Advocates are fighting against the $16.7bn global smart-toy market, decrying surveillance and a lack of regulationAs the holiday season looms into view with Black Friday, one category on people's gift lists is causing increasing concern: products with artificial intelligence.The development has raised new concerns about the dangers smart toys could pose to children, as consumer advocacy groups say AI could harm kids' safety and development. The trend has prompted calls for increased testing of such products and governmental oversight. Continue reading...
It's always crushing when a wildly anticipated game turns out to be a dud, but this RPG's awful story and clunky dialogue gave my son and I something to talk aboutIt was an exciting November for the Diamond household: one of those rare games that we all loved had a sequel coming out! The original Outer Worlds dazzled our eyeballs with its art nouveau palette and charmed our ears with witty dialogue, sucking us into a classic mystery-unravelling story in one of my favourite little man versus evil corporate overlords" worlds since Deus Ex. It didn't have the most original combat, but that didn't matter: it was obviously a labour of love from a team totally invested in the telling of this tale, and we all fell under its spell.Well, when I say all of us, I mean myself and the three kids. My wife did not play The Outer Worlds, because none of those worlds featured Crash Bandicoot. But the rest of us dug it, and the kids particularly enjoyed that I flounced away from the final boss battle after half a day of trying, declaring that I had pretty much completed the game and that was good enough for a dad with other things to do. Continue reading...
As navies seek to counter submarines and protect cables, startups and big defence companies fight to lead marketFlying drones used during the Ukraine war have changed land battle tactics for ever. Now the same thing appears to be happening under the sea.Navies around the world are racing to add autonomous submarines. The UK's Royal Navy is planning a fleet of underwater uncrewed vehicles (UUVs) which will, for the first time, take a leading role in tracking submarines and protecting undersea cables and pipelines. Australia has committed to spending $1.7bn (1.3bn) on Ghost Shark" submarines to counter Chinese submarines. The huge US Navy is spending billions on several UUV projects, including one already in use that can be launched from nuclear submarines. Continue reading...
Harms include threats to release intimate pictures as charity warns against parents sharing photos or details of children onlineNearly one in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, with harms ranging from threatening to release intimate pictures to revealing details about someone's personal life.The NSPCC child protection charity also found that one in five parents know a child who has experienced online blackmail, while two in five said they rarely or never talked to their children about the subject. Continue reading...
Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three yearsSmall changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found.A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk's social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side. Continue reading...
Amazon Web Services owns the basic infrastructure for other businesses to operate online, turning even governments into its serfs. But now some people are fighting backFor the past six years, every Black Friday - that made-up carnival of consumption - Amazon workers and their allies have mobilised across the world in coordinated strikes and protests. At first glance, these disputes look like the standard struggle between a giant capitalist employer and the people who keep it running. But Amazon is no ordinary corporation. It is the clearest expression of what I call technofeudalism: a new economic order in which platforms behave like lords owning the fiefs that have replaced markets.To appreciate Amazon's extraordinary power, we must recall the system it is helping to bury. Capitalism relied on markets and profit. Firms invested in productive capital, hired workers, produced commodities and lived or died by profit and loss. But the emerging order is one in which the most powerful capitalist firms have exited that market altogether. They own the digital infrastructure that everyone else must use to trade, work, communicate and live.Yanis Varoufakis is the leader of MeRA25 and the author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism Continue reading...
Tech is on its last legs? Refurbished can be the cheaper, greener option. Here's how to choose well and avoid the pitfalls How to shop smart this Black Friday
A new feature on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter allows users to see the location of other accounts. It has resulted in a firestorm of recriminationsWhen X rolled out a new feature revealing the locations of popular accounts, the company was acting to boost transparency and clamp down on disinformation. The result, however, has been a circular firing squad of recriminations, as users turn on each other enraged by the revelation that dozens of popular America first" and pro-Trump accounts originated overseas.The new feature was enabled over the weekend by X's head of product, Nikita Bier, who called it the first step in securing the integrity of the global town square." Since then many high-engagement accounts that post incessantly about US politics have been unmasked" by fellow users. Continue reading...
Kensington and Westminster councils investigating whether data has been compromised as Hammersmith and Fulham also reports hackThree London councils have reported a cyber-attack, prompting the rollout of emergency plans and the involvement of the National Crime Agency (NCA) as they investigate whether any data has been compromised.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), and Westminster city council, which share some IT infrastructure, said a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines. The councils shut down several computerised systems as a precaution to limit further possible damage. Continue reading...
