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Updated 2026-02-20 21:48
Share values of property services firms tumble over fears of AI disruption
But, after second day of Wall Street falls, analysts say sell-off may overstate AI's immediate risk to complex deal-making'Shares in commercial property services companies have tumbled, in the latest sell-off driven by fears over disruption from artificial intelligence.After steep declines on Wall Street, European stocks in the sector were hit on Thursday. Continue reading...
The best walking pads and under-desk treadmills, tried and tested to turn your workday into a workout
Sedentary lifestyles are bad for us, but which under-desk treadmills and walking pads are worth the cost? Our expert stepped up to find out The best treadmills for your homeVarious guidelines suggest we all try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day to improve our health and wellbeing. Public Health England encourages a slightly more manageable target of just 10 minutes of brisk walking daily to introduce more moderate-intensity physical activity and reduce your risk of early death by up to 15%.However, even squeezing in brisk walks" can be a chore, with busy schedules and increasingly desk-bound jobs forcing more of us to remain sedentary for long periods. That is where walking pads come in, being lighter, smaller and often easier to store than bulky and tricky-to-manoeuvre running treadmills.Best walking pad overall:
Instagram CEO dismisses idea of social media addiction in landmark trial
Adam Mosseri defends app on witness stand and says critics must separate clinical addiction' from problematic use'Instagram's CEO dismissed the idea that users can be addicted to social media at a landmark California trial on Wednesday.I think it's important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use," Adam Mosseri said on the witness stand. Psychologists do not classify social media addiction as an official diagnosis. Researchers have documented the harmful consequences of compulsive use among young people, and lawmakers around the world are worried about its addictive potential. Continue reading...
Man behind satirical Crewkerne Gazette AI videos was jailed in UK for hate crimes
Joshua Bonehill-Paine revealed as owner of X account known for videos depicting politicians such as Keir StarmerThe person behind an anonymous social media account that posts AI videos of UK politicians has been identified as a man who has spent time in prison for multiple hate crimes directed towards Jewish people.Joshua Bonehill-Paine was identified by Channel 4 News as the owner of Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical X account that created AI videos depicting politicians such as Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham apparently singing popular songs from artists such as Amy Winehouse, Barry Manilow and Elton John with altered, politically themed lyrics. Continue reading...
Cowboys, lassos, and nudity: AI startups turn to stunts for attention in a crowded market
Businesses are using theatrical stunts not for shock alone but to create viral content and drive sales conversations onlineWhen Lunos, an AI startup in New York City, was gearing up for launch, its founder and chief executive, Duncan Barrigan, and his team wanted to make a splash. So they shelled out $3,500 to do the unconventional: hire a horse and a cowboy to lasso the bull of Wall Street.On a sweltering evening in late September, the cowboy galloped toward the iconic sculpture in lower Manhattan. Wearing ranch gear and a western hat stamped with the Lunos logo, he lassoed the bull's horns as invitees and curious passersby watched. He and the horse then circled the statue, handing out cowboy hats and branded stress balls. Continue reading...
Romeo Is a Dead Man review – a misfire from a storied gaming provocateur
PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, PC; Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous Inc
Apple and Google pledge not to discriminate against third-party apps in UK deal
Critics brand deal with regulator as lightweight' with no legal bite' as tech giants avoid legally binding measuresApple and Google have committed to avoid discriminating against apps that compete with their own products under an agreement with the UK's competition watchdog, as they avoided legally binding measures for their mobile platforms.The US tech companies have vowed to be more transparent about vetting third-party apps before letting them on their app stores and not discriminate against third-party apps in app search rankings. Continue reading...
Beats Powerbeats Fit review: Apple’s compact workout earbuds revamped
Secure, noise-cancelling Bluetooth earbuds that shine for exercise and everyday use on Android and iPhoneApple's revamped compact workout Beats earbuds stick to a winning formula, while slimming down and improving comfort.The new Powerbeats Fit are the direct successors to 2022's popular Beats Fit Pro, costing 200 (230/$200/A$330). They sit alongside the recently redesigned Powerbeats Pro 2 as Apple's fitness alternatives of the AirPods. Continue reading...
How a decades-old video game has helped me defeat the doomscroll
Trading social media for Pokemon battles and evolutions in Kanto on a Game Boy Advance has been surprisingly sereneCutting back on doomscrolling must be one of the hardest new year resolutions to keep. Instinctively tapping on the usual suspects on your phone's home screen becomes a reflex, and vast quantities of money and user data have been specifically employed to keep you reaching for the phone, ingraining it into our work, leisure and social lives. You'll get no shame from me if you love your phone and have a healthy relationship with your apps, but I've found myself struggling lately.This year, I'm attempting to cut back on screen time - sort of. I'm replacing the sleek oblong of my smartphone with something a little more fuzzy and nostalgic. In an attempt to dismantle my bad habit, I'm closing the feeds of instant updates and instead carrying around a Game Boy Advance. I've been playing Pokemon FireRed, a remake of the very first Pokemon games, which turn 30 this month. Even this refreshed version is more than two decades old. Continue reading...
Files cast light on Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to cryptocurrency
Newly released documents detail convicted sex offender's early backing of bitcoin and CoinbaseMillions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein have brought to light his ties to the highest echelons of the cryptocurrency industry.Documents published last week by the US Department of Justice reveal Epstein bankrolled the principal home and funding source" for bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, during its nascent stages; he also invested $3m in Coinbase in 2014, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, and cut a check that same year to Blockstream, a prominent bitcoin-focused technology firm. Both crypto startups accepted Epstein's investments in 2014 - six years after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Continue reading...
‘We’re being turned into an energy colony’: Argentina’s nuclear plan faces backlash over US interests
Push to restart uranium mining in Patagonia has sparked fears about the environmental impact and loss of sovereignty over key resourcesOn an outcrop above the Chubut River, one of the few to cut across the arid Patagonian steppe of southern Argentina, Sergio Pichinan points across a wide swath of scrubland to colourful rock formations on a distant hillside.That's where they dug for uranium before, and when the miners left, they left the mountain destroyed, the houses abandoned, and nobody ever studied the water," he says, citing suspicions arising from cases of cancer and skin diseases in his community. If they want to open this back up, we're all pretty worried around here." Continue reading...
‘Disturbing’: Australian government demands review of Roblox’s PG rating after reports of child grooming
Communications minister Anika Wells points to media reports alleging children can access spaces meant for adults which include explicit sexual content
I asked AI to name my wife. To the hopelessly incorrect people it cited, my deepest apologies | Martin Rowson
Authors, a newsreader, a lawyer and an esteemed colleague: they're all great - but I'm not married to any of them. Can we really depend on this technology?Recently, the Rowsons accidentally invented a new game that anyone can play at home. I have yet to come up with a world-beating name for it, so for now let's just call it How bloody stupid is AI?" The playing of the game will change from player to player, depending on their circumstances - but essentially the rules remain the same. Ask AI a simple question about yourself, and see just how wrong it gets it.In my case, all you need know is that while I, through the nature of my job, have a fairly large online presence, my partner (we married in 1987) has assiduously avoided having one at all. Which means that if you Google Martin Rowson wife" in images, you may get a picture of me next to our then 14-year-old daughter or me with my friend and fellow cartoonist Steven Appleby, who happens to be trans but has kept her given first name. Continue reading...
Logitech MX Master 4 review: the best work mouse you can buy
Ergonomic shape, quality materials and satisfying clicks, now with novel haptic feedback and repairable designLogitech's latest productivity power-house updates one of the greatest mice of all time with smoother materials, a repair-friendly design and a haptic motor for phone-like vibrations on your desktop.The MX Master 4 is the latest evolution in a line of pioneering mice that dates back more than 20 years and has long been the mouse to beat for everything but hardcore PC gaming. Having given it a magnetic free-spinning scroll wheel, plenty of buttons and precise tracking, now Logitech is trying something different for its seven-generation: the ability to tap back at you. Continue reading...
‘I fell into it’: ex-criminal hackers urge Manchester pupils to use web skills for good
Initiative aims to identify proficient gamers and coders who can help companies identify flaws in their cybersecurityCybercriminals, the shadowy online figures often depicted in Hollywood movies as hooded villains capable of wiping millions of pounds off the value of businesses at a keystroke, are not usually known for their candour.But in a sixth-form college in Manchester this week, two former hackers gave the young people gathered an honest appraisal of what living a life of internet crime really looks like. Continue reading...
Rage against the machine: a California community rallied against a datacenter – and won
Organizers in Monterey Park took inspiration from other US cities to fight against the construction of a giant datacenterWhen a southern California city council proposed building a giant datacenter the size of four football fields last December, five residents vowed to stop it.Through a frenetic word-of-mouth campaign, the small group raised awareness about the proposed facility in Monterey Park, a small city east of Los Angeles known affectionately as the country's first suburban Chinatown. Continue reading...
Battle of the chatbots: Anthropic and OpenAI go head-to-head over ads in their AI products
New Anthropic campaign suggests other AI platforms will incorporate targeted ads in their chatbot conversationsThe Seahawks and the Patriots aren't the only ones gearing up for a fight.AI rivals Anthropic and OpenAI have launched a war of ads trying to court corporate America during one of the biggest entertainment nights of the year. Continue reading...
Why has Elon Musk merged his rocket company with his AI startup?
SpaceX's acquisition of xAI creates business worth $1.25tn but whether premise behind deal will work is questionedThe acquisition of xAI by SpaceX is a typical Elon Musk deal: big numbers backed by big ambition.As well as extending the light of consciousness to the stars", as Musk described it, the transaction creates a business worth $1.25tn (920bn) by combining Musk's rocket company with his artificial intelligence startup. It values SpaceX at $1tn and xAI at $250bn, with a stock market flotation expected in June to time with Musk's birthday and a planetary alignment. Continue reading...
Victims urge tougher action on deepfake abuse as new law comes into force
Campaigners welcome criminalisation of non-consensual AI-generated explicit images but say law does not go far enoughVictims of deepfake image abuse have called for stronger protection against AI-generated explicit images, as the law criminalising the creation of non-consensual intimate images comes into effect.Campaigners from Stop Image-Based Abuse delivered a petition to Downing Street with more than 73,000 signatures, urging the government to introduce civil routes to justice such as takedown orders for abusive imagery on platforms and devices. Continue reading...
‘Christian pastors declared Pikachu to be a demon’: how Pokémon went from moral panic to unifying global hit
Nintendo's monster-collecting franchise was pilloried as a pestilential Ponzi scheme' in the 90s. But as its celebrates its 30th birthday, it now stands as a powerful example of video games' ability to connect peopleWhen I was 11, it was my dream to compete in the Pokemon World Championships, held in Sydney in 2000. I'd come across it in a magazine, and then earnestly set about training teams of creatures, transferring them between my Pokemon Red Game Boy cartridge and the 3D arenas of Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64. I never made it as a player but I did finally achieve this dream on my 26th birthday, when I went to Washington DC to cover the world championships as a journalist. I was deeply moved. Presided over by a giant inflatable Pikachu hanging from the ceiling, the competitors and spectators were united in an unselfconscious love for these games, with their colourful menageries and heartfelt messaging about trust, friendship and hard work.It is emotional to see the winners lifttheir trophies after a tense final round of battles, as overwhelmed by their success as any sportsperson. But it's the pride that the smaller competitors' parents show in their mini champions that really gets to me. During the first wave of Pokemania in the late 90s, Pokemon was viewed with suspicion by most adults. Now that thefirst generation of Pokemaniacs have grownup, even becoming parentsourselves, we see it for what itis: an imaginative, challenging and really rather wholesome series of games thatrewards every hour that children devote to it. Continue reading...
Mewgenics review – infinite ways to skin a cat
PC; Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel
Tell us: how have you been affected by falling cryptocurrency prices?
