Software giant reports $36.6bn in profit, beating Wall Street expectations, as Azure cloud computing division grows 48%Microsoft gained billions of dollars in stock market value on Wednesday afternoon after it reported better than expected revenue and profit, just days after it offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees.The office software giant's growth was fueled by its Azure cloud computing division, which grew by 48% in the September quarter. Continue reading...
by Oliver Milman with data visuals by Daniel Wolfe on (#79C7W)
Several Mississippi homes have been purchased near datacenters and one resident said realtor outlined target to buy more than 400People in a Mississippi neighborhood, many of whom dislike a nearby power plant central to Elon Musk's artificial intelligence ambitions, have received a stark offer - to sell their houses to his company and make way.Real estate agents have been going door to door in Southaven, Mississippi, on behalf of xAI, touting a deal to purchase houses as long as the owners agree to not join a lawsuit against the company over the power plant's noise. (Musk's AI company officially became SpaceXAI in July and has lately been rebranded as SpaceXSI but to neighbors of the datacenter in Mississippi, it remains xAI.) Continue reading...
They claim to reduce fine lines, blemishes and redness - but which stand up to scrutiny? After consulting dermatologists and putting them to the test, we have crowned a brand new number one The best anti-ageing creams, serums and treatmentsLED face masks are booming in popularity - despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products to hit the market. They claim to reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots and calm redness, with some even combining different types of light to enhance the benefits.However, it's wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I interviewed doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices work. Continue reading...
AI tools are making it easier to modify and recreate games, raising questions about piracy, copyright and how far the technology could disrupt the industry Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIf your social media algorithms have clocked that you're into video games, something strange will have happened in the past few weeks. Your feed, like mine, will have been full of clips of streamers playing bizarre mashups of popular video games. Skyrim in Minecraft. Halo, except the main character is Mario. Skate 2 in Call of Duty maps. A flood of professional-looking fan-coded game mods that are mildly interesting to look at for 30 seconds, but ultimately inconsequential. Would I download a mod that lets me play Wii Bowling inside a zombie shooter? No, but I am very interested in where they came from.Of course, the answer - or at least, most of the answer - is AI. After a week of researching this (thanks especially to Replay Mode on YouTube for this informative video, which set me down this track) I now understand that these mashup mods are not just AI-generated videos, but AI-assisted coding. Basically, as of a few weeks ago, Anthropic's Claude has become extremely good at decompiling video game code. Games are written by humans in readable code and then compiled into binary 1s and 0s that the PC or console running it can read; decompiling is the reversal of that process, revealing a game's source code, which humans can then edit and mess around with for fun. This used to be an extremely laborious process. But now it is not, because humans aren't doing much of it any more. Continue reading...
Billed as the first end-to-end AI-created series on a major streaming service, this Turkish show looks like the result of the prompt make it cinematic'Just as the world reels from Elon Musk's AI-powered The Odyssey remake - though remake" feels rather generous for a seven-minute splat of synthetic sludge - another bucket of AI gunk is dropped on to our faces. For Prime Video's AI-generated TV series Castle Walls, produced by Turkish production studio Ay Yapm using a melange of generative video tools, has arrived, billed as the first end-to-end AI-created series to premiere on a major streaming platform.It's certainly more epic than Musk's production, consisting of two 17-minute episodes. Set in the 11th century, the show revolves around the historic Alamut Castle, although it's entirely absent of any real sense of time or place. I was briefly intrigued by the opening images, with their bold palette of blues and mustard browns and yellows - but as soon as the people" appeared, looking like Vaseline-smeared Madame Tussauds creations slowly melting in the sun, everything came crashing down. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#79C63)
Three-quarters of all responses were machine-generated in failed attempt to stop bill from passing into law, research findsAI bots flooded a government consultation with tens of thousands of fake responses in a failed attempt to stop the UK's ban on disposable vapes.Three-quarters of all the responses to the 2023 consultation on the tobacco and vapes bill were machine-generated, in what is thought to be the first coordinated attempt to use AI to derail health policymaking in the UK. Continue reading...
Tesla tycoon launched Grok project after criticising Christoper Nolan's diverse casting for his Homeric blockbusterElon Musk has released an AI-generated rival to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey after pledging to make a version true to the art of Homer".Having criticised the hit movie in the summer, the tycoon said he would use Grok Imagine to make a historically accurate" adaptation. Continue reading...
It is hardly a shock that Grok AI's interpretation of Homer is as meaningless as a laptop screensaver. The only surprise would be if Musk accepted defeat graciously. Which he won'tThink back. Do you remember when Elon Musk, in a weird online tantrum, and without having seen the film, condemned the supposed wokery in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, for getting Elliot Page to play Sinon and Lupita Nyong'o to play Helen of Troy? As the plaudits and the box-office receipts for Nolan's Odyssey piled stratospherically up, Musk showed that being a good loser is not among his qualities. He petulantly exclaimed that he could do his own better and more authentic Odyssey on Grok AI. And now he has released the first online seven-minute episode" to a world that has long since forgotten about this claim and didn't care in the first place.In Musk's version, as the tale begins Odysseus is - off screen - pretending to be mad to avoid fighting in the Trojan war. Grim-faced Palamedes and Agamemnon are shown testing this ruse by taking his baby boy Telemachus and placing him in the harm's way of a plough in a field; Odysseus instantly rushes to save his child, showing that he isn't mad, and agrees to fight. We see him join the armada, with Penelope and Telemachus (soon to grow to a little boy) left behind. This, effectively, is a prologue sequence that is not in Nolan. The expeditionary force arrives at Troy, and an intertitle tells us we have cut to a 10-years-later flashforward; the siege is about to escalate into the fake-horse attack. Continue reading...
Both private and public schools in tech regions are limiting the use of tech in classrooms. But will low-income districts be able to follow suit?German Gil spends most of his waking hours looking at screens. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015, the software engineer has bounced between startups and giants including Netflix, Facebook and GitHub.But when it came to the education of his daughter, Victoria, he wanted her to have a different experience, one in which his kid could be a kid". Continue reading...
Social media companies including Meta have pulled back on efforts to protect voters from election-meddling liesSocial media feeds are awash with an unprecedented flood of AI-driven disinformation ahead of November's US midterm elections, according to experts, who warn many posts are probably slipping through the cracks".As tens of millions of Americans prepare to cast their vote, social media companies have scaled back their efforts to protect voters from lies meant to manipulate elections. Continue reading...
Whether you favour spooky fairtales, satanic card games or infernal hijinks at the chip shop there are all manner of fresh top scarers at large this witching seasonTis almost All Hallows' Eve and naturally, the thoughts of all good video game players are turning to horror. 2026 has already been a bloody good year for the genre with Resident Evil Requiem and Silent Hill: Townfall leading the rabble. But this autumn sees a festering surge of indie horror releases, featuring everything from cursed card games to Nazi-hunting penguins. Here are eight terrifying titles we think you should sample while jack-o-lanterns burn and spirits walk the moonlit streets.Allogloom (PC) Continue reading...
by Aisha Down Global technology reporter on (#79B9H)
Investigation finds dozens of ministers and civil servants moved into AI roles as government developed datacentre expansion plansThe UK's policy on datacentres and AI was developed without any meetings with environmental groups, an investigation has found.The nonprofit organisation Spotlight on Corruption said a considerable revolving door" shaped the government's development of AI growth zones", a central plank of the former prime minister Keir Starmer's AI and economic policy, with 38 ministers, senior civil servants and special advisers hired to positions in AI companies between July 2024 and September 2026. Continue reading...
Lack of profits and the threat posed by western countries are raising concern about the sustainability of Beijing's AI boomTrillions of dollars have been wiped from China's stock markets in recent months amid increasing anxiety about the future of artificial intelligence, as Beijing races against the United States for dominance in the sector.The STAR 50 Index, which tracks technology and innovation companies on the Shanghai stock exchange, has plunged 40% since June. Other indexes of major companies dropped by about 20% over the same time period. Continue reading...
Tasks from determining asylum seekers' ages to border surveillance now involve AI, says Open Rights GroupAI has been embedded across the Home Office in near-total secrecy, reinforcing the so-called hostile environment for immigration, according to research.Tasks from the detection of potential sham marriages to determining the age of asylum seekers and checking through the contents of phones of new arrivals now involve use of the technology, according to a report by Open Rights Group (ORG). Continue reading...
Tech firm announces two-part fundraising after Elon Musk warns hundreds of AI startups face collapseMark Zuckerberg's Meta has announced plans for $95bn (71bn) of fundraising to cover its AI expenditure, even as Elon Musk warned that funding for smaller players in the sector was drying up.The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is a leading investor in AI and is ploughing multibillion-dollar sums into datacentres, the central nervous systems of the technology. Continue reading...
Company says small number of devices affected by display glitch after posts appear on Reddit and social mediaOwners of the new foldable iPhone are reporting cracks in the device's screen, as Apple confirmed an issue with a small number" of units.Reports of cracks have emerged on Reddit and social media platforms since the handset went on general sale globally on Friday. Experts said there had been too few examples to determine whether there was a more serious problem with Apple's first foldable device, which retails from $1,999 (1,499). Continue reading...
Tech company offers buyouts in an effort to reduce costs amid the rising use of AI, according to reportsMicrosoft announced that it would offer buyouts to 60,000 employees in an effort to reduce costs amid the rising use of artificial intelligence, according to reports, the latest example of how AI is reshaping tech companies and the greater workforce.This is the latest of several trimmings Microsoft has made to its workforce this year. The company announced in April that it was offering voluntary retirement to about 7% of its US workforce, which consisted of about 125,000 employees at the time. Its global workforce is made up of about 223,000 workers globally. Continue reading...
by Blake Montgomery and Johana Bhuiyan on (#79AR9)
Market debut of firm behind Claude chatbot will be one of largest in US history, a test of AI boom's financial viabilityAnthropic has publicly filed for a stock market listing in what is slated to be one of the largest debuts in history. The company's float on the US market will serve as a test of the financial viability of the multitrillion-dollar AI boom.Analysts and investors have valued the San Francisco-based company, founded in 2021, at more than $1.5tn. The company, which will will list under the symbol ANT, confidentially filed with US financial regulators for an initial public offering in June. Continue reading...
Company imitates reflection of sun from mirrors, prompting pushback from some scientists, environmentalists and California localsLocals in a rural area of California were recently startled to see dazzlingly bright light shining down from nearby mountains at night, illuminating a swathe of the desert below.Unbeknown to them, the strange nocturnal illumination was the latest step in a company's plan to erect thousands of giant mirrors in space to reflect sunlight on to the Earth during night-time. Continue reading...
Authentic Brands Group says AI company infringed on rights of songs by the King such as Can't Help Falling in LoveThe owners of Elvis Presley's music catalogue are suing the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic for allegedly using Presley's songs to train their models without permission.Authentic Brands Group, the licensing organization that has ownership of both Presley's music and likeness, is accusing Anthropic of infringing on the rights of 274 songs by Presley. The lawsuit, first reported by Billboard, was filed on Friday. Continue reading...
Actor's storylines in the famous soap will be recut into vertical micro-episodes to be watched on phones - but her fellow cast members say they haven't been consultedThe long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours is being recut with AI into a microdrama designed to be watched on phones, sparking a debate among the show's actors and the industry over the wider implications of television archives being mined for new content.RoseBerry Media, which specialises in making vertical television" for phones, has repurposed original episodes of Neighbours for distribution on its Epis platform, using an AI-assisted production tool called RedSnapper. Continue reading...
We all know the highlights of the tomb raider's storied career - but what about the lowlights? We dig deep to unearth the archaeologist's less glorious momentsHappy birthday, Lara! This month marks 30 years since Ms Croft first swan-dived into our lives with her unique blend of athletic prowess, archaeological expertise and giant knockers. More than 100 million Tomb Raider games have been sold since. We all remember the good times: the bold design and sheer playability of the original titles; the establishment of Lara as a 90s icon, embodying both lads' mag culture and girl power; the way she made games cool, even appearing on the cover of the Face. We've had blockbuster movies, big budget reboots, and shiny reissues. And who could forget the time we got to powerwash her house?But no one gets to 30 without a few skeletons in the closet - or in Lara's case, butlers in the freezer. So here's a look at the darker parts of her past. Continue reading...
Session cookies' are a primary target for hackers letting them hijack and use your accountsYou've had a busy morning of life admin, logging into various accounts to check balances and make payments. At the end of a productive few hours you close your laptop and move on to your next job.What you don't know is that fraudsters have hijacked your session with the bank and are now able to access your account. You are the victim of cookie theft, which belongs to a type of fraud known as session hijacking". Continue reading...
The AI boom is pitting local residents against corporate giants seeking to power their energy-hungry networks - but one Welsh city is fighting backDale Johnston opens the gate to his neat suburban garden on the western fringes of Newport in South Wales. There's a trampoline and a slide on the lawn for his grandchildren, and chairs for him and his wife. He should be enjoying the light draining from the perfect autumnal sky - but almost his entire view is blotted out by a vast expanse of prefabricated panels.The 23 metre-high grey hulk looming over him and his neighbours is a hyperscale datacentre. It is heralded by the area's Labour politicians as a job creator, yet all Johnston can think about is what he has lost: Before, the sun used to come around here and it was lovely." The way residents have been treated is disgusting". Continue reading...
BBC series deliberately uses more organic' shots to assure viewers animals are not AI-generated, producers sayThe David Attenborough-narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and assure viewers it is authentic", its producers have said.Nearly a decade after Blue Planet II shone a light on plastic pollution, and 25 years since the first Blue Planet aired, the hit BBC series is returning with more animal behaviour and cutting-edge technology, including the world's first underwater CCTV camera - dubbed stonefish" cam. Continue reading...
Video shows AI likenesses of people linked to Pedro Sanchez's Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoingA political ad from Spain's main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister's wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised country gears up for general elections next month.Launched this week across the social media channels of the conservative People's party (PP), the video used artificial intelligence to manipulate the likenesses of various people linked to Pedro Sanchez's Socialist party and appeared to show them admitting to acts such as soliciting prostitutes and taking kickbacks. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent on (#79952)
Chancellor says government to commit hundreds of millions to develop distinctively British' approach to AIJohn Healey has pledged to use Wednesday's budget to harness the power of artificial intelligence to bolster Britain's security and prosperity against the risks in the accelerating global technology arms race.As he prepares for his debut budget, the chancellor said that Andy Burnham's government would commit hundreds of millions of pounds to develop a distinctively British" approach to AI that would capitalise on the benefits of the frontier technology. Continue reading...
After discovery of severe bug in the PHP programming language, executives warn of vulnerability tsunami'Leaders in cybersecurity are sounding the alarm after the discovery of a major vulnerability this week. They are predicting that artificial intelligence tools will expose more fundamental weaknesses in global internet infrastructure in the months to come.I no longer think we're going to be able to patch all bugs," said Sam Altman on Thursday evening, joining the chorus of executives. In the midst of what's being called Black October", for which researchers used AI to help identify critical flaws in a coding language that is used across millions of websites and may have been unpatched for years, tech executives are warning about the ways AI will be used both to identify and exploit security vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale and pace. Continue reading...
The closure of the studio responsible for some of the best games of the 21st century leaves the world of RPGs feeling smaller without the hope of another instalment of the much-loved sci-fi seriesEarlier this week, EA announced the closure of BioWare, a game studio with a 30-year history of compelling role-playing games, complex characters and bold, choice-driven narratives. Its forthcoming game in the Mass Effect sci-fi series has been cancelled, and more than 400 people are losing their jobs. As someone who has worked in the video games industry for 15 years and spent almost 20 as a BioWare fan, I am among millions of mourners today.It's not terribly hard to see why BioWare got the chop. Its parent company has been saddled with $20bn of debt thanks to a recent leveraged buyout involving Jared Kushner and the Saudi wealth fund. EA was looking for weight to cut loose, and despite its hardcore fanbase and reputation for genre-defining RPGs such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age, BioWare hadn't put out a critical or commercial hit in over 10 years. Its forthcoming game, titled Mass Effect: Universe according to a leaked trailer, was announced back in 2020. Despite some flashy teases, it was still years away from release. Continue reading...
Anthropic claims AI will shift how work gets done and labor demand - but some experts are skeptical of the visionLast year, the Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, warned that artificial intelligence could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs and that in six months it would be writing 90% of code. Neither of those predictions came to pass.Now, in a report Anthropic published on Thursday, the company said it was hiring fewer junior technical workers and that human attention has become the new bottleneck" as it increasingly relies on its Claude AI agents. Continue reading...
by Andrew Lawrence and photographs by Jordan Putt in on (#798GQ)
People under 35 are hunting for no-frills rides they can pay for in cash and fix themselves - defying expectations to take on steep loansJack Price joined the marines in fall 2021 knowing he would need a car to get around base and that he couldn't afford a new one. A joyless, month-long search through dealer classifieds and Facebook Marketplace listings ended when his mother spotted a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta posted on her office listserv by a co-worker moving abroad. With just 60,000 miles (96,560km) on the meter, the car (a manual!) was mechanically sound, and the air conditioning, sunroof and Bluetooth radio worked too. At $6,000, it was a steal. Price paid in cash.Five years on, the Jetta, which he called the Pewter Pebble, is still carting him from A to B in unassuming style. I've completely driven it into the ground," says the 30-year-old, who lives in Los Angeles. All over bases, cross-country a couple times, not really lovingly. I get so much crap from people, but not people my age." Continue reading...
An old idea springs anew as a chorus of influential voices predicts that AI may trigger crises of vast magnitudeIn a preface to his book Capitalism and Freedom, the American economist Milton Friedman famously observed that a crisis can propel once-fringe ideas into the political mainstream.Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around," he wrote. The job of intellectuals, thinktanks and economists, he argued, is to refine the quality of these ambient ideas, so that good ones are ready when disaster strikes. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#798B5)
Biggest Apple smartwatch gets better health tracking and new readiness tools with a battery and chip boost in preparation for controversial audio AIAs the Ultra enters its fourth year as Apple's biggest and beefiest smartwatch it gets the best kind of spec upgrade - longer battery life - while waiting for something potentially more transformative.That's because several of the key features announced as part of Apple's new smartwatch lineup for 2026 have yet to be enabled, awaiting updates towards the end of this year. That leaves the 749 (899/$799/A$1,349) Apple Watch Ultra 4 the top dog, but basically the same as last year's model.Case size: 49 x 44mmCase thickness: 12mmWeight: 63gProcessor: S11Storage: 64GBOperating system: watchOS 27Water resistance: 100 metres (10ATM)Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, 5G RedCap/4G, UWBSensors: HR, ECG, spO2, temp, depth, dual-band GPS, compass, altimeter Continue reading...
Datacenter and chip costs fueled sharp decrease in AI sector although non-AI stocks still had a strong showingThe latest shudder for stocks in the AI industry pulled markets lower worldwide on Thursday, while oil prices hit their highest levels since May on worries about the war with Iran.The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for its worst day since July, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6%. The weakness for tech stocks was so overwhelming that it masked strength for the rest of the US market, in which the majority of stocks actually rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 11 points, or less than 0.1%. Continue reading...
PM will also announce funding for specialised protective gear and the deployment of military aircraftThe UK government is to create an AI Cobra unit to spot wildfires after this year's record-breaking summer saw devastating blazes across the country.The country experienced its hottest-ever summer this year, with prolonged dry periods and extreme heat fuelling wildfires that triggered an emergency alert to mobile phones in England and Wales. Figures released on 8 October showed a clear upward trend in the number of fires recorded each year. Continue reading...
Chief executive agrees to remain in California for eight years even if state brings in one-off 5% wealth taxMeta has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to help him foot a possible California wealth tax targeting billionaires.The social media company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp revealed on Wednesday night that the arrangement would keep its chief executive living in California, where Meta's headquarters are located. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#797EZ)
Equating to the loss of 5% of its 93,000 global staff, job cuts come as bank announces jump in quarterly profitsBarclays is cutting 5,000 jobs as part of wider cost-saving plans that its bosses say are being driven by advances in AI.The job cuts will mean losing about 5% of the bank's 93,000 global staff, with executives confirming they had already cut 1,000 workers since the start of the year. Continue reading...
The Audacity is a fearless satire taking on Silicon Valley's egomaniac weirdos'. Its creator and stars talk ayahuasca ceremonies, mining kids for data - and punching CEOsShowrunner Jonathan Glatzer wanted the tagline of his latest TV creation to be: We're so fucked." He laughs. Sadly it got rejected by the network. Hey, maybe I can use it for season two!" The show in question is The Audacity, his darkly comic drama about AI tech titans. Instead, it went with the more PG tagline Move fast and break people" - a twist on Move fast and break things", the Facebook motto coined by Mark Zuckerberg. The Audacity promises to do for tech bros what Succession did for legacy media. Considering Glatzer is a former writer on Succession, that is no empty threat.This acerbic and all-too-timely Silicon Valley satire follows CEO Duncan Park (played by Billy Magnussen), the obscenely wealthy founder of a data analytics company. He's a self-proclaimed inventor of the future" who also happens to be a morally bankrupt man-baby. Duncan is worth about half a billion," says Glatzer. Naturally, that's not enough. He desperately wants to be a billionaire and ascend to what we call God Mountain'. But he's no God." Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay , with Blake Montgom on (#797M4)
You Can See Everything, a documentary about the disgraced biotech company founder Elizabeth Holmes, has enjoyed a record-breaking opening in the US. It is a testament to how fascinated we remain by the convicted fraudster, but what is behind the enduring appeal? US technology editor Blake Montgomery tells Madeleine Finlay why Holmes continues to fascinate us, and reflects on whether the Theranos scandal has had a permanent impact on Silicon Valley Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian