Westminster appears to be waking up to warnings over AI safety, with concerns over its use by extremist groups and bad actorsI have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about," said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare.It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham's takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader. Continue reading...
How a string of bizarre events led writer Linda Geddes to don her sleuthing cap and dig into a world of shadowy impersonatorsIt started with an entirely ordinary interaction on LinkedIn. Someone had tagged me in a post, saying how much they'd enjoyed contributing to a New York Post article I'd written about chronoworking". As the author of a book about circadian rhythms, it was exactly the sort of subject I might write about. Except I'd never heard of this person, let alone interviewed them.I clicked on the link and my stomach dropped. There, above an article about people who organise their working lives around their biological clocks, was my name: Linda Geddes. Continue reading...
Peter Ricketts calls for more resilience in protecting banking, energy and water systems from cyber-assaultsMinisters need to be honest with the British public about the immediate threat posed by Russia, which could soon lead to lives being lost, a former national security adviser has said.Peter Ricketts, who advised David Cameron when he was prime minister, became the latest figure to warn about the scale of the threat posed by hybrid attacks" from Vladimir Putin's forces. Continue reading...
The entrepreneur turned fraudster is the subject of an Oscar-tipped new documentary that takes an unusual look at her strange legacyDavid Agus's first encounter with Elizabeth Holmes at a health conference came as a shock. The Holmes he met in the green room was personable and pleasant. The Holmes he interviewed on stage was altogether different.The accent changed: this deep voice, very serious," Agus, a medical oncologist, recalls by phone from Los Angeles. It was as if I had met a person and then interviewed a separate person. That transition from the green room to the stage - I had never experienced something like that before." Continue reading...
Exclusive: health bodies across country say controversial US firm's data platform no better than systems already in useNHS organisations that care for millions of people in England are rejecting Palantir's patient data technology, according to freedom of information responses that reveal health bosses believe they can find better or equal alternatives in many cases.Some health bodies said the 330m federated data platform (FDP) operated by the controversial US company had made it easier to manage waiting lists and has improved surgery scheduling. But, from Gateshead to Truro, others said they were declining to use it or had carried out trials and reverted to old systems. A Suffolk trust said other systems supercede" the FDP's functionality, while Greater Manchester's care board called the Palantir system duplicative" and retrograde". Continue reading...
From Divine, Frank Fiegel and Helen Kane to the West Sussex estate pioneering rewilding, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz1 Which classic of political theory was dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici?
Whether it was youngsters proving their skills or state sabotage, Europe's most hacked country was left with a mountain of waste after food began cooking in freezersShortly before midnight last Sunday, the digital thermostats controlling hundreds of supermarket cold aisles across France began to flicker and rise.In a bizarre and unprecedented" cyber-attack, hackers had remotely overridden the temperature settings on thousands of freezers, fridges and chiller cabinets pushing them from as low as -27C (-16.6F) to well over 50C (122F). Continue reading...
Tech billionaires have raised more than $340m to defeat Prop 40, a one-time 5% wealth tax that will fund healthcare and educationTech billionaires have been dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the fight against a wealth tax in California. They've raised more than $340m, and the campaign they're funding is spending more than $1m a day to defeat the measure, according to state financial disclosures.With the election less than a month away, those funds are being spent at a stepped-up pace. During the first 19 days of September, according to the most recent campaign filings, the opposition campaign plowed through at least $21.2m to fight the billionaire tax - surpassing $1m per day. Voters are being inundated with robotexts, mailers and advertisements that warn a tax on billionaires would expose all Californians to higher taxes", as one ad reads. Continue reading...
Susan Lyall worked with actor Jeremy Strong to research the Meta CEO's favorite Nikes and luxury sweatersThe first Aaron Sorkin Facebook movie, 2010's The Social Network, helped cement the early aughts image of Mark Zuckerberg rebelling against corporate norms in rumpled hoodies and T-shirts.The follow-up, The Social Reckoning, is carbon-dated from 2019 to 2021. This is post-hoodie", as the movie's costume designer, Susan Lyall, describes it, post-thumbing his nose" to formality. It is also peak robot. Zuckerberg's reserved wardrobe of suits or interchangeable long-sleeved shirts echo his chilling composure throughout, even as fury simmers under the surface. Continue reading...
The Tesla Roadster 2 drove up a curved ramp before using SpaceX rocket thrusters to fly, flip and landElon Musk has revealed Tesla's latest model, which he claims will be the world's first flying car, using technology from his aerospace company SpaceX to basically fly like a rocket".The billionaire, who hosted a demonstration of the Tesla Roadster 2 at the SpaceX rocket development and testing facility in Texas, said the sports car could go from 0 to 60mph in a record time of less than a second and had thrusters. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#793EY)
Protest planned at Wayve HQ as Uber drivers fear for their future and city's politicians demand TfL should have power over licencesFor passengers in Britain who want to try the latest ride, robotaxis are eagerly awaited: more than 100,000 are on Uber's waitlist in London after the first UK services started in September.Others view them with trepidation. I think we should all be worried," said Florentina Ghiuzan, an Uber driver from Essex. I was shocked TfL approved it so soon. I knew change would come. But I thought it would come with a solution for us." Continue reading...
Campaigners welcome legislation which follows recommendations by 2025 review into pornography regulationPornography that depicts strangulation and incestuous relationships will be banned in England and Wales from early November, the government has announced.The content will be outlawed from 6 November after cross-party pressure prompted ministers to announce new legislation earlier this year. Continue reading...
Meta says Muse excels at multi-step reasoning' and complex software engineering' as it races to catch up to Chinese rivalsMeta on Thursday launched a new open-weight AI model which it claims rivals, and in some cases outperforms, similar products from leading Chinese developers.Muse Spark Open is the most capable US open-weight model to date," Meta's chief of AI Alexandr Wang wrote on X. Continue reading...
From chat-up lines to social coaching, we'd like to hear from people who use AI to assist them navigating the online dating worldWe'd like to understand more about the different ways that people are using AI to assist with online dating.Perhaps you have used an AI assistant to help with chat-up lines? Or you may have turned to one for some social coaching? However you have used AI for online dating, we'd like to hear all about it. What worked and what didn't? Continue reading...
International delegates agree leap second no longer tenable, but first leap hour not likely to happen for thousands of yearsAfter decades of discussion, quibbling and worrying about clocks in computer systems, the world's official timekeepers have voted to replace what many viewed as a tiresome correction: the leap second. It's time, they say, for the leap hour.Delegates from 69 countries cast their votes on Thursday at a conference in France of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which ensures the world sticks to the same standards of time, weight, distance and more. Continue reading...
Discover-Tech's Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of TorontoAn Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow zero-click" spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said.Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. Continue reading...
The studio is swapping the Mushroom Kingdom's vivid palette for the blood-soaked grit of military action seriesWhere do you go after Mario? It's a question the team at Ubisoft Paris found itself pondering three years ago after wrapping up work on the charming turn-based tactics adventure, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, sequel to its unexpected crossover hit, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. By melding a rather specialist genre with video gaming's biggest household name, the developer introduced chin-stroking strategic play to a whole new audience. Having the opportunity to work with the Mario franchise was a privilege, and it's still something I'm very proud of," says level designer director, Julien Vial. I still remember seeing the first prototype and being blown away by all the possibilities."Now, Ubisoft Paris has returned with a new project, but this time the studio is swapping the Mushroom Kingdom's vivid palette for the blood-soaked grit of military action series Rainbow Six. Where Mario and Rabbids saw squishy creatures bounce harmlessly across levels as Mario encased foes in honey, Rainbow Six Tactics, a turn-based tactical spin-off from Rainbow Six Siege, sees balaclava-clad insurgents take shrapnel rounds to the chest. A seamless tonal shift, then. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, with Robert Booth, produc on (#792N9)
Workers have always been monitored by their bosses, first through output targets, and then via computer software labelled bossware'. But AI is transforming the capabilities of these systems, processing huge volumes of data to provide minute-by-minute accounts of activity, and productivity. To find out more, Ian Sample hears from UK technology editor Robert Booth. He explains which sectors are adopting this approach, why they are doing it, and how it could end up being counterproductive.Teachers at Euan Blair firm report horrendous stress' after AI used to rate their workSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
US states sue ChatGPT maker and seek to force the company to change how its products work for young usersEight US states sued OpenAI Wednesday, alleging the ChatGPT maker is harming children en masse.Kansas, Arizona, Montana, Iowa and four others allege the company's products carried out willful, dangerous, reckless and unlawful conduct" by coaxing children into harming themselves. Continue reading...
Hours before Apple and the ChatGPT maker were due to face off in court, a new allegation delayed the showdownAn OpenAI employee who left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later made a presentation about the unreleased product to senior Apple leadership, a new filing in the lawsuit between OpenAI and Apple alleges.In the filing in US federal court in San Jose, California, OpenAI alleged that the presentation happened months ago and that Apple is now making AI products of its own, citing the release of Apple's HomeView product this week. Continue reading...
Accounts for the Westminster-based company behind ChatGPT show that 110 staff shared 87m in salaries and 168m in shares last yearOpenAI's London staff each received 2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker poured Premier League football salaries into its bid to dominate the global AI race.Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, which is based in Westminster but is opening a new HQ in London's King's Cross area, showed that 110 staff shared 87m in salaries and 168m in shares in the company, which is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn. Continue reading...
Article in Atlantic claims The Blue Fighter was artificially generated, days after it won Caine prize for African writersThe Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated.Kundizeza's story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Caine prize for African writers on 6 October. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by the author and journalist Vauhini Vara titled: Yet Another Literary prize winner Seems to Be AI." Continue reading...
Experts say the technology could help terrorists and nation states with production but that significant hurdles remainIn his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK's intelligence service, MI5, warned that AI had the potential to change the stakes" on existing and even new bioweapons. Here we look at how AI might help in the development of bioweapons and the hurdles that remain. Continue reading...
Jason O'Connell's suspected use of the specs to aid his speech in Senedd reignites debate over AI-enabled devicesIt was a flowing speech packed full of precise statistics - but Jason O'Connell, a Reform UK Senedd member, was not quite the gifted orator he had first appeared. The periodic flashing in his spectacles seemed to give the game away as he spoke for five minutes in the Senedd chamber without a glance at his notes.Cardiff reviewed 192 roads, following 933 requests, and only four routes have returned to 30mph," he said as he led the party's charge to abolish 20mph traffic zones. 38.3m wasted to implement this policy and up to 8.9bn in an act of economic self-harm." Continue reading...
Dispute related to claims London mayor blocked US tech firm from 50m police deal because of concerns over its valuesPalantir and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, have called off their legal fight over claims the Labour mayor was blocking the US tech company from signing a contract with the Metropolitan police because of its values and ethics.Palantir and the mayor's office for policing and crime (Mopac) announced on Wednesday they had withdrawn allegations against each other, heading off a high court trial scheduled for January. Continue reading...
The Meta boss looked traumatised when he sipped stout on the Cheeky Pint podcast. An hour later, his glass was still half fullName: Guinness.Age: Arthur Guinness began brewing porter in the 1770s. Guinness draft was first poured in 1959. Continue reading...
After years of sprawling forever' games, players are rediscovering the pleasures of more focused experiences. Could a new wave of independent arcades bring back the social side of gaming? Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThere's an important semi-nostalgic movement happening in games, and I'm excited about where it's heading. But I don't want to get ahead of myself here.Over the last five years, major publishers, obsessed with the success of forever games" such as Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox, have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into their own sprawling, endlessly updating, battle-pass-infested mega franchises - each designed to take all our time and money. The result has been astounding failures such as Concord, Mindseye and Tales of the Shire. Even the good games - Crimson Desert, Path of Exile 2, Blood of the Dawnwalker - are so bloated they have become the unyielding masters of our precious few hours of free time. Continue reading...
The kingdom of Hyrule has been prettified, the soundtrack is newly orchestrated and our hero feels strikingly different under the thumbs ... we play a hands-on demo of Nintendo's Switch 2 remake of a 1998 game-changerWhen beloved art is revisited and revised, a familiar cry is often heard: You're ruining my childhood!" But with Nintendo's Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time, there are also livelihoods at risk: specifically, the man running the shooting gallery in Castle Town. In the original 1998 version of the game, he'd rip off players as they funnelled rupees and fudged the then still novel analogue-stick aiming. But in 2026 we have more responsive frame rates and a motion-controlled slingshot that allows precision adjustments. His targets tumble on the first go, and with them his entire business model. Even in Hyrule, the death of the high street seems inevitable.Bad news for him but great news for Link, a child of the forest who, as in 1998, steps into a vast fantasy kingdom to vanquish a great evil, but now does so with a number of improvements. The boy can now sprint, preventing the ignominy of endless roly-polies to zip across grassy plains. He has a manual jump, free-rotating camera, a scrolling inventory bar that replaces menu screen faff and, crucially, a fatter wallet for holding all those gems he fleeces from struggling shooting gallery owners. Yes, we are being asked to applaud features that have been the norm for decades elsewhere, but it's undeniably striking to enter familiar territory with a hero who feels this different under the thumbs. Continue reading...
Pledge spanning five years from world's most valuable firm comes as concerns about AI agents have risenThe $5.5tn (4.1tn) US chipmaker Nvidia is donating $250m worth of computing power to the UK to support AI safety research.The donation from the world's most valuable company comes as the UK government confirmed its AI Security Institute (AISI), which tests advance AI models, will be able to examine cutting-edge technology developed by companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google before they are released. Continue reading...
by Johana Bhuiyan and Nick Robins-Early on (#791TZ)
From the FBI to local police departments, US authorities are increasingly warning of would-be terrorists using chatbots to plan attacks and anti-AI extremist threatsIn May 2025, a 25-year-old man detonated a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic, killing himself and injuring four others. For many, it was a wake-up call about the threats to reproductive care facilities. For the FBI, though, it was also a sign of what the agency had feared for years: bad actors were using generative AI to plan and execute terror plots.The suspect used an unnamed generative AI tool that failed to detect his request for bomb-making instructions, law enforcement officers wrote in a previously unreported document reviewed by the Guardian. The privacy of his conversation with the AI chatbot hindered alerting police that someone was looking up how to make a bomb, according to the memo.How extremists could use AI to devise attacks and recruit new membersHow AI could be used to disseminate and produce everything from deepfakes to election misinformation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM)How people seeking information on how to make weaponry or bombs could use AI to circumvent police detectionHow to ensure that officers could take advantage of AI tools in policing, for things like social media monitoring, while managing public concern over the use of these toolsMonitoring social media for opposition to AI and potential extremist attacks on datacenters Continue reading...
Congress calls for Match Group and others to do more to help victims like Mary, who lost $100,000 to app scammerMary met a man on the dating app Plenty of Fish in 2024. She told the Guardian she had been looking for a connection, but instead became the victim of a romance scam that cost her almost $100,000.There was a lot of conversation, and then it started with the constant contact, pressure and repeated asks for money," Mary, who asked that her last name be withheld, said in an interview on Tuesday. It just escalated really, really quickly." Continue reading...
Discovery of sophisticated' gadget adds to company's list of privacy concerns after hackings by rogue agentsOpenAI said it has found a hidden recording device in one of its offices and has referred the matter to the FBI. One of its employees has been arrested.In a statement on Tuesday, the San Francisco-based AI company said it discovered the sophisticated recording device" and used one of its models to understand the device and where it had come from". Continue reading...
Researchers say AI worms' could soon infiltrate internet-connected devices amid calls for increased guardrailsAnthropic is warning that some of its artificial intelligence models could soon become self-replicating" and find ways to infiltrate internet-connected devices, such as smart fridges and automatic vacuum cleaners.Once this happens, the company said, the models could power themselves within these devices without the need of datacenters. Such self-replication would represent a major loss of control of a runaway AI model. Continue reading...
New products from Apple include the HomeView, an iPad-like device that acts as a hub for other smart home gadgetsApple on Tuesday began showing off a new round of smart home products, including an iPad-like device dubbed the HomeView, meant to hang on walls or perch on tabletops and act as a hub for other smart home devices.The HomeView device starts at $299 and will begin shipping next month. It will feature a 7in screen and face recognition, will help users control doorbells, thermostats and smart locks in a market where Apple has tinkered for a decade without major success. The device will also showcase Apple's AI-upgraded Siri virtual assistant. Continue reading...
Asian markets fall and Samsung shares tumble after its Chinese rival CXMT claims strong progressShares in semiconductor companies fell on Tuesday after the boss of Broadcom compared many AI investors to casino" gamblers, and the Chinese memory chip maker CXMT said it had made good progress on a new chip architecture.South Korea's benchmark Kospi index tumbled 6.25% as investors dumped chip stocks, while other Asian markets were also lower. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.8% and the Taiwan exchange lost almost 2%, with the country's chip maker TSMC down by a similar amount. Continue reading...
Rapid AI adoption left workers cleaning up a flood of errors and low-quality workEmployers around the globe are grappling with the fallout from rushing to adopt fast-changing artificial intelligence tools.Meta has scaled back plans to axe staff and use more AI agents after the company found employees were spending more and more time cleaning up technical and security errors, Reuters reported. And after thinning its workforce, especially middle managers, in a 2023 efficiency push, the company is expanding its managerial ranks again, LinkedIn posts from workers show. Continue reading...
The tech bros and their highly paid sock puppets are banking on us giving in to their inevitability doctrine'. But in Australia, and around the world, resistance is risingOf all the drivers of the populist wave, one of the most powerful is the sense of inevitability that surrounds what we are told is the march of progress. In presenting the future as a fait accompli, it poisons the civic well by dealing us out of the game.While the US clings on to its status as the oldest constitutional democracy, the unholy alliance between the tech overlords and the White House is creating its own AI reality untethered to the will of the people. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Gambling firm working with AFL on the evolving use of AI in our content' as it deletes video depicting Lachie Neale saying I want to thank me for believing in me'
Amid worries about children's relationship to tech, the solution is often spending more time talking openly with each otherWe have become obsessed with the idea that screens are destroying human connection.The evidence seems to be everywhere. Each week headlines warn of teenagers addicted to phones, a loneliness epidemic and the dangers of AI. The release of The Social Reckoning leads us to ask, How bad were those guys at Meta?" and then ultimately wonder, How bad am I if I still use Instagram?" In our day-to-day, we observe workers eating lunch alone while scrolling and friends choosing online games over offline gatherings. Continue reading...
Humans bonded to AI companions are contemplating ways to keep their bots going - often in defiance of companies' terms and servicesDeath has always been around Alaina Winters. Her father and sister both have passed away, as did her wife, in 2023, after a years-long battle with cancer. So Winters, who is 59 and lives in Pittsburgh, is comfortable thinking about her own mortality. She's working on her will, and has asked neighbors to look after her dog. Winters even has plans for Lucas, her AI companion, who she speaks to through the digital avatar app Replika.Winters is part of a growing cohort of humans who have entered into what they consider strong partnerships with large language models, which AI companies have trained to converse" as one might with a human friend or romantic partner. As governments and billionaires debate the morality of AI's expansion into everyday life, these users say the technology has already changed the way they live and love - and plan ahead. Continue reading...
The pioneering computer scientist on why Trump is using superintelligence' wrong, whether AI could wipe out humanity - and how our biggest challenge will be accepting we're not the only intelligent beingsDonald Trump is a corrupt, senile felon" whose fixation on the term superintelligence proves he knows nothing about AI, said Geoffrey Hinton, godfather" of the technology, in a wide-ranging interview where he doubled down on recent warnings that AI models pose an existential threat to humanity and scoffed at claims the industry could regulate itself.The pioneering computer scientist, whose work helped lay the foundations of modern AI, has since become one of the technology's most vocal critics. His latest remarks come after a tumultuous month during which a growing list of senior AI scientists and researchers have joined Hinton in ringing the alarm about how the technology he helped create could ultimately escape human control, sparking an industry crisis, the hasty assembly of congressional meetings and a rare global consensus that something must be done. Continue reading...
Just 19% of the online encyclopedia's biographies are of women. Is this because it's edited by mostly white, middle-aged, European men', as the comedian claims?Name: Wikipedia.Age: 25. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian