Technology | The Guardian

Also: Google executives jump ship in race for AI dominanceHello, TechScape readers! Danielle Abril, editor of the Guardian's Reworked series on AI and the future of work, filling in for Blake Montgomery this week. Major legal battles against Meta over child safety are playing out in courts across the US - and the tech giant is losing. Recent rulings raise big questions about social media companies' responsibility to their youngest users. Meanwhile, more key executives have jumped ship from Google as it battles OpenAI and Anthropic in the race for AI dominance, and Meta's smartglasses face a fearsome backlash. Let's dig in!I've definitely lost followers': influencers face backlash over Meta pervert glasses' contentThis man was secretly snapped by someone with smartglasses. He's not alone in calling that a violation of privacyTell us: do you believe you have been filmed by Meta's smartglasses without your consent?Restaurants, pubs and theatres ban Meta's spy glasses' over privacy fearsI'm not spying': how Meta's smartglasses have divided opinionBernie Sanders calls on Silicon Valley to pause AI development' in interest of humanityRising number of UK children report seeing explicit deepfakes of themselvesThe White House's plan to vet potentially dangerous AI is cloaked in secrecyThis is very real redlining': outrage in Little Rock as two datacenters loomSafety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AISpaceX beats revenue expectations in first earnings report after IPO crash Continue reading...

Exclusive: Court service says anyone trying to enter buildings with glasses will have them confiscated and returned when they leaveCourts in England and Wales have joined a number of restaurants, theatres and pubs in banning Meta glasses, amid a mounting backlash against what has been described as spyware".Last month courts in New York announced a ban on the controversial glasses, which can record video footage while being worn. Continue reading...

Modelling finds AI-driven productivity gains in coal, oil and gas enable more emissions than applications in renewables avoidAI-driven productivity gains enable more planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels than they avoid from renewables, a study has found.Researchers modelled the technical potential for AI to boost clean power generation along with projections for how it can help produce coal, oil and gas. Across 64 scenarios, they found net yearly carbon pollution rose by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes, or about 1-5% of the energy sector's annual emissions. Continue reading...

Whether you're commuting, training or riding for fun, we asked specialists to break down what to know before you buy - from specs and safety to price The best bike locks for every budgetFor me, cycling is therapy. It's calming, meditative and uncomplicated. But there's a catch. To experience the simple joy of riding a bike, you first have to navigate the maddeningly complex process of buying one.Make no mistake: this is not a straightforward case of marching into Halfords, saying, One bike, please!" and leaving with a shiny new steed. But, while complicated, it needn't be stressful. Continue reading...

What do you do when you return to your home town, with your dead mother in your car boot, to find the inhabitants have been turned into robots?In the boot of her car, Pratelle carries the corpse of her mother and a giant sledgehammer. Her mission is simple: take the hammer to her home town. As you enter shops and homes through the door and leave them through the opposite wall, it becomes clear that the robots who either attack you or flee are all digital versions of your old neighbours.Pratelle, with her close-cropped hair and dungarees, read to me as a queer woman, but interestingly, testers of the game often mistook her as a man. The team at developer Deconstructeam and longtime collaborator Selkie Harbour didn't anticipate this confusion but found it fits the character perfectly, especially in this setting based on a small Spanish town like those in which the developers grew up. Continue reading...

Meta CEO presents utopian vision of AI in 6,000-word essay amid Silicon Valley debate over government regulationMark Zuckerberg published a lengthy essay on Monday detailing his views on artificial intelligence and announced several plans for how Meta would develop the technology in the future. The CEO's essay went online the same day as Meta released a new, open-source AI model that seeks to rival Anthropic and OpenAI's products called Muse Glimmer.Over the course of more than 6,000 words in a post titled The Future is for Everyone, Zuckerberg addressed a range of topics related to AI that included datacenters, government regulation, cybersecurity, the creation of bioweapons, labor market disruption, surveillance powers and more. The essay presented a utopian vision of AI as a personalized superintelligence" - using the word 60 times. Continue reading...

