Technology | The Guardian

Digital clone being trained on his thoughts, tone and mannerisms to help workers feel connectedIf you are one of Meta's almost 79,000 employees and cannot get hold of the boss, do not worry. The owner of Facebook and Instagram is reportedly working on an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg who can answer all your queries.The AI clone of Zuckerberg, Meta's founder and chief executive, is being trained on his mannerisms and tone as well as his public statements and thoughts on company strategy. Continue reading...

Just when parents thought they could decode teenage text speak, a new list comes along that raises more questions than answersName: Confusing text abbreviations.Age: As old as texts themselves. Continue reading...

Platform says it will reward original creators as it penalises aggregators' for flooding timelines with stolen posts'

Undisclosed number of names and contact and reservation details accessed in latest cybercrime attempt

Engine-maker CEO hails critical milestone' for company in race to deliver SMR technology built at Wylfa plant on Anglesey

Elle Hunt on her month wearing Meta's smart glasses and the privacy concerns around the technologyAccording to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's AI-powered glasses are personal super intelligence" that let you stay present in the moment".Journalist Elle Hunt reports on her time wearing them for a month. Elle tells Nosheen Iqbal about the highs and lows of the experience, the features that could be transformative for people with vision impairments or hearing loss, and the risks wearable tech poses to our privacy. Continue reading...

What's it like to have a diary that talks back to you, offering comments and advice on your hopes, fears and lunch plans? I spent two months finding outEver since I was a teenager, I have kept some form of diary. These days I favour a paper one for creative brainstorming, and the Journal app on my iPad where I do a speedily typed brain dump every morning. I have always found it a great way to impose some sort of order on my random thoughts, a form of meditation.But I had never even heard of AI journalling until a Google search led me down a rabbit hole where I encountered people enthusing about two apps, Rosebud and Mindsera. It sounded as if Mindsera's minimalist design was the best for writers. Out of curiosity, never intending to stick with it, I downloaded a free trial. Continue reading...

Just as the industry is set to capitalize on country's political and economic instability, president accused in $5m schemeThe Argentinian president, Javier Milei, is facing his lowest approval ratings since taking office in 2023 as newly published evidence allegedly reveals a $5m financial agreement connected to his public endorsement last year of a controversial crypto project.The scandal has tarnished crypto's reputation across Argentina and set back the ambitions of industry insiders who saw the country as fertile soil for the growth of digital money. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

TikTok users increasingly say the app has steered them toward diagnosing medical problems not yet identifiedMalina Lee, a 31-year-old wedding baker based in San Antonio, Texas, joined TikTok during the Covid pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Like many people at the time, she was bored and began using the platform to pass the time and advertise her business. She didn't expect a cancer diagnosis.Four years after Lee joined the app, a commenter with the username PickleFart" told her that her neck looked asymmetrical in a way that could suggest she had a goiter - an enlarged thyroid gland - and that she should get it checked out. The anonymous amateur clinician turned out to be right - Lee had thyroid cancer, received treatment quickly, and, less than a year later, was cancer free. Continue reading...

New technologies of reproduction are plundering the art world - and getting away with itIn 2026, its easy to see why generative AI is bad. The internet has nicknamed its excretions slop". The CEOs of AI companies prance about on stage like supervillains, bragging that their products will eliminate vast swathes of work. Generative AI requires sacrificing the world's water to feed its hideous data centres. Around the globe, chatbots induce schizophrenic delusions and urge teens to kill themselves - all while turning users brains to mush.Who could have predicted this? Artists, that's who. Continue reading...

The aggressive effort by major players aims to reshape the narrative as polls show increasing public disapproval of AIOpenAI made a surprise announcement this week - not an update to ChatGPT or another multibillion-dollar datacenter - but a policy paper that called for a reimagining of the social contract based around a slate of people-first ideas". It's the latest move in an aggressive effort by the major AI players to reshape the narrative around their industry, as polls show public disapproval of AI increasing.OpenAI's 13-page paper, titled Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age, follows its surprise acquisition of tech-friendly podcast TBPN and its announcement of plans to open a Washington DC office that will feature a dedicated space called the OpenAI workshop for non-profits and policymakers to learn about and discuss the company's technology. Continue reading...

The firm says it withheld an AI model on cybersecurity grounds but sceptics say this was hype to lure investmentThis week, the AI company Anthropic said it had created an AI model so powerful that, out of a sense of overwhelming responsibility, it was not going to release it to the public.The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, summoned the heads of major banks for a chat about the model, Mythos. The Reform UK MP Danny Kruger wrote a letter to the government urging it to engage with AI firm Anthropic whose new frontier model Claude Mythos could present catastrophic cybersecurity risks to the UK". X went wild. Continue reading...

Fraudsters send emails claiming storage is full or nearly full, then trick people into clicking on links that can expose bank and personal detailsFor a while you've been getting messages from Apple saying your iCloud storage is full". They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take aren't being uploaded.You have been resisting Apple's efforts to get you to pay a minimum of 99p a month for more storage. But it seems that you can't keep putting off the inevitable: you have received an email which says your iCloud account has been blockedand your photos and videos will be deleted very soon. To keep them you need to upgrade immediately, it says. Continue reading...

Fraudulent music streams have long been a scourge for the industry, but experts say generative AI has supercharged itJason Moran, a renowned jazz composer and pianist, got a strange call from a friend last month. The friend, bassist Burniss Earl Travis, was curious about Moran's new record that he saw on the music streaming service Spotify.It has your name on it," Travis told him. But I don't think it's you." Continue reading...

Claude Mythos's apparent superhuman hacking abilities are alarming experts as the Trump administration remains blinded by hostilityIn June 2024, a cyber-attack on a pathology services company caused chaos across London's hospitals. More than 10,000 appointments were cancelled. Blood shortages followed and delays to blood tests led to a patient's death.Lethal cyber-attacks like this are thankfully rare. But a new AI release could change that - plunging us into a terrifying new world of chaos and disruption to the digital systems that we rely on.Shakeel Hashim is the editor of Transformer, a publication about the power and politics of transformative AI Continue reading...

Millions of accounts have been deactivated since the ban came into effect in December, but Noah Jones found it was easily circumvented

As The Super Mario Galaxy Movie storms the box office, we look back at the best forgotten games inspired by Tetris, Lemmings and ... vitamins?It should be no surprise that the latest Super Mario movie is smashing box office records - despite the, let's say mixed, reviews. Nintendo's iconic plumber has been a pop culture staple for 45 years, starring in some of the bestselling video games ever made, from the original Donkey Kong through to the joyous Super Mario Bros Wonder and the chaotic Mario Kart World.But as with any storied showbiz career, there have been some lesser works. Who can forget - or actually remember - Hotel Mario, a door-shutting puzzle game for the doomed Philips CD-i console? Or what about Mario Teaches Typing, a 1992 educational game for the PC in which players navigate the Mushroom Kingdom by ... correctly inputting words. Yet there have also been genuine treasures lost along the way. Here, then, are seven of our favourite much-overlooked Mario odysseys. Continue reading...

Fed chair Jerome Powell reportedly attends meeting in Washington following release of Claude MythosThe US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, summoned major American bank chiefs to a meeting in Washington this week amid concerns over the cyber risks posed by Anthropic's latest AI model, according to reports.Jerome Powell, chair of the Rederal Reserve, was said to have been among those gathered at the Treasury headquarters for the meeting after the release of the Claude Mythos AI model that Anthropic says poses unprecedented cybersecurity risks. Continue reading...

Experts warn lapse could sharply reduce reports of abuse, echoing a 58% drop during a similar legal gap in 2021

Thinktank says algorithms are fuelling isolation and division after analysing posts shown to social media usersReform UK voters are the least likely to see posts from friends and family on social media and most likely to see content from brands and news organisations, a study has found.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank said algorithms were fuelling isolation and division after its research analysing users' feeds on Instagram, Facebook, X, Bluesky and TikTok found that only 13% of Reform UK voters saw content from someone they knew, compared with 23% of Green party voters. Continue reading...

Company claims law regulating AI systems, set to go into effect in June, infringes on its first amendment rightsElon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado over a new AI law set to take effect in June.The suit seeks to block the state from enforcing the law, which would impose new requirements on AI systems to protect state residents from algorithmic discrimination" in sectors such as education, employment, healthcare, housing and financial services. Continue reading...

Our seasoned traveller braved obstacles and mud to put the best cabin bags to the test - from hard-shell to budget, wheeled to lightweight The best travel pillows, testedLet's start by saying that if you can avoid taking a flight, that would be best. Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global carbon emissions - and the levels released by aircraft could double or triple by 2050.Regrettably, you can't always reach your destination by rail, sea or hot-air balloon. If flying is unavoidable, one way to reduce your carbon footprint is to take a cabin bag, rather than hold luggage. This encourages you to pack less, so your baggage is lighter, and less fuel is required to spirit it through the stratosphere. If that doesn't move you, consider that you'll also pay lower fees to the airline.Best cabin bag overall:

As real astronauts vanish behind the moon, games have long tried to evoke the fragile quiet of drifting through space Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereLast week's launch of the Artemis II space mission was a stunning spectacle, the 17-storey-high rockets erupting into cacophonous life before wrenching the craft through the Earth's atmosphere. But the images that have come since hold just as much impact: the tiny Orion craft and its four-person crew drifting silently through space, further and further from home.In his autobiography, the Apollo astronaut Michael Collins described this feeling perfectly. Left in the command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface, he wrote: I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side." Continue reading...

Expert stresses importance of staying alert for unusual activity, as hackers could take you to fake sites'

Rosedale residents considering car licence plate-scanning Flock system in bid to tackle property crimeA row has broken out in one of Canada's wealthiest neighbourhoods over plans to use an AI-powered surveillance system to create the country's first virtual gated community" to combat surging property crime.Crime rates in Toronto as a whole are dropping but residents of Rosedale have been left on edge by a sustained rise in home invasions, with robbers targeting the tree-lined neighbourhood at a rate more than double the city average. Break-ins and thefts remain the third highest per capita in Toronto. Continue reading...

Elon Musk's aerospace to AI company will host summer event to try to convince buyers it is worth $2tn

Scale AI gig workers describe desperation of using people's personal profiles and copyrighted work to train AITens of thousands of people have been paid by a company part-owned by Meta to train AI by combing Instagram accounts, harvesting copyrighted work and transcribing pornographic soundtracks, the Guardian can reveal.Scale AI, 49%-controlled by Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire, has recruited experts across fields such as medicine, physics and economics - putatively to refine top-level artificial intelligence systems through a platform called Outlier. Become the expert that AI learns from," it says on its site, advertising flexible work for people with strong credentials. Continue reading...

They have degrees, expertise and years of experience - but can't find work. For many Americans, AI training has become a last refuge in a brutal job marketWhen Patrick Ciriello lost his job and couldn't find work for nearly a year, his family's foundation crumbled.You hear about people who hit rock bottom," Ciriello told the Guardian. Well, I was there." Continue reading...

Experts have been alarmed at the growth of deep misogyny dressed up as self-help on social media. We profile seven men from across the continent who are gaining tractionIt is not just Europe and the US that are grappling with a growing landscape of misogynistic influencers online. While Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines, Sneako and other voices grow in toxicity in the manosphere of the west, across Africa - which has more than 400 million people aged between 15 and 35 - several individuals are gaining traction.The manosphere is a loose network of communities that claim to address men's struggles such as dating and fitness, but often promote harmful misogynistic attitudes. Sunita Caminha, who leads UN Women on ending violence against women and girls in east and southern Africa, first started noticing its presence in Africa about five years ago, and believes it is on the rise. Research and data that keeps coming out is very consistent [in] showing this is an alarming issue in different countries and contexts across the continent." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Call for nudity-detection tech on phones as number of under-18s reporting blackmail attempts rises by 34% I felt ashamed and scared': how an online friendship became a sextortion nightmareChildren are reporting online sextortion attempts in record numbers in the UK, as campaigners urge tech companies to do more to stamp out the crime.The Report Remove service, which allows children to flag intimate images or videos of themselves that have appeared, or could appear, online, said it received 394 reports from under-18s last year of blackmail attempts after sending sexual images to predators. The figure is 34% higher than in 2024. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Investigation finds alleged Prince Group associates were involved in unusual development in tiny nation on Australia's doorstep, raising concerns about global spread of online fraud industryGuests were enticed with the promise of luxury villas overlooking aquamarine seas; a world-first crypto resort where the tech elite could commune over the latest digital innovation in opulent surrounds.The promotional material from June last year pitched a sprawling, futuristic development that would hug the coastline of Timor-Leste, one of the world's poorest countries, and donate a percentage of profits to philanthropy. Continue reading...

Meta has just lost a multimillion-dollar legal battle over its failure to prevent children being sold on its platforms. Here's how we uncovered evidence that became part of the case against itIt started with a tipoff. I was reporting on the trafficking and exploitation of migrant workers in the Gulf when a source I had known for more than a decade reached out. They told me that child sexual abuse trafficking in the US was surging. As the Covid pandemic pushed predators online, some were using Facebook and Instagram to buy and sell children.It was 2021 and I was about to begin an investigation with Mei-Ling McNamara, a human rights journalist, that would lead to the tech company Meta losing a multimillion-pound court case in March this year. The company had not yet rebranded and was known as Facebook, and there had not been any reporting on how children were being trafficked on its platforms. Experts from anti-trafficking nonprofit organisations and an American law enforcement official talked me through the crimes they were seeing. Continue reading...

These are the best USB chargers in the US to keep devices juiced up quickly and safely for all your tech needs

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsThis week's replies: has a call for restraint from an authority figure ever put a stop to war?I always say please and thank you to my Alexa. Why is this? I am sure it doesn't care. Is it worth being polite to artificial assistants? Alison Williams, TorontoPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...

After forgetting the nibbles, refusing my costume requests and emailing GCHQ, Gaskell' did at least get us to show upTwo weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I'd agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.Despite all this, it was a pretty good night. Continue reading...

Ofcom data points to more passive consumption amid changes to apps and fears about mental health and past postsPosting significant events in your life, from birthdays to weddings and promotions, is a social media staple. But Jenny, like many other Britons recently, has hesitated over contributing to the infinite scroll.I wouldn't have even posted my wedding really," she says. But I had to because ... There's like an etiquette. Nobody else can post your wedding until you've posted. So my friends were like: Please post, it's been like a week.'" Continue reading...

Use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024 turning the war into a technological contestVictor Pavlov showed off Ukraine's newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot.The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially. Continue reading...

Alan Turing Institute told by funder to offer better strategy and more value for money after board was reminded of legal duties by watchdogThe UK's leading AI research institute has been told to make significant" changes by its main source of taxpayer funding.The Guardian revealed last week that the board of the Alan Turing Institute was reminded of its legal duties by the charity watchdog after a whistleblower complaint. Continue reading...

From a subtle Princess Peach lip jelly to a Yoshi egg that's been traumatising children, the cosmetic chain's latest tie-in is out of this worldWhen The Super Mario Bros Movie came out in 2023, it came with a rather unlikely tie-in: a range of skincare and bathing products from cosmetics chain Lush. The store, known for its devotion to natural ingredients and support for social justice causes, didn't seem like the obvious partner for a major video game franchise. Because of this, I thought I should try them out, assuming that my dalliance with beauty journalism would be short-lived.I was wrong. The collection was so successful, Lush later released a Minecraft range, which I also reviewed, and now there's a Super Mario Galaxy range to tie in with the new movie. Somehow, I have become the Guardian's Lush correspondent and it seems I am now trapped in a sweet-smelling cycle of video game-branded toiletries. There are definitely worse fates, so I'm just going with it. Continue reading...

At a time when the populist right is on the rise, progressives are shooting blanks while history rushes headlong into an automated futureCanberra rolled out the red carpet this week to one of the AI overlords whose technology is driving the world down the path of creative destruction. Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, the putative good" tech oligarch, was spinning his version of a machine-driven future with the elan of a man who has untangled the mysteries of the universe - or at least built a predictive text model that can scrape the output of humanity and spit out compelling summaries of our collective consciousness.He regaled the prime minister, assorted elected officials and the tech sector's glitterati with his pitch for good AI that would transform the economy, before becoming the first to sign up to the government's new datacentre principles, conveniently released just a week earlier. It was compelling shill and, to be fair, Amodei is not the worst of the gods. He created Anthropic after leaving Open AI when the company dispensed with its not-for-profit, safety first" mission. He regularly shares thoughtful essays on the path of technology and has been open about his fears for the impact of his own products. He broke with the Trump administration over the limits to how his technology would be used to spy on citizens and enable autonomous weapons, turning himself into an enemy of the state. Continue reading...

Those in US given chance to have more professional usernames without losing access to accountDid your McLovin!1976!@gmail.com email address seem funny at the time but less so now you are applying for dozens of jobs?Google has said it is giving US users a chance to appear more professional by letting them change their Google account username - whatever appears before @gmail.com in an email address - without losing access to their account. Continue reading...

In week five of Rhik Samadder's diary, our resident AI skeptic decided to let AI take the lead on a date. If uncanny valley was a conversational style, it's this

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, PC; Deck Nine/Square Enix

Fake X account posing as his vet sparked global false reports of Jonathan's death while soliciting crypto donationsAt 194 years old, Jonathan the giant tortoise was a youngster when Queen Victoria ascended to the throne - and has now lived long enough to fall victim to a crypto scam.News outlets including the BBC, Daily Mail and USA Today falsely reported his death after an X account posing as Jonathan's vet broke the news. Continue reading...

Two-thirds of secondary school teachers report a decline in core abilities such as writing and problem-solvingPupils using artificial intelligence are losing their capacity for critical thinking, according to a survey of secondary school teachers in England.Two-thirds said they had observed the decline among children who they also said no longer felt the need to spell because of voice-to-text technology. Continue reading...

Anonymous activist Martha Root on how she hacked into, and took down, a dating site for white supremacists. With reporting from investigative journalist Eva HoffmanThere's a dating site for everyone: Jdate for Jews, Muzz for Muslims and Raya for celebrities. And for white supremacists? WhiteDate, for Europids seeking tribal love".The mysterious hacker/activist Martha Root tells Helen Pidd how, live on stage and in disguise, she hacked into WhiteDate and exposed a network of thousands of neo-Nazis looking for Aryan love. Continue reading...

Ofcom research shows people also concerned old posts could affect personal or professional lifeSocial media users in the UK are becoming less active on tech platforms due to the rise of video apps and fears that posts could come back to haunt them, according to the communications watchdog.Ofcom said just under half of adult social media users (49%) now post, share or comment compared with 61% in 2024. The proportion exploring new websites has also fallen, from 70% to 56%. Continue reading...

We are paying more for a PlayStation so that idiots can use ChatGPT to mislead people on dating apps - something is rotten in the state of gaming Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWhen the PlayStation 5 launched almost five and a half years ago, it was listed at 449 in the UK. If you were to buy one at the recommended retail price today, it would be 569.99, or 789.99 for the updated Pro model. Sony has just raised the price of its console by another 90, the latest in a series of hikes. This is unprecedented: consoles have always decreased in price over time (until they become retro collectibles - the other day, I saw someone asking 200 for a SNES on Vinted). So, what's going on?Unfortunately, this is another case of artificial intelligence ruining things for everyone. AI data centres need lots and lots and lots of computing power to be able to present you with lies whenever you Google anything, and this has pushed up demand and pricing for RAM and storage. This isn't the only reason prices are rising - the wars in Ukraine and Iran have caused global economic disruption, and rampant inflation has eaten into many companies' bottom line. But AI is the cause that's easiest to get angry about, because it doesn't need to be this way. Continue reading...

Head of committee says it was appropriate for government to seek guidance on way out of 330m deal with US data companyClaims by Palantir that concerns over the US data analytics company's multimillion-pound NHS contract are ideologically motivated" have been rejected by the chair of a parliamentary committee.It was also appropriate for the government to seek guidance on activating a break contract in the deal, said Chi Onwurah, a Labour MP who heads the science, innovation and technology select committee. Continue reading...