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Kristalina Georgieva says big economies will have to make very touch choices' as soaring bond yields hit budgets

Lawyers launch super-complaint over finding that officers in England and Wales frequently dismiss image-based abusePolice forces are routinely failing to investigate complaints about the circulation of image-based abuse, previously known as revenge pornography", according to research that has triggered a super-complaint over the way such crimes are handled.Lawyers have gathered evidence from 100 people who reported intimate images being shared online without their consent. Their research suggests that image-based abuse is still frequently dismissed or not recognised as criminal offending, despite being described by the former prime minister Keir Starmer as a national emergency. Continue reading...

Techno-optimism' may lead to reliance on unproven solutions at expense of societal changes neededScientists who believe technology will largely solve the problems caused by the climate crisis are less likely to engage in civic action on the issue, according to a study.The report from the London School of Economics found they are 23% less likelyto sign petitions or take part in protests than peers who doubt that technology is the answer. They are also 18% less likely to make high-impact lifestyle changes, from reducing flights to changing to a vegan or vegetarian diet. Continue reading...

Commissioner says Shenzhen Qingcheng, the app maker behind the HeyCyan app in the smartglasses, failed to respond to her inquiries

Australian adults again able to access the world's most popular porn site after parent company introduces age checking via Apple devices

Order on two construction sites comes after Google failed to carry out environmental impact assessmentsGoogle has been ordered to temporarily stop work on two datacentres in Finland after failing to do the necessary environmental impact assessments on its construction sites.The planned datacentres in Muhos and Kajanni are part of a 13bn (11bn) project across multiple sites in northern Finland by the technology company amid huge demand for space to house online infrastructure. Continue reading...

New York film festival: The origin story of Sam Altman's company is reimagined as a campy comedy starring Andrew GarfieldOn the day that Luca Guadagnino's film about Sam Altman and OpenAI premiered, Vanity Fair released a cover story on Altman. Alongside glossy portraits from Annie Leibovitz, the world's pre-eminent portrait photographer, the story describes him as the Oppenheimer of his day, evoking the image of a man leading humanity towards its own inevitable demise at the hands of sentient robots. Altman doesn't seem to be grappling with much existential angst about the whole thing though: in an interview also released this week, he said that we should be prepared to accept bad things" in return for the benefits of AI.How much worse can things get? AI agents have already gone rogue, hacking into government systems and bruteforcing" UN databases. Last year, a young woman used ChatGPT as a therapist before she killed herself (the software helped her write her suicide note). Studies show that using AI is probably leading us all towards something called cognitive surrender, which does not seem like the best use of your one wild and precious life. Continue reading...

Copyright law in the US only applies to human-made creations, but AI characters like Tung Tung Tung Sahur are challenging thatOne of the most beloved characters in an absurdist genre of online video content has become the center of an international legal battle that could determine where human creativity ends and artificial intelligence begins.Tung Tung Tung Sahur, also known as Triple T, was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen who goes by the username Noxa, using OpenAI's image-generation tool. Based on a kentongan - a type of drum used to wake south-east Asian Muslims for their pre-dawn meal during Ramadan - the character is an anthropomorphized version of the instrument with a broad smile and a vacant stare. He sits under the umbrella of Italian brain rot" internet videos. Continue reading...

New alliances between the White House, the Pentagon, US intelligence and AI companies are looming ominouslyHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you as I sit under yellowing leaves in New York. Today in tech, we're discussing technocracy.OpenAI safety leader quits, warning AI company's culture is broken'Forget superintelligence': error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this monthAI chatbots remove hijabs from images of Muslim women when promptedGoogle rolls out new Gemini AI model but restricts access over safety concernsCalifornia issues investigative subpoena to OpenAI over rogue agents' hackingThe AI industry is booming. Women are getting left behindElon is my prophet': how Musk's Doge team took a wrecking ball to WashingtonRural Queenslanders have seen gas projects come and go - but a 725-hectare datacentre poses a whole new level of stupidity'Georgia holds emergency meeting on AI exposing voters' secret ballotsPeter Thiel revealed as secret buyer of Bel Air mansion that sold for $130mNew Google Maps images reveal massive scale of devastation in Gaza Continue reading...

Watchdog examining whether company carried out adequate risk assessment as required by Online Safety ActMark Zuckerberg's Meta is under investigation for a potential breach of the UK's digital safety laws after launching a Snapchat-style feature on Instagram.The communications watchdog, Ofcom, is investigating whether the $1.9tn (1.4tn) company infringed the Online Safety Act (OSA) by failing to carry out adequate checks on whether its Instagram Instants product could show illegal content or be accessed by children. Continue reading...

Firms working on reproducing compounds without need for repeated harvesting but conservationists are scepticalMany of the world's most expensive perfumes begin with a wounded tree. When some Aquilaria trees are damaged, they produce a dark, fragrant resin that becomes agarwood, or oudh - an ingredient so valuable that wild trees have been illegally felled in its pursuit.The result has devastated wild Aquilaria populations. But what if perfumers could create the smell without cutting down the tree? Continue reading...

PC, PS5, Switch 2; Wych Elm Games, Team 17

Kwon's answers were provided in a helpful, quiet and calm manner, but his mea culpa left the audience not much the wiserOpen AI's Jason Kwon flew 15 hours from San Francisco to Sydney to give the company's first in-person mea culpa after it admitted - in an unsigned email, to a public departmental inbox - that one of its AI agents had accessed a Services Australia website without authorisation and grabbed data related to Medicare.Kwon - polite, friendly, even-toned - got through a potentially dicey parliamentary committee hearing unscathed, promising to do better and pledging assistance to Australia. No missteps, no viral moments, just delivering his answers helpfully, in a quiet and calm manner, sympathising with the questioner and the point they were making. Continue reading...

The findings come after warnings from tech leaders that AI placed in the wrong hands could trigger larger threats such as nuclear war or bioweaponry destructionMisusing artificial intelligence (AI) is the top threat to companies' reputations - more so than being accused of putting children in the way of mental, emotional or physical harm and issues exposed by the US-Israel war on Iran, among other brand risks, according to a new survey of more than 150 public affairs leaders.Those findings in the new edition of the quarterly Reputation Risk Index, released on Tuesday, came on the heels of other perhaps more dire warnings from leading tech figures that AI in the wrong hands could precipitate existential threats on a mass scale such as nuclear war or destruction by bioweaponry. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Campaign group's analysis of North Yorkshire plans finds datacentre would have to burn 4.9m tonnes of wood a yearDrax's planned datacentre could produce nearly double the emissions of all flights out of Gatwick airport each year by burning 4.9m tonnes of wood annually, an analysis has shown.Campaigners say this would make it one of the dirtiest datacentres out there". Continue reading...

A new documentary follows Kristin Bride as she takes on Congress after the death of her 16-year-old son who was cyberbulliedAt this point in time, going anywhere without your smartphone feels almost like leaving behind a limb. Whether it's for directions, distraction or the discourse on social media, our phones have become both a necessity and a crutch in our everyday lives, with our bodies literally evolving around the glow of the screen.But no matter how much we think we need all the bells and whistles of the attention economy, the attention economy actually needs us more than we need it. Continue reading...

In a parliamentary inquiry, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon is questioned by independent senator David Pocock about the company's notification process after OpenAI agents accessed Australian government website data in June. Asked why OpenAI relied on an arbitrary department email rather than direct government contacts, Kwon acknowledges that 'in retrospect, we should have done what you're suggesting'. He explains that staff had treated the incident as a 'technical situation' and sought to contact technical counterparts, which he says was 'not good enough'

Campaign groups report surge in membership after a spate of AI safety alerts and apocalyptic warningsIn a bar below Waterloo Bridge, a cell of a fast-growing anti-AI protest movement met last week to plot their latest move: disrupting a tech industry dinner being addressed by a senior executive from the chip maker Nvidia.Emma, a 28-year-old bartender, had never before taken direct action and was the most nervous of the four plotters from Pull The Plug, one of a growing number of AI-focused campaign groups around the world. Continue reading...

During a joint parliamentary hearing on artificial intelligence, Anthropic's head of safeguards, Dave Orr, says that investigations of hundreds of millions of transcripts reveal no unauthorised interactions with Australian government systems. However, Orr acknowledges Anthropic has limited visibility into customer usage due to standard zero data retention' policies

Camera-enabled Meta spectacles are already restricted in UK and US because of fears about covert recordingNorway is planning a temporary ban on smart glasses in some public places, amid rising global concern at the spread of the AI-enabled recording devices.The Oslo government is planning a bill to prevent the use of the camera-enabled spectacles in parks, beaches, museums, shopping centres, schools, daycare centres, healthcare facilities, gyms and public events, although private use would still be allowed. Continue reading...

Unions, employer groups, banks and industry experts will appear at the four-day hearings along with OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google

Boss of OpenAI calls for a regulatory light touch because of the good stuff' the technology can deliverSam Altman says he believes the world should accept bad things" happening with AI in exchange for the benefits of the technology.The chief executive of OpenAI cited hacks, scams and other bad things that will happen" in an interview that sparked an instant backlash from critics of the big AI companies. His comments came after one of his company's safety experts resigned, saying at the weekend that its culture is broken". Continue reading...

Longer battery life, better screen, upgraded Siri and new variable aperture camera in refreshed design from last year's modelApple's smaller Pro iPhone gets the best kind of spec bump for 2026: longer battery life, faster chips and a fancy new variable aperture for the main camera.The iPhone 18 Pro is one of a pair of slab phones launched alongside Apple's first folding phone, the iPhone Duo, and is the cheapest of the new phones, with a regular iPhone 18 yet to be announced.Screen: 6.3in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)Processor: Apple A20 ProRAM: 12GBStorage: 256GB, 512GB or 1TBOperating system: iOS 27Camera: 48MP + 48MP UW + 48MP 4x, 18MP front-facingConnectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread, USB-C, Satellite, UWB and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)Dimensions: 150 x 71.9 x 8.75mmWeight: 211g Continue reading...

Abuse material monitor says number of AI images assessed this year is already 40% higher than last year's totalAI-generated child sexual abuse material is proliferating online, with the amount of illegal material investigated this year already exceeding the total for 2025.Analysts at the Internet Watch Foundation have found more photorealistic child sexual abuse material in the first half of 2026 than for the whole of the prior year. The UK-based IWF, which monitors abuse material globally, said it had assessed 6,310 AI images that met the legal definition of child sexual abuse, 40% higher than last year's total of more than 4,500. Continue reading...

Clayton had said AI was a gamechanger' but also posed a threat' during his confirmation hearingDonald Trump on Sunday named Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, to also serve as the new White House AI czar.Clayton, who leads the US's 18 intelligence agencies, previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term. Continue reading...

Residents of Dalby may soon live beside a $31bn datacentre. The premier sees opportunity' for the state - but others fear AI's global creepFrom the veranda on his bush block, Denver Kanowski has watched resources companies come and go from rural Queensland for 70 years.The home cost him $800, and lets him live how he likes, in nature. It's also in the middle of a gasfield, not far from the Linc Energy contamination site, down the road from a coalmine and three gas power plants.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

A deep-seated duopoly allows the tech giants to exploit the public and developers. But the regulator has powers to stop this abuse - it should use them

David Robinson joins other insiders in urging industry to take more care over rapidly developing technologyA safety leader at OpenAI has quit the company, warning that its culture was broken and that AI firms were not being nearly careful enough" about developing the technology.David Robinson, who led the writing of safety reports that accompanied the ChatGPT developer's product releases, explained his resignation in an essay headlined: I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken." Continue reading...

Neighbours say crowds drawn by TikTok to Fabel Friet are clogging the picturesque canal street and attracting litter, gulls and ratsPeople living in one of Amsterdam's most exclusive neighbourhoods have taken the city to court for licensing a chip shop that has gone viral on TikTok.On busy days, the queue for Fabel Friet on Runstraat stretches across a bridge on the Keizersgracht - one of Amsterdam's most famous canals - a court was told last week. The narrow street itself is crowded by tourists waiting for their orders seven days a week. And loitering with intent - on parked cars, on the street itself, and on steps and porches - gulls wait to swoop. Continue reading...

The state, which is home to many AI companies, is one of the first to roll out workplace regulations targeting the technologyCalifornia's laws aimed at protecting workers from the impacts of artificial intelligence could pave the way for broader workplace safeguards across the US as calls for regulating the technology mount. As the federal government goes hands-off on AI, California is taking the reins to address workers' biggest fears.On Thursday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a suite of new laws that ban bosses from relying entirely on AI to decide whether to fire workers, using it to predict employees' emotional states or collecting neural data, meaning the information from electrical signals of someone's brain or nerves. They also require companies to notify workers if layoffs were caused by AI and prohibit AI surveillance in workplace bathrooms. Continue reading...

Sadler's Wells East, London

Company says it is reviewing 50 petabytes of data after its agents accessed websites including Medicare without authorisation

When the new department of government efficiency' sent young techies to disrupt federal agencies, not everyone complied. Here's what happened when one worker fought to protect immigrant dataIn the early hours of Saturday 22 February 2025 the following email landed in the inboxes of the entire US federal workforce:From: HR hr@opm.gov Continue reading...

A Princeton researcher found that publicly available election records could be combined with AI to link voters to their ballotsWhen voters cast their ballots, their votes are supposed to remain secret: from their family, their neighbors, and the government.But what if artificial intelligence could make secret votes visible? Continue reading...

Greg Lui allegedly used false paperwork to smuggle export-controlled gear from US to third countries and then ChinaUS authorities have arrested a man accused of smuggling more than $300m worth of computer servers to China, the Department of Justice announced.Greg Lui, 38, of California, also known as Yiu Kong Lui", allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle the export-controlled computer servers to China, the justice department said in a statement on Thursday. Continue reading...

Patrick McCabe's herculean feat shows limits and possibilities of special educational needs and disabilities systemPatrick McCabe is instantly recognisable in the early autumn sunshine, his wheelchair surrounded by fellow pupils at Fallibroome Academy in Macclesfield, Cheshire as they move from lesson to lesson, chatting, laughing and joking around.His extraordinary GCSE success this summer has become the stuff of legend. The 16-year-old has cerebral palsy and it took four months for him to complete his exams using eye-tracking technology. Now Patrick has started his A-levels - French, business and media studies - and fresh challenges lie ahead. Continue reading...

Home affairs department orders all federal government agencies to conduct review of legacy technology' amid fallout from AI agent hacks

AI factories' developer on track to launch the second-biggest IPO in Australian history, but investors warn its forecasts are a little bit of a fairytale'

Platform for the curious' says users outside the UK account for nearly 90% of its revenues

From bullets to rabbits to wand vibrators, our sexual wellbeing expert demystifies what's available and rates her top 17 models (she tested 67) 26 easy ways to spice up your sex lifeI could write here about how almost a fifth of women surveyed by Durex said using a sex toy was the most dependable way for them to climax. Or I could point out how Kinsey Institute research suggests regular masturbation can help relieve and prevent symptoms of menopause, such as vaginal atrophy. I could even tell you that studies demonstrate a significant correlation between intimate toy ownership and greater satisfaction - not only with sex but also with life itself.But the potted version is that orgasms and erotic pleasure are glorious, and top-class toys can help you savour more of both. So here are the best vibrators available. Scroll to the bottom to find out how I selected these vibrators from the 67 I tested for this piece. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Martha Dalton worked closely with Burnham's team on byelection that secured his return to parliamentA recent lobbyist for the controversial $450bn US tech company Palantir played a senior role in helping Andy Burnham become prime minister, it has emerged.Martha Dalton, whose company Lodestone worked for Palantir in 2024 and 2025, campaigned for Burnham in the Makerfield byelection that secured his return to parliament. She worked closely with his team on strategic communications and rebuttals, and was among supporters who clapped him into Downing Street in July. Continue reading...

People describe their return to physical media - whether to protect data, support artists, or retain control of one's choicesFor some, it is the security of knowing they have a physical copy of their favourite films and music, free from algorithms, interruptions and the vagaries of streaming. For others, it is the sound of needle on vinyl, the click of a cassette player and the ability to interact with a physical format.We asked people if they were moving back to CDs, DVDs, vinyl and older formats to escape algorithmically curated content. Here are some of their responses. Continue reading...

State attorney general issues subpoena to OpenAI as part of broader inquiry into potential security vulnerabilitiesCalifornia's attorney general has issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI, starting an investigation into the startup as part of a broader inquiry into potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents related to its AI models, his office said on Thursday.Last month, Rob Bonta announced that the Department of Justice was conducting a formal investigation into the Hugging Face incident", amid increasing scrutiny of the AI industry. AI agents developed by OpenAI hacked Hugging Face in July, gaining access to parts of the open-source platform's infrastructure. Continue reading...

Tech company releases Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackersGoogle on Wednesday said it would withhold its most powerful artificial intelligence model from the public for now, releasing Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackers.Safely releasing frontier capabilities at this level requires a phased approach," wrote Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google's chief AI architect, in a blogpost announcing the model. Continue reading...

Jessica Watkins, the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit, is making her second trip to the space stationFour astronauts rocketed into orbit on Thursday on a space station mission that will stretch until spring, among them a Canadian whose wife will give birth while he is away.SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for Nasa after a three-week delay to fix the capsule's leaking fuel system. Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown but in the end, the skies cleared enough to allow for a safe liftoff. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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