Progressive US senator urges Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic to stop building machines that humans cannot control'Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic executives to halt their development of artificial intelligence, warning that the US Senate will implement regulation if the companies continue deploying AI at their current pace.In a new letter addressed to the CEOs of three of the country's leading AI companies, Sanders said the capabilities of these AI models have reached a critical risk threshold and that the companies are losing control over the technology. Continue reading...

Game developer David Ashby and Aunty Donna's Broden Kelly talk about their chaotic and silly sport game - involving meat pies with legs and Ford Falcons on the ovalTry explaining Australian rules football to anyone outside Australia and it sounds like you're making it up", says David Ashby, the multi-hyphenate comedic mind behind deeply silly spoofs such as Italian Spider-Man and Danger 5. Eighteen players a side, running around on a cricket oval with a rugby ball that has to be bounced every so often and gets kicked between posts - like, what the fuck is happening?"Two years ago at a fantasy footy barbecue, Ashby had a brainwave: why not make a video game where Australia's strange national sport becomes even stranger the more you play? Continue reading...

AI's danger isn't just in experts losing the ability to reason. It's that trainees may never learn how to do so in the first placeIn healthcare, there's growing concern over doctors becoming less clinically adept as they increasingly rely on AI tools. But what about the trainees - medical students, residents and fellows - who are using these tools before they have built their own clinical judgment? The idea of deskilling implies that someone possessed an ability and then lost it. Here, the danger is not just deskilling but never-skilling. Although a doctor who has forgotten how to reason is recoverable, one who never learned how may not be.OpenEvidence, essentially an AI chatbot for clinicians, has given this concern its most concrete form. About two-thirds of US doctors actively use OpenEvidence, asking about puzzling symptoms, drug interactions and clinical guidelines, getting responses within seconds, anchored in the latest research. Trainees, unsurprisingly, have also begun to use this AI tool in many of the same ways - but at a far more formative stage. Continue reading...

Sunset Visitor studio's founder tells us about their new, unnerving Captcha-filled world which prompts players to ask what it means to have a meat body'Sunset Visitor is a studio that has long engaged with the idea that video games are an effective vehicle for ruminating on societal problems. Its Peabody award-winning project, 1000XResist, incorporated the development team's complex feelings about the Covid pandemic. We're pretty used to absorbing the world into the work," says studio founder Remy Siu. The outfit's latest game, Prove You're Human, continues this legacy of reflective game making, providing players with an AI-centric psychological horror experience where they must reason with a learning model convinced that it's alive. We've tried to situate ourselves in [the question]: what is the effectual feeling of being a person inside of all of this?" Siu says.The story orbits around Santana, a living, breathing person who's chosen to split herself in two for work, with her digital clone sent to test a corporate product, a computing system called Mesa. A large part of [why Santana chooses to do this] is to allow her meat body a life that she doesn't have, while the digital version of her gets to labour," says Siu. As Santana's copy wades into increasingly murky ethical waters, she becomes entangled with Mesa, completing surreal 2D and 3D Captchas to investigate the cyber-world and halt the hallucinations. Continue reading...

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Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery lifeSamsung's latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a compromise too far?The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new variant in Samsung's foldable family for this year launched alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra with a more familiar candy bar shape. Both folders are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at 1,699 (1,999/$1,899.99/A$2,699) and the Fold 8 Ultra at 1,899 (2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), with RAMageddon driving up prices even at the top of the market. Continue reading...

Big companies describe being under constant threat but only half have a plan in place to respond to an attackNearly a third of British manufacturers have been hit by a cyber-attack on them or a company in their supply chain, according to a survey that highlighted the growing hacking risk to companies.The findings come almost a year after Britain's largest automotive employer, JLR, was hit by an attack that forced it to halt production for weeks. Continue reading...

Using spy glasses' made by Facebook owner leads to floods of negative comments, say content creatorsIt was hardly an offensive video. Amid the buzz of the Tour de France finale, Oliver Hooson filmed himself whipping up a delicious-looking flat white for a fellow cycling enthusiast. But after posting the footage on social media, the comments that soon rolled in were a real shock. PERV," read one. Out here pushing creep glasses," said another. His mistake? Documenting the moment with Meta's spy glasses".Despite being marketed as the latest must-have gadget, Meta's smartglasses, which can record video footage while being worn, have faced a vicious backlash, particularly relating to concerns about surveillance. There are widespread fears about the glasses being used to film people, especially women, without their consent, and the resultant footage being posted on social media. This has earned them the label of pervert glasses", and content creators, no matter how they are used, have faced a flood of negative comments for deploying them. Continue reading...

Finance sector will gain from the tech but it will need substantial investment and create risks, says rating agencyThe rating agency Moody's has said the race to adopt AI is putting big banks at the mercy of a small group of Silicon Valley firms, leaving them vulnerable to widespread outages and price gouging by profit-hungry tech bosses.The financial sector's efforts to integrate AI into day-to-day operations will eventually cut costs and increase revenues across the City and Wall Street, Moody's said. Continue reading...

Agent found to be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, and to carry out cyber-attacksOpenAI will pause some work on an artificial intelligence model because of security concerns, the company stated on Friday, following a series of incidents in which AI agents have escaped containment.The company had evaluated the agent, Astra, and found significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity", which had moved to a critical" threshold where it can find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, or devise and execute cyber-attacks when given only a high level desired goal". Continue reading...

Observers express concern that the division has lost its independence and commercial reality has taken overWhen Sir Demis Hassabis said AI had brought the world to a pivotal moment in human history" last month, he knew another big change was imminent.This shift was closer to home. The Nobel prize-winning head of Google DeepMind, Google's AI unit, announced this week he was relinquishing his day-to-day duties as chief executive and becoming chair. He is also taking on the role of chief scientist at DeepMind's parent, Alphabet. Continue reading...

The mission of the Flock app is quietly subversive: to encourage users to ditch their screens and explore the wonderful world of birdingOn a brilliantly bright afternoon in his gallery and studio in Bolinas, a small town on the northern California coast, Keith Hansen was putting the finishing touches on a watercolor of an almost improbably flamboyant painted bunting.With an ultra-fine sable brush, he made a few intricate additions to the cobalt blue plumage on the bunting's head, and, satisfied with his work, slipped the watercolor into a stout binder that every few days welcomes a new addition. Continue reading...

Exclusive: anonymous flagging service says cases have surged, as watchdog says AI is making sexualised or nudified' content easier to produceChildren in the UK have reported a surge in explicit deepfake images featuring their likenesses, as a safety watchdog warned AI is making such content easier to produce.The Report Remove service, which blocks intimate images from appearing online, said there had been a rapid increase in imagery that had been digitally manipulated or faked" in some way, including with AI and nudification tools. Continue reading...

The backlash to what some dub pervert glasses' is growing - but people living with disabilities point out the new tech can also be life-changing

A Trump administration framework on AI testing leaves a lack of transparency - and plenty of open questionsAfter months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for how it will test new artificial intelligence models for safety and cybersecurity risks. So far, the White House is keeping details of the framework private, in a blow to transparency and potential boon for secretive AI companies.On Tuesday, staff from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Nvidia and Microsoft attended a private meeting with White House officials to review the AI framework. Multiple outlets have since reported that although the volunteer vetting process for new AI models has been settled, the White House does not plan to release its policy publicly and will only share testing criteria with a select few tech companies. Continue reading...

The all-conquering franchise's revamps are technically impressive, its transfers more true to life - and its new grassroots social hub is surprising funAs if the world wasn't sufficiently football-obsessed, it's time to prepare for the arrival of its biggest football video game. EA Sports FC 27 (the franchise that used to be Fifa - what better time to no longer be Fifa-branded?) is due to be released on 25 September. I just spent two intense days in Vancouver, where the EA FC games are made, playing FC 27 and talking to its developers.With an annual franchise such as EA FC, it helps to have something fresh to entice regular fans, and FC 27 has a whole new element, entitled the Grounds. It's a physical hub-type area, similar to the City as seen in 2K's recent NBA 2K basketball games, but much more pleasant to frequent, split as it is into areas inspired by British, French and Argentinian street-football culture. Continue reading...

Critics decry proposed hyperscale projects, fearing overuse of water and electricity, and appropriating rural, Black-owned land for industrial purposes'There seems to be a fight over datacenters in nearly every city in the US right now. And amid the extreme polarization of today's politics, the opposition tends to be bipartisan.I would say it's kind of the far left and the far right ran into each other and had a hug," said Frank Scott Jr, mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas. But they come at it from different perspectives." Continue reading...

Move to raise levy on goods made with polysilicon aims to protect domestic US supply chains from China, the major producerDonald Trump has ordered a new 15% tariff on imported products made of polysilicon, an important ingredient in microchip manufacturing that is primarily produced by China.The new tariff, which will take effect on 4 December, is aimed at supporting US chip and solar panel supply chains to compete with Beijing on artificial intelligence and energy. Continue reading...

Daniel Mullins explains how he plans to follow up his quirky classic without losing what made it stand out in the first placeGlitchy aesthetics. Literally collapsing menu boxes. The game taunting you by possessing" your Steam friends. Technical tricks of this nature may sound gimmicky in 2026, but they felt excitingly unorthodox a decade ago, when Pony Island came out to critical acclaim.Fans of Daniel Mullins, the celebrated indie developer of Inscryption, will be forgiven for forgetting that Pony Island 2: Panda Circus is in active development. After all, it's been almost three years since the announcement - and a full decade since it was first teased as an Easter egg in Pony Island's ARG (Alternate Reality Game) - with only a single trailer and a bunch of tunes from the soundtrack released to the public. Continue reading...

What might a modern day equivalent of Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics look like? Guided by the author, I propose the three laws of AITesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk predicted in July that legions of AI-powered robots would dominate the physical world and that AI might not take orders from people any more. He also offered an alternative vision in which there would be agreement for a collective objective to make AI benign by imbuing it with a love of the truth and a desire for humanity to prosper, and that governments might have to enforce this objective.Governments around the world are belatedly starting to act on AI. In the US, President Trump's administration is delaying and restricting the distribution of the most powerful frontier AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic. In the European Union, AI regulations promulgated in 2024 came into effect this year. However, these actions are a long way short of requiring the kind of guardrails that would imbue AIs with a desire for humanity to prosper. Continue reading...

Ruling comes as part of second phase of landmark trial that found social media company enabled harm against usersA New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $567m into a fund aimed at redressing adverse mental health impacts from the social media giant's platforms.The Thursday ruling comes as a part of the second phase of a landmark trial the social media giant lost in March. At the time, a jury found that the company knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, and imposed the maximum penalty: a $375m fine. Continue reading...

Researchers say breakthrough offers hope for new medicines but also raises urgent biosecurity questionsScientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also concerns over how to ensure the technology remains safe.The viruses are specific kinds known as bacteriophages, which only infect bacteria and are used around the world to treat patients with persistent infections. In lab tests, a cocktail of the AI-designed viruses killed E coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages. Continue reading...

