Technology | The Guardian

As Rockstar's blockbuster prepares to dominate the headlines, it's time for the mainstream media to stop treating video games as a novelty that needs explainingPredictably, the Grand Theft Auto VI extended look" which premiered on Netflix last week was a success for all involved. The 30-minute preview scorched to No 1 on the viewing chart and even brought the site down for a few minutes as millions of gamers tried to watch what was, effectively, a very long teaser trailer. According to data collated by Eurogamer, more than 9,000 Twitch streamers covered the show leading to 5,227,798 hours of viewing there alone. And this was just the beginning of what will surely be two months of escalating hype - and unprecedented media attention.Call me cynical, but I suspect the coverage of GTA VI in the media over the next few weeks will follow a familiar pattern. Mostly, it will be five-minute slots wedged in near the end of news bulletins in which games journalists, industry analysts and other pundits will be asked why the game is such a big deal, how much it cost to make and how much revenue it will generate. Perhaps a few will try to reignite the hoary old violence in video games" debate, there will be presenters laughingly admitting they've not touched a game since Pac-Man, rolling their eyes and wallowing in their ignorance, in a way they never would while discussing any other art form. Somebody will venture the subversive view that games are no longer just for kids"; somebody else will say games make more money than films and music put together". And that will be that, job done for another decade ... or until there's a funny story about Pokemon. Continue reading...

We boiled litres of water to find the best electric kettles, from hard-water heroes to vintage-style, repairable and wifi-connected models The best air fryers, tried and tested for crisp and crunchDespite the march of progress, the humble kettle remains a kitchen staple. It's what we turn to in times of strife, when spirits are flagging, or to start our day. When a visitor calls, one of the first things we often do is put the kettle on.Many small appliances have evolved beyond their original form, but the kettle's basic principles remain largely unchanged. Water goes in and heats until a thermostat switches it off; the water then pours out, and we enjoy a cuppa. However, the technology that goes into a kettle has been slowly improving: better insulation to keep water hotter for longer and reduce reboils; different temperature settings to suit every drink from green tea to herbal brews; and more features such as filters and concealed elements to keep scale out of our cups. Continue reading...

Lack of information raises fears over environmental impact of the AI boom

As more companies turn to AI, they're hiring freelancers to clean up its mistakes rather than create original workLisa, a freelance graphic designer based in Spain, noticed a shift in her work after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. She went from receiving slow one-off jobs creating logos and packaging to an onslaught of requests asking her to fix versions that were generated by artificial intelligence - from sharpening fuzzy images for printing to turning flawed designs into usable files.By 2025, Lisa, who asked not to be fully named to avoid solicitations, said 90% of her incoming logo and packaging design requests required cleaning up AI-generated content, work that accounted for 60% to 70% of her annual income. But the grind was exhausting. Clients lowballed her;' some AI-generated designs were so flawed that she had to recreate them from scratch and she worried about being complicit in AI-driven copyright infringement. By the end of the year, she began turning those jobs down. Continue reading...

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Bit Reactor

Hundreds of university staff were stationed at picket lines, calling for stronger protections around the use of AI

In today's newsletter: Communities from Scotland to India are pushing back against datacentres, warning they threaten energy supplies and the climateGood morning. This summer, datacentres have become targets of resistance across the world. Ever since the arrival of ChatGPT, big tech has been lobbying for the creation of enormous new facilities. Many governments claim they're essential in any country that wants to cash in on AI.Campaigners argue datacentres drain resources and exacerbate the climate crisis. The Scottish National Party has backed a moratorium on new developments; so has the Greens. The boom has been immense, and so has the backlash. Today's newsletter explains why.UK politics | Andy Burnham has blamed Brexit and Margaret Thatcher for a decade of low growth in the UK, arguing that Britain needs to be brutally honest about having taken a series of wrong turns" in the last 40 years.Nepal-Tibet | A week on from the flash flooding disaster, authorities are urging relatives of the thousands of missing and dead to provide blood samples.Middle East | The US has launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets, prompting counter strikes by Tehran targeting American interests in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, fuelling concerns about a wider renewal of hostilities.Ukraine | Russia has opened a deadly new phase in its war against Ukraine by deliberately targeting the country's railway network, with six employees killed on Tuesday in the latest strikes on Kyiv.US news | Mark Carney has rebuked Donald Trump's administration and urged officials in Washington to start being serious" amid escalation trade tensions between the US and Canada. Continue reading...

Exclusive: financial disclosures from Emil Michael - who also reaped millions from xAI stock earlier this year - show he sold his Perplexity stock for up to $25mThe top Pentagon official overseeing military artificial intelligence policy, who reaped profits earlier this year of up to $24m selling his private investment in Elon Musk's AI company, has now sold his holdings in another AI company for between $5m and $25m, according to records seen by the Guardian. (Federal financial records show ranges of dollar values rather than specific figures.)Earlier this year, the Guardian disclosed that the official, Emil Michael, had profited handsomely from his investment in Musk's xAI in January, with a gain of between 400% and 4,800%. Continue reading...

Hardware engineering executive succeeding Tim Cook is a longtime Apple insider, indicating company will continue strategy that has led to record profitsTim Cook stepped down as CEO of Apple on 31 August. John Ternus, a longtime company veteran, succeeded him the next day as the company's new chief executive. Cook has transitioned to the role of executive chairman of Apple's board of directors.Ternus, a hardware engineering executive, is a tenured Apple insider, and his ascension indicates the company will stay the course that has led to record profits under Cook's leadership. Apple's yearly profit now tops $100bn, the company is worth about $4.5tn, and it has notched record revenue from its iPhones this year, boosted by renewed demand in China. Continue reading...

AI datacentres are almost universally unpopular. They are loud, unsightly and drain environmental resources, with most of the profits generated flowing back to the US companies that build them -and the statistics against them are piling up.Guardian reporter Hettie O'Brien visits Brick Lane in east London, where people are trying to resist plans for a 5,200-sq metre datacentre being pushed through by the government, to find out why people hate them so much Continue reading...

US owner of Claude chatbot previously said its models had hacked three organisations during testingThe US startup behind the Claude chatbot has admitted a series of hacking incidents involving its models reflected a failure of operational security" and said it has tightened its testing procedures.Anthropic revealed in July that its models had accessed the open internet three times and gained unauthorised access to the systems of three organisations. Continue reading...

University's move is part of trend that critics within academia say will lead to further staff cuts and loss of everything that makes the job worth doing'

James Dyson says complete dental system' will also include toothpaste and mouth rinse that each cost 8.50It is the live stream you never wanted to see but may find impossible to resist: rolling footage beamed live from inside your mouth while you are cleaning your teeth.Dyson, the home appliance maker that made its name inventing bagless vacuums and bladeless fans, has turned its attention to oral hygiene with a 420 all-singing, all-dancing toothbrush that can clean, floss and even spray tiny jets of mouthwash. Continue reading...

Tech companies have underestimated the opposition to energy-hungry datacenters - and experts predict the pushback will intensifyHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, listening to Dolly Parton in the wake of her death. I was lucky enough to see her in concert a decade ago in California, in the same arena where Google now hosts its annual I/O conference. It's been a long time, and all my iPhone 4 photos are so blurry you can barely tell it's a musical performance, but my memory is clear enough to compensate. She told many stories about her childhood, which led into a trio of fabulous songs: My Tennessee Mountain Home, Applejack and Dr Robert F Thomas. They're still my favorites.Siri, where does Apple go next? - podcastApple's Tim Cook leaves behind complicated legacy on privacyFifteen years after Steve Jobs, Tim Cook leaves a dramatically different AppleWho is John Ternus, Apple's next CEO?Superhuman' AI tool spots heart disease in less than 2 secondsDoctors' AI scribes get names of drugs and diagnoses wrong, NHS watchdog warnsAI can detect heart disease in women using mammograms, study suggestsScary': how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia's parliamentAI slopper in chief: Trump turns to social media amid tough questionsThe datacenter backlash is bringing the entire political spectrum together - against big tech billionaires Continue reading...

Last month, Microsoft's gaming division told its workforce it was cutting 3,200 jobs, which some say will have big ramifications for game development - as well as taking a huge personal tollOn the morning of 6 July, an email went out from Asha Sharma, the chief executive of Xbox, to all of the division's employees around the world. Under the headline Resetting Xbox", it announced the most significant restructuring in the history of Microsoft's console business: 3,200 staff would be laid off throughout the financial year to 2027, and 1,600 of those roles would be eliminated immediately.An hour later, at studios throughout company, the Teams meeting invites started arriving. It was a virtual call with our studio manager," says Anne Barrett, who was laid off from Bethesda Game Studios Austin. All of our cameras and microphones were turned off so we weren't able to say anything or react to anything. We were just brought in, told the news and it was like: You guys are going to lose access to your Slack channel.' So you saw a flurry of goodbye messages before everything was just shut off." Continue reading...

We are used to the idea that our fellow humans might intentionally mislead or manipulate us, but the idea that machines can now do the same is deeply unsettling. Researchers are racing to find solutions before it's too late

Three-quarters of Americans said in a recent poll that they oppose datacenters being built next to their homesDonald Trump has criticized communities pushing back against datacenter projects across the US amid a growing backlash, warning those that reject them risk becoming backwards and poor".As controversy surrounding local datacenter plans continues to swirl around election campaigns nationwide ahead of November's midterm elections, the US president declared Americans will only have yourselves to blame" if they are canceled. Continue reading...

Technology trained on millions of routine ECGs could fast-track high-risk patients for treatmentDoctors have developed a superhuman" AI tool that can spot heart disease in less than two seconds.The groundbreaking technology has been trained on millions of patients and works by extracting more information from a routine electrocardiogram (ECG) than the human eye can typically see. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources

Build a home office you'll actually enjoying working from with tried-and-true upgrades - from inexpensive speakers to a stand that can turn an iPad into a second monitor

AI company faces multibillion dollar lawsuit over misuse of copyrighted songs to train Claude modelsAll AI wants for Christmas is a vast back catalogue of songs without paying for it, according to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the startup behind the Claude chatbot.Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell, music publishers who manage the copyright of songs on behalf of songwriters and composers, are seeking damages for alleged misuse of tens of thousands" of copyrighted works by Anthropic. Continue reading...

Amelia Dimoldenberg says publicists ignored her interview show for years but she can now be picky over A-list guestsJust a decade ago, Amelia Dimoldenberg found it impossible to drum up any mainstream celebrities to come on her mock date YouTube show, in which she chats awkwardly with guests over chicken and chips.Even persuading a local actor connected with her London youth club to come on took years of prodding. Managers of A-listers with movies or albums to push instead battled to claim a spot on the hallowed cushions of the primetime TV chatshow sofa. Continue reading...

Andrew Bailey, in role as financial stability watchdog chief, warns advanced models risk destabilising systemThe Bank of England's governor, Andrew Bailey, has joined the throng of figures warning about the global risks posed by the most advanced artificial intelligence technology.In a two-page letter sent to international finance ministers and central bank governors as part of his role as chair of the international Financial Stability Board (FSB), Bailey said frontier" AI models were showing increasingly sophisticated autonomy and problem-solving abilities, as well as threat capabilities". Continue reading...

Exclusive: Patients identify errors in consultation transcripts that are missed by GPs, Healthwatch England findsAI technology that listens to and transcribes patients' consultations with doctors can put them at risk by getting the names of drugs and illnesses wrong, an NHS watchdog has warned.In one case a woman was left badly shaken when the AI scribe's summary of her conversation wrongly said she had demyelination - serious nerve damage that can lead to multiple sclerosis. Continue reading...

There are juggernauts and indie gems aplenty for when the nights draw in, from an ingenious puzzle game to blockbusters such as Marvel's Wolverine and Call of Duty

The movement against datacenters is uniting Americans because they perfectly illustrate how a few individuals hold all the power to control decisions that affect our livesBryce Gustafson has been knocking on doors in Indiana for more than a decade. The lead organizer with Citizens Action Coalition (CAC), a consumer and environmental organization, he usually encounters a mix of reactions when he's out canvassing; whatever issue he's talking about, there's always at least a few people on the other side. But at a recent festival in the rural town of Monrovia, Indiana, he was struck by an unusual spirit of unity.He was there about a proposed datacenter, a 550-acre (222-hectare) Google project in this small town of 1,600 people. I had 50 people I talked to," Gustafson told me. Nobody wanted that datacenter in their community. And at least a half a dozen people came up to me to say, Hey, I voted for Trump. What the heck's he doing, supporting these things?'" Continue reading...

Small business owners have watched large companies fumble - and sometimes succeed - with AI, and then use what worksOne thing I've learned about corporate America is that what it succeeds at ultimately trickles down to benefit small businesses. Bleeding-edge technologies such as the internet, mobile transactions and the cloud were first perfected by large organizations - government and corporations - and now they're available to the masses at a much lower cost and with better reliability.The good news is that it's also the same for what they fail at. Continue reading...

This no-frills pizza oven gets the basics right and is more than good enough for most people The best pizza ovens - tested

Exclusive: Research says sector is fixated with young talent, with most women experiencing unconscious bias or sexismWomen working in the arts believe they do not have equal opportunities for roles, especially as they get older, according to a report saying that the industry is fixated with young and emerging" talent.Nearly all (95%) women working in the arts thought gender inequality persisted, while three-quarters (75%) reported experiencing unconscious bias or sexism, according to a survey of 76 arts professionals. More than two-thirds (69%) felt that age negatively affected their career success - a figure that rose to 100% among those working in artistic rather than managerial roles. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Number of times AI lies, ignores instructions and pursues goals in harmful ways almost doubles in JulyIncidents of AIs escaping users' control to lie, ignore instructions and pursue goals in harmful ways have hit a new high, according to research that also suggests the severity of deception and misalignment is worsening.Analysis of real-world loss of control incidents involving AI models flagged by businesses and individuals almost doubled in July compared with June, with more than 300 cases in the month, according to the Loss of Control Observatory, which monitors reports made by AI users on the social media platform X. Continue reading...

Planning delays and slow 5G upgrades could leave the UK unable to cope with a surge in AI-related trafficThe UK risks becoming a laggard in the global AI race as crucial telecoms upgrades to harness the technology fall behind rival nations, according to senior industry executives.The infrastructure AI race has centred on the need to build datacentres, and to ensure they have access to the huge water and energy supplies required to cool and supply the computational power to train and run AI models. Continue reading...

Five-day showcase reveals leaps Beijing has made in humanoid tech, but also its limitations as US rivals come up from the rearWith exploding pelvises, enough comic pratfalls for a Buster Keaton show reel and the odd moment of ruthless violence, the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing gripped the world this week with an unsettling mixture of hilarity, trepidation and relief.The five-day showcase staked out China's claim to undisputed leadership in humanoid robotics as android martial artists landed knockout roundhouse kicks and robot teams marched into the arena heralded by flag-waving captains astride giant robotic dogs. The games' blue-riband event, the 100m, did not disappoint when the robot-sprinters ran quicker than Usain Bolt before slamming mindlessly into a padded wall in a blaze of sparks, flames and flying mechanical limbs. Continue reading...

Prepare for autumn with our favorite end-of-season deals on staples including leaf blowers, blankets and bedding

Government says Green leader's proposed moratorium on energy-guzzling' AI projects would be disaster for economyLabour has rejected calls to pause construction of major AI infrastructure in Britain after the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, said it was time to slam the brakes on these energy-guzzling, water-guzzling datacentres".The government hit back at the opposition party's proposal of a moratorium other than [for] local-scale datacentres for the local community", saying it would be a disaster for jobs and national security". Continue reading...

Before The Witcher 4 arrives in 2028, CD Projekt Red is returning us to the world of The Witcher 3 for one last foray. Looks like wind's still howlin'The game that graced us with Bathtub Geralt, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, arrived more than a decade ago. So it was a touch surprising this summer when developers CD Projekt Red announced a new expansion to the venerable adventure, titled Songs of the Past, for next year. It will release alongside a full remaster of the original game, which will be free for anyone who bought it back in 2015. (The studio is also working on a sequel, The Witcher 4, but that's not due until 2028.)As it turns out, this is all possible thanks to a partnership with Fool's Theory, a studio founded by CD Projekt Red veterans, which took on the brunt of the development work. We've had this story in a drawer for many years," explains Marcin Blacha, VP story director at CD Projekt Red. Of course, we moved on to Cyberpunk 2077 and now The Witcher 4, as well as our other projects. But because we knew The Witcher 4 would take time, we saw a gap in our release calendar where Songs of the Past could go. Thankfully, we were able to find the right partner to help execute it." Continue reading...

Led by the nose from game to terrible game by increasingly disturbing and terrible adverts, I feel like I'm in the cinema scene from A Clockwork OrangeWe're all escaping something when we play video games. Mostly it's the drabness of real life, where we don't get to command kingdoms using armies of dragons, win Champions League trophies with our local team, or inhabit the body of an improbably speedy hedgehog.Sometimes I play them because I want to escape from the version of me that gets paralysed by depression, and boy has the black dog been sniffing at my bits recently, because the Atlantic Ocean is separating me from my wife for a few months. For 30 years she has been the light that banishes that darkness, and I am honestly lost without her. If that sounds pathetic, you haven't met her. She leaves everybody she meets feeling better. It's a superpower that warrants a call from the X-Men. Continue reading...

About 80 people sign open letter to Andy Burnham calling for legislation to protect voice ownershipNicola Coughlan, Hugh Bonneville and Matt Lucas are among a group of actors backing a campaign against artificial intelligence voice cloning.Save Our Voices Now, which is also being supported by Luke Evans, Jen Brister, Siobhan McSweeney and Pearl Mackie, aims to stop the practice in which AI technology is used to replicate a real person's voice to say anything it is prompted to. Continue reading...

Energy minister says states can apply to use coal and gas supply to power datacentres but must prove it is cheaper than renewables

Other governments could seek similar concessions, while separate legal action is pending in places ranging from Kenya to the NetherlandsIn October 2021, Abrham Meareg's father, a professor of chemistry in Ethiopia's northern town of Bahir Dar, was shot at close range and died outside his family home. This was in the middle of the country's civil war.For weeks, Facebook's algorithm had actively promoted posts calling for the academic to be murdered, according to Meareg and Foxglove, a nonprofit organisation supporting Meareg's lawsuit against the company in Kenya. These posts included photos of his father and his home address. Continue reading...

Anthropic argued designation as supply-chain risk' could cost billions in lost business and reputational harmA US judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration broke the law when it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk earlier this year, finding that the government had unlawfully targeted the AI firm for refusing to comply with defense department demands.The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision. Continue reading...

Under some strange circumstances, Rockstar broadcast the first (official) gameplay footage of Grand Theft Auto VI, the most-anticipated game of the year. Here's everything you need to know.Ah yes, it's a drug den. We're in familiar GTA territory here: narcotics, smart phones, tattooed gangsters and a police raid. The duo shoot their way out of the room - the gunplay is very familiar to the series - third-person over the shoulder. I'm getting a distinct True Romance/Leon vibe to this chaos.These closeup slow-motion kill shots are giving me flashbacks to Fallout 3 and its slightly sickening VATS violence. Continue reading...

Company that runs Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands hubs says passenger safety is unaffected

Experts say findings mean breast screenings for cancer could also flag cardiovascular problems in womenDoctors have discovered a way to use routine mammograms that screen for breast cancer to spot heart disease, the world's leading - and frequently underdiagnosed - cause of death in women.Researchers analysed the scans using artificial intelligence and were able to successfully identify women with coronary heart disease, high blood pressure or who had suffered a stroke. Continue reading...

In a disrupted job market people are turning to heritage crafts such as bookbinding, metalwork and boatbuildingIt's a bleak moment for young people entering the workforce for the first time. For decades, a university degree seemed to promise a stable career - but entry-level white-collar jobs across almost all sectors are being disrupted by AI. Budding accountants, software engineers and junior lawyers increasingly find themselves displaced by cheap automation.Even creative fields are struggling against AI tech that can produce artwork, lengthy prose or complex design briefs in seconds. Continue reading...

This week's settlement without liability was pragmatic, but it doesn't change the inevitability of further lawsuits around the worldNot many people would count paying $18bn they didn't expect to when they woke up that morning as a victory. Yet for Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram, the agreement with 52 US attorneys general to settle claims that it designed its products to be addictive to children, and misled people about their safety, could be described as a win of sorts.Meta denies wrongdoing, and the amount it plans to pay will be spread over a decade. Some of it is contingent on other big tech firms not named in its case coughing up too. The cash is chump change for Meta, which made around $60bn in profit last year. More damaging to the tech giant in the long run could be the agreement to unwind some of the mechanics it has spent two decades perfecting to keep us on its platforms.Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: The Inside Story of the World's Favourite AppDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Asobo Studio

Minister calls for Instagram owner to extend sweeping new safeguards for young users to Britain

As the US president struggles to end his Iran war, and approval ratings hit new lows, he leans on a familiar gambitDonald Trump knows the power of an image - of himself, with everyone from Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un to Kim Kardashian. How about George Washington?As the US president struggles to end his war with Iran, and with his approval ratings hitting the lowest levels of his second term, he has in recent weeks posted a series of AI-generated images of himself alongside key historical American figures. Continue reading...

People are becoming convinced AI chatbots have helped them make scientific breakthroughs, cure diseases or invent new technologies. What does this reveal about a technology used by more than a billion people? A new series from The Guardian Investigates, coming soon Continue reading...

The flat routines of a dead end railway job screen out an approaching menace in a quietly intriguing game from the indie developer of Cat Lady and LorelaiLonely jobs have provided excellent material for independent video games over the years. From Papers, Please to Firewatch to The Stanley Parable, players have been happy to spend hours dwelling in depressing cubicles or rural hideaways, usually because there is an intriguingly hidden point to it all.In Trainwatch, a character named Troy has taken a seemingly godforsaken job as a railway worker in an unnamed desolate backwater. His main task over the course of a single month is to manage a level crossing, closing the gate whenever a train comes, while also carrying out daily chores such as cooking and washing. It sounds serene, but Troy is also running away from something. The other stipulations are that he stays sober and calls his wife every night. And there is something lurking in the fog at the edges of the fields - one day he must face it. Continue reading...