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...
As GenAI becomes the primary way to find information, local and traditional wisdom is being lost. And we are only beginning to realise what we're missing
Former Amazon CEO to co-head Project Prometheus with tech executive Vik Bajaj, according to the New York TimesAfter stepping down as Amazon's CEO four years ago, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and former chief executive of the online shopping company, is going to be a CEO again. This time, Bezos has appointed himself co-CEO of an AI startup called Project Prometheus, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.The startup, which will focus on developing AI for engineering and manufacturing in various fields, has already received $6.2bn in funding - more than many companies are able to raise in their lifetimes. Leading the company alongside Bezos is his co-founder and co-CEO Vik Bajaj, a celebrity tech executive in his own right. Bajaj is a physicist and chemist best known for his work at Google's moonshot factory, X, where he founded the health startup Verily. Continue reading...
World's richest person wanted to purge' propaganda from Wikipedia, so he created a compendium of racist disinformationEntries in Elon Musk's new online encyclopedia variously promote white nationalist talking points, praise neo-Nazis and other far-right figures, promote racist ideologies and white supremacist regimes, and attempt to revive concepts and approaches historically associated with scientific racism, a Guardian analysis has found.The tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally recently launched xAI's AI-generated Grokipedia with a promise that it would purge out the propaganda" he claims infests Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that Musk has often attacked but that has long been a key feature of the internet. Continue reading...
Former Beatle and artists including Sam Fender, Kate Bush and Hans Zimmer record silent LP Is This What We WantAt two minutes 45 seconds it's about the same length as With a Little Help From My Friends. But Paul McCartney's first new recording in five years lacks the sing-along tune and jaunty guitar chops because there's barely anything there.The former Beatle, arguably Britain's greatest living songwriter, is releasing a track of an almost completely silent recording studio as part of a music industry protest against copyright theft by artificial intelligence companies. Continue reading...
This story of emancipated young women escaping draconian social strictures brims with enthusiasm and features a cameo from Phoebe Waller-BridgeBased on a true story, Bill Guttentag's rousing drama attests to the resilience of women who dare to dream despite draconian social strictures. The film follows Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri), a trailblazing coach and businesswoman in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) who assembles a robotics team of Afghan girls for international competitions. The young dreamers hail from different walks of life but they all share the same zest for engineering. They face the same dangers too; in a country where women are not encouraged or even allowed to pursue higher levels of education, their quest for medals sees opposition from their own families as well as public scorn from conservatives.Rule Breakers is at its most thrilling during the competition sequences, which splice together real-life documentary footage of the events with fictional re-enactments. (There's even an appearance from Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a host.) A breathless enthusiasm thrums through the film, as the camera swirls around the young competitors, all energised by their love for science. These spaces are portrayed as a haven that encourages camaraderie rather than competitiveness, and in a world divided by military conflicts and war, they offer a utopiian vision of international collaboration and solidarity. Continue reading...
Less expensive and time consuming' model helps with fast and accurate predictions, possibly saving lives and propertyWhen then Tropical Storm Melissa was churning south of Haiti, Philippe Papin, a National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologist, had confidence it was about to grow into a monster hurricane.As the lead forecaster on duty, he predicted that in just 24 hours the storm would become a category 4 hurricane and begin a turn towards the coast of Jamaica. No NHC forecaster had ever issued such a bold forecast for rapid strengthening. Continue reading...
Sweatpants are in, you can't go wrong with Jellycats, and Legos never get old. It turns out tweens are not shy about sharing the holiday gifts they want
Ian Russell says watchdog lacks urgency' and is not willing to use its powers to the extent required'The father of Molly Russell, a British teenager who killed herself after viewing harmful online content, has called for a change in leadership at the UK's communications watchdog after losing faith in its ability to make the internet safer for children.Ian Russell, whose 14 year-old daughter took her own life in 2017, said Ofcom had repeatedly" demonstrated that it does not grasp the urgency of keeping under-18s safe online and was failing to implement new digital laws forcefully. Continue reading...
Feeling overwhelmed by divisive opinions, endless rows and unreliable facts? Here's how to weather the data stormWe all live in history. A lot of the problems that face us, and the opportunities that present themselves, are defined not by our own choices or even the specific place or government we're living under, but by the particular epoch of human events that our lives happen to coincide with.The Industrial Revolution, for example, presented opportunities for certain kinds of business success - it made some people very rich while others were exploited. If you'd known that was the name of your era, it would have given you a clue about what kinds of events to prepare for. So I'm suggesting a name for the era we're living through: the Information Crisis. Continue reading...