MEPs pass resolution to help parents tackle growing dangers of addictive internet platformsChildren under 16 should be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise, the European parliament says.MEPs passed a resolution on age restrictions on Wednesday by a large majority. Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about the mental health risks to children of unfettered internet access. Continue reading...
OpenAI responds to lawsuit claiming its chatbot encouraged California teenager to kill himselfThe maker of ChatGPT has said the suicide of a 16-year-old was down to his misuse" of its system and was not caused" by the chatbot.The comments came in OpenAI's response to a lawsuit filed against the San Francisco company and its chief executive, Sam Altman, by the family of California teenager Adam Raine. Continue reading...
Two decades on, its influence still lingers, marking a moment when gaming felt thrillingly new again Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAlmost 20 years ago (on 1 December 2005, to be precise), I was at my very first video game console launch party somewhere around London's Leicester Square. The Xbox 360 arrived on 22 November 2005 in the US and 2 December in the UK, about three months after I got my first job as a junior staff writer on GamesTM magazine. My memories of the night are hazy because a) it was a worryingly long time ago and b) there was a free bar, but I do remember that DJ Yoda played to a tragically deserted dancefloor, and everything was very green. My memories of the console itself, however, and the games I played on it, are still as clear as an Xbox Crystal. It is up there with the greatest consoles ever.In 2001, the first Xbox had muscled in on a scene dominated by Japanese consoles, upsetting the established order (it outsold Nintendo's GameCube by a couple of million) and dragging console gaming into the online era with Xbox Live, an online multiplayer service that was leagues ahead of what the PlayStation 2 was doing. Nonetheless, the PS2 ended up selling over 150m to the original Xbox's 25m. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, would sell over 80m, neck and neck with the PlayStation 3 for most of its eight-year life cycle (and well ahead in the US). It turned Xbox from an upstart into a market leader. Continue reading...
Whether you want to bolster your home's security or simply make sure you know who's at the door, the latest generation of smart doorbells will help put your mind at ease The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust freeDoorbells have evolved. Today, they watch us as we approach, let the people inside the home know we're coming sooner than our finger can hit the button, and give them a good look at our faces before they open the door. They're essentially security cameras with a chime function.If you haven't already installed one of these handy tools, there's a huge array available. Choosing the best video doorbell can be a bewildering task, with various factors to consider, including how much of your doorstep you want to see or whether you're prepared to pay for a subscription. To help make the decision a little bit easier, I tested eight popular video doorbells to find the best.Best video doorbell overall:
by Steve May with additional deals reporting by Reece on (#71KV8)
We've rounded up the best early Black Friday TV deals, from 50in OLEDs and small smart TVs to big-name brands like Samsung and LG Do you really need to buy a new TV?
From Minecraft chess and coding for kids to retro consoles and Doom on vinyl for grown-ups - hit select and start with these original non-digital presentsGamers can be a difficult bunch to buy for. Most of them will get their new games digitally from Steam, Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation's online shops, so you can't just wrap up the latest version of Call of Duty and be done with it. Fortunately, there are plenty of useful accessories and fun lifestyle gifts to look out for, and gamers tend to have a lot of other interests that intersect with games in different ways.So if you have a player in your life, whether they're young or old(er), here are some ideas chosen by the Guardian's games writers. And naturally, we're starting with Lego ... Continue reading...
EU and US unshackle regulations in quest for growth, and is the AI bubble about to burst? Not yet, says NvidiaHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from an American grocery store, where I'm planning my Thanksgiving pies.In tech, the European Union is deregulating artificial intelligence; the United States is going even further. The AI bubble has not popped, thanks to Nvidia's astronomical quarterly earnings, but fears persist. And Meta has avoided a breakup for a similar reason as Google.The best early Black Friday deals in the UK on the products we love, from sunrise alarm clocks to heated airersThe 15 best tech gifts in the US, picked by a gadget reviewer who's used hundredsThe 20+ best Black Friday and Cyber Monday tech deals in the US - so farMeet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AIAI is changing the relationship between journalist and audience. There is much at stake | Margaret SimonsSnapchat to tell 440,000 Australians to prove they're 16 or accounts will be locked in social media banAustralia's under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work - and how can I appeal if I'm wrongly banned? Continue reading...
by Darien Graham-Smith with additional deals reportin on (#71M4T)
Here's how to spot a genuinely good laptop deal, plus the best discounts we've seen so far on everything from MacBooks to gaming laptops Do you really need to buy a new laptop?
New guidance from UK regulator aims to combat misogynist abuse and revenge porn'Social media platforms are being urged to limit internet pile-ons" under new guidelines to protect women and girls online.The guidance from Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, to combat misogynist abuse, coercive control and the sharing of intimate images without consent comes into force on Tuesday and includes recommendations to prevent women being harried online. Continue reading...
Trades, machine operations and administrative roles are most at-risk, says leading educational research charityUp to 3m low-skilled jobs could disappear in the UK by 2035 because of automation and AI, according to a report by a leading educational research charity.The jobs most at risk are those in occupations such as trades, machine operations and administrative roles, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said. Continue reading...
by Luke Barratt, Atika Rehman and Sushmita on (#71Q90)
As Mumbai sees increased energy demand from new datacenters, particularly from Amazon, the filthiest neighbourhood in one of India's largest cities must keep its major coal plantsEach day, Kiran Kasbe drives a rickshaw taxi through his home neighbourhood of Mahul on Mumbai's eastern seafront, down streets lined with stalls selling tomatoes, bottle gourds and aubergines-and, frequently, through thick smog.Earlier this year, doctors found three tumours in his 54-year-old mother's brain. It's not clear exactly what caused her cancer. But people who live near coal plants are much more likely to develop the illness, studies show, and the residents of Mahul live a few hundred metres down the road from one. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent on (#71PN1)
Hugely influential traders will be hanging on the chancellor's every word when she announces her budgetAt just after 12.30pm on Wednesday, the machine will be listening, the trading algorithms ready, and billions of pounds of buy-and-sell orders stacked up awaiting Rachel Reeves's budget.For the first time on the London trading floor of Deutsche Bank, a custom-built artificial intelligence tool will tune in to the chancellor's speech. It will transcribe her words, spot shifts in tone and spit out alerts when the numbers deviate from expectations. Continue reading...
We've cut through the noise to find genuinely good early Black Friday 2025 discounts on Filter-recommended products across home, tech, beauty and toys Big savings - or big regrets? How to shop smart this Black Friday
Amy Redford thanks fans for love and support' but takes issue with AI versions of funerals, tributes and quotes from members of my family that are fabrications'Robert Redford's daughter Amy Redford has criticised the proliferation of artificial intelligence tributes to her father, who died in September, calling them fabrications".Redford posted a statement on social media in which she thanked fans for their overwhelming love and support", adding: It's clear that he meant so much to so many, and I know that my family is humbled by the outpouring of stories and tributes from all corners of the globe." Continue reading...
Senior UK police officer says AI is accelerating violence against women and girls and that technology companies are complicitOne in four people think there is nothing wrong with creating and sharing sexual deepfakes, or they feel neutral about it, even when the person depicted has not consented, according to a police-commissioned survey.The findings prompted a senior police officer to warn that the use of AI is accelerating an epidemic in violence against women and girls (VAWG), and that technology companies are complicit in this abuse. Continue reading...
Researchers say results underline large language models' poor grasp of humour, empathy and cultural nuanceComedians who rely on clever wordplay and writers of witty headlines can rest a little easier, for the moment at least, research on AI suggests.Experts from universities in the UK and Italy have been investigating whether large language models (LLMs) understand puns - and found them wanting. Continue reading...
Campaigners including Good Law Project describe ICO collapse in enforcement activity' after Afghan data breachDozens of civil liberties campaigners and legal professionals are calling for an inquiry into the UK's data protection watchdog, after what they describe as a collapse in enforcement activity" after the scandal of the Afghan data breach.A total of 73 academics, senior lawyers, data protection experts and organisations including Statewatch and the Good Law Project, have written a letter to Chi Onwurah, the chair of the cross-party Commons science, innovation and technology committee, coordinated by Open Rights Group, calling for an inquiry to be held into the office of the information commissioner, John Edwards. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Cory Doctorow; pro on (#71PD7)
Tech critic Cory Doctorow explains why for so many the internet - from Amazon to Google to Instagram - seems to be getting worseDo you ever get the feeling that the internet isn't what it used to be?Well, tech critic Cory Doctorow thinks you're right - and he has a term to describe it too: enshittification'. Continue reading...
The UK could've been a true tech leader - but it has cheerfully submitted to US dominance in a way that may cost it dearTwo and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament's imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms - so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields - as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement - at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone insubmitting to the power of American firms, but it offersa clear case study in why nations need to developacoordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies.The current age of American tech monopoly began in the 2000s, when the UK, like many other countries, became almost entirely dependent on a small number of US platforms - Google, Facebook, Amazon and a handful of others. It was a time of optimism about the internet as a democratising force, characterised by the belief that these platforms would make everyone rich. The dream of the 1990s - naive but appealing - was that anyone with a hobby or talent could go online and make a living from it. Continue reading...
Collective experiment found switching profile to male' and bro-coding' text led to big increase in reach, though site denies favouring posts by menDo your LinkedIn followers consider you a thought leader"? Do hordes of commenters applaud your tips on how to scale" your startup? Do recruiters slide into your DMs to explore potential synergies"?If not, it could be because you're not a man. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#71NB6)
Need for new road taxes is clear - but there are concerns that pricing plan could stall transition away from petrolThree pence: a small charge per mile for an electric vehicle, but a giant conceptual leap for Britain.Chancellors of the exchequer have long resisted any form of road pricing as politically toxic. That may be about to change next week: Rachel Reeves, perhaps inured to being pilloried for any money-raising proposal, is expected to introduce a charge explicitly linked to how far EVs drive. Continue reading...
Air fryers have taken over our kitchens, but which wins the crown for the crispiest cooking? Our expert peeled 7kg of potatoes to find out The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and testedAir fryers inspire the sort of feelings that microwaves did in the 1980s. I vividly remember those new-fangled boxes being spoken about often, either dismissively or with delight. A rash of cookbooks followed, and dinner changed across the land. Fast-forward a few decades, and air fryers have become the same kind of kitchen disruptors", offering time-saving convenience and healthier cooking, but with the added allure of easily achieved, mouth-watering crispiness.Since launching with a single-drawer design, air fryers have evolved. Sizes range from compact to XL, while drawer configurations can be double, split or stacked. Alongside air frying, many will grill, roast and bake, and some will dip to lower temperatures for dehydrating, fermenting and proving dough. One we tested features steam cooking, allowing you to whip up dim sum as easily as a roast dinner, while another included racks for cooking on four levels.Best air fryer overall:
Technology secretary fears digital frontier may be outpacing regulator, with AI chatbots a particular concernThe UK's internet regulator, Ofcom, is at risk of losing public trust if it fails to use its powers to tackle online harms, the technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has said.Kendall last week told Ofcom's chief executive, Melanie Dawes, she was deeply disappointed at the pace of the regulator's enforcement of parts of the Online Safety Act, which is intended to protect the public from harms caused by a wide range of online platforms, from social media to pornography websites. Continue reading...
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accentStudents at the University of Staffordshire have said they feel robbed of knowledge and enjoyment" after a course they hoped would launch their digital careers turned out to be taught in large part by AI.James and Owen were among 41 students who took a coding module at Staffordshire last year, hoping to change careers through a government-funded apprenticeship programme designed to help them become cybersecurity experts or software engineers. Continue reading...
Jensen Huang opens earnings call with attempt to dispel concerns after his $5tn firm beat Wall Street expectationsGlobal share markets rose after Nvidia posted third-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates, assuaging for now concerns about whether the high-flying valuations of AI firms had peaked.On Wednesday, all eyes were on Nvidia, the bellwether for the AI industry and the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, with analysts and investors hoping the chipmaker's third-quarter earnings would dampen fears that a bubble was forming in the sector. Continue reading...
Amid a blackout of data due to the government shutdown, the $5tn chipmaker's report took on wider significanceMarkets expectations around Wednesday's quarterly earnings report by the most valuable publicly traded company in the world had risen to a fever pitch. Anxiety over billions in investment in artificial intelligence pervaded, in part because the US has been starved of reliable economic data by the recent government shutdown.Investors hoped that both questions would be in part answered by Nvidia's earnings and by a jobs report due on Thursday morning. Continue reading...
The use of AI in the surprise game-of-the-year contender has sparked a heated cultural and ethical debate, and raised existential questions for artists, writers and voice actors Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereArc Raiders is, by all accounts, a late game-of-the-year contender. Dropped into a multiplayer world overrun with hostile drones and military robots, every human player is at the mercy of the machines - and each other. Can you trust the other raider you've spotted on your way back to humanity's safe haven underground, or will they shoot you and take everything you've just scavenged? Perhaps surprisingly, humanity is (mostly) choosing to band together, according to most people I've talked to about this game.In a review for Gamespot, Mark Delaney paints a beguiling picture of Arc Raiders's potential for generating war stories, and highlights its surprisingly hopeful tone as the thing that elevates it above similar multiplayer extraction shooters: We can all kill each other in Arc Raiders. The fact that most of us are choosing instead to lend a helping hand, if not a sign that humanity will be all right in the real world, at the very least makes for one of the best multiplayer games I've ever played." Continue reading...
From turning down thermostats to make savings to installing reflectors to push warmth back into your homeWhen it comes to staying warm and saving energy, small changes can make a big difference," says Sarah Pennells, a consumer finance specialist at the investment company Royal London. Continue reading...
Don't splash out just yet! From a system update to better room lighting, a little fine-tuning could save you hundreds Do you really need to buy a new laptop?Do you really need to buy a new TV? While the latest specs and outrageous screen sizes may well be a temptation, perhaps you can save money (and the environment) by holding off a little longer. With some simple tips and tricks, you can level up your TV experience.Of course, the Fomo is real. Back in the day, the only reason to buy a new TV was when the old one fizzled and died. One telly was much the same as another, and features rarely changed. Continue reading...
Forty years ago, the Nintendo Entertainment System dominated the markets in Japan and the US. But in Europe, a technologically superior rival was making it look like an ancient relicThere's an old maxim that history is written by the victors, and that's as true in video games as it is anywhere else. Nowadays you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Nintendo Entertainment System was the only console available in the mid-to-late 1980s. If you were brought up in Nintendo's target markets of Japan and North America, this chunky contraption essentially was the only game in town - the company had Mario after all, and its vice-like hold on third-party developers created a monopoly for major titles of the era. But in Europe, where home computers ruled the era, the NES was beaten by a technologically superior rival.The Sega Master System was originally released in Japan in the autumn of 1985 as the Sega Mark III. Based around the famed Z80 CPU (used in home computers such as the Spectrum, Amstrad and TRS-80) and a powerful Sega-designed video display processor, it boasted 8kb of RAM, a 64-colour palette and the ability to generate 32 sprites on screen at one time - making the NES (based on the older 6502 processor) look like an ancient relic. Continue reading...
His company is potentially creating the ultimate state surveillance tool, and Karp has recently been on a striking political and philosophical journey. His biographer reveals what makes him tickIn a recent interview, Alex Karp said that his company Palantir was the most important software company in America and therefore in the world". He may well be right. To some, Palantir is also the scariest company in the world, what with its involvement in the Trump administration's authoritarian agenda. The potential end point of Palantir's tech is an all-powerful government system amalgamating citizens' tax records, biometric data and other personal information - the ultimate state surveillance tool. No wonder Palantir has been likened to George Orwell's Big Brother, or Skynet from the Terminator movies.Does this make Karp the scariest CEO in the world? There is some competition from Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Palantir's co-founder Peter Thiel. But 58-year-old Karp could give them all a run for their money in terms of influence, self-belief, ambition and - even in this gallery of oddballs - sheer eccentricity. In his increasingly frequent media appearances, Karp is a striking presence, with his cloud of unkempt grey hair, his 1.25x speed diction, and his mix of combative conviction and almost childish mannerisms. On CNBC's Squawk Box, he shook both fists simultaneously as he railed against short sellers betting against Palantir, whose share price has climbed nearly 600% in the past year: It's super triggering," he complained. Why do they have to go after us?" Continue reading...
The offensive listing seemed more than a mistake - it was a failure of corporate responsibility, says readerI found a baby outfit (sizes from newborn to five years) on Amazon bearing the phrase Santa's favourite ho".This isn't just a tasteless mistake - it's a failure of corporate responsibility and consumer protection. A corporation this large should have systems that prevent sexualised or exploitative language being associated with items for children. Continue reading...
Which? study of ChatGPT, Copilot and others uncovers incorrect and misleading tips on investments, tax and insuranceArtificial intelligence chatbots are giving inaccurate money tips, offering British consumers misleading tax advice and suggesting they buy unnecessary travel insurance, research has revealed.Tests on the most popular chatbots found Microsoft's Copilot and ChatGPT advised breaking HMRC investment limits on Isas; ChatGPT wrongly said it was mandatory to have travel insurance to visit most EU countries; and Meta's AI gave incorrect information about how to claim compensation for delayed flights. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian