Technology | The Guardian

Biofeedback devices promised a whole new world of mental and physical harmony. They did change my life, but not in the way I'd hopedI love to run, but ask me about my running times or distances and I will have no idea. For me, running is about squeezing exercise into a busy schedule, clearing my head and being in nature. I don't need to measure it.But unfortunately I am not immune to the oh-so-pleasing dopamine injection of unboxing a new bit of wearable tech, personalising the app for hours and thinking this might just change my life - the new, calmer, fitter, stronger, smarter me dangling tantalisingly within reach. One such scenario occurred after researching the importance of human connection on mental and physical health: less stress, less inflammation, less illness. Human connection, I learned, canstimulate and be facilitated bythevagus nerve - a primitive part ofthe nervous system. Continue reading...

Planes were going to drop out of the sky, nuclear reactors would explode. But then ... nothing. What really happened with Y2K? People still disagree ...Just before midnight on New Year's Eve, 25 years ago, Queen Elizabeth II stepped off a private barge to arrive at London's Millennium Dome for its grand opening ceremony. Dressed in a pumpkin-orange coat, she entered the venue with Prince Philip, taking her place alongside Tony and Cherie Blair and 12,000 guests to celebrate the dawn of a new millennium. At the stroke of midnight, Big Ben began to chime and 40 tonnes of fireworks were launched from 16 barges lined along the river. The crowd joined hands, preparing to sing Auld Lang Syne. For a few long moments, the Queen was neglected - she flapped her arms out like a toddler wanting to be lifted up, before Blair and Philip noticed her, took a hand each, and the singing began. A new century was born.One politician who wasn't in attendance at the glitzy celebration was Paddy Tipping, a Labour MP who spent the night in the Cabinet Office. Tipping was minister for the millennium bug. After 25 years, it might be hard to recall just how big a deal the bug - now more commonly called Y2K - felt then. But for the last few years of the 90s, the idea that computers would fail catastrophically as the clock ticked over into the year 2000 was near the top of the political agenda in the UK and the US. Here was a hi-tech threat people feared might topple social order, underlining humanity's new dependence on technological systems most of us did not understand. Though there are no precise figures, it's estimated that the cost of the global effort to prevent Y2K exceeded 300bn (633bn today, accounting for inflation). Continue reading...

Court will hear arguments in case that could see app banned in US if not sold to American firm by 19 JanuaryPresident-elect Donald Trump has urged the US supreme court to pause implementation of a law that would ban popular social media app TikTok or force its sale, arguing he should have time after taking office to pursue a political resolution" to the issue.The court is set to hear arguments in the case on 10 January. Continue reading...

AI company, which makes ChatGPT, says in blogpost we once again need to raise more capital than we'd imagined'OpenAI has laid out a plan to revamp its corporate structure next year, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to manage its growing business and ease the restrictions imposed by its current non-profit parent.Rumors have swirled that OpenAI was in the process of shifting to a largely for-profit company, but this is the first time it has detailed the proposal publicly. Continue reading...

Feud flared up when president-elect chose Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-born entrepreneur, as his AI adviserBitter in-fighting has broken out between the tech billionaire Elon Musk and Donald Trump's hardline Make America great again (Maga) base after the US president-elect chose an Indian-born entrepreneur to be his adviser on artificial intelligence.The row has pitted Musk and his fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy against diehard supporters including the far-right activist Laura Loomer and Matt Gaetz, the former Congress member and abortive nominee for attorney general. The spat threatens to open up a chasm among Trump's supporters over immigration, a key issue in his election victory. Continue reading...

If you're looking to heat the human not the home - or just love snuggling under something cosy on your sofa - these are our best buysAside from hugging a fluffy hot-water bottle, sipping the Christmas whisky and ramping up the thermostat, an electric blanket or heated throw is the best way to keep out the winter chill. More than half of a typical household's fuel bills goes on heating and hot water, so finding alternative ways to keep warm - and heating the person, rather than the whole home - is always a good idea.Many of the best electric blankets and heated throws boast running costs of about 1p to 3p an hour, so it's hard to ignore their potential energy- and money-saving benefits.Best overall electric blanket:

Geoffrey Hinton says there is 10% to 20% chance AI will lead to human extinction in three decades, as change moves fast

With grown-up children scattered around the world, an inconvenient snowstorm and a vegan dinner gaffe, Christmas 2024 was looking bleak - so thank goodness for the ultimate party gameThe older my kids get, the harder it is to keep them part of Christmas and the old traditions. Our youngest daughter is off travelling, which involves text message photos from Bangkok nightclubs with comments like, Check out the size of THIS spliff, dude!" Middle son flies off to his girlfriend's on Boxing Day. Oldest has added a festive shift of dog-sitting to her duties in the animal hospital and so she is around for just a few hours on Christmas Day. We'd also had a bit of a row on the 23rd and were not really speaking.It was going to be tough to make Christmas '24 a memorable one. But I had a plan. And that plan was Just Dance 2025. Continue reading...

Members are in limbo as Lupin Lodge is on the market after nearly 90 years - with next buyer likely to require clothesAfter nearly 90 years as a historic nudist resort, California's Lupin Lodge is up for sale - and its next owners are likely to require guests to wear clothes.The 112-acre Silicon Valley property became a retreat for members of the naturist" movement in 1935. Today, its hundreds of members enjoy the resort's clothing-optional hiking trails, pickleball court and its nude-only community pool. (Yes: the members really do hike naked.) Continue reading...

Joe Cocker and Colin Crouch respond to a letter by a 94-year-old man who wrote that adults as well as children should avoid smartphonesIn wishing to ban smartphones, Tim Watson (nearly 94) throws the baby out with the bathwater (Letters, 20 December). Being of a certain age myself, I remember when nobody in my close family even had a landline.Smartphone use can become misuse but, used intelligently, the smartphone is one of the greatest modern inventions. With mine, Ican call people on the other side of the world cheaply or even at no cost; I can use it as a satnav; I do not have to speak to everyone because I can simply send them a text; I can store important information and use any number of apps. Continue reading...

From the grisly Space Marine 2 to the glorious Metaphor: ReFantazio, it's time for Pushing Buttons subscribers to share their games of the yearHappy Christmas, Pushing Buttons readers! My sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who's read the newsletter this year, and to all our new subscribers. Writing this newsletter and reading your correspondence remains my favourite part of my job. It means a lot that so many of you have written in to say that you look forward to Pushing Buttons landing in your inbox every week.Thank you also to the Guardian's brilliant newsletter team, who have worked hard all year to get these missives to you on time even when I've submitted them horribly late. (I'm sorry, team. Relatedly: if games publishers could stop dropping huge news right around my deadline in 2025, that would be amazing.) Continue reading...

Despite newer artists having viral moments, app users also enjoyed old school acts including Bronski Beat and SadeThis was the year that gen Z had their Brat summer", or so we were led to believe.Inspired by the hit album by pop sensation Charli xcx, the trend was seen to embody all the messiness of modern youth: trashy, chaotic and bright green. Continue reading...

Bar some glitches, I think a tipping point has been reached - except when it comes to virtual gigsI'm writing this from a room that's slowly orbiting the Earth. Behind the floating screen in front of me, through a giant opening where a wall should be, the planet slowly spins, so close that it takes up most of my field of vision. It's morning in Australia to my right; India and the first hints of Europe are dotted with lights up and to my left. The soft drone of the air circulation system hums quietly behind me.I spent a week doing everything that I could - working, exercising, composing - on my virtual reality headset. This was the year virtual reality threatened to go mainstream, with prices becoming more attainable and Apple entering the market, and so I wanted to see how far VR has come since I first tried it in the mid-2010s, when the main experiences on offer were nausea-inducing rollercoaster simulators. I used a recent model from Meta, called the Quest 3, and the conclusion was clear: this thing now works. It feels a little unfinished, but we've reached the point where VR could at last become genuinely useful. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian testing reveals AI-powered search tools can return false or malicious results if webpages contain hidden textOpenAI's ChatGPT search tool may be open to manipulation using hidden content, and can return malicious code from websites it searches, a Guardian investigation has found.OpenAI has made the search product available to paying customers and is encouraging users to make it their default search tool. But the investigation has revealed potential security issues with the new system. Continue reading...