We want to hear how the fall in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and ether are impacting peopleBitcoin sank to its lowest value in more than a year this week, faling to $63,000 on Thursday, about half its all-time peak of $126,000 in October 2025It's part of a wider shock to crypto prices. The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, has faced losses of more than 30% this year alone. Continue reading...
Hail our new robot overlords! Amazon warehouse tour offers glimpse of future
At its new Stone Mountain, Georgia, facility, Roomba-like robots shuffle between stacks, another adds shipping labels while another arranges packages in palletsOne of the reasons Amazon is spending billions on robots? They don't need bathroom breaks. Arriving a few minutes early to the public tour of Amazon's hi-tech Stone Mountain, Georgia, warehouse, my request to visit the restroom was met with a resounding no from the security guard in the main lobby.Between the main doors and the entrance security gate, I paced and paced after being told I would have to wait for the tour guide to collect me and other guests for a tour of the 640,000-sq-ft, four-story warehouse. Continue reading...
TikTok could be forced to change app’s ‘addictive design’ by European Commission
Preliminary EU ruling says app shifts brains of users into autopilot mode', with concerns for children and vulnerable adults
Deepfake fraud taking place on an industrial scale, study finds
AI content for scams can be targeted at individuals and produced by pretty much anybody', researchers sayDeepfake fraud has gone industrial", an analysis published by AI experts has said.Tools to create tailored, even personalised, scams - leveraging, for example, deepfake videos of Swedish journalists or the president of Cyprus - are no longer niche, but inexpensive and easy to deploy at scale, said the analysis from the AI Incident Database. Continue reading...
Uber found liable for sexual assault by driver and ordered to pay victim $8.5m
Verdict could influence more than 3,000 similar cases against ride-hailing companyA federal jury in Phoenix ordered Uber on Thursday to pay $8.5m after finding the company liable in a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a driver. The verdict could influence thousands of similar cases against the ride-hailing company.The case, brought by plaintiff Jaylynn Dean, was the first trial of more than 3,000 similar lawsuits against Uber that have been consolidated in US federal court. So-called bellwether trials are used to test legal theories and help gauge the value of claims for possible settlements. The jury found that the driver was an agent of Uber, holding the company responsible for his actions. They awarded Dean $8.5m in compensatory damages but declined to award punitive damages. Attorneys for Dean had sought more than $140m in damages. Continue reading...
‘Orwellian’: Sainsbury’s staff using facial recognition tech eject innocent shopper
Man misidentified by London supermarket using Facewatch system says: I shouldn't have to prove I am not a criminal'A man was ordered to leave a supermarket in London after staff misidentified him using controversial new facial recognition technology.Warren Rajah was told to abandon his shopping and leave the local store he has been using for a number of years after an Orwellian" error in a Sainsbury's in Elephant and Castle, London. Continue reading...
Cornish tin mine could reopen with Trump administration investment
South Crofty site could get $225m funding as US seeks to secure supply of critical metalDonald Trump has aggressively pursued investment into hi-tech industries in recent months, but the US administration has now set its sights on a more traditional sector: tin mining in Cornwall.The South Crofty mine, near the village of Pool, could start up again after nearly three decades aided by a potential $225m (166m) investment from across the Atlantic, creating 300 jobs. Continue reading...
How cryptocurrency’s second largest coin missed out on the industry’s boom
A leaked pitch to reshape Ethereum's leadership exposed deep divisions over politics, power and ether's static priceUS crypto developer Danny Ryan submitted a proposal in November 2024 to Vitalik Buterin, the founder and symbolic leader of Ethereum, a prominent blockchain powering the world's second-largest cryptocurrency. Ryan, who had worked for seven years at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), Ethereum's de facto governing body, suggested that Ethereum could be on the cusp of an era-defining shift.Since its founding in 2014, the foundation had prioritized technical upgrades and had avoided centralizing power while its user base was growing, but Ethereum had now grown up, and the cryptocurrency world around it had grown up, too. The EF could now exercise a stronger voice" without compromising its ethos of decentralization, Ryan said - and he was open to leading that charge if appointed as the foundation's new executive director. Continue reading...
The best UK treadmills for your home: up your indoor miles with our runner-approved picks
Whether you're chasing gym quality on a budget or a fancy folding model, accelerate your training with our expert's pick of the best running machines The best running shoes, tried and tested by runners
‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI
Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companiesOn the veranda of her family's home, with her laptop balanced on a mud slab built into the wall, Monsumi Murmu works from one of the few places where the mobile signal holds. The familiar sounds of domestic life come from inside the house: clinking utensils, footsteps, voices.On her screen a very different scene plays: a woman is pinned down by a group of men, the camera shakes, there is shouting and the sound of breathing. The video is so disturbing Murmu speeds it up, but her job requires her to watch to the end. Continue reading...
What does the disappearance of a $100bn deal mean for the AI economy?
Apparent collapse of Nvidia-OpenAI tie-up raises questions about circular funding and who will bear the cost of AI's expansionDid the circular AI economy just wobble? Last week it was reported that a much-discussed $100bn deal - announced last September - between Nvidia and OpenAI might not be happening at all.This was a circular arrangement through which the chipmaker would supply the ChatGPT developer with huge sums of money that would largely go towards the purchase of its own chips. Continue reading...
Google Pixel Buds 2a review: great Bluetooth earbuds at a good price
Compact and comfortable Pixel Buds have noise cancelling, decent battery life and good everyday soundGoogle's latest budget Pixel earbuds are smaller, lighter, more comfortable and have noise cancelling, plus a case that allows you to replace the battery at home.The Pixel Buds 2a uses the design of the excellent Pixel Buds Pro 2 with a few high-end features at a more palatable 109 (129/$129/A$239) price, undercutting rivals in the process.Water resistance: IP54 (splash resistant)Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.4 (SBC, AAC)Battery life: 7h with ANC (20h with case)Earbud dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 17.8mmEarbud weight: 4.7g eachDriver size: 11mmCharging case dimensions: 50 x 57.2 x 24.5mmCharging case weight: 47.6gCase charging: USB-C Continue reading...
Google parent earnings beat projections amid plans to invest deeply in AI
Alphabet reports $34.5bn profit and revenue soars 48% in recent quarter as it plans a sharp increase in AI spendingGoogle's parent company, Alphabet, beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, and is planning a sharp increase in capital spending in 2026 as it continues to invest deeply in AI infrastructure.Alphabet on Wednesday reported profit of $34.5bn in the recently ended quarter, as revenue from cloud computing soared 48%. Continue reading...
24 creative and unexpected Valentine’s Day gifts for him
From indestructible wallets to Crocs (yes, Crocs), we rounded up the best guy-approved Valentine's Day gifts they won't know how they lived without
‘The right has won the family’: my relentless search for lefty mommy bloggers
The most popular mom content tends to be rightwing tradwife propaganda or not political at all - pushing progressive creators out of the algorithmFor someone who doesn't have a marble island in their kitchen I spend a disproportionate amount of time staring at marble kitchen islands, slack-jawed, brain turned half off. That's because I consume a lot of videos from mommy bloggers, mom influencers and the like. In kitchen closing shift" videos, they wipe down their islands and reset by lighting luxury candles, the glow accentuating their respectable cosmetic procedures. Other times I watch them waltz through their morning routines: getting kids out the door, sweating it out in boutique fitness classes, showing off Amazon hauls, or explaining their children's matching holiday photoshoot outfits.For better or worse, this is how I have chosen to spend my one wild and precious life: consuming blissfully low-stakes motherhood content on my phone. It is domestically competent ASMR that also satiates my desire to peek into everyone's bathroom cabinets. I nod in unsolicited approval as a TikTok mom I follow shares her green juice order. Fascinating. I should drink something like that. Another posts timestamps of her baby's night-time sleep schedule. I, who lives between walls that have never heard the wail of an infant, ingurgitate the entire video. Continue reading...
Gaming’s new coming-of-age genre embraces ‘millennial cringe’
Perfect Tides perfectly captures the older millennial college experience, and a time when nobody worried about being embarrassing online Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereI've noticed an interesting micro-trend emerging in the last few years: millennial nostalgia games. Not just ones that adopt the aesthetic of Y2K gaming - think Crow Country or Fear the Spotlight's deliberately retro PS1-style fuzzy polygons - but semi-autobiographical games specifically about the millennial experience. I've played three in the past year. Despelote is set in 2002 in Ecuador and is played through the eyes of a football-obsessed eight-year-old. The award-winning Consume Me is about being a teen girl battling disordered eating in the 00s. And this week I played a point-and-click adventure game about being a college student in the early 2000s.Perfect Tides: Station to Station is set in New York in 2003 - a year that is the epitome of nostalgia for the micro-generation that grew up without the internet but came of age online. It was before Facebook, before the smartphone, but firmly during the era of late-night forum browsing and instant-messenger conversations. The internet wasn't yet a vector for mass communication, but it could still bring you together with other people who loved the things that you loved, people who read the same hipster blogs and liked the same bands. The protagonist, Mara, is a student and young writer who works in her college library. Continue reading...
Pinterest sacks two engineers for creating software to identify fired workers
Digital pinboard business cutting 15% of workforce as it invests heavily in AIPinterest has fired two engineers who created a software tool to identify which workers had lost their jobs in a recent round of cuts and then shared the information, according to reports.The digital pinboard business announced significant job cuts earlier this month, with the chief executive, Bill Ready, telling staff he was doubling down on an AI-forward approach", according to a LinkedIn post by a former employee. Continue reading...
Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android
Sustainable smartphone takes a step forward with modular accessories, a good screen and mid-range performanceThe Dutch ethical smartphone brand Fairphone is back with its six-generation Android, aiming to make its repairable phone more modern, modular, affordable and desirable, with screw-in accessories and a user-replaceable battery.The Fairphone 6 costs 499 (599), making it cheaper than previous models and pitting it squarely against budget champs such as the Google Pixel 9a and the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, while being repairable at home with long-term software support and a five-year warranty. On paper it sounds like the ideal phone to see out the decade. Continue reading...
Elon Musk calls Spanish PM a ‘tyrant’ over plan to ban under-16s from social media and curb hateful content
Pedro Sanchez says urgent action needed to protect children from digital wild west', drawing anger from owner of XSpain has proposed a ban on social media use by teenagers as attitudes hardened in Europe against the technology, drawing personal insults against the prime minister from Elon Musk.The government is preparing a series of measures including a social media ban for under-16s, the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said, promising to protect children from the digital wild west" and hold tech companies responsible for hateful and harmful content. Continue reading...
Women in tech and finance at higher risk from AI job losses, report says
Mid-career' female workers also being sidelined by rigid hiring processes, says City of London CorporationWomen working in tech and financial services are at greater risk of losing their jobs to increased use of AI and automation than their male peers, according to a report that found experienced females were also being sidelined as a result of rigid hiring processes".Mid-career" women - with at least five years' experience - are being overlooked for digital roles in the tech and financial and professional services sectors, where they are traditionally underrepresented, according to the report by the City of London Corporation. Continue reading...
‘The smart, the rich, the powerful’: Epstein associated with Silicon Valley elite years after his release from prison
Billionaires and intellectuals attended events with the disgraced financier years after he served time for sex offense, files revealNewly released emails and travel itineraries appear to show that for years after Jeffrey Epstein served time for procuring underage girls for prostitution, he continued to attend exclusive dinners alongside Silicon Valley's most famous billionaires.The emails, part of a trove released by the Department of Justice on Friday, show that as late as 2018, Epstein was invited to or attended dinners alongside the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Google vice-president and later Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Continue reading...
French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit
Prosecutors' announcement comes amid a hardening of European attitudes to social media firmsProsecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk's social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company's former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office, the national police cyber unit and Europol," the Paris prosecutors' office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network. Continue reading...