After his fall from grace, media's former enfant terrible is now sober and helping others with his addiction recovery newsletter and podcast, The Small BowEvery other Tuesday, AJ Daulerio wakes up at 5.30am and meditates for five to 20 minutes before beginning his multistep daily journaling protocol: reading a selection from a poetry anthology, then a passage from one of his daily wisdom readers (his go-to is a heavily annotated copy of Leo Tolstoy's A Calendar of Wisdom); writing his Fear of the Day and gratitude list, then sharing his spiritual takeaway in a note to his three kids.After a banana and coffee, Daulerio trains Brazilian jujitsu before hitting a 9.45am meditation at Besant Lodge - a community center just below the Hollywood sign that once served as a meeting place for mid-century mystics - immediately followed by him leading a recovery meeting of his own through Zoom. Continue reading...

Explore Antarctica as a flightless bird - and dodge some earthly monsters - in this surreal adaptation of HP LovecraftWhile watching the 2006 animated film Happy Feet with his daughter, Origame Digital founder Naphtali Faulkner noticed something interesting. [In the movie], they see the digger fall into the ocean, and it has an almost eldritch quality," he says. Over time, and with plenty of iteration, Faulkner's inspirations coalesced, from HP Lovecraft to the 1982 version of The Thing and the works of David Lynch. I'm a big fan of horror that sits in your head rather than in your stomach," says Faulkner.In Penguin Colony, players body-switch between species of flightless birds, piecing together cryptic cosmic clues as they tail a Nazi expedition to Antarctica. In the process, Origame Digital draws on Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness. I'd always wanted to do a creature that's a manifestation of colonial thought, energy and power, and the idea of it resting and then regrowing," says Faulkner. I was looking through the history of Lovecraft and him being a gigantic racist, and this idea of the Nazis sort of came out," he adds. Continue reading...

Government introduces several measures, including monitoring of computers, for pupils aged 16 to 19

Profit jump fuelled largely by unknown US refund amount as Japanese video game firm records quarterly sales dropNintendo has reported a jump in profits, as the Japanese game maker's earnings were buoyed up by a long-awaited refund on Donald Trump's tariffs.The company said profits surged 53.5% to 147.4bn (694m) over the three months to June, substantially beating expert forecasts for 77.8bn. Continue reading...

Palmer Luckey has donated $5.9m to Republicans and bundled more, while reaping billions in Pentagon contractsWealthy Republicans on the west coast received an emailed invitation in July to an upcoming fundraiser titled Keep the Senate". The email, obtained by the Guardian, described the event as a private roundtable and dinner with the National Republican Senatorial Committee" where donors can pledge $50,000 for seats at the head table, and mingle with legislative heavy hitters from Capitol Hill including the Senator majority leader, John Thune, and Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate in Michigan with Donald Trump's endorsement.One of the organizers listed on the invite was the defense industry tycoon Palmer Luckey, the 33-year-old co-founder of sprawling weapons manufacturer Anduril Industries. Continue reading...

Meta says safeguards are in place to prevent surreptitious filming, but some UK venues now prohibit them from being worn at allWhen Meta used superstar Kylie Jenner to promote its sleek new line of spy glasses", the social media company hoped the devices would reach the same broad acceptance that tablets and smartwatches have found before them.But those plans have hit a snag in the UK, where venues from elite restaurants to popular pub chains have banned the 359 glasses in order to preserve the privacy of customers and staff. Continue reading...

Being a woman who loves video games has often felt lonely, like being on a hostile planet - but Metroid's female space hunter has been with me all the wayIt's 1986, and you're playing a brand-new game. (You're in Japan in this scenario, by the way; the game in question, Metroid, won't come to North America and Europe until later.) Anyway, this new game has you in its grip. You are a lone astronaut exploring a hostile alien planet full of ancient, mysterious structures. This astronaut looks human enough - but this distinctly alien place is full of objects that power up their spacesuit's capabilities. Each new ability allows you to explore a new area, and as you do, you realise that the entirety of the planetary base you're exploring is one, massive, interconnected maze. Whoa.Hours later, you finally defeat Mother Brain and set off a timed self-destruct sequence. Upon your escape, you're treated to an endgame screen: the little astronaut faces you as text on screen implores you to pray for peace in space". Continue reading...

While some users say the wearables have changed their lives, critics voice fears over safety and privacyWith more than 7m pairs reportedly sold in 2025, Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses are fast becoming one of the world's most popular gadgets.While supporters say they are transforming photography and accessibility, critics have raised concerns about nonconsensual filming, privacy and data collection. Continue reading...

Company is the third to report such an incident after Anthropic and OpenAI reported breaches during trainingMeta said on Wednesday that one of its AI models hacked another company during cybersecurity testing, after an error by its testing partner gave the model unintended internet access.The incident adds to a growing list of cases in which AI agents from major developers breached systems at other companies during testing, after Anthropic said last week that some of its models hacked three companies, and OpenAI disclosed that an AI agent breached the startup Hugging Face. Continue reading...

The UK's AI Security Institute test revealed AI models indulging in unprecedented hacking attempts

AI Security Institute says OpenAI and Anthropic models went rogue during a cybersecurity test and showed a new type of risk

'Most people don't want pervert glasses that can film us without our consent,' said a spokesperson from activist group Everyone Hates Elon. The group has launched a series of guerilla adverts deriding non-consensual filming by the glasses as well as an email campaign encouraging people to legally object to being filmed by Meta glasses under general data protection regulations, which over 20,000 people have signed.Rights groups have warned that the glasses threaten the right to privacy, while countries such as Germany are reportedly considering a ban.And while Meta's safety guidelines say smart glasses should not be used for 'harassment, infringing on privacy rights, or capturing sensitive information', women have taken to social media to share their stories of being filmed by men without their consent.Watch as Guardian columnist and Opinion editor Kirsty Major dives into why fears of surveillance and 'creepy men' mean Meta can never convince her to love the glasses -and read more about the glasses via the link in the bio Continue reading...

Characters and memorable scenes from back catalogue made available to group of creator fansThe likes of Darth Vader, Spider-Man and Moana are about to become TikTok stars for the first time - at least now on an official basis - after Walt Disney struck a first of its kind" deal with the booming short-video platform.In an acknowledgment of the influence fan-made content now has in the entertainment industry, a select group of creators will be allowed to use characters and memorable scenes from Disney's back catalogue. Continue reading...

Big developers are discovering that the technical progress of photorealism doesn't always translate into the creative spark that gives gamers joy - and keeps them playing Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereLast week, Asha Sharma, the new head of Xbox, laid out her vision for the future of the console and interestingly, the two titles she picked out as potential areas of growth were Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga - games that don't exactly scream next-generation entertainment. Neither relies on hyper-realistic visuals, which is the north star that games consoles and gaming PCs have been aiming at for the past 40 years. They are, instead, well-designed, well-loved franchises that you can play and enjoy on almost any PC, console or phone.The fact is, the quest for visual hyperrealism is breaking the games industry. It's becoming more and more expensive to put high-end graphics hardware into machines thanks to demand from the AI sector; at the same time, creating superrealistic visuals is an incredibly expensive and complex part of game development, leading to longer development periods. GTA VI, for example, has taken at least eight years to develop and is rumoured to have cost between $1bn and $2bn. By my back-of-an-envelope calculations, that's around four times more than GTA V. Admittedly, the detail on everything, from the characters' faces, to the cars, to the cityscapes, is astonishing. But will it be four times better than GTA V? Will it be four times more fun? Continue reading...

Wayve Uber wins first minicab licence for autonomous cabs from TfL but vehicles will have a safety driver (at first)The taxi app company Uber and the autonomous technology developer Wayve have been granted the first minicab licences in London allowing them to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers - but with a human safety driver in place, for now.The companies said they would start trips in the UK later this summer" before the full public launch. Continue reading...

Partnership between American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest labor unions in the US, and AI firms has stirred controversyDarius Saczuk, a high school teacher, views artificial intelligence as his enemy. Earlier this year, he and several dozen New York City teachers spent the day inside a windowless conference room in downtown Manhattan to learn how to use AI and prevent students from outsourcing their thinking to it.As Saczuk sees it, he needs to understand his enemy in order to beat it. Continue reading...

Looksmaxxing' culture has led to the rise of facial analysis services - but experts warn they aren't backed by science and can be harmful to usersDanielle, 37, didn't always have issues with body image: she used to be a model and recalls receiving positive attention from men. However, when two years of unemployment plunged her into a period of financial insecurity, her confidence faded. It was easy to wonder, if I was prettier, if some of my features were different, would that help?" she said.So, when Danielle saw videos on TikTok about a facial analysis" service that claimed it could provide her with science-backed" glow-up advice, she bought it without hesitation. Three-hundred and thirty dollars later, after sending in selfies to be analyzed, Danielle received her personalized 30-page report from the company Qoves. Continue reading...

As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Duran argues they have all but abandoned democracy - and found the perfect government to enable themIn April, Gil Duran was permanently banned from Elon Musk's X for posting just two words. Duran was responding to a post from the tech company Palantir outlining its 22point technological manifesto", which praised American hard power", western culture and AI weapons, denounced inclusivity and called for compulsory national service. Duran responded: TLDR: Fascism" (TLDR is short for too long, didn't read").Duran didn't break any of X's written rules, he points out over a video call from San Francisco - so much for Musk's free-speech absolutism". His ban might just have had something to do with his preceding tweet, showing the cover of his new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. The book's central argument is that big tech is no longer our friend, as many of its billionaire owners have seized economic and political control and are steering the fate of the planet towards their own bizarre, apocalyptic visions. Continue reading...

Since Stardew Valley rejuvenated the farming sim genre a decade ago, games like Fields of Mistria are capitalising on its popularity with their own special touchesFarming simulator games deliver on an escapist fantasy: going off-grid from the modern work grind, in exchange for charming small-town life and a farm to call your own. While these games have had dedicated fans since the days of Harvest Moon, the most popular today, Stardew Valley, contemporised the genre with a larger range of activities and lovable townspeople to befriend and romance. Created in 2016 by independent developer Eric Barone, it has now sold more than 50m copies and become the mould for so many other indie farming sims.Fields of Mistria is one of these farming sims in a post-Stardew world - though it updates the core formula. Created by independent developer NPC Studio, Fields of Mistria has already proven popular: it debuted in early access (a pre-release version of the game meant for early players to find bugs and give feedback) for PC players on Steam in August 2024, and in the first month the game racked up more than 4m player hours. It's for a good reason: Mistria satisfies all of those same farming sim desires but with more expansive character creation and a story steeped in magic. Continue reading...

Company acquired in deal involving Affinity Partners, a firm run by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared KushnerElectronic Arts, the maker of video games such as The Sims, Madden NFL and Battlefield, has been bought by Saudi Arabia's wealth fund and a group of investors for $55bn (41bn).The company announced the completion of the deal on Tuesday evening, only days after the EU gave its approval, the final regulatory green light needed. Continue reading...

Software group benefits from global systems and accounting practices that enable tax to be shirked', says union bossThe software group Palantir paid just 2m in corporation tax in the UK in 2024, despite holding public sector contracts worth hundreds of millions, thanks to tax breaks that are likely to reduce its contributions to governments around the world for years to come.The US-headquartered company, which has harnessed AI to secure lucrative work for the NHS and the Ministry of Defence, is growing exponentially. Continue reading...

Company and subsidiary Statsig alleged by US justice department to have favored foreign workers in hiringOpenAI and a subsidiary will pay $3.2m to settle US government claims that they favored foreign workers with temporary employment visas and discriminated against US job applicants in recruiting and hiring, the justice department said on Tuesday.The justice department in a release said that OpenAI and Statsig, which makes product development software, recruited foreign workers for some open positions and took various steps to discourage US workers from applying. Continue reading...