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PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC (version played); Bandai Namco

Across videos, standup and cartoons, humorists are skewering big tech's attempt to make AI ubiquitous and inevitableBest case scenario, we never have to do any admin again," says an AI CEO. Worst case, we all die."A young man struggles to the top of a beautiful mountain, words echoing in his ears: AI will most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there will be great companies created." At the top of the mountain, he triumphantly holds up a sign: Build a datacenter here." Continue reading...

I've been holed up in an flat, affectionately dubbed the brotel', with my son for weeks - and we've revisited the first game we ever played togetherI have spent the last three weeks living with my 22-year-old son in a two-bedroom flat he has dubbed the "brotel". We cook curries and watch Lanterns. We barbecue meat and analyse Tarantino movies. We get pizza and we play video games. Boy, do we play video games!The first game I ever played in co-op with him was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, when he was five. He wasn't the most accomplished sidekick, not so great at placing a mobile gun turret while under fire from what seems like a bazillion enemy soldiers, but we had a laugh. It started the video game bond between us before his sister introduced him to Banjo-Kazooie and Rayman, and he stopped being a preschool warmonger. Probably for the best. So how would it be tackling the same game nearly two decades later? Continue reading...

Expert says Australia's criminal laws should be clarified to determine how fault is applied to a corporation when its AI agent commits a crime

During his speech to the UN in New York City, the Australian prime minister addresses the AI hack of Medicare, saying the episode reflects the need for greater regulation of artificial intelligence. We can't ignore AI or prevent it. And it's why we joined with other nations this week to call for action to shape artificial intelligence development, rather than be passively shaped by it,' he says. Albanese also used the speech as a pitch for Australia to join the UN security council Continue reading...

This blog is now closed - our live coverage of US politics continues hereIn the first row in front of the leaders sit US vice-president JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance, Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her daughter Arabella, US secretary of state Marco Rubio, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, defence secretary Pete Hegseth and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.Donald Trump is speaking now. He notes that Xi is the first Chinese leader to make a second formal visit to the White House, and says the two have forged a truly great friendship" since Trump was first elected in 2016. Continue reading...

Datacentre hailed by government was supposed to start operating next year but may be held back into mid-2030sA huge datacentre project hailed by the UK government will miss its launch date next year and could be delayed into the mid-2030s.The site in Loughton, Essex, was described as the country's largest AI supercomputer when it was announced in 2025, but power supply problems mean it now faces a lengthy wait before coming online. Continue reading...

UK watchdog fined video app in 2023 for failing to enforce minimum age limit and remove underage usersTikTok will pay a 12.7m fine to the UK's data watchdog after dropping an appeal against a ruling that it did not do enough to keep children below the age of 13 off the platform.The video app was punished by the Information Commissioner's Office in 2023 for inadequate checks of who was using the platform, and failing to remove underage users. Continue reading...

Council on AI Strategy chief says incident unlikely to be isolated and country should enhance capability to detect and report incidents

US consumers are starting to opt out of the streaming world as several services raise prices without offering many perksIt may not be quite as politically buzzy as the price of gasoline or eggs, but another household expense is going up for millions of people. Disney has brought the price-gouging experience of its theme park home again by raising the prices of most iterations and bundles of its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services. Whether you pay to watch them with or without ads, separately or bundled together, you're probably getting a price hike of a couple of bucks per month. The few bundles that will remain the same price feature ad-supported versions of both services (plus ESPN). Don't worry, though; paying extra to avoid the ad-supported versions of those services won't mean that you're missing out on some cross-promotional opportunities. Disney's terms of service note that they reserve the right to insert ads before and after programming on whatever subscription tier they want, regardless of what you're paying for. True magic!This particular magic isn't reserved for Disney, though. Price hikes among streaming services have become so common that The Verge has a dedicated page aggregating the news of them, which tends to arrive every few months. Apple, apparently high on Emmy fumes, has raised its prices four times in four years, keeping pace with many of its competitors despite a vastly smaller dedicated catalog. Depending on which version of Peacock subscribers use, they've seen their bills padded by five or six dollars a month just since the summer of 2025, including another increase last month. Netflix, meanwhile, hasn't gone up since March 2026. That's not a reprieve; that's a sign another hike must be around the corner. Continue reading...

Activists gathered outside the OpenAI offices on Monday during climate week in New York CityOn Monday evening, protesters gathered outside the unmarked Manhattan offices of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, holding signs calling to Eat the rich, save the planet". Over the next two days, groups also picketed outside the offices of fellow tech giants Google and Amazon; other protesters, including clergy, were arrested while disrupting a closed-door AI health summit in the city. Tonight, protesters will target a Brooklyn gas power plant that was set to close - until it was purchased to power AI datacenters.The protests come on the heels of an Anthropic employee quitting his job with a warning that intensified an already-growing AI panic: The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Continue reading...

Former deputy PM now involved in tech industry says many within sector are winding themselves up into a lather'Nick Clegg has dismissed fears over AI's godlike power to exterminate humanity", calling it a sign that tech bosses are breathing their own fumes".The former UK deputy prime minister said that tech bosses should focus on addressing known specific threats such as cybersecurity and bioweapons rather than the slightly hand-wavy view that this technology is unavoidably going to develop some godlike power which is going to turn on us and exterminate humanity". Continue reading...

In the choreographers' new work, virtuosic movement and some green-screen magic unfurl the theatricality of high-stakes television interviewsIt appears the interviewer has got him on the ropes. For the record, I did not take part in a pagan ceremony with minor members of the royal family in which we daubed ourselves in paint," states the beleaguered politician, caught outside Buckingham Palace with his flies undone and forced to defend himself. This is a fabrication, of course - I'm watching the scene play out in an east London dance studio - but it doesn't feel miles away from something that could be true. And how do we know what's the truth anyway? That's the question in Deepfake, the latest piece from award-winning dance duo Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple, AKA Jess and Morgs.The pair tell modern stories with ambitious tech - film and live camera work - and often techy themes, too. We've always been drawn to where there's a crossover between the theme and the form," says Runacre-Temple. What gets us excited is seeing the contemporary world reflected back." The pair scored a massive hit with their 2022 piece Coppelia, made for Scottish Ballet, which turned a twee 19th-century ballet about a dancing doll into a cautionary tale of AI automatons and unrestrained tech bro egos. Definitely not one-hit wonders, earlier this year they made their debut at the highly esteemed Paris Opera Ballet. Continue reading...

They offer advice, referee card games and manage players' tantrums - we caught up with some of the volunteer profs who keep the competitive game going at this year's world championshipsProfessors may be the most revered characters in the fictional world of Pokemon (apart from perhaps the Gym Leaders). In Pokemon Red and Blue, Professor Oak greets the player in a pixelated lab coat, and later provides trainers with their first battle partner; since then, each successive generation of games has introduced another professor to aid and guide trainers through their journeys. If you've ever played a Pokemon game, they are often the first people that you meet, apart from your in-game mom.But you may not know that there are also real-world Pokemon professors - volunteers who help organise the game's competitive communities around the world. Instead of lab coats, they can be seen at events wearing red Pikachu-mascot shirts labelled staff", paired with black trousers and shoes. Continue reading...

Prime minister says he told Sam Altman he was disappointed it had taken OpenAI way too long' to disclose breachAnthony Albanese says an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI hacked Medicare in June and the tech giant notified the government earlier this month using an email sent to a public mailbox".Australia's prime minister made the comments at the UN summit in New York, saying it appeared no personal information had been accessed in the AI breach. Continue reading...

Kirsten Gillibrand says acting US navy secretary told her of attempted suicides after carrier strike group's lengthy deployment as part of US war in Iran. This blog is now closed.

The new wearables come at a time of uncertainty for smart glasses, which are facing backlash over privacy concernsMeta announced an advanced new set of virtual reality glasses and a collection of new smart glasses Wednesday, including an audio-only version without a camera.At the firm's Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, executives said the new Ray-Ban Meta models set new standards for battery life and weight. They said the new glasses with screens in the lenses squeeze capabilities previously reserved for a full headset into a light set of spectacles that rest on a user's ears. Continue reading...

A feature called AI Overviews has been a profound change, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shiftingGoogle has put artificial intelligence at the front and center of its search bar. The most-visited site on the internet still shows the same list of links to users, but they have to scroll past a summarized response from an AI chatbot, a feature Google calls AI Overviews. The change to what was once the gateway to the rest of the internet has been profound, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shifting.AI is driving the most significant upgrade of the Google Search experience ever," wrote Liz Reid, Google's vice-president of search, last August. In May, the company said more AI is coming. Continue reading...

From highlighted ledges to characters telling you what to do, blockbuster games are increasingly taking the challenge out of playing - and players are pushing back Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereMarvel's Wolverine, the latest action game from Sony's stable of expensive blockbuster-factory studios, has had an unfortunate launch. Reviews were decent, if not stellar, but a series of viral video clips from reviewers and streamers have made it the scapegoat for a patronising flavour of game design that gamers have hated for decades. This clip, from Skill Up's review, shows the player entering a beautiful wintry landscape before being overwhelmed by visual cues telling them what they're supposed to be doing there. Sonar pulses point you in the direction of objectives. Targets - which, it bears emphasising, are shaped like targets - get an extra reflective visual effect so you know you're supposed to pay attention to them. A trail shows you not just where to go, but where the level's sole hidden collectible is.It is hand-holding to the point of parody. Indeed, it reminded me of the sniggersome Mario in Unreal Engine satirical videos that makes the social media rounds every few months (A mushroom? I should take a look at this"). Skill Up's clip has been followed by hundreds of others, gleefully ripping into Wolverine with ironic savagery. In one much-copied clip, a streamer simply lays down his controller during a motorbike chase sequence and watches as Wolverine speeds on regardless, bouncing off the scenery as the game plays itself. Continue reading...

US president says Burnham will be a great PM' in friendly first meeting on the sidelines of UN General Assembly but makes jibe at StarmerIf Andy Burnham wanted to inject some edge into his meeting with Donald Trump later (which he doesn't), he could bring along a copy of today's Financial Times. This front page headline speaks for itself.Mortgages on the front line' as Iran war deals 840 blow to homeownersBritish homeowners are paying an average of 840 a year more when they refinance their mortgages, as the rising borrowing costs triggered by the Iran war start to impact consumers' spending power.Approximately 1m households have rolled off fixed-rate mortgage deals since February, according to Bank of England data. Continue reading...

Lian Yunzhi solves 3x3 puzzle on several occasions in average time of under 4.5 seconds, according to state mediaA six-year-old Chinese girl has set a new women's world record for solving a Rubik's Cube in just over four seconds, state media reported.Speedcuber" Lian Yunzhi broke the women's 3x3 average world record twice this month at two World Cube Association certified competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. Continue reading...

Alongside warnings about its ability to destroy humanity, artificial intelligence is also hailed for its potential to revolutionise health treatment. Just how far can it take us?Her name was June. June would be the last month she ever knew.I remember the way her bed made her so small, swallowed her up in the middle of the room, turned as it was to face the window. With her liver failing, her skin was a ghostly apricot. June - I called her Nan - had been stalked by the king of terrors, the emperor of all maladies: cancer. That son of a bitch. Continue reading...

The former UK deputy prime minister is a board member of the UK-based company and owns 917,000 sharesNick Clegg could make approximately $40m (30m) from the planned float of Nscale as the UK-based datacentre company prepares for a US stock market listing.The former UK deputy prime minister owns more than 917,000 shares in the startup, which is reportedly seeking a valuation of up to $35bn in a flotation. Based on Clegg's stake of 0.12%, that could yield a valuation of about $42m for the ex-Liberal Democrat party leader. Continue reading...

Antonio Guterres says humanity faces unprecedented convergence of threats but mechanisms for collective action are under growing strainThe world's fault lines have turned from cracks into canyons as superpowers show that they alone do not have the military, economic and technological power to guarantee security or solve the world's problems, the outgoing secretary general of the United Nations has said in his final address to the general assembly.In a speech laced with despair but also glimpses of defiant hope, Antonio Guterres said that over the last decade, largely spanning his 10-year period in office, wars erupted with devastating consequences and dragged on with despicable cruelty. Civilians were targeted. Human rights trampled. Hunger weaponised. Humanitarians killed. International law cast aside." Continue reading...

Independent outlets are leaning on social media, chat and other nontraditional methods to fight disinformationWhen Allan Marrero, an asylum seeker from the Cayman Islands, was released after five months in immigration detention, his family made sure to invite one journalist to his celebration: Eileen Grench, a reporter with the independent, non-profit news outlet Documented.Grench had previously reported on Marrero, who was detained after interviewing with federal officials for a marriage-based green card. But beyond covering his detention struggles, she humanized him, emphasizing his and his husband's love story. Continue reading...

As animal behaviorists increasingly use AI in their research, they grapple with how to wield the technology responsiblyI'm sitting in a small boat in Shark Bay, Australia, eavesdropping on a conversation between some of Earth's most intelligent beings. The motor is off, the turquoise sea is glassy, and Stephanie King and I are motionless, transfixed by the whistles, clicks and squeezy, whirring noises made by the dolphins swimming below us.If anyone could tell me what these big-brained social mammals are saying, it would be her. Based at the University of Bristol, she co-leads Shark Bay Dolphin Research, one of the longest-running wild dolphin research projects in the world. She has spent thousands of hours watching and listening to this population. Continue reading...

Former chancellor, now senior figure at OpenAI, says UK needs datacentres to maintain sovereignty' over AI tech

PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC; Remedy

RBA governor says AI is great white hope' but its adoption is so far adding to inflation, rather than economic growth

Canadian province alleges deadly attack could have been prevented if company had warned police of shooter's ChatGPT useBritish Columbia has sued OpenAI in California, saying a mass shooting at a school in the province could have been prevented if the company had warned local law enforcement that the shooter had used ChatGPT to plan the massacre.The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court on Monday names OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, as defendants. It is seeking damages to fund recovery efforts in the province after the February attack, as well as an order directing changes to the way the company handles ChatGPT conversations that could lead to violence. Continue reading...

People in the UK are more interested in oral health than ever - and you can now buy prebiotic toothpastes and brushes that cost up to 600. Yet we remain in the midst of a serious dental crisisA December 1969 report from the consumer magazine Which? explored a relatively new gadget that, it predicted, many people would be giving as Christmas presents: the electric toothbrush. For those who hadn't yet seen one, the magazine described it as not that much different in principle from an ordinary brush - you have a stick with a brush on the end. The difference is that an electric one moves the brush head for you". Progress indeed.Nearly six decades on, electric toothbrushes can do a lot more than merely jiggle, offering multiple speeds and movement sensors for real-time tracking of where you've brushed - some even promise gum-massage or tongue-cleaning modes. Prices range from about 25 for a basic Oral B model to 599.99 for a Philips Sonicare model that gives smart coverage feedback". The latest super-toothbrush - a mere 419.99 - features a camera and a built-in water jet to clean between teeth, using AI to identify gaps. Created by Dyson, it's still, essentially, a stick with a brush on the end (although there is another toothbrush on the market that's shaped like a mouthguard, with individual brushes, that claims to clean your teeth in 20 seconds). Continue reading...

Lawyers say Black employees at Tesla experienced rampant racism' that was left unchecked for years at their flagship factory in CaliforniaDozens of Black employees at Tesla's flagship plant in California said they were subject to racist slurs, unequal pay and promotions, and bullying by supervisors on a daily basis, a situation management did little to nothing to fix.Their complaints form the basis of a lawsuit brought against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company by the state of California, which began trial with opening statements on Monday. Continue reading...

At Lib Dems' conference in Brighton, leader will accuse Andy Burnham of relying on Donald Trump and tech bros' to solve problemEd Davey is to call for a global nuclear-style non-proliferation treaty to halt the development of super-intelligent AI when he makes his keynote speech at the Liberal Democrat conference, accusing Andy Burnham of relying on Donald Trump and tech bros" to solve the problem.When he addresses the faithful on the final day of the gathering in Brighton, the party leader will call for a global pause on super-intelligent AI, comparing it to a nuclear arms race that could result in technology that could destroy us all". Continue reading...

Citizens Advice says providers of essential services such as energy, banking, phone and internet should guarantee the right to talk to a human'Stop relying on AI chatbots for customer care and guarantee the right to talk to a human", Citizens Advice has urged essential service providers, as research found they wasted time, caused stress and delayed problem solving for more than half of users.The spread of the AI-powered systems to provide help about the provision of vital services such as energy, banking, phones and internet, is making it harder for millions of already digitally excluded people to handle snags, according to the frontline charity that last year provided more than 2.7 million people with one-on-one help in England and Wales. Continue reading...

PlayStation 5 (version played), PC; Screen Burn

Watchdog says users may have been unaware their information was used to target adverts or infer their interestsGoogle has been fined more than 400m (345m) over the way it processed users' location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones.The fine, imposed by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took. Continue reading...

Jensen Huang dismisses warnings from former Anthropic researcher and others as doomsday narratives'The boss of the chipmaker Nvidia has said AI will not develop to a point that will lead to the extinction of the human race within a few years, rejecting such assertions as overblown doomsday narratives".Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the $5tn AI chipmaker, said the claims made on social media by the former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon that AI could become superhuman" and kill off humanity within the decade were irresponsible". Continue reading...

PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; Arbitrary Metric

Shortage of memory chips and other critical components reverses trend of electronics becoming cheaperApple's recent product launch caused headlines around the world as it unveiled its first folding phone. But hidden in the slick technology showcase was a nasty surprise: a 100 increase in the price of all iPhones, including older models.It is blamed on RAMageddon", which has reversed a decades-long trend of electronics becoming cheaper. It is the fallout from the AI gold rush hoovering up every memory chip available for vast datacentres. This has led to a severe shortage of the chips, and other critical components, for electronics, including phones. Continue reading...

Fantastic display and two-day battery life plus everything that's great about Google's more pocketable Pixel ProsGoogle's latest super-sized Pixel takes everything that's great about the relatively pocket-friendly 11 Pro and adds a huge, high-quality screen and a big battery.That makes the Pixel 11 Pro XL one of the largest smartphones available in Europe and the US, competing directly with Samsung's giant Galaxy S26 Ultra and Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max, with an equally sizeable 1,279 (1,399/$1,299/A$2,099) price tag - 80 (100/$100/A$100) more than last year with less memory because of the cost of RAMageddon. Continue reading...

Seventh intergenerational report also outlines how Australia is on the brink of an uncertain age of artificial intelligence

Unit1 hopes to offer lower cost version of shows such as Abba Voyage, showcasing living and dead artists in any venueThe former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber's entertainment group has obtained a near-15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars.Unit1 was set up last year by Barney Wragg, an entertainment executive who ran Lord Lloyd-Webber's Cats-to-Evita empire for five years from late 2011. It has secured the $20m in funding from a group of investors, including tech backer Balderton Capital through its partner Daniel Waterhouse, who made early investments in Spotify. Continue reading...

Scam emails are increasingly using psychological tricks, such as using near-identical URLs like mirosoft.comYou've read the email carefully and it looks legitimate. The link it asks you to click on has none of the usual red flags: there are no weird numbers or extra parts to the URL. You feel safe to proceed.But if you had looked slightly closer you may have noticed something slightly wrong with one of the characters. Just as in the headline of this piece where instead of a" we used the Cyrillic ".It just goes to show that the split-second decision you make when clicking a link is often the most vulnerable part of the whole security chain." Continue reading...

Treasury's latest intergenerational report projects life expectancy at birth will reach 89 for women and 86 for men by 2066

President had brushed away suggestions to slow down AI technology, even as his own party counseled cautionDonald Trump on Saturday said he would appoint an artificial intelligence czar and create an AI Force" to help monitor the technology, though he gave almost no details about either plan.As global fears over AI have grown, especially in the past week in the face of multiple industry figures sounding the alarm about its dangers, the president has been critical of calls to slow down development of the fast-moving industry. Continue reading...

Sensors that monitor vehicle volume are said to be electronic assault weapons' by the Blade Runners' groupAt the top of an extendable ladder on a quiet street of Ilfracombe, in Devon, an older woman dressed smartly in cropped trousers, a red rain jacket and matching red socks is chopping at some wires at the top of a set of traffic lights with a small pair of pliers.A grey-haired man holding a takeaway coffee supports the ladder, while others, filming their activities, give encouragement from behind the camera. Yeah, that's how you do it," says one man. Just cut the wires." Continue reading...

Silicon Valley China hawks, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei among them, fear the country surpassing US's AI lead as much as superintelligence destroying humanity

Energy bills are scheduled to rise next month but there are innovative ways to heat your home and save moneyWhen Giles Gibson turns on the hot tap in his home, the water that comes out of it is not heated by gas but by the tiny datacentre strapped to the tank.Attached to the hot water cylinder in his London home is a compact computer server that generates heat and then transfers it as it operates. Continue reading...

Disclosure comes after OpenAI and Anthropic hacks amid fears that tech firms unable to control powerful AI modelsIn a first for Google, the company confirmed that its AI model, Gemini, breached the security of three other companies in May. The hacks occurred during a cybersecurity evaluation by AI-security firm Irregular.Irregular, an Israel-based startup that scrutinizes the security of advanced AI systems, was also at the center of some of the recent OpenAI and Anthropic hacks of third-party entities, including OpenAI's breach of AI software company, Hugging Face. Continue reading...

Though Europe has measures that address how consumers might encounter AI, technology will impact them if the worst scenarios bearEurope's dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week. The head of the continent's central bank, Christine Lagarde, said Europeans have two options: shun the technology and lose out on growth; or embrace it and become dependent on tools developed by the US and China.The great debate over AI safety that has erupted in recent days threatens to make the choice moot. If the worst scenarios come to bear - and experts have differing views on this - then the technology will impact the continent regardless. Continue reading...