From ‘nerdy’ Gemini to ‘edgy’ Grok: how developers are shaping AI behaviours
AIs are not sentient - but tweaks to their ethical codes can have far-reaching consequences for usersDo you want an AI assistant that gushes about how it loves humanity" or one that spews sarcasm? How about a political propagandist ready to lie? If so, ChatGPT, Grok and Qwen are at your disposal.Companies that create AI assistants, from the US to China, are increasingly wrestling with how to mould their characters, and it is no abstract debate. This month Elon Musk's maximally truth-seeking" Grok AI caused international outrage when it pumped out millions of sexualised images. In October OpenAI retrained ChatGPT to de-escalate conversations with people in mental health distress after it appeared to encourage a 16-year-old to take his own life. Continue reading...
The dump dinner: spaghetti is now being served straight on to the table – but why?
A raft of online videos show parents serving up dinner without a single plate in sight, to the amazement of their familiesName: Dump dinners.Age: Horribly new. Continue reading...
UK privacy watchdog opens inquiry into X over Grok AI sexual deepfakes
Information Commissioner's Office to investigate whether Elon Musk's firms have complied with data protection lawElon Musk's X and xAI companies are under formal investigation by the UK's data protection watchdog after the Grok AI tool produced indecent deepfakes without people's consent.The Information Commissioner's Office is investigating whether the social media platform and its parent broke GDPR, the data protection law. Continue reading...
The lithium boom: could a disused quarry bring riches to Cornwall?
Known as white gold', lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet - ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe's largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community?It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don't see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I'm standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK's transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. And if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic," he says. Though that is not what it's about."We'll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. There was a continental collision at the time," Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter, explained to me before my visit. This collision caused the bottom of the Earth's crust to melt, with the molten material rising higher in the crust and forming granite. There are lots of different types of granite that intrude at different times, more than 10m years or so," she says. The rock is made of minerals and, if you've got the right composition in the original material and the right conditions, then within those minerals there are some called mica. Some of those micas contain lithium." Continue reading...
Anthropic’s launch of AI legal tool hits shares in European data companies
Pearson, Experian and others fall sharply after startup unveils software to automate a range of professional servicesEuropean publishing and legal software companies have suffered sharp declines in their share prices after the US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic revealed a tool for use by companies' legal departments.Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude, said its tool could automate legal work such as contract reviewing, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance workflows, legal briefings and templated responses. Continue reading...
Disastrous start for US TikTok as users cry censorship
New US-owned app struggled with a storm and was accused of blocking content critical of Trump - can it recover?Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm Blake Montgomery, writing to you from Doha, where I'm moderating panels about AI and investing as part of the Web Summit Qatar.I want to bring your attention to the impact of a Guardian story. In December, we published a story, A black hole': families and police say tech giants delay investigations in child abuse and drug cases", about grieving families and law enforcement officers who say that Meta and Snapchat have slowed down criminal investigations. (The tech companies contend that they cooperate.) This month, Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to compel social media platforms to respond to warrants in 72 hours.Elon Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known, emails showTesla discontinues Model X and S vehicles as Elon Musk pivots to roboticsWhat is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI botsThe slopaganda era: 10 AI images posted by the White House - and what they teach usApple reports record iPhone sales as new lineup reignites worldwide demandSouth Korea's world-first' AI laws face pushback amid bid to become leading tech powerCan you guess our screen time? A priest, pensioner, tech CEO and teenager reveal all Continue reading...
‘Deepfakes spreading and more AI companions’: seven takeaways from the latest artificial intelligence safety report
Annual review highlights growing capabilities of AI models, while examining issues from cyber-attacks to job disruptionThe International AI Safety report is an annual survey of technological progress and the risks it is creating across multiple areas, from deepfakes to the jobs market.Commissioned at the 2023 global AI safety summit, it is chaired by the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, who describes the daunting challenges" posed by rapid developments in the field. The report is also guided by senior advisers, including Nobel laureates Geoffrey Hinton and Daron Acemoglu. Continue reading...
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