Technology | The Guardian

10,000 contractors told to flag ‘upsetting-offensive’ content after months of criticism over hate speech, misinformation and fake news in search resultsGoogle is using a 10,000-strong army of independent contractors to flag “offensive or upsetting” content, in order to ensure that queries like “did the Holocaust happen” don’t push users to misinformation, propaganda and hate speech.The review of search terms is being done by the company’s “quality raters”, a little-known corps of worldwide contractors that Google uses to assess the quality of its systems. The raters are given searches based on real queries to conduct, and are asked to score the results on whether they meet the needs of users. Continue reading...

Despite corrective initiatives, there are too few gaming industry opportunities for women and people of colour. This needs to change if it is to have a healthy futureGlance at last year’s big releases and you might think video games have cracked the issue of diversity. Two of 2016’s most acclaimed action adventures Mafia III and Watchdogs 2 both had black male leads, while Mirror’s Edge 2, Uncharted 4 and indie game, Virginia, all featured women of colour. This year, we have flagship PlayStation4 title Horizon Zero Dawn as well as Gravity Rush 2, Nier Automata and Tacoma, all showcasing female protagonists. But look beyond the games and into the companies that make them, and you get a very different picture. Representation is still very much a problem.In an age where a whole generation is taking its cultural cues and influences from games, this has vital importance even outside of the industry. Video games now make $90bn (£74bn) a year worldwide, dwarfing the cinema and movie businesses. According to figures from industry trade body UKIE, 50% of the UK population plays games, a figure rising to 99% among 8-15-year-olds. The growing popularity of games – on PC, console, smartphone and tablets – has also led to a surge in young people seeking to work in the industry: over 60 UK universities provide undergraduate and masters degrees in games development. But who are the people guiding this inspirational and pervasive cultural sector? Continue reading...

Attributes of a psychopath can be good for running a business, says SXSW panel, but weak HR departments and investors can enable bad behaviorThere is a high proportion of psychopathic CEOs in Silicon Valley, enabled by protective investors and weak human resources departments, according to a panel of experts at SXSW festival.Although the term “psychopath” typically has negative connotations, some of the attributes associated with the disorder can be advantageous in a business setting. Continue reading...

The joy of this family friendly puzzle game is not just in the strategy, but the social experienceSnipperclips is one of those games with a concept so clear that even if you forget what it’s called (and who could blame you – the original prototype Friendshapes had a much more memorable name) people will know what you’re talking about. Sure, there have been other video games influenced by papercraft – most notably Media Molecule’s Tearaway – but none has reached the mainstream with the particular notion expressed in Snipperclips’ tagline: cut it out, together.

Although it’s hard to see how any self-respecting Apple customer would want the $189 accessory, ‘Eye’ prototype has met its funding target and will be madeCan’t decide between an iPhone or Android for your next device? Want to get both at the same time but don’t want the logistical hassle of duct-taping them together in a way that leaves the camera usable? There may be a Kickstarter for you.The Eye is a $189 case for your iPhone which has raised over $100,000 on the crowdfunding site with a huge checklist of features: “a 5 inch display, battery power, up to 256GB storage, SIM slots, an IR blaster & wireless charging!” But, look, there’s a simpler way to sum it up. It’s an iPhone case that is an Android phone. Continue reading...

The latest Lego adventure seeks to rival the creative possibilities of Minecraft. But players are forced to slog for their creative freedomGlance down the intricate family tree that connects the myriad successful Lego video games, and something striking is missing throughout the lineage. Most of those releases have only made cursory attempts at including that defining ability of the real-world toy: uninhibited construction. Aside from curio releases like the 1998 PC title Lego Creator, games based on the iconic bricks tend to allude to creativity, rather than offering freeform building in an unbridled form.And yet Minecraft – with 120m sales and counting – has proved that there is huge potential in the idea of open-ended construction-focused games. Indeed, as Mojang’s creation evolved from a darling of the indie community to an international merchandising empire, it was comparisons with Lego that made the game easy to understand for players and, importantly, their parents. Continue reading...

Giving up Facebook and Instagram made me realise I was using them to block out real emotions with likes. But I couldn’t help going backIn January I deleted all the social media apps from my phone because they were turning me into an idiot.For months I’d been avoiding engaging with anything challenging or anxiety inducing. Worried about where I’d be living next year? Dive into Instagram. Tax bill prickling at the back of my mind? Open Facebook. That grief I thought I’d processed piercing at me again? Disappear into the realm of likes and follows and push the feelings away. Distract. Binge. Escape. Continue reading...

This brilliant patchwork of storytelling, vandalism and melancholic reminiscences at the local mall is set to go down as a millennial classicMae Borowski is 20-years old, a college dropout with anger problems, and staring at herself in the full-length mirror in the attic bedroom of her childhood home. She pats down her shirt, tentatively reassures herself that her build is sturdy rather than round, and tells her reflection, “You’re a smooth talker. You’re a smoothie.”She narrows her eyes, and her shoulders relax. Continue reading...

Company announces new privacy policy following revelations that police gained special access to the social networks to track protestersFacebook and Instagram have banned developers from using their data for surveillance with a new privacy policy that civil rights activists have long sought to curb spying by law enforcement.Following revelations last year that police departments had gained special access to the social networks to track protesters, Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced on Monday that it had updated its rules to state that developers could not “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance”. Continue reading...

Captcha has evolved from identifying mangled letters to web users unwittingly training Google’s AI. Now, finally, you won’t have to do anythingThe experience of squinting at distorted text, puzzling over small images, or even simply clicking on a checkbox to prove you aren’t a robot could soon be over, if a new Google service takes off.The company has revealed the latest evolution of the Captcha (short, sort of, for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), which aims to do away with any interruption at all: the new, “invisible reCaptcha” aims to tell whether a given visitor is a robot or not purely by analysing their browsing behaviour. Barring a short wait while the system does its job, a typical human visitor shouldn’t have to do anything else to prove they’re not a robot. Continue reading...

WIth this extraordinarily large game about an elite soldier taking on Bolivian drug runners, is Ubisoft’s obsession with open worlds bordering on an addiction?Fittingly for a game centred around cocaine production and the drug trade’s transformative effects on society, Ghost Recon Wildlands bears an uncanny resemblance to the deluge of double albums fuelled by the stuff in the 1970s: self-indulgent and overlong but with enough moments of quality buried within to just about excuse the whole endeavour.In truth, overlong is perhaps selling Wildlands short. This is an extraordinarily large game that will take months to complete. Ubisoft’s obsession with open worlds borders on an addiction itself – it’s surely only a mater of time before their rhythm action franchise Just Dance is relocated to a sandbox night club the size of the city of Sheffield - but they’ve really gone the extra mile here. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Monday. Continue reading...

It’s game on for the long-awaited successor to the Wii-U, which seamlessly transitions into a home consoleAfter the Wii U failed to ignite the imaginations of anyone but the most devout Nintendo loyalists, a lot rides on its successor. Thankfully, it’s a much more exciting proposition for players: home console-quality gaming on the go.The Switch itself is the very tablet you hold, rather than a beast left tethered to your TV. It offers a pixel-dense 1280x720 screen with capacitive multi-touch features, but this is far from a Nintendo-branded iPad – slide it into its dock at home and it offers a 1080p output on the main screen. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary accuses Russia of ‘dirty tricks’ as GCHQ is reported to have written to parties with advice on cyber-attacksThe foreign secretary has said there is “plenty of evidence” that Russia has the ability to disrupt British politics with cyber-attacks following reports that intelligence officials are to brief political parties on how to defend against hacking from Moscow.Boris Johnson, due to meet his Russian counterpart in the coming weeks, said there was no doubt Moscow had been up to “all sorts of dirty tricks” in relation to political interference. Continue reading...

Jaguar’s first ever luxury compact SUV has been a long time coming. Now it’s here you’ll be keen to make up for lost timePrice: £34,730

It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to build the web we want – for everyoneToday marks 28 years since I submitted my original proposal for the worldwide web. I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries. In many ways, the web has lived up to this vision, though it has been a recurring battle to keep it open. But over the past 12 months, I’ve become increasingly worried about three new trends, which I believe we must tackle in order for the web to fulfill its true potential as a tool that serves all of humanity.1) We’ve lost control of our personal data Continue reading...

Inventor of the worldwide web described in an open letter how it has become a sophisticated and targeted industry, drawing on huge pools of personal dataSir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the worldwide web, has called for tighter regulation of online political advertising, which he says is being used in “unethical ways”.“We urgently need to close the ‘internet blind spot’ in the regulation of political campaigning,” he said, writing in an open letter marking the 28th anniversary of his invention. Continue reading...

The blazingly fast next-generation mobile data network is not far away – but not everyone is convinced that we really need itPhilip Hammond says he wants the UK to become a “world leader” in 5G, the next-generation mobile technology that proponents say is the key to an internet-connected world of driverless cars, smart home appliances, delivery drones and lightning-fast video on the go.The government, which has published a 70-page tome on its future 5G strategy, said in the budget it would invest up to £16m to run trials and support the technology’s development, to make sure the UK is at the crest of the “next wave of mobile technology services”. Continue reading...

Proposed rules would give powerful boost to self-driving industry by permitting cars without a backup driver, steering wheel or foot controls on the roadCars with no steering wheel, no pedals and nobody at all inside could be driving themselves on California roads by the end of the year, under proposed new state rules that would give a powerful boost to the fast-developing technology.For the past several years, tech companies and automakers have been testing self-driving cars on the open road in California. But regulators insisted that those vehicles have steering wheels, foot controls and human backup drivers who could take over in an emergency. Continue reading...

The injunction request escalated the intellectual property dispute between the two technology companies and adds to the growing list of Uber’s troublesWaymo, Google’s self-driving car company, has asked a judge to block Uber’s work on autonomous vehicles, escalating the high-profile intellectual property dispute between the two technology companies and adding to the growing list of Uber’s troubles.In court filings on Friday, the self-driving car operation owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, filed an injunction requesting that a judge prevent Uber from using technology that Waymo alleges was brazenly stolen.

Facebook staff presumably don’t join up because they want to clone its biggest competitor, but still the company keeps churning out embarrassing copiesIt must be getting hard to walk into work at Facebook with your head held high. You roll into the campus in your Tesla, waltz over to your desk, and sit down, head full of ideas as to how to make the social network better for users and advertisers alike. Then a notification pings up on Messenger. It’s Mark Zuckerberg himself! The boss is speaking to you! What could he have to say?

Why do people vent such toxic opinions online? Filmmaker Kyrre Lien spent three years travelling the world to find out who these anonymous ‘internet warriors’ are and why they do itNorwegian filmmaker Kyrre Lien began researching online commenters on Christmas Day 2014. “I became fascinated by how much hate and ignorance people were writing in the comments section of a news site,” he says, “so I began looking at people’s profiles, trying to work out who they were. Many seemed quite normal. They had families and looked like nice people, but the comments they were writing in a public space were so extreme. There was a disconnect.” And so began Lien’s three-year journey into the lives of some of the internet’s most prolific online commenters, now the subject of a documentary, The Internet Warriors. Continue reading...

From the first box camera to the ghetto blaster and the Sony Walkman, these are the devices that brought our favourite tech out into the open Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Friday! Continue reading...

How Alexa-style language processing is allowing scientists to talk to the cells of our bodies

The Tesla founder says he can build a 100MW battery storage farm within 100 days or provide the system free of chargeElon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of electric car giant Tesla, has thrown down a challenge to the South Australian and federal governments, saying he can solve the state’s energy woes within 100 days – or he’ll deliver the 100MW battery storage system for free.On Thursday, Lyndon Rive, Tesla’s vice-president for energy products, told the AFR the company could install the 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage that would be required to prevent the power shortages that have been causing price spikes and blackouts in the state. Continue reading...

Tech company’s health subsidiary planning digital ledger based on blockchain to let hospitals, the NHS and eventually patients track personal dataGoogle’s AI-powered health tech subsidiary, DeepMind Health, is planning to use a new technology loosely based on bitcoin to let hospitals, the NHS and eventually even patients track what happens to personal data in real-time.Dubbed “Verifiable Data Audit”, the plan is to create a special digital ledger that automatically records every interaction with patient data in a cryptographically verifiable manner. This means any changes to, or access of, the data would be visible. Continue reading...

Indie titles pick up a lot of nominations alongside blockbusters at British Academy Game AwardsBafta has announced the nominations for the 2017 British Academy Game Awards with indie title Inside and blockbuster Uncharted 4 leading the way.Fifty games received nominations across 15 categories, but many appear more than once. Inside has the most potential wins since it is nominated in seven separate categories – every category for which it qualifies. Continue reading...

Peter’s wife used to love reading, but a stroke has limited her to consuming TV and radio. Would an Amazon Kindle or another device enable her to listen to books instead?My wife used to love reading but since her stroke has aphasia, no speech, limited vision and limited dexterity in her left hand only. She can select TV channels on a remote but she cannot read a short news story let alone a novel, so she listens to the radio and watches a lot of TV. I thought of getting her a Kindle e-reader but they don’t seem to do text to speech any more. A shop assistant suggested a tablet with a text-to-speech app. If so, which tablet/which app? It needs a really simple interface or my wife will not be able to use it without assistance.I have installed OverDrive for RNIB talking books on my phone. This is far too fiddly for my wife to use. Also, the choice of books is limited. PeterThere are lots of answers to this question, but they may not work for your wife. The possibilities include good old-fashioned cassette tape recorders, specialised talking book readers such as the Victor Reader Stream, CD players, MP3 players, smartphones, tablets and PCs. You may need to use different technologies for different types of material. Continue reading...

Company backtracks again, this time on program that used geolocation, credit card info and social media to profile users they believed to be involved in stings

Three custom filters in honor of International Women’s Day drew criticism for notably lightening users’ skin and adding a full face of makeup to Marie CurieSnapchat is celebrating Mexican artist Frida Kahlo on International Women’s Day with a filter that lightens the skin of users.Snapchat debuted three custom filters for the day, which is being marked in the United States with protests and strikes. The filters allows users to take self-portraits as Kahlo, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, or scientist Marie Curie. Continue reading...

Rich, intelligent or just really good-looking? Why not join a dating app open only to a selected few?Bad news for ugly, unsuccessful people: Tinder is no longer keeping up the pretence that they might one day enjoy a quirky romcom relationship with someone from a different league.Already, a velvet curtain is being drawn around the world’s facial one-percenters with the launch of Tinder Select. The Select sub-platform is the world’s biggest dating app’s entry into the increasingly popular market for elitism. Continue reading...

Company says it already fixed many exploits described in ‘Vault 7’ documents released by WikiLeaks, as CIA and Trump administration refuse to comment

You should have had enough time to get to grips with Nintendo’s latest console, so we’d like to know what you think of it

Should you be worried about agency snooping? Is this WikiLeaks release just the tip of the iceberg? And is someone at the CIA watching too much Doctor Who?WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website run by Julian Assange, has released a cache of documents it calls “Vault 7”, which contains details of hacking tools used by the CIA. Continue reading...

For the site to pass the buck instead of escalating its lax moderation of suspicious activity is deeply irresponsible – and a failing for public service and safetyHave you heard the one about the journalist and the paedophile on Facebook? When the journalist tried to raise the alarm about worrying pictures of children on the social network, Facebook reported him to the police.It’s a terrible joke, but an even worse indictment of the response and responsibility of one of the most powerful media companies in the world to a reporter trying to raise valid public-interest concerns. Continue reading...

The final column in our series sorts March’s console wheat from the chaff, with nods to Sniper Elite 4 and The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday. Continue reading...

WikiLeaks says documents about CIA’s computer hacking tools came from US, but many perceive group as pro-Russia following role in 2016 electionThe latest WikiLeaks document dump about the CIA’s computer hacking tools highlights the intelligence agency’s penetration of everyday consumer electronics, heightening profound fears about privacy aroused in 2013 by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.In the Washington security establishment, however, the leaks are being viewed more as the latest battle in a struggle between US and Russian intelligence services being played out in the US political arena – a fight in which WikiLeaks is widely seen as sitting firmly in Moscow’s corner. Continue reading...

Anas Modamani’s injunction rejected after judge says social network not obliged to seek out and delete defamatory postsA Syrian refugee who took a selfie with Angela Merkel has failed in his attempt to sue Facebook over a series of posts falsely linking him to terrorist attacks.The photograph which Anas Modamani, from Darayya near Damascus, took of himself and the German chancellor at a Berlin refugee shelter in September 2015 has since been repeatedly shared on doctored photomontages supposedly identifying him as the culprit behind crimes and terrorist attacks across Europe. Continue reading...

Arkansas resident James Bates willing to allow police to review information that Seattle-based tech company twice declined to provideAmazon has stopped fighting a legal battle to keep Echo recordings secret, after the defendant at the heart of the case gave his permission for the evidence to be handed over.Arkansas resident James Bates was charged with the murder of a man found dead in his hot tub in November 2015. Continue reading...

MP critical after BBC sends evidence to Facebook, which at first removes only 18% – and reports corporation to police“Grave doubts” have emerged about the effectiveness of Facebook’s moderation system after an investigation revealed the social network was failing to remove sexualised images of children even after they were reported.Damian Collins, chair of the culture, media and sport committee, made the comments as he criticised Facebook’s handling of the images, dozens of which were reported to the company by the BBC and fewer than 20% were removed. Continue reading...

The visas, which allow skilled workers to come to the US temporarily, are in especially high demand in Silicon Valley and the medical sectorThe US has temporarily suspended the fast-track processing of H-1B visas, leaving many foreign workers in limbo.Related: Trump travel ban: new order targeting six Muslim-majority countries signed Continue reading...

‘Chances are you, or at least someone you know, is affected,’ says security expert Chris Vickery, after one of largest spam operations in world’s database exposedOne of the largest spam operations in the world has exposed its entire operation to the public, leaking its database of 1.37bn email addresses thanks to a faulty backup.As well as email addresses, the holy grail of the spam operation, personal information including real names, IP addresses and physical addresses have also been leaked, though on a smaller scale than the email information that makes up the bulk of the dataset. Continue reading...

A new app, Smartify, allows you to point your phone at artworks and instantly know everything about them. But while facts can enrich enjoyment, it is the shock of the unknown that really makes art resonateLooking at art should be like walking in the countryside. You may not know exactly where you are, or what bird is making that peculiar sound, or what the hill ahead of you is called, but that’s part of the fun of it. You don’t need to know those things to feel the poetry of nature. Being slightly lost and adrift in a landscape can only deepen its power.Of course, if you do know your birds, trees and local history, a walk might be still more entrancing. Yet such knowledge comes gradually. It is picked up through experience. A true knowledge of nature cannot just be got through an app on your phone – and if it could, it would mock sensitivity with shallow instant factoids. Imagine pointing your phone at the hill on the horizon and getting a load of info on screen. Would that enrich your dreamy walk or ruin it? Continue reading...

Gamers distracted by display issues told that their consoles are not defective, as well as being told not to play near microwaves, laptops, phones – or aquariumsSwitch owners complaining of distracting dead or stuck pixels, or light or dark patches on the screens of their brand new consoles, are being told by Nintendo that they are “normal” and are not defects.

Featured snippets in search function repeatedly shares false information, which can result in Google Home speakers reading out conspiracy theories as factGoogle is facing accusations of spreading fake news, after being repeatedly discovered sharing falsehoods and conspiracy theories through its “featured snippets in search” functionality.The feature automatically pulls in short answers to common queries from popular websites. It can show them in the search results directly, and is also the basis for the quick answers provided through Google’s smart speaker device, the Google Home. Continue reading...

Firm behind deal with Barts in London says it will include cancer and dementia patients and could reduce bed-blockingUber taxis could soon be used to transfer non-emergency patients with illnesses ranging from cancer to dementia back and forth from NHS hospitals in a deal that could play a part in “cracking down” on bedblocking, according to the social care company behind it.The agreement with Barts health NHS trust in London will allow patients to use Uber for journeys including hospital appointments, the care service startup Cera said. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Monday. Continue reading...

While Kim Jong-un’s regime has hacked other countries, US attempts to damage his nuclear programme face tough challengesThat the United States has been working to hobble North Korea’s missile programme through cyber and electronic strikes is important, but not especially surprising. Pyongyang’s technological advances, if not yet as impressive as it claims, are real and alarming. Sanctions have had limited impact. Intelligence on the country is so inadequate, and its technology so advanced, that a preemptive military strike – reportedly one option the White House wants to consider – would be very unlikely to eradicate its capability and very likely to provoke a damaging response. The US also has experience: working with Israel, it is believed to have used the Stuxnet computer worm to wipe out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and delay its nuclear weapons programme.This time, results appear to have been mixed. Discussions of state-directed hacking often focus on its advantages as a form of asymmetric engagement, allowing countries such as North Korea to counter their relative military weakness. But this case exposes a different kind of asymmetry. Though the US is infinitely wealthier, better armed and more powerful than North Korea, it is much more vulnerable in one regard: it is an open and democratic society and its citizens expect access to freely flowing information. Continue reading...