Exclusive: Using test accounts acting as 13-year-olds, Tech Transparency Project downloaded 135 apps with features to generate nonconsensual nude imageryIn December 2025, Morgan Dorfman received distressing news: a student at her daughter's Pennsylvania high school was making AI-generated pornographic material using the daughter's image.He was using an artificial intelligence image-editing app called Movely to create sexual videos from pictures of her daughter and five other girls. Continue reading...
I'd become obsessed with appealing to my invisible audience. But since I ditched the app a year ago, my quieter moments have taken on brilliant new meaningI first downloaded Instagram when I was 17 and became hooked on it the way most people fall in love: slowly, and then all at once. For a long time, I never considered myself a social media addict. I self-righteously refused to download TikTok, declared Snapchat to be for children", and posted less regularly on Instagram than half of the people I followed.As I went through my university years, however, certain changes crept up on me. I began to swap reading - or essay-writing - for hours spent curating new posts. On my way home from lectures (or later, from my work as a journalist), I would spend ages trying to take the artsiest, most perfect picture of that evening's sunset for my story - as if the people who followed me were eagerly awaiting yet another photo of one of the Earth's rotations. What usually followed was a night of reloading my feed to see how many people had reacted to my post - or worse, hadn't reacted at all. Continue reading...
Backlash against content creators includes restricted hours for filming and even outright bansStand in any vaguely photogenic spot these days on holiday and the chances are you will come across people posing with raised phones and even ring lights. Some may be influencers with huge audiences on social media, others just overkeen Instagram users. With hotels and beauty spots now so overrun, however, bans on photography are coming into place.The five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, known for its glamorous clientele, views of the Cote d'Azur and a stunning infinity pool, has brought in rules against photoshoots: no longer allowed without prior permission. Continue reading...
Wikipedia's 68m articles have been consulted trillions of times. Not bad for a website that has barely changed since it was founded 20 years agoA few years ago, I was struck by the tension between how Wikipedia was used, and how it was talked about. Everyone was on it all the time, and yet its reputation had stalled at don't trust it", because it was the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit".Clearly people were trusting it, so much so it had become part of the fabric of everyday life since it was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. But despite the fact it now has been consulted trillions of times by billions of people (English Wikipedia alone is 5.2bn words long), it inspires an odd lack of curiosity. Even people donating to Wikipedia might say the money was for the factcheckers", though there aren't any - not paid ones, anyway. Meanwhile, the internet in the social media era had begun to feel like a much uglier place, and some digital nostalgia was setting in: here was this holdover that had somehow survived; a website that functions - and even looks - much the same as it did 20 years ago. Continue reading...
The tech company says successful AI worms need more capability on less powerful devices, but current trends make that feasible by the end of the yearWarnings about what artificial intelligence might do in the future - together with alarming reports of what it has gotten up to already - are being issued so quickly that even security experts have difficulty triaging what to worry about.Yet a report this week from Anthropic's offensive research team grabbed attention by describing a new, practical threat, one devoid of human characteristics or apocalyptic musings. The red team, as such internal testers are called, said it created a malicious AI program that spread autonomously through internet-connected smart" televisions and could do the same inside other ordinary devices. While machines running AI usually need a fair amount of computing power, the researchers said that their program split parts of itself among 15 televisions and was still able to function by using a bit of power from each. Continue reading...
Development by UK firm Nscale heralded by ministers as largest of its kind in country loses anchor tenantThe development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies.The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country's largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year. Continue reading...
From science kits to karaoke machines, shower sets to brain-boosting games, here are the presents our mini testers loved the most The best gifts for seven-year-oldsEight is such a wonderful age. Kids are old enough to have their own interests and hobbies, but still young enough to get swept up in play and be absorbed for hours if you find the right toy for them.By eight, children's interests and skills are taking shape. They're more confident readers, more strategic thinkers and curious about how things work. And while they think they're extremely grown up, eight-year-olds still need plenty of time to play for their overall wellbeing. Continue reading...