An onlooker filmed the moment when several drones with red and green lights fall out of formation and crash to the ground at a holiday show in Orlando on Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident after a seven-year-old boy was seriously injured

Amid claims of sabotage of undersea cables, a small wooden structure houses a key cog in Europe's digital connectivityAt the end of an unmarked path on a tiny island at the edge of Stockholm's extensive Baltic Sea archipelago lies an inconspicuous little wooden cabin, painted a deep shade of red. Water gently laps the snow-dusted rocks, and the smell of pine fills the air.The site offers few clues to the geopolitical drama that has gripped Scandinavia in recent months, driven by accusations of infrastructure sabotage. But in fact the cabin houses a key cog in Europe's digital connectivity, and a point of vulnerability in a potential hybrid war: a datacentre that amplifies the signal from a 1,615-mile fibre-optic cable running from northern Sweden to Berlin. Continue reading...

As co-chair of government efficiency' panel, Musk would influence policy that could help SpaceX, Tesla and XElon Musk's position as Donald Trump's co-chair of an advisory panel tasked with proposing huge cuts in spending and regulations has sparked criticism from legal experts and watchdogs who warn of conflicts of interest that could benefit the tech billionaire and other Trump backers.The fledgling panel has a sweeping mandate that Musk, the world's richest man, proposed to Trump during the campaign as the tech mogul was pumping about $250m into a Pac to help Trump win the presidency. Continue reading...

Immigration, culture wars and shrinking the public sector all feature highly on their agendasThe get-together last week of Elon Musk, Nigel Farage and Reform UK's treasurer, Nick Candy, was not just a gathering of Donald Trump fans. It was a meeting of minds.Immigration, culture wars and shrinking the public sector all feature highly on their political agendas, developed under the umbrella of Trump's Maga vision. Continue reading...

From holding space to a baby pygmy hippo, there's much to be learned about the world through the memes and trends that dominated our social media feeds this yearBrain rot" has been named Oxford's word of the year, meaning the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging".But no matter how trivial" or unchallenging" the content may be, there's still a lot to be learned about our culture through the trends, memes and storylines that dominated our social media feeds this year. So let's embrace the brain rot and take a journey back through the 10 best and funniest viral trends that the internet had to offer in 2024. Continue reading...

Suchir Balaji, listed in court filing as having relevant documents' about copyright violation, died on 26 NovemberSuchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He had been well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. Continue reading...

Although politicians have called to shoot them down, experts say the lights are likely legal drones, planes - or starsAt first, in mid-November, the mysterious lights were seen blinking across the night skies of New Jersey. Then, they spread. Reports of incandescent flying objects were logged in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Bystanders in Virginia Beach said they saw an aircraft unlike any other they've seen". Sightings have now come from as far afield as Louisiana, Florida and Arizona. People across the US are looking up.No one seems to know for certain where these enigmatic flying objects are from or who is controlling them. But several lawmakers and much of the general public seem dead-set on one answer: a swarm of drones. Continue reading...

Experts explain the pontiff's appeal as the most recent AI images of Francis, with the singer Madonna, go viralFor the pope, it was the wrong kind of madonna.The pop legend, she of the 80's anthem Like a Prayer, has stirred controversy in recent weeks by posting deepfake images on social media which show the pontiff embracing her. It has fanned the flames of a debate which is already raging over the creation of AI art in which Pope Francis plays a symbolic, and unwilling, role. Continue reading...

The shift from live TV to video platforms has made toy makers and sellers rethink products and where to sell themLetters to Santa used to be filled with ideas from the Argos catalogue or adverts on children's telly, but for today's kids raised on swiping and streaming" YouTube is their shop window - which is why some are asking for a plastic toilet this Christmas.The stakes are high for the toy trade at this time of year as consumers spend about 900m on dolls, games and action figures, equal to a quarter of annual sales. Continue reading...

Spatial memory is a use-it-or-lose it commodity, so I gave life without Google Maps a tryTaxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than other workers to die of Alzheimer's disease, according to a Harvard study published in the British Medical Journal.On the one hand, it makes total sense, navigation and spatial memory belonging in the hippocampus, which is the first region of the brain the disease atrophies. On the other hand, life expectancy is significantly lower than average in both jobs - 68 and 64 respectively - and Alzheimer's typically afflicts those over 65. Continue reading...

WhatsApp celebrates victory as judge finds Israeli company NSO Group violated state and federal US hacking lawsWhatsApp claimed legal victory over the maker of Pegasus spyware late on Friday.The Israeli company, NSO Group Technologies, was accused in a lawsuit by Meta's messaging app of infecting and surveilling the phones of 1,400 people over a two-week period in May 2019 via its notorious Pegasus software. Continue reading...

Thirty-three of 44 current and former contract workers who paid large recruiting fees say they didn't receive refunds after working within the company's Saudi operationsIn February, one of the world's richest employers, Amazon, announced it had refunded nearly $2m to more than 700 overseas workers who had been forced to pay big recruiting fees to get work at the company's warehouses in Saudi Arabia.It was a rare win for migrant laborers, a class of vulnerable workers who are often targeted for deceptive recruiting tactics and other abuses. One Nepali laborer said he was so shocked when a refund from Amazon appeared in his bank account that he stayed up much of the night, rechecking his account balance on his phone. Continue reading...

Nonagenarian Tim Watson on why no one, including adults, should be using smartphones. And Carole Gray found her enjoyment of the Van Gogh exhibition impeded by the crowd holding up their phones to take photosChannel 4's Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones deserves a medal (TV review, 11 December). Its emphasis on the pathological effects of smartphone use was convincing. And yet something was missing: that adults are themselves infected by the disease. No one should be using smartphones. They distract those who should be talking naturally with children, helping youngsters' intellectual development. Intelligent conversation will soon die out. Only really old people will notice, for only they will remember.

Sega started as a rock'n'roll breath of fresh air in a Nintendo-dominated world - and America and Europe CEO Shuji Utsumi wants to shake things up once againFor more than a decade, between the late 80s and the dawn of the 21st century, Sega was one of the coolest video game companies on the planet. Its arcade games, from Golden Axe to Virtua Fighter, were blockbuster successes; the Mega Drive brought a punk rock attitude to the home console scene, challenging Nintendo's family friendly approach with eye-pummelling TV commercials and censor-baiting games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.Arguably though, it was later, in the Dreamcast era, that Sega's studios were producing their most innovative and extravagant work. The likes of Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi and Space Channel 5 were hypercolourful celebrations of Tokyo pop culture. Now, the man who managed Sega Japan's developers at that time, Shuji Utsumi, is the CEO of Sega America and Europe - and he has a plan to restore the company to its creative heights. Continue reading...

Esports teams, leagues and competitions are flourishing, but poor connectivity and rarity of Africa-based servers are hampering expansionOn a recent Sunday afternoon in an upmarket neighbourhood of Nairobi, Daniel Badu was rapidly pressing the screen of his mobile phone, headphones wrapped around his head, his elbows resting on a pillow.Badu and his four teammates in the Aura 233 team, all decked in black-and-yellow kits and representing Ghana, were taking on Kenya's Delta eSports in the finals of the inaugural Carry1st Africa Cup, a continental tournament for the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Mobile. Continue reading...

The world's richest man flexed his muscles to tank lawmakers' first pass at a spending bill - will they fare better in round two?

Craig Wright given one-year suspended sentence for breaching court order to stop suing bitcoin developersAn Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the creator of bitcoin has been given a one-year suspended prison sentence after the high court in London ruled he was in contempt because he would not stop suing people.Mr Justice Mellor had already found that Craig Wright, 54, repeatedly lied about his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the person or people who launched bitcoin - the cryptocurrency that was first mined in 2009 and recently soared in value to 79,000. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Coalition of musicians, photographers and newspapers insist existing copyright laws must be respectedWriters, publishers, musicians, photographers, movie producers and newspapers have rejected the Labour government's plan to create a copyright exemption to help artificial intelligence companies train their algorithms.In a joint statement, bodies representing thousands of creatives dismissed the proposal made by ministers on Tuesday that would allow companies such as Open AI, Google and Meta to train their AI systems on published works unless their owners actively opt out. Continue reading...

ICO says allowing advertisers to track digital fingerprints' will undermine consumers' control over information

Ingenious puzzle games, a psychedelic take on poker, an action-packed take on Buddhist legend and a compilation of 50 faux-retro titles - our critics pick the year's finest More on the best culture of 2024PC

Court will hear two hours of oral arguments on 10 January and consider the social media app's challenge to the lawThe US supreme court said on Wednesday that it would hear TikTok's challenge to a law that could make the company's popular video app disappear from the US.In its order on Wednesday, the supreme court said it would set aside two hours for oral arguments on 10 January to consider TikTok's lawsuit against the justice department and the attorney general, Merrick Garland. Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism leader says there is often no ideology behind grotesque fascinations' with extreme contentMore young people, including children aged 10, are viewing a pick and mix of horror" on the web that pushes them towards violence, a UK counter-terrorism leader has said.Deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans of the Metropolitan police, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the nature of radicalisation had changed and warned of a rapidly increasing fascination with extreme content that we're seeing throughout our casework". Continue reading...

Image of man leaning into boot of a car on a street in northern Spain helps lead police to make two arrestsOn a nearly deserted street in northern Spain, the images appeared to show a man hunched over the back of a red Rover car, gingerly loading a bulky white sack into the boot.A passing Google Maps camera car happened to snap the suspicious moment as it unfolded in the hamlet of Tajueco in October. Two months later, police have cited the image - which continues to appear on Google Maps - and others snapped by the camera car as clues that helped lead to the arrests of two people after the disappearance of a man last year. Continue reading...

Donation adds to list of tech companies and executives seeking to foster favorable relationship with president-electUber and its CEO have donated $1m to Donald Trump's inaugural fund, joining a growing list of tech companies and executives seeking to foster a favorable relationship with the incoming administration.A spokesperson for Uber Technologies confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that both Uber and its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, each donated $1m to Trump's fund. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lawsuit brought by former moderators against parent company Meta and outsourcer Samasource Kenya

Former workers at Samasource say violent, graphic and sexually explicit videos left them fearful to go outside

In this week's newsletter: There were many worthy winners in LA, but it was the new releases, surprise sequels and other end-of-year announcements that really got us excitedAlongside some worthy winners - Balatro, Astro Bot and Metaphor: ReFantazio swept the board - the Game awards last Thursday brought a generous bounty of end-of-year announcements, like unexpected gifts under the tree. In terms of newsworthy reveals, it was the best show yet: it felt a bit like an old-school E3 conference. If you were, quite understandably, not watching a three-hour video game awards show live from LA that aired after midnight UK time, here's what's worth knowing about.A first look at The Witcher IV Continue reading...

At first, the relentless flocks of drones were unusual but nothing to worry about - now, people want answersKyle Breese, 36, works remotely in insurance and lives in Ocean Township, New Jersey, a sleepy suburb with tree-cloaked streets, not far from beaches. Last Saturday night, with his wife and two kids inside their home, he let out his ageing dog Bruce into the backyard and then looked up.There, in the sky, was an unmistakable floating object. Not high enough to be a planet or a star, but about the elevation of an aircraft. Continue reading...

Imagination Technologies had licences with two Chinese firms - but said it had not implemented transactions' that would enable the use of technology for military purposesChinese engineers developing chips for artificial intelligence that can be used in advanced weapons systems" have gained access to cutting-edge UK technology, the Guardian can reveal.Described by analysts as China's premier AI chip designers", Moore Threads and Biren Technology are subject to US export restrictions over their development of chips that can be used to provide artificial intelligence capabilities to further development of weapons of mass destruction, advanced weapons systems and hi-tech surveillance applications that create national security concerns". Continue reading...

Move comes after company fails to meet deadline to begin contract talks with workers in Staten Island, New YorkThousands of Amazon workers are gearing up to strike from Thursday, days before Christmas, over the tech giant's refusal to begin negotiations over a contract.Union locals are preparing members for pickets and actions outside Amazon facilities around the US. Continue reading...

PC; Creative Reflex/Wrong Organ

GM is shutting down its robotaxi business, Tesla is creating one of its own - what does the future hold for self-driving?

Consultation suggests opt-out scheme for creatives who don't want their work used by Google, OpenAI and othersCampaigners for the protection of the rights of creatives have criticised a UK government proposal to let artificial intelligence companies train their algorithms on their works under a new copyright exemption.Book publishers said the proposal put out for consultation on Tuesday was entirely untested and unevidenced" while Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer campaigning to protect artists' and creatives' rights, said she was very disappointed". Continue reading...

Ministry of Defence says risk with Textio tool is low and robust safeguards' have been put in place by suppliersAn artificial intelligence tool hosted by Amazon and designed to boost UK Ministry of Defence recruitment puts defence personnel at risk of being identified publicly, according to a government assessment.Data used in the automated Textio system to improve the drafting of defence job adverts and attract more diverse candidates by improving the inclusiveness language, includes names, roles and emails of military personnel and is stored using Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the US. This means a data breach may have concerning consequences, ie identification of defence personnel", according to documents detailing government AI systems published for the first time today.The possibility of inappropriate lesson material being generated by a AI-powered lesson-planning tool used by teachers based on Open AI's powerful large language model, GPT-4o. The AI saves teachers time and can personalise lesson plans rapidly in a way that may otherwise not be possible.Hallucinations" by a chatbot deployed to answer queries about the welfare of children in the family courts. However, it also offers round the clock information and reduces queue times for people who need to speak to a human agent.Erroneous operation of the code" and incorrect input data" in HM Treasury's new PolicyEngine that uses machine learning to model tax and benefit changes with greater accuracy than existing approaches".A degradation of human reasoning" if users of an AI to prioritise food hygiene inspection risks become over-reliant on the system. It may also result in consistently scoring establishments of a certain type much lower", but it should also mean faster inspections of places that are more likely to break hygiene rules. Continue reading...

The terrible toll that smartphones are taking on young people is now undeniable. We need to start talking about a banEvery parent of a school-age child should watch Swiped, the Channel 4 documentary on smartphones shown last week. It was devastating. It told of an Essex secondary school's experiment in response to what it saw as a rise in anxiety and stress among its 11-year-olds. A group of them agreed to surrender their phones for three weeks.The parents' stories were familiar - of children unable to make eye contact with adults, no longer chatting with ease, spending hours alone and staying awake into the small hours. Some spent five, six, even nine hours a day on their phones. They made friends" with total strangers, received hate mail, suffered panic attacks, went from normal to self-harm. Surveys claim a quarter of British 11-year-olds have now watched online pornography. One child died in tragic circumstances closely linked to their social media use.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner announces deal with Meta over scandal that may have affected 300,000 users