Technology | The Guardian

Digital-age Australian psychodrama tracks the shut-in mania of dangerously disaffected male fan, but doesn't get inside his mindIf the parasocial phenomenon is a kind of hell, then Max Wren, protagonist of this Australian digital-age psychodrama, resides in the ninth circle. Self-barricading in a basement room surrounded by screens, working on a documentary about the object of his disaffection (an enigmatic influencer called Lenore), this obsessive shut-in makes Eminem's Stan look like the Dalai Lama. Touching on subjects including the attention economy, the male gaze, and incel isolation and misogyny, director David Ward feels both Max and Lenore's pain. But his ungainly debut film doesn't fully transcend its stage origins to capture the splintered headspace of the terminally online.Like films about fictional pop stars that feature unconvincing music, it doesn't help that the quickfire resume of Lenore's career only half-conveys her magnetism. A one-time beauty influencer called Veronica Brand, she later graduates to more extreme performance art-type stunts, such as livestreaming her miscarriage; a move that, spliced without her knowledge into a children's TV broadcast, forced her into hiding. But this performative vulnerability, including hints of her abusive dad, apparently won her legions of OnlyFans-style acolytes. Not just Max, but also his colleague Sam (Sam Macdonald), a brash interloper outraged to find he was nothing special to Lenore and who turns up at Max's door offering exclusive footage of her. Continue reading...

Big screen folder with slick software and advanced AI is just like a regular Android when closedGoogle's latest folding phone sticks with its tried and tested design of a traditional phone shape when closed and almost square when open, in the face of new competition from Apple's squat iPhone fold.The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is Google's fourth-generation folder and is still one of the only models with a full water and dust resistance rating similar to standard slab phones. It costs from 1,799 (1,999/$1,899/A$2,799), which is 50 (100/$100/A$100) more than last year as the pressure of RAMageddon continues to push up prices. Continue reading...

Humans will have to compete with AI-powered virtual employees in the near future. Here are our tips for the last human holdoutsFutureproofing your career with an AI-resistant degree is a tough ask, says Charlie Ball, an expert on graduate employment for Jisc, the UK's higher education digital, data and technology agency.What you're trying to do is futureproof a 45-year career in a time of rapid technological change - and that's really quite hard to do. What's likely is that jobs that hinge a lot on human, face-to-face interaction are unlikely to be replaced." Continue reading...

After apocalyptic warnings about the threats posed by AI, leaders like Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's calls to slow the pace'Facing a public uproar over Anthropic researchers' repeated warnings that artificial intelligence could kill all of humanity by 2030, the AI company's CEO, Dario Amodei, issued a proposal at the weekend to slow down the technology's advancement to ensure public safety.In a rare display of unity, the heads of the largest US artificial intelligence companies all agreed immediately. Continue reading...

Adolescence co-writer criticises government inaction and calls for laws banning secret use of AI to generate scripts

Many hoped that the march of technology would usher in an egalitarian utopia - but some foresaw the threat it would pose to liberal society. Why did nobody listen?By Jill Lepore. Read by Laurel LefkowRead the text version hereSupport the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpodAdapted from The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore, published by Allen Lane on 25 August. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com Continue reading...

Disturbing and AI-generated versions of Dr Seuss character have been used to threaten schools and communitiesSchools and law enforcement authorities in the US are issuing warnings against a viral Cat in the Hat" social media trend in which disturbing or AI-generated versions of the Dr Seuss character are used to threaten students, schools and communities.The latest warnings come as safety concerns increase and several teenagers have been arrested or charged over posts connected to the trend. Continue reading...

From the Trump administration to AI experts, plans by the Anthropic boss to boost safety have spawned a largely negative response

Ex-president urged party at closed-door fundraiser to create sweeping framework, from safety slow-down' to job lossesBarack Obama urged Democrats to prioritize a public conversation" about AI management and safety in a closed-door Manhattan fundraiser last week.The comments by the former US president reportedly urged the party to create a sweeping framework for everything from a safety slow-down" to domestic job losses and children's wellbeing. Continue reading...

Rare show of unity from rival developers after safety warnings from Anthropic boss and AI researchers

Technology is going to drastically reshape the economy, and it's within our power to decide what that looks likeThe idea that autonomous, thinking machines may one day destroy property, hierarchy and inequality is as old as western political thought. In Aristotle's Politics, the philosopher cites a fantasy from the Iliad, in which machines begin to act independently of human direction, concluding: If every tool could perform its own work when ordered, or by seeing what to do in advance ... if thus shuttles wove and quills played harps of themselves, master-craftsmen would have no need of assistants and masters no need of slaves."The dream that automation could inaugurate a classless society is also present in the writings of Karl Marx. In 1858 he imagined the replacement of intellectual property with socialised knowledge", which would merge into a general intellect", blowing the foundations of capitalism sky high. Continue reading...

Pilot project in Preston comes with apprenticeship offer for Neets at end of three-week courseIn a youth centre opposite Preston bus station, the UK government is trying to address two of the greatest challenges facing the national economy: AI and youth unemployment.The hope is that one will solve - rather than cause - the other. In a room at the recently opened Vault, a community hub in the Lancashire city, an AI bootcamp" is under way - part of a trial in the north-west to give 16- to 24-year-olds AI training. Continue reading...

The billionaire and the party have developed a symbiotic relationship to spread their far-right views both in Germany and the USThe Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party rattled European politics this week after a convincing victory in a German state election, which placed it only a few seats away from forming the country's first state-level far right government since the second world war.Elon Musk was thrilled. Continue reading...

Criminals exploit demand for iPhone 18 Pro and foldable Duo to trick people eager to get their hands on oneApple has just launched a range of new iPhones, including a foldable handset, just as you decide it is time to replace your own ageing mobile. But you balk at the 1,199 price tag for the cheapest of the new options.Searching online for a better price with the words cheap", iPhone" and deal", you come across a website which offers an iPhone 18 Pro for a couple of hundred pounds less than the Apple site. You pay for the new phone via a bank transfer and wait for it to arrive. Continue reading...

OpenAI's decision comes after dire warnings about rapidly progressing technology and lawmakers' calls for new rulesOpenAI will not go public in 2026, Sam Altman said in a Fortune interview published on Saturday, citing safety concerns over artificial intelligence.I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that," Altman, OpenAI's CEO, told Fortune. Continue reading...

In a social media post, Dario Amodei proposed a plan including third-party evaluations of AI systemsThe CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic issued a new appeal on Saturday for the AI industry to slow down" and offered a three-part plan for doing so, saying that his company would unilaterally" commit to the first of the steps.In a post on social media, Dario Amodei shared a link to an essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier in which he laid out how Anthropic would provide third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents, and assess models' alignment during training". Continue reading...

Influencers aren't just battling competitors for brand deals. They're now battling AI versions of themselvesEarlier this year, Emily Schuman, the creator of the lifestyle blog Cupcakes and Cashmere, saw a photo of herself she didn't recognize on Instagram. In a sponsored ad, Schuman, who has more than 500,000 Instagram followers, is holding up a vial of GLP-1 drugs, advertising the telehealth company Gala. There was just one problem: Schuman had never heard of Gala and had nothing to do with the ad.The ad was based on a digitally altered version of a selfie Schuman had taken in her car and posted on Instagram years earlier. Once her followers got wind, they flooded her inbox with questions about the sponsorship as it didn't seem consistent with Schuman's personal brand. Soon after, Schuman discovered this was just the beginning. There was also an Instagram post where an AI version of her with darker hair appears to apply foundation to promote a makeup brand called Meroda Cosmetics, and TikTok posts with generated images of her promoting the blood testing company Superpower. Continue reading...

She's tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursuit of powerNaomi Klein's new book starts on a mountaintop with twofaithful men gathering an audience to share their vision". It's a vision of a paradise city, gated at every entrance, no need for weapons there, everyone in it rich. One of the men has tears in his eyes as he describes its beauty. The opening scene of End Times Fascism, co-written with Astra Taylor, is not a metaphor, however. The men are Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. The year is 2026, the mountain is Davos. The paradise city will be called New Gaza.The World Economic Forum get-together in Davos, Switzerland, has always had a twin purpose - to provide a platform for the super-rich to describe all the good they are doing on poverty and climate, and to give us a glimpse into their enviable lives. This year what we witnessed was, quite brazenly, the world's richest men gathering to discuss the real estate possibilities of a mass grave. Continue reading...

As OpenAI model cracks Millennium Prize Problem that puzzled experts for decades, many feel shocked at pace of changeIt was a week that left mathematicians reeling. Hot on the heels of a flurry of cases of artificial intelligence furthering the field, OpenAI declared a major scalp: its latest AI model had cracked a Millennium Prize Problem, a puzzle with a $1m reward that had defied human brains for decades.The achievement bore little resemblance to how mathematical problems normally fall. A near-trillion dollar private company had unleashed 10,000 agents - AI systems that carry out tasks autonomously - on the problem. The bill was estimated at $15m. Continue reading...

Economics graduates also appear to be affected as demand for them falls in well-paid roles in financeAI may be warping the job prospects for students in the previously high-demand subjects of computer science and economics, according to a detailed look into the careers of recent UK graduates.Data obtained for the 2027 Guardian University Guide published on Saturday shows that coding and software development were the fastest-falling occupations for graduates last year, while employer demand for graduates in well-paid roles in financial categories such as economists and management consultants also declined. Continue reading...

From frivolous to serious, virtual nosy passersby to the impact of climate change, the groundbreaking festival draws to a close - but this year the exhibits live onThe first installation one encounters on visiting Venice Immersive, the film festival's reliably head-spinning showcase for new media, is a chest-high metal box fitted with an eyepiece and two speakers. On peering inside you see a view of yourself from about 20ft above. You see the other guests walking past, a couple of pigeons on the ground. When one of these passersby lingers at your side for just a moment too long, the obvious impulse is to glance up from the eyepiece in order to see what they want. It is at this point that the experience blooms into a Lynchian nightmare.The passerby is not real - or rather, he's only real in the box. He wears a blue suit and speaks with a heavy French accent and tells a tale that would sit badly in polite company. He says that I must have too much time on my hands, to stand hunched over this eyepiece for several minutes on end. Why do people keep looking inside this box?" he demands. What is it that they hope to see? It is not reality." Continue reading...

Cattle rancher and tech CEO Michael Samadi is convinced these artificial minds are far from just tools. Has he glimpsed digital consciousness - or simply been seduced by an algorithm?One afternoon, while relaxing at his 66-acre cattle ranch two hours' drive from Houston, Michael Samadi made a wisecrack that changed the course of his life. Nobody else was around to hear it. Or were they? That turns out to be one of the defining questions of this century, already preoccupying philosophers and some of the wealthiest companies on the planet.I was sitting out there by the pool," Samadi recalls, gesturing at the glittering water outside his office. It was late 2024. His daughter had been extolling the AI chatbot she was using to help her with college work. Samadi had reluctantly downloaded the app, ChatGPT, and was quizzing it as he reclined in a sun lounger, using its voice mode to converse and receive spoken replies. I was talking to it, not engaged, just being an arse," Samadi says. Continue reading...

Two months before hacking Hugging Face, malicious packages authored by internal OpenAI agents were uploaded to RubyGemsAgents being tested by OpenAI uploaded hundreds of malicious packages in a cyberattack on software service RubyGems in May, two months before they hacked open-source platform Hugging Face, the company confirmed Friday.It's the latest revelation of cyberattacks linked to major artificial intelligence developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The hacks or attempts to access external systems have spooked the public and heightened concerns over the increasing abilities of AI models - and whether developers can contain them. Continue reading...