Bank's chief knowledge officer says the tech could speed up economic development from centuries to decadesThe World Bank is urging developing countries to kickstart the creation of small AI" models, which can run on a mobile phone with low connectivity, to reap the full benefits of artificial intelligence.While Silicon Valley big tech firms are focused on ever more sophisticated consumer products, Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank's chief knowledge officer, said AI could also accelerate development for emerging economies - but only if it was adapted to local needs. Continue reading...
by Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspon on (#794EP)
Lena Schilling of Austrian Greens says images are digital violence against women' and a threat to democracyAn Austrian MEP has spoken out about her experience of being stripped naked" online without her consent and has urged the EU to take action, as a report found that one in six female MEPs had been targeted by sexualised AI-generated content.Lena Schilling of the Green party said she had learned last month about nude deepfakes of herself circulating online. When she opened the links, she found herself staring at images from one of her first ever press conferences - but the images had been digitally altered to remove her clothing. Continue reading...
In the west the technology comes with at least some effort to provide security and a benign intent - not so from ChinaThere is much to fear from artificial intelligence developed in China and handed to businesses and governments in the west almost free of charge.Every month Chinese AI developers such as DeepSeek and Xiaomi dispatch the latest versions of their open-weight" models that allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence. Continue reading...
A modern-day prospector promised rural Imperial thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue - but his plan has set off a firestorm of resistanceSebastian Rucci zoomed in on a map in late 2024, looking closely at a large block of brown earth. The barren plot sandwiched between sprawling alfalfa fields and sleepy desert suburbs was exactly what he'd been searching for - the perfect place to realize his dream of building the largest artificial intelligence datacenter in California.The dusty expanse wasn't an obvious location. It was in the Sonoran desert, just north of the Mexican border, where temperatures regularly rose past 100F (37.8C). Water was scarce in the once-booming agricultural area, which gets its supply from the beleaguered Colorado River. And then, there was the city of Imperial - population 22,000 - to win over. As controversial datacenter projects have sprung up across the US, residents were naturally skeptical of a new, energy-guzzling neighbor. Continue reading...
Westminster appears to be waking up to warnings over AI safety, with concerns over its use by extremist groups and bad actorsI have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about," said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare.It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham's takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader. Continue reading...
How a string of bizarre events led writer Linda Geddes to don her sleuthing cap and dig into a world of shadowy impersonatorsIt started with an entirely ordinary interaction on LinkedIn. Someone had tagged me in a post, saying how much they'd enjoyed contributing to a New York Post article I'd written about chronoworking". As the author of a book about circadian rhythms, it was exactly the sort of subject I might write about. Except I'd never heard of this person, let alone interviewed them.I clicked on the link and my stomach dropped. There, above an article about people who organise their working lives around their biological clocks, was my name: Linda Geddes. Continue reading...
Peter Ricketts calls for more resilience in protecting banking, energy and water systems from cyber-assaultsMinisters need to be honest with the British public about the immediate threat posed by Russia, which could soon lead to lives being lost, a former national security adviser has said.Peter Ricketts, who advised David Cameron when he was prime minister, became the latest figure to warn about the scale of the threat posed by hybrid attacks" from Vladimir Putin's forces. Continue reading...
The entrepreneur turned fraudster is the subject of an Oscar-tipped new documentary that takes an unusual look at her strange legacyDavid Agus's first encounter with Elizabeth Holmes at a health conference came as a shock. The Holmes he met in the green room was personable and pleasant. The Holmes he interviewed on stage was altogether different.The accent changed: this deep voice, very serious," Agus, a medical oncologist, recalls by phone from Los Angeles. It was as if I had met a person and then interviewed a separate person. That transition from the green room to the stage - I had never experienced something like that before." Continue reading...
Exclusive: health bodies across country say controversial US firm's data platform no better than systems already in useNHS organisations that care for millions of people in England are rejecting Palantir's patient data technology, according to freedom of information responses that reveal health bosses believe they can find better or equal alternatives in many cases.Some health bodies said the 330m federated data platform (FDP) operated by the controversial US company had made it easier to manage waiting lists and has improved surgery scheduling. But, from Gateshead to Truro, others said they were declining to use it or had carried out trials and reverted to old systems. A Suffolk trust said other systems supercede" the FDP's functionality, while Greater Manchester's care board called the Palantir system duplicative" and retrograde". Continue reading...
From Divine, Frank Fiegel and Helen Kane to the West Sussex estate pioneering rewilding, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz1 Which classic of political theory was dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici?
Whether it was youngsters proving their skills or state sabotage, Europe's most hacked country was left with a mountain of waste after food began cooking in freezersShortly before midnight last Sunday, the digital thermostats controlling hundreds of supermarket cold aisles across France began to flicker and rise.In a bizarre and unprecedented" cyber-attack, hackers had remotely overridden the temperature settings on thousands of freezers, fridges and chiller cabinets pushing them from as low as -27C (-16.6F) to well over 50C (122F). Continue reading...
Tech billionaires have raised more than $340m to defeat Prop 40, a one-time 5% wealth tax that will fund healthcare and educationTech billionaires have been dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the fight against a wealth tax in California. They've raised more than $340m, and the campaign they're funding is spending more than $1m a day to defeat the measure, according to state financial disclosures.With the election less than a month away, those funds are being spent at a stepped-up pace. During the first 19 days of September, according to the most recent campaign filings, the opposition campaign plowed through at least $21.2m to fight the billionaire tax - surpassing $1m per day. Voters are being inundated with robotexts, mailers and advertisements that warn a tax on billionaires would expose all Californians to higher taxes", as one ad reads. Continue reading...
Susan Lyall worked with actor Jeremy Strong to research the Meta CEO's favorite Nikes and luxury sweatersThe first Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie, 2010's The Social Network, helped cement the early aughts image of Mark Zuckerberg rebelling against corporate norms in rumpled hoodies and T-shirts.The follow-up, The Social Reckoning, is carbon-dated from 2019 to 2021. This is post-hoodie", as the movie's costume designer, Susan Lyall, describes it, post-thumbing his nose" to formality. It is also peak robot. Zuckerberg's reserved wardrobe of suits or interchangeable long-sleeved shirts echo his chilling composure throughout, even as fury simmers under the surface. Continue reading...
The Tesla Roadster 2 drove up a curved ramp before using SpaceX rocket thrusters to fly, flip and landElon Musk has revealed Tesla's latest model, which he claims will be the world's first flying car, using technology from his aerospace company SpaceX to basically fly like a rocket".The billionaire, who hosted a demonstration of the Tesla Roadster 2 at the SpaceX rocket development and testing facility in Texas, said the sports car could go from 0 to 60mph in a record time of less than a second and had thrusters. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#793EY)
Protest planned at Wayve HQ as Uber drivers fear for their future and city's politicians demand TfL should have power over licencesFor passengers in Britain who want to try the latest ride, robotaxis are eagerly awaited: more than 100,000 are on Uber's waitlist in London after the first UK services started in September.Others view them with trepidation. I think we should all be worried," said Florentina Ghiuzan, an Uber driver from Essex. I was shocked TfL approved it so soon. I knew change would come. But I thought it would come with a solution for us." Continue reading...
Campaigners welcome legislation which follows recommendations by 2025 review into pornography regulationPornography that depicts strangulation and incestuous relationships will be banned in England and Wales from early November, the government has announced.The content will be outlawed from 6 November after cross-party pressure prompted ministers to announce new legislation earlier this year. Continue reading...
Meta says Muse excels at multi-step reasoning' and complex software engineering' as it races to catch up to Chinese rivalsMeta on Thursday launched a new open-weight AI model which it claims rivals, and in some cases outperforms, similar products from leading Chinese developers.Muse Spark Open is the most capable US open-weight model to date," Meta's chief of AI Alexandr Wang wrote on X. Continue reading...
From chat-up lines to social coaching, we'd like to hear from people who use AI to assist them navigating the online dating worldWe'd like to understand more about the different ways that people are using AI to assist with online dating.Perhaps you have used an AI assistant to help with chat-up lines? Or you may have turned to one for some social coaching? However you have used AI for online dating, we'd like to hear all about it. What worked and what didn't? Continue reading...
International delegates agree leap second no longer tenable, but first leap hour not likely to happen for thousands of yearsAfter decades of discussion, quibbling and worrying about clocks in computer systems, the world's official timekeepers have voted to replace what many viewed as a tiresome correction: the leap second. It's time, they say, for the leap hour.Delegates from 69 countries cast their votes on Thursday at a conference in France of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which ensures the world sticks to the same standards of time, weight, distance and more. Continue reading...
Discover-Tech's Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of TorontoAn Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow zero-click" spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said.Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. Continue reading...
The studio is swapping the Mushroom Kingdom's vivid palette for the blood-soaked grit of military action seriesWhere do you go after Mario? It's a question the team at Ubisoft Paris found itself pondering three years ago after wrapping up work on the charming turn-based tactics adventure, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, sequel to its unexpected crossover hit, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. By melding a rather specialist genre with video gaming's biggest household name, the developer introduced chin-stroking strategic play to a whole new audience. Having the opportunity to work with the Mario franchise was a privilege, and it's still something I'm very proud of," says level designer director, Julien Vial. I still remember seeing the first prototype and being blown away by all the possibilities."Now, Ubisoft Paris has returned with a new project, but this time the studio is swapping the Mushroom Kingdom's vivid palette for the blood-soaked grit of military action series Rainbow Six. Where Mario and Rabbids saw squishy creatures bounce harmlessly across levels as Mario encased foes in honey, Rainbow Six Tactics, a turn-based tactical spin-off from Rainbow Six Siege, sees balaclava-clad insurgents take shrapnel rounds to the chest. A seamless tonal shift, then. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, with Robert Booth, produc on (#792N9)
Workers have always been monitored by their bosses, first through output targets, and then via computer software labelled bossware'. But AI is transforming the capabilities of these systems, processing huge volumes of data to provide minute-by-minute accounts of activity, and productivity. To find out more, Ian Sample hears from UK technology editor Robert Booth. He explains which sectors are adopting this approach, why they are doing it, and how it could end up being counterproductive.Teachers at Euan Blair firm report horrendous stress' after AI used to rate their workSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
US states sue ChatGPT maker and seek to force the company to change how its products work for young usersEight US states sued OpenAI Wednesday, alleging the ChatGPT maker is harming children en masse.Kansas, Arizona, Montana, Iowa and four others allege the company's products carried out willful, dangerous, reckless and unlawful conduct" by coaxing children into harming themselves. Continue reading...
Hours before Apple and the ChatGPT maker were due to face off in court, a new allegation delayed the showdownAn OpenAI employee who left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later made a presentation about the unreleased product to senior Apple leadership, a new filing in the lawsuit between OpenAI and Apple alleges.In the filing in US federal court in San Jose, California, OpenAI alleged that the presentation happened months ago and that Apple is now making AI products of its own, citing the release of Apple's HomeView product this week. Continue reading...
Accounts for the Westminster-based company behind ChatGPT show that 110 staff shared 87m in salaries and 168m in shares last yearOpenAI's London staff each received 2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker poured Premier League football salaries into its bid to dominate the global AI race.Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, which is based in Westminster but is opening a new HQ in London's King's Cross area, showed that 110 staff shared 87m in salaries and 168m in shares in the company, which is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn. Continue reading...
Article in Atlantic claims The Blue Fighter was artificially generated, days after it won Caine prize for African writersThe Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated.Kundizeza's story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Caine prize for African writers on 6 October. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by the author and journalist Vauhini Vara titled: Yet Another Literary prize winner Seems to Be AI." Continue reading...
Experts say the technology could help terrorists and nation states with production but that significant hurdles remainIn his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK's intelligence service, MI5, warned that AI had the potential to change the stakes" on existing and even new bioweapons. Here we look at how AI might help in the development of bioweapons and the hurdles that remain. Continue reading...
Jason O'Connell's suspected use of the specs to aid his speech in Senedd reignites debate over AI-enabled devicesIt was a flowing speech packed full of precise statistics - but Jason O'Connell, a Reform UK Senedd member, was not quite the gifted orator he had first appeared. The periodic flashing in his spectacles seemed to give the game away as he spoke for five minutes in the Senedd chamber without a glance at his notes.Cardiff reviewed 192 roads, following 933 requests, and only four routes have returned to 30mph," he said as he led the party's charge to abolish 20mph traffic zones. 38.3m wasted to implement this policy and up to 8.9bn in an act of economic self-harm." Continue reading...
Dispute related to claims London mayor blocked US tech firm from 50m police deal because of concerns over its valuesPalantir and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, have called off their legal fight over claims the Labour mayor was blocking the US tech company from signing a contract with the Metropolitan police because of its values and ethics.Palantir and the mayor's office for policing and crime (Mopac) announced on Wednesday they had withdrawn allegations against each other, heading off a high court trial scheduled for January. Continue reading...
The Meta boss looked traumatised when he sipped stout on the Cheeky Pint podcast. An hour later, his glass was still half fullName: Guinness.Age: Arthur Guinness began brewing porter in the 1770s. Guinness draft was first poured in 1959. Continue reading...
After years of sprawling forever' games, players are rediscovering the pleasures of more focused experiences. Could a new wave of independent arcades bring back the social side of gaming? Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThere's an important semi-nostalgic movement happening in games, and I'm excited about where it's heading. But I don't want to get ahead of myself here.Over the last five years, major publishers, obsessed with the success of forever games" such as Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox, have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into their own sprawling, endlessly updating, battle-pass-infested mega franchises - each designed to take all our time and money. The result has been astounding failures such as Concord, Mindseye and Tales of the Shire. Even the good games - Crimson Desert, Path of Exile 2, Blood of the Dawnwalker - are so bloated they have become the unyielding masters of our precious few hours of free time. Continue reading...
The kingdom of Hyrule has been prettified, the soundtrack is newly orchestrated and our hero feels strikingly different under the thumbs ... we play a hands-on demo of Nintendo's Switch 2 remake of a 1998 game-changerWhen beloved art is revisited and revised, a familiar cry is often heard: You're ruining my childhood!" But with Nintendo's Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time, there are also livelihoods at risk: specifically, the man running the shooting gallery in Castle Town. In the original 1998 version of the game, he'd rip off players as they funnelled rupees and fudged the then still novel analogue-stick aiming. But in 2026 we have more responsive frame rates and a motion-controlled slingshot that allows precision adjustments. His targets tumble on the first go, and with them his entire business model. Even in Hyrule, the death of the high street seems inevitable.Bad news for him but great news for Link, a child of the forest who, as in 1998, steps into a vast fantasy kingdom to vanquish a great evil, but now does so with a number of improvements. The boy can now sprint, preventing the ignominy of endless roly-polies to zip across grassy plains. He has a manual jump, free-rotating camera, a scrolling inventory bar that replaces menu screen faff and, crucially, a fatter wallet for holding all those gems he fleeces from struggling shooting gallery owners. Yes, we are being asked to applaud features that have been the norm for decades elsewhere, but it's undeniably striking to enter familiar territory with a hero who feels this different under the thumbs. Continue reading...
Pledge spanning five years from world's most valuable firm comes as concerns about AI agents have risenThe $5.5tn (4.1tn) US chipmaker Nvidia is donating $250m worth of computing power to the UK to support AI safety research.The donation from the world's most valuable company comes as the UK government confirmed its AI Security Institute (AISI), which tests advance AI models, will be able to examine cutting-edge technology developed by companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google before they are released. Continue reading...
by Johana Bhuiyan and Nick Robins-Early on (#791TZ)
From the FBI to local police departments, US authorities are increasingly warning of would-be terrorists using chatbots to plan attacks and anti-AI extremist threatsIn May 2025, a 25-year-old man detonated a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic, killing himself and injuring four others. For many, it was a wake-up call about the threats to reproductive care facilities. For the FBI, though, it was also a sign of what the agency had feared for years: bad actors were using generative AI to plan and execute terror plots.The suspect used an unnamed generative AI tool that failed to detect his request for bomb-making instructions, law enforcement officers wrote in a previously unreported document reviewed by the Guardian. The privacy of his conversation with the AI chatbot hindered alerting police that someone was looking up how to make a bomb, according to the memo.How extremists could use AI to devise attacks and recruit new membersHow AI could be used to disseminate and produce everything from deepfakes to election misinformation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM)How people seeking information on how to make weaponry or bombs could use AI to circumvent police detectionHow to ensure that officers could take advantage of AI tools in policing, for things like social media monitoring, while managing public concern over the use of these toolsMonitoring social media for opposition to AI and potential extremist attacks on datacenters Continue reading...
Congress calls for Match Group and others to do more to help victims like Mary, who lost $100,000 to app scammerMary met a man on the dating app Plenty of Fish in 2024. She told the Guardian she had been looking for a connection, but instead became the victim of a romance scam that cost her almost $100,000.There was a lot of conversation, and then it started with the constant contact, pressure and repeated asks for money," Mary, who asked that her last name be withheld, said in an interview on Tuesday. It just escalated really, really quickly." Continue reading...
Discovery of sophisticated' gadget adds to company's list of privacy concerns after hackings by rogue agentsOpenAI said it has found a hidden recording device in one of its offices and has referred the matter to the FBI. One of its employees has been arrested.In a statement on Tuesday, the San Francisco-based AI company said it discovered the sophisticated recording device" and used one of its models to understand the device and where it had come from". Continue reading...
Researchers say AI worms' could soon infiltrate internet-connected devices amid calls for increased guardrailsAnthropic is warning that some of its artificial intelligence models could soon become self-replicating" and find ways to infiltrate internet-connected devices, such as smart fridges and automatic vacuum cleaners.Once this happens, the company said, the models could power themselves within these devices without the need of datacenters. Such self-replication would represent a major loss of control of a runaway AI model. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian