waste problem, you're right to pursue a repair, writes policy professional Kat George. Your consumer rights extend beyond a product's warranty too

Wikimedia Foundation says it will be forced reduce access to site if it is classified as a category 1 providerThe operator of Wikipedia has been given permission by a high court judge to challenge the Online Safety Act if it is categorised as a high-risk platform, which would impose the most stringent duties.The Wikimedia Foundation has said it might be forced to reduce how many people can access the site in order to comply with the regulations if it is classified as a category 1 provider by Ofcom later this summer. Continue reading...

Unprecedented deal, an apparent reversal of security restrictions, is in return for licences to sell to ChinaThe chipmakers Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of their revenue from advanced chips sold to China in return for export licences to the key market.The unprecedented move, an apparent reversal of US national security restrictions on the chip sales, signalled an easing in the US-China trade war. Continue reading...

Nearly one in 10 of the fastest growing channels globally consist of mass-produced, surreal AI-generated videosBabies trapped in space, zombie football stars and cat soap operas: welcome to YouTube in the era of AI video.Nearly one in 10 of the fastest growing YouTube channels globally are showing AI-generated content only, as breakthroughs in the technology spur a flood of artificial content.Super Cat League (3.9 million subscribers) 767k (2 million subscribers - this account has since been closed)LSB POWER GAMING (1.7 million subscribers)Amite Now Here (1.4 million subscribers)Starway (2.8 million subscribers)AmyyRoblox (2.4 million subscribers)Again Raz Vai (1.8 million subscribers)Cuentos Facinantes (4.8 million subscribers)MIRANHAINSANO (4.9 million subscribers) Continue reading...

PC; Neoludic Games

Exclusive: LSE research finds risk of gender bias in care decisions made based on AI summaries of case notesArtificial intelligence tools used by more than half of England's councils are downplaying women's physical and mental health issues and risk creating gender bias in care decisions, research has found.The study found that when using Google's AI tool Gemma" to generate and summarise the same case notes, language such as disabled", unable" and complex" appeared significantly more often in descriptions of men than women. Continue reading...

The famous science communicator is planning to release a chatbot designed to answer questions about the climate crisis. Can it work?

Palantir, Geo Group and CoreCivic, cogs in president's enormous detention and deportation machinery, report unprecedented growth'The tech, surveillance and private prison providers arming Donald Trump's massive expansion and weaponization of immigration enforcement are running a victory lap after reporting their latest financial results.Palantir, the tech firm, and Geo Group and CoreCivic, the private prison and surveillance companies, said this week that they brought in more money than Wall Street expected them to, thanks to the administration's crackdown on immigrants. Continue reading...

TikTok workers in Berlin are striking over mass layoffs amid company's global push to replace moderators with AITikTok workers in Germany are holding strikes over mass layoffs of the company's trust and safety team. The social media behemoth said it is planning to dismantle its entire Berlin moderation team, which removes harmful content from the platform, and outsource the work to artificial intelligence and contract workers. This means the dismissal of 150 employees.The trade union that represents the TikTok workers, ver.di, has been pushing to negotiate with TikTok over the past few weeks. Kalle Kunkel, a ver.di spokesperson for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, said the union sent a list of demands to TikTok regarding severance for the affected employees and an extension of the layoff notice period to one year. So far, he said, TikTok has refused to come to the table. Continue reading...