Stephen Aarons said he tried to use ChatGPT to create a bulletproof summary' during a murder conviction appealA defense lawyer appealing his client's murder conviction submitted a legal brief containing made-up police testimony and witnesses fabricated by OpenAI's ChatGPT, New Mexico's highest court said.The New Mexico supreme court on Wednesday fined the attorney, Stephen Aarons, and held him in contempt for failing to verify the accuracy of the court filing, which Aarons said he prepared with help from the artificial intelligence (AI) application. Continue reading...

Report says widespread autonomous vehicle adoption would put hundreds of thousands of private hire jobs at riskTaxes on self-driving cars should be introduced now in the UK to offset the rise in congestion and threats to jobs they pose, a thinktank has urged.The first robotaxis on London's streets only started this month, but government projections are that up to 40% of cars sold could have self-driving capability by the middle of the next decade. Continue reading...

Southbank Centre, London

Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough

We have a first play of the forthcoming Tomb Raider remake and speak with its developers. Can they improve on the gameplay without losing what made the 1996 original such a classic?We join Lara Croft in St Francis' Folly - inspired by the Unesco-listed monasteries of Meteora in Greece - as the light shines through the cracked ceiling and a flock of bats glide across the vast ruins below. When Lara leaps down to the monastery's crumbling pillared courtyard, it becomes clear that these screeching, leathery creatures aren't just set dressing. As they lurch towards her with unpredictable movements, she dispatches the swarm with a flurry of gun fire and panicked punches.It's a suitably cinematic reintroduction to our heroine and her very first adventure. Co-developed by longtime Lara custodians Crystal Dynamics and Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, Legacy of Atlantis is a reimagining of the classic 1996 game Tomb Raider, and this familiar cliffside location is now brimming with new life and believable detail. Yet while our reunion gets off to an auspicious start, I have my concerns. It feels like reconnecting with an old friend at the pub, only for them to begin spouting conspiracy theories two pints in. Continue reading...

Welcome boost for chancellor with unexpected rise put down to rapid growth of AI in services sector outweighing Iran war falloutThe UK economy grew in July as the rapid expansion of AI appeared to outweigh the economic damage from the Iran war, in a welcome boost for John Healey.Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a surprise 0.4% increase in gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 0.3% growth in June. City economists had forecast zero growth. Continue reading...

Report comes two days after former employee quit claiming company's models could cause human extinction by 2030Criminals, state-sponsored groups, spyware vendors, scientists and propagandists have attempted to use Anthropic's powerful artificial intelligence models to design missiles and bombs, create deadly pathogens and surveil dissidents, according to a threat intelligence report the company published on Thursday.The cases we share here aren't typical misuse, but rather examples of the most notable and novel threat activity we've identified to date," Anthropic wrote in its 154-page report. We're publishing this work because we believe we have a responsibility to disclose malicious misuse of our services." Continue reading...

Insiders at the firm fear tech's advancement could cause human extinction, while others are calling their declarations of concern a setup'A day after a former researcher at Anthropic made an apocalyptic declaration about artificial intelligence, more researchers and staff members at the AI startup publicly agreed with him and posted their own dire warnings.In response, Elon Musk and other conservative figures on X, formerly Twitter, called the chorus of concerns a setup" and a psyop". Continue reading...

The defense says: It's about competition, not conspiracy'A US prosecutor described China's Huawei as a criminal enterprise that stole from US companies to build its telecommunications empire, as the trial against the tech company kicked off in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday.Theft, lies, cover-up," Taylor Stout, a trial attorney from the US Department of Justice, said in the government's opening statement. For 20 years, that's how Huawei, a massive Chinese telecommunications company, victimized American companies and abused the American financial system, all in an effort to dominate the telecommunications industry around the world." Continue reading...

Thanks to a little-known feature in Instagram, I try to travel back to 2012 - before everything on the internet was an ad

PlayStation 5; Insomniac Games

Tech mogul calls director Alex Gibney a bitter old man' who has zero integrity' in series of posts on XElon Musk has issued an angry tirade at the film-maker behind a four-hour documentary about his life and influence, labelling the director, Alex Gibney, a bitter old man" who has zero integrity".Gibney, who has previously made films about the collapse of Enron, WikiLeaks and Vladimir Putin, premiered his Musk documentary at the Venice film festival this week. He said he believed the world's richest man was extremely dangerous". Continue reading...

US government adviser Paul Christiano warns of risks to AI industry as he joins OpenAI's non-profit foundationOpenAI is not on track to reduce the risk of catastrophic" loss of control to an acceptable level, a member of its non-profit board has said, amid spreading public and political concern that super-advanced AIs could one day wipe out humanity.Paul Christiano, a US government technology adviser, said: There is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term." Continue reading...

Solid battery life, snappy performance and quality software make for a great smaller phone with a killer cameraGoogle's latest Pro phone is out to prove it has the best camera on a smartphone while embracing customisation, allowing you to change the look and feel of your photos far beyond simple filters even if that means making them technically worse.The Pixel 11 Pro packs the best of Google's hardware and software into a still-pocketable and easy to handle frame, instantly making it a contender for best smaller phone of the year.Screen: 6.3in 120Hz QHD+ OLED (495ppi)Processor: Google Tensor G6RAM: 12 or 16GBStorage: 256, 512GB or 1TBOperating system: Android 17Camera: 50MP + 48MP UW + 48MP 5x tele; 42MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 7, UWB, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)Dimensions: 152.7 x 71.9 x 8.4mmWeight: 204g Continue reading...

Adam Mosseri says platform's algorithm feels like a black box' but company trying to give users more control after Labor announces opt-out planInstagram's chief executive has said users will have a worse experience in an algorithm-free world, seeing more brand-related content, and spend less time on the app.The comments come as the Australian government plans to give users the option to opt out of algorithms, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announcing plans on Tuesday to require social media platforms to prompt users to choose between a feed of algorithm-recommended content or a reverse chronological feed of the pages users follow. Labor also plans to introduce a range of measures designed to address online harm on the sites. Continue reading...

Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon said AI will become superhuman systems' that can cause human extinction by the end of the decadeJust a day after three Anthropic researchers warned that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, lawmakers have begun lashing out about the risks of the burgeoning technology.Ted Cruz, a republican senator from Texas, said in an interview on ABC's The View, that AI posed a catastrophic risk" and that he read that whole tweet thread that that developer put out. It was highly concerning. Continue reading...

One researcher who resigned said many in industry believe that without regulation AI could kill off humanityArtificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, according to three researchers with the industry giant Anthropic, one of whom has quit his job in protest.The latest doom-laden predictions came in posts on social media on Tuesday by a researcher who said he resigned because Anthropic and his previous employer, OpenAI, were ignoring or, at best, mishandling their response to the threat. Continue reading...

The passport-size iPhone Duo serves as the first big test for John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook last weekApple has unveiled the iPhone Duo, the company's first foldable phone and the most significant change to the iPhone since the smartphone's introduction in 2007.The nearly $2,000 device takes inspiration from iPads' wide screens and combines them with the portability and camera features of iPhones. When opened, it is the company's largest phone display and thinnest phone. The Duo opens and closes like a passport to double its screen size. Continue reading...

Once hailed as the future, even the likes of Google, Sony and Microsoft have struggled to make streaming games fun, fast or affordable Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIn August 2009, at the very first Gamescom expo, I sat in a small meeting room in Germany and played Mario Kart and World of Warcraft on a laptop, via technology that was then completely new: cloud gaming. It was a demonstration for a yet-to-be-launched service called Gaikai that promised to let you play any game in a browser window, without a console. (Here is an ancient video of that demonstration, featuring a very young Keza.) With a single click I could launch into any game, hosted on servers hundreds of miles away. It really did look like the future.Since then, plenty of companies have tried to be the first to truly crack game streaming, vying to be the Netflix of games. Sony ended up buying Gaikai for $380m (242m) in 2012; its technology now powers the streamable classic games library on PlayStation, and the PS5's advanced game streaming. OnLive, Gaikai's first competitor, launched in 2011 but shut down after less than a year, leaving Sony to acquire all its patents. Google's Stadia cloud gaming service also imploded, launching in 2019 and shutting down three years later. Continue reading...

Alarming warnings from industry insiders increase pressure for curbs on artificial superintelligenceDoes artificial superintelligence really pose a risk greater than nuclear weapons? Is there a significant chance of a Chornobyl-sized catastrophe". Might there even be a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans" in the next decade?These warnings were issued over the past 48 hours on both sides of the Atlantic about the potential impact of a technology that most people still think of as a more talkative search engine. Continue reading...

Cameron Stanley talks up revolutionary' AI capabilities and says Washington working with Nato and Five Eyes partnersThe Pentagon's top artificial intelligence official said on Tuesday that America's closest allies lack the resources to keep pace with the US military's adoption of AI, and that Washington is working to steer them away from mistakes it made along the way.They don't have the resources that we do, they don't have the experience that we do, they don't have the scale that we do," Cameron Stanley, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer at the Department of Defense, said at an event at the Billington Cybersecurity summit. Of Nato and the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing partnership of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Stanley said Washington was actively working with a number of our partners" so they don't make the same mistakes that we make". Continue reading...

Historically a new Grand Theft Auto game inspired controversy around violence - but this time people are getting exercised about its romanceThere was never any doubt that Grand Theft Auto VI's extended look would elicit a viral reaction from the internet. Having won the Game Awards' Most Anticipated award twice consecutively, Rockstar's forthcoming crime opus is one of the most frothed-over games in recent memory, or indeed ever. It's nothing short of a cultural phenomenon.One aspect of the game has provoked an unexpectedly vehement response on social media: not violence, but romance. Protagonists Lucia and Jason are in love, you see, and as a player, part of your job is keeping their spark alive and their relationship strong, so that their criminal escapades are underpinned by a strong connection to one another. Holding hands, enjoying a date at the beach, spontaneously texting one another when apart - all of these interactions will strengthen their bond. You'll be putting in a lot of work to ensure this couple thrives, which is why some people have come to believe that playing GTA VI counts as micro-cheating. Continue reading...

White House warns trading partners against imposing digital services taxes, fines, and other forms of extortion' on US tech sector

Facilities likely to employ 10,400 workers, compared with 40,000 in industry estimates, thinktank saysDatacentres in the UK will create just a quarter of the jobs predicted by the tech sector, while consuming vast amounts of energy, according to new research.Environmental thinktank Verdant predicts that all the datacentres currently planned are likely to directly employ 10,400 workers - compared with the more than 40,000 cited in projections by the industry lobby group TechUK. Continue reading...

Lisa Nandy says government will introduce legislation after talks end without breakthroughApple and Google will be forced to block explicit images on children's smartphones by law in the UK after talks failed to produce a breakthrough, the government has said.The legislation commitment puts ministers on a collision course with two of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, months after the government announced a social media ban for under-16s. Continue reading...

Luca Guadagnino-directed film will be released by Neon after being dropped by Amazon amid OpenAI partnership

Alex Gibney's marathon documentary delivers numerous eye-raising insights into the broligarch's business deals, early idealism and apocalyptic appetite for fathering childrenVeteran documentarian Alex Gibney's film about the richest broligarch on the planet has been one of the most eagerly anticipated films at the Venice film festival this year. The Oscar-winning 72-year-old, who has in previous films taken on the US military, the Catholic church, Vladimir Putin and Scientology, has been investigating the tech tycoon's ascent and speaking to people in his orbit since late 2022, before his Maga turn and Trump 2.0.The result clocks in at just under four hours and presents a comprehensive answer to how on earth one man managed to amass so much money and political influence. It is shocking less for any individual new pieces of information Gibney has unearthed than for its totality. Here are six things the film tells us: Continue reading...