Sensitive information relates to more than 100 individuals and their refereesPersonal details submitted by applicants for a job at Tate art galleries have been leaked online, exposing their addresses, salaries and the phone numbers of their referees, the Guardian has learned.The records, running to hundreds of pages, appeared on a website unrelated to the government-sponsored organisation, which operates the Tate Modern and Tate Britain galleries in London, Tate St Ives in Cornwall and Tate Liverpool. Continue reading...
Anthropic says financial firms and government agencies were attacked largely without human intervention'A leading artificial intelligence company claims to have stopped a China-backed cyber espionage" campaign that was able to infiltrate financial firms and government agencies with almost no human oversight.The US-based Anthropic said its coding tool, Claude Code, was manipulated" by a Chinese state-sponsored group to attack 30 entities around the world in September, achieving a handful of successful intrusions". Continue reading...
Quizmasters are banning smart devices, using dedicated apps and finding plain old honesty can combat trivial offencesWho is older, Gary Numan or Gary Oldman? If you know the answer to this question (see below), you are probably one of hundreds of thousands of Brits who attend a pub quiz every week.As a nation of committed trivia buffs, it was unsurprising that news of a quizmaster in Manchester outing a team for cheating was leapt on. Just where, we asked, is the special place in hell reserved for those quizzers who take a sneaky look at their phones under the table? Continue reading...
Machine learning model predicts whether donor is likely to die within the timeframe that liver remains viableDoctors have developed an AI tool that could reduce wasted efforts to transplant organs by 60%.Thousands of patients worldwide are waiting for a potentially life-saving donor, and more candidates are stuck on waiting lists than there are available organs. Continue reading...
Hits include country songs and a Dutch anti-refugee anthem, both entirely made without human compositionThree songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.Walk My Walk and Livin' on Borrowed Time by the outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify's Viral 50" songs in the US, which documents the most viral tracks right now" on a daily basis, according to the streaming service. A Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, an anti-migrant anthem by JW Broken Veteran" that protests against the creation of new asylum centers, took the top position in Spotify's global version of the viral chart around the same time. Breaking Rust also appeared in the top five on the global chart. Continue reading...
Britain's legacy in chip design is world-class, and we could supply up to 5% of global demand if we get our act togetherThe UK is in a uniquely promising position, far too little understood, to play a lucrative role in the coming era of artificial intelligence - but only if it also grabs the opportunity to start making millions of computer chips.AI requires vast numbers of chips and we could supply up to 5% of world demand if we get our national act together.Lord Browne is the co-chair of the Council for Science and Technology. He is the chair of BeyondNetZero and was the chief executive of BP from 1995 to 2007 Continue reading...
Some content created with advertisers is no longer visible, which could mean loss of revenue, officials sayThe EU has opened an investigation into Google Search over concerns the US tech company has been demoting" commercial content from news media sites.The bloc's executive arm announced the move after monitoring found that certain content created with advertisers and sponsors was being given such a low priority by Google that it was in effect no longer visible in search results. Continue reading...
The use of AI-generated campaign videos - labeled or unlabeled - is likely to permeate future US electionsThe New York City mayoral election may be remembered for the remarkable win of a young democratic socialist, but it was also marked by something that is likely to permeate future elections: the use of AI-generated campaign videos.Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Zohran Mamdani in last week's election, took particular interest in sharing deepfake videos of his opponent, including one that sparked accusations of racism, in what is a developing area of electioneering. Continue reading...
Chatbot in the past made claims of a white genocide', pushed antisemitism and referred to itself as MechaHitler'Elon Musk's Grok chatbot generated false claims this week that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, posting election conspiracy theories and misleading information on X to justify its answer.The AI chatbot, which was created by Musk's xAI artificial intelligence company and automatically responds to users on X (formerly Twitter) when prompted, generated responses such as I believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election" in response to user questions about the vote. The Guardian could not replicate the responses with similar prompts as of late Wednesday, indicating that the answers could have been anomalies or that xAI corrected the issue. Continue reading...
AI startup behind Claude chatbot working with London-based Fluidstack on building vast new computing facilitiesArtificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.We're getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren't possible before," Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release. Continue reading...
Google subsidiary to offer services on San Francisco, LA and Phoenix freeways as it scales expansion amid competitionAlphabet's Waymo said on Wednesday that it would begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides," it said. Continue reading...
From Demon Souls to Baby Steps, challenging games keep a certain type of player coming back for more. I wonder why we are such suckers for punishment Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereMost people who really love video games have the capacity to be obsessive. Losing weeks of your life to Civilization, World of Warcraft or Football Manager is something so many of us have experienced. Sometimes, it's the numbers-go-up dopamine hit that hooks people: playing something such as Diablo or Destiny and gradually improving your character while picking up shiny loot at perfectly timed intervals can send some people into an obsessional trance. Notoriously compulsive games such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, meanwhile, suck up hours with peaceful, comforting repetition of rewarding tasks.What triggers obsession in me, though, is a challenge. If a game tells me I can't do something, I become determined to do it, sometimes to my own detriment. Grinding repetition bores me, but challenges hijack my brain. Continue reading...
New law will allow technology to be examined and ensure tools have safeguards to stop creation of materialTech companies and child protection agencies will be given the power to test whether artificial intelligence tools can produce child abuse images under a new UK law.The announcement was made as a safety watchdog revealed that reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material [CSAM] have more than doubled in the past year from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025. Continue reading...
The voices of the Oscar-winning actors can now be used to create AI-generated versions in a new deal with ElevenLabsOscar-winning actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have both signed a deal with the AI audio company ElevenLabs.The New York-based company can now create AI-generated versions of their voices as part of a bid to solve a key ethical challenge" in the artificial intelligence industry's alliance with Hollywood. Continue reading...
by Deborah Cole in Berlin and Philip Oltermann, Europ on (#71DEY)
OpenAI ordered to pay undisclosed damages for training its language models on artists' work without permissionA court in Munich has ruled that OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT violated German copyright laws by using hits from top-selling musicians to train its language models in what creative industry advocates described as a landmark European ruling.The Munich regional court sided in favour of Germany's music rights society GEMA, which said ChatGPT had harvested protected lyrics by popular artists to learn" from them. Continue reading...
Withdrawal of Blued and Finka raises fears of further crackdowns on LGBT rights amid growing restrictionsTwo of China's most popular gay dating apps have disappeared from app stores in the country, raising fears of a further crackdown on LGBT communities.As of Tuesday, Blued and Finka were unavailable on Apple's app store and several Android platforms. Users who had already downloaded the apps appeared to still be able to use them. Continue reading...
Announced in 2020 by the Game Awards as an inclusive programme for the industry's next generation, the Future Class initiative has now been discontinued. Inductees describe clashes with organisers and a lack of support from the beginningVideo games have long struggled with diversification and inclusivity, so it was no surprise when the Game Awards host and producer Geoff Keighley announced the Future Class programme in 2020. Its purpose was to highlight a cohort of individuals working in video games as the bright, bold and inclusive future" of the industry.Considering the widespread reach of the annual Keighley-led show, which saw an estimated 154m livestreams last year, Future Class felt like a genuine effort. Inductees were invited to attend the illustrious December ceremony, billed as gaming's Oscars", featured on the official Game Awards website, and promised networking opportunities and career advancement advice. However, the programme reportedly struggled from the start. Over the last couple of years, support waned. Now, it appears the Game Awards Future Class has been wholly abandoned. Continue reading...
An expert describes how communities in some of the world's driest areas are demanding transparency as secretive governments court billions in foreign investmentThis Q&A originally appeared as part of The Guardian's TechScape newsletter. Sign up for this weekly newsletter here.The datacenters that power the artificial intelligence boom are beyond enormous. Their financials, their physical scale, and the amount of information contained within are so massive that the idea of stopping their construction can seem like opposing an avalanche in progress. Continue reading...
HMP Wandsworth gets green light to use AI after team sent in to find quick fixes' after spate of mistakesArtificial intelligence chatbots could be used to stop prisoners from being mistakenly released from jail, a justice minister told the House of Lords on Monday.James Timpson said HMP Wandsworth had been given the green light to use AI after a specialised team was sent in to find some quick fixes". Continue reading...
As investor jitters grow, the loss-making ChatGPT firm's vast spending commitments test the limits of Silicon Valley optimismIt is the $1.4tn (1.1tn) question. How can a loss-making startup such as OpenAI afford such a staggering spending commitment?Answer that positively and it will go a long way to easing investor concerns over bubble warnings in the artificial intelligence boom, from lofty tech company valuations to a mooted $3tn global spend on datacentres. Continue reading...
In our always online, AI-imperilled lives, simply looking at a painting can improve wellbeing and offer creative guidance. For my new book, artists and writers shared their advice on how to live life artfullyHow many times a day do you reach for your phone? Do you jump at a notification, spend journeys locked in on your tiny black mirror? What about during meals, or when you wake up? Does it make you feel enriched, alive? I am just as guilty as the next person: swiping, liking, scrolling. But in a world built to distract us, how can we take five or 10 minutes away from that, and instead add something enriching to our lives?I like to look at artists for the answers. They get us to slow down and think about different ways of looking; to notice nature and beauty; time changing in front of us. They remind us of the joys of making, and in a world where AI is attempting to outsource our creativity to machines - the delight of discovering something for ourselves. Artists see the potential in something: like a word that can be joined up into a sentence that can grow into a paragraph, or book; or a tube of paint that can be used to create an image. Not only can these get us to see something from a different perspective, or teach us something about their world, but hold our attention, and invite stillness, too. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Joseph Gedeon on (#71CMM)
Apple and WhatsApp say they will keep warning users if their phones are targeted by governments using hacking software against themApple and WhatsApp have vowed to keep warning users if their mobile phones are targeted by governments using hacking software against them, including in the US, as two spyware makers seek to make inroads with the Trump administration.The two technology giants made their statements in response to queries from the Guardian as the two cyberweapons makers - both founded in Israel and now owned by American investors - are aggressively pursuing access to the US market. Continue reading...
It's the ultimate ick: trying to form a deep, lasting connection with a person who outsources original thoughtIt was a setting fit for a Nancy Meyers film. We were in Oregon wine country, in a rustic-chic barn that reeked of stealth wealth, for a friend's rehearsal dinner. This venue is perfect," I told the groom-to-be. He leaned in as if to tell me a secret: I found it on ChatGPT."I smiled tightly as this man described using generative AI for the initial stages of planning the wedding. (They also hired a human wedding planner.) I responded politely. Inside, however, I resolved: if my future spouse came to me with wedding input courtesy of ChatGPT, there would be no wedding. Continue reading...
While it might be soothing to think you could replace social interactions like book clubs with ChatGPT, subcontracting human thought out to a bot will never bring happinessThis is depressing: according to the Cut, people are using AI to solve escape room puzzles and cheat at trivia nights. Surely, that is the definition of spoiling your own fun? Like going into a corn maze and just wanting a straight line to the end," says one TikToker quoted in the article. There's also an interview with a keen reader who uses ChatGPT as a book club replacement, scraping the internet and aggregating stimulating opinions and perspectives". All well and good (actually, no, it sounds bleak as hell) until he had a character's death spoilered in the fantasy epic he had been enjoying.Meanwhile, Substack seems to be clogging up with AI-generated essays. The nu-blogging platform is an earnestly artisanal space where writers craft their stuff; subcontracting that to a bot seems like the acme of pointlessness. Will Storr, who writes about storytelling, examines this boggling trend and the tells that give it away on his own Substack, including a penchant for what he calls the impersonal universal": sweeping statements that sound deep but aren't. There is, he says, A white-noise generality to its insights, an uncanny vagueness that makes the mind glaze over." Continue reading...
A dangerous faith in AI is sweeping American healthcare - with consequences for the basis of society itselfThe computer interrupted while Pamela was still speaking. I had accompanied her - my dear friend - to a recent doctor's appointment. She is in her 70s, lives alone while navigating multiple chronic health issues, and has been getting short of breath climbing the front stairs to her apartment. In the exam room, she spoke slowly and self-consciously, the way people often do when they are trying to describe their bodies and anxieties to strangers. Midway through her description of how she had been feeling, the doctor clicked his mouse and a block of text began to bloom across the computer monitor.The clinic had adopted an artificial-intelligence scribe, and it was transcribing and summarizing the conversation in real time. It was also highlighting keywords, suggesting diagnostic possibilities and providing billing codes. The doctor, apparently satisfied that his computer had captured an adequate description of Pamela's chief complaint and symptoms, turned away from us and began reviewing the text on the screen as Pamela kept speaking. Continue reading...
Tools that help people scan applications and find grounds for objection have potential to hit government's housebuilding plansThe government's plan to use artificial intelligence to accelerate planning for new homes may be about to hit an unexpected roadblock: AI-powered nimbyism.A new service called Objector is offering policy-backed objections in minutes" to people who are upset about planning applications near their homes. Continue reading...
by Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent on (#71AWB)
Endocrinologists warn taking testosterone unnecessarily can suppress natural hormone productionSocial media misinformation is driving men to NHS clinics in search of testosterone therapy they don't need, adding pressure to already stretched waiting lists, doctors have said.Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a prescription-only treatment recommended under national guidelines for men with a clinically proven deficiency, confirmed by symptoms and repeated blood tests. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian