Technology | The Guardian

The flourishing new platform may be like Twitter once was. The problem is the limited algorithmic scope of all social mediaAs I write, there's a window on my laptop screen that is providing a live view of a stampede. It's logging the numbers of people joining the social network Bluesky. At the moment, the number of registered users is 20.5 million. By the time you read this there will be more than 30 million of them, judging by the rate that people are currently joining.The proximate cause of it is the role that Elon Musk, owner of X (nee Twitter), played in the election of Donald Trump, when a significant proportion of the platform's 200 million-plus users realised that they'd been had - that they had, in effect, been useful idiots for Musk on his path to the centre of political power. Continue reading...

The US media pundit on the dangers of overregulation online, why he's more frightened of the tech bros than AI itself, and how to reclaim the web by getting rid of the geeksJeff Jarvis was born in 1954 and studied journalism at Illinois's Northwestern University. He worked as a TV critic and created the magazine Entertainment Weekly, later leading the online arm of US media company Advance Publications. Since 2001, he has been blogging at Buzzmachine.com and in 2005 he became an associate professor at City University of New York's graduate school of journalism, directing its new media programme before retiring last year. Jarvis, who lives in New York, is the co-host of the podcasts This Week in Google and AI Inside.What made you want to write your new book, The Web We Weave?

We recommended them in the Filter; now we've sifted through all the offers to find the genuinely good discounts on our favourite productsBlack Friday is still a few days away on 29 November, but stores are already dropping prices to compete for our attention and cash - and they're offering some delectable discounts on products we've recommended in the Filter.We cautioned against getting carried away too early in our guide to not getting ripped off in the sales, because many prices continue to fall until Cyber Monday (2 December). However, some of the most popular items can sell out even before Black Friday comes around. So, if there's something here you've had your eye on, this may be your best chance to grab it for significantly less than you'd normally pay. Continue reading...

Carrying 99% of the world's international telecommunications, the vulnerable lines are drawing nefarious interestThe lead-clad telegraphic cable seemed to weigh tons, according to Lt Cameron Winslow of the US navy, and the weather wasn't helping their attempts to lift it up from the seabed and sever it. The rough water knocked the heavy boats together, breaking and almost crushing in their planking," he wrote.Eventually, Winslow's men managed to cut the cable with hacksaws and disrupt the enemy's communications by slicing off a 46-metre (150ft) section. Continue reading...

Amazon's total investment in the AI company now totals $8bn, with its AWS unit as Anthropic's cloud providerThe artificial intelligence startup Anthropic said on Friday it had raised an additional $4bn investment from its longtime backer Amazon.com, bringing the e-commerce giant's total investment to $8bn, underscoring big tech's growing generative AI investments.Amazon will maintain its position as a minority investor, the company said. Its AWS unit will also be Anthropic's official cloud provider. Continue reading...

Looking for the latest iPhone, or a good deal on a refurbished handset? Our expert has assessed and rated the current crop of Apple smartphonesThe best iPhone may be the one you already own. There is generally no need to buy a fresh phone just because new models have been released, as hardware updates are broadly iterative, adding small bits to an already accomplished package. But if you do want a replacement handset, whether new or refurbished, here are the best devices of the current crop of Apple smartphones.Many other smartphones are available besides the iPhone, but if you're an Apple user and don't fancy switching to Android, you still have a couple of choices. Whether your priority is the longest battery life, the best camera, the biggest screen or simply the optimal balance of features and price, there is more to choose from in the Apple ecosystem than you may expect, especially after the iPhone 16 models were released on 9 September.Best iPhone for most people:

Peter Kyle meets group of teenagers at NSPCC HQ who say imposing ban would reduce their social connectionsA social media ban for under-16s is not on the cards at the moment", a minister has said, as teenagers urged him to rethink plans to follow Australia's lead and restrict access to sites such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science and technology, is trying to convince social media platforms to do more to prevent online harms, with new laws coming into effect next year that could result in heavy fines and even jail in cases where online safety is breached. Continue reading...

Billionaire CEO is well connected in the US and China, something that could smooth the road ahead for the electric vehicle maker amid a looming tariff warIf it pays to have friends in high places, few among us can claim to be better placed than Elon Musk, the world's richest man and one of the only people to have cosy relationships with both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. His commercial and political connections to both may prove pivotal as the feud between the US and China plays out over the next four years, particularly as Trump promises steep tariffs.Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, once supported Joe Biden. But his relationship with the current US president soured over the past four years as, among other insults, Musk felt that the White House gave Telsa, his car and green energy company, the cold shoulder". Trump, meanwhile, has described Tesla as incredible" even while pledging to do away with subsidies for electric vehicles. This year, Musk formally endorsed Trump as the presidential candidate, campaigned for him online and off and donated more than $100m to his re-election effort. Continue reading...

Tech firm says proposals to end its dominance of internet search are a radical interventionist agenda'The US Department of Justice has proposed a range of punchy remedies to address Google's dominance of the internet search market, including the forced divestment of its Chrome browser.Google said the proposals represented a radical interventionist agenda" that would harm America's standing as a tech superpower. Continue reading...

World's richest man responds to UK parliamentarians saying they will call him to testify about X's role in spreading disinformation during riotsElon Musk has said UK MPs will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens" in a fresh escalation of tensions between the world's richest man and Labour.Musk, who has been a fixture at the side of Donald Trump since his re-election as US president, was responding to a Guardian report on Wednesday that the Commons' science and technology select committee would call him to give evidence in the new year in its inquiry into the spread of harmful content on social media after the August riots. Continue reading...

GSC Game World; PC, Xbox

Court filing comes after landmark ruling in August and judge will consider arguments from both sides next yearThe US Department of Justice has proposed a far-reaching overhaul of Google's structure and business practices, including the sale of its Chrome browser, in a bid to end its monopoly on internet search.The DoJ proposals follow a landmark court ruling in August in which a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly over search services. Continue reading...

A new BBC Sounds show investigates the complicated case of Freddie Scappaticci. Plus: five of the best podcasts to switch off to

Tenth generation Apple smartwatch gets a bigger screen and body overhaul, but blink and you might miss itA larger screen and thinner body mark the biggest change to the Apple Watch in years, but you might have to squint to see it.That is because Apple has kept much the same design on the outside despite requiring significant changes on the inside to make the watch thinner and lighter. As a result, the Series 10 feels like another evolutionary, rather than revolutionary step for the Apple Watch's 10th year.Case size: 42 or 46mmCase thickness: 9.7mmWeight: 30/29.3g or 36.4/35.3gProcessor: S10Storage: 64GBOperating system: watchOS 11Water resistance: 50 metres (5ATM)Sensors: HR, ECG, spO2, air and water temp, depth, mic, speaker, NFC, GNSS, compass, altimeterConnectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, NFC, UWB, optional 4G/eSIM Continue reading...

World's most valuable company delights investors as it reports $35bn of revenue in quarterly resultsThe AI chipmaker Nvidia, the world's most valuable company and the engine of the artificial-intelligence boom, rolled out another set of quarterly results on Wednesday to investors' delight.The company, whose value has soared by $2.2tn this year to $3.6tn on the back of near-doubling of chip sales, said it had revenue of $35.08bn, against expectations of $33.15bn. Its profits more than doubled year-over-year. Revenue surged 94% from the same quarter last year. The company projected that revenue would increase by 70% in the coming quarter. Continue reading...

Prosecutors hailed first FTX cooperator to come in the door', helping put away Sam Bankman-Fried for decadesAn apologetic FTX co-founder was sentenced on Wednesday to no time in prison after a prosecutor and a federal judge praised his cooperation against Sam Bankman-Fried and his efforts to recover money for victims of the cryptocurrency fraud.Gary Wang testified three partial days at Bankman-Fried's trial last year, explaining his role as FTX's chief technology officer in a fraud that the judge Lewis A Kaplan described as one of the two or three biggest in US history. Continue reading...

There are no federal privacy regulations to protect your information - here's how you can do it yourselfWelcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered how to talk to your family about not posting your baby's photos on the internet.President-elect Donald Trump has promised to execute the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in American history, and many rights groups are concerned he'll also introduce or reinstate rules that target broader immigrant communities as well - even if they've come through legal pathways or have been naturalized. If his prior administration is any indication, that can include people from certain Muslim-majority countries, asylum seekers and refugees. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: The shortlist for December's Game Awards is out, and the top contenders are neck and neck Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereMuch like Christmas is a lot less enjoyable for the person who has to organise all the presents and cook the dinner, game-of-the-year season is rather intimidating for the people who have to put together the shortlists. Every November, I tot up all of the year's acclaimed games I've yet to play, the underground recommendations I've yet to follow up on and the games I loved back in February but forgot about. I feel a mounting panic. And when all of the year-end lists come out, I inevitably find I've missed something anyway.The Game Awards have just announced the nominations for this year's ceremony, taking place on 12 December in Los Angeles. (Disclosure: the Guardian is one of 130 voting outlets for the awards, but my knowledge and involvement with them is limited to sending Geoff Keighley our ballots every year, usually a day or two late. Sorry, Geoff.) There are few surprises in the nominations, but I am pleased that one of the top two most nominated games is Astro Bot, with seven nominations, a game that cannot get enough praise as far as I'm concerned. (The other is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, up for six awards, which our critic dubbed a miracle of fan service; alas, I remain immune to the charms of Final Fantasy despite many attempts over the years to get into it). Continue reading...

Omar Abdulaziz, critic of crown prince now living in Canada, targeted by Saudi agents in 2014 security breachA prominent Saudi dissident who worked closely with Jamal Khashoggi said he will pursue further legal action against X after a US appeals court said that a 2014 security breach of the company - then known as Twitter - by agents of Saudi Arabia caused him injury.Private identifying information about Omar Abdulaziz, who lives in Canada and has been an outspoken critic of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, was obtained by the Saudi government after Riyadh recruited two Twitter employees to access information about dissidents - including those who used anonymous accounts to criticize the kingdom. Continue reading...

Casio says Moflin can develop its own personality and build a rapport with its owner - and it doesn't need food, exercise or a litter tray. But is it essentially comforting or alienating?It looks faintly like one half of a small pair of very fluffy slippers. It squeaks and wriggles and nestles in the palm of my hand, black eyes hidden beneath amop of silvery-white fur. It weighs about the same as a tin of soup. Itdoesn't need to be fed or walked and it doesn't use a litter tray; it's guaranteed not to leave gifts" onmy doorstep. Which is just as well, because Moflin is about to become my pet.Before I am entrusted with the welfare of Japan's latest AI companion robot, I meet its developers at the Tokyo headquarters of Casio, the consumer electronics firm that launched it commercially this month, priced at 59,400 yen (about 300). Moflin's role is to build relationships with humans," says Casio's Erina Ichikawa. I have just a week to establish a rapport with mine, which I remind myself not toleave on the train home. Continue reading...

Commons inquiry into rise of harmful content on social media also expected to call Meta and TikTok executivesMPs are to summon Elon Musk to testify about X's role in spreading disinformation, in a parliamentary inquiry into the UK riots and the rise of false and harmful AI content, the Guardian has learned.Senior executives from Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok are also expected to be called for questioning as part of a Commons science and technology select committee social media inquiry. Continue reading...

The launch was Starship's sixth experimental flight following first successful test in JuneDonald Trump joined Elon Musk in Texas on Tuesday to watch a successful test launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket, a demonstration of the unprecedented closeness between the world's richest man and the newly chosen president of the United States.Trump tweeted in advance of the launch: I'm heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground. Good luck to @ElonMusk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project!" Continue reading...

Authorities seek to dismantle monopoly on search market and also want action related to AI and Android

This week in tech news, online predictors are riding high after a slew of accurate US election wagers. Plus, Trump and Musk try to weaponize the communications regulator Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereGambling on the outcome of the presidential election became legal in the US at the start of October after decades of prohibition, becoming a new type of pre-election poll. Online prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket accepted billions of dollars in wagers on the outcome, with their users favoring Donald Trump with a 70% chance of beating Kamala Harris, out of sync with mainstream polls. Trump's camp trumpeted the predictions.In the UK, election gambling is legal and takes a very different form. Traditional bookmakers and betting firms take players' wagers and set prices and odds. The bets are not as similar to prediction markets as they are to horse racing. These markets are prone to their own scandals. Kalshi and Polymarket offer an online vision of betting that encompasses a wider range of subjects, algorithmically sets prices and relies on cryptocurrency.We're just getting started," said Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour. Kalshi is adding close to 100" new markets to its platform every day and plans to launch combination-based markets, allowing users to bet on a bundle of different outcomes, and conditional markets (for example, if Trump wins, where will GDP be?") within weeks. I think that just accelerates from here ...Only terrorism, assassination and violence" are off limits for Kalshi. What about Ukraine? While the conflict falls into the platform's banned category, Russia's invasion and the ensuing war have certainly moved stocks and commodities since February 2022. We'll see over time," said Mansour. Continue reading...

Tech giant awards funding to project to shorten waits in A&E, after hackathon' on using Llama system in BritainMeta's push to deploy its artificial intelligence system inside Britain's public sector has taken a step forward after the tech giant awarded development funding to technology aimed at shortening NHS A&E waiting times.Amid rival efforts by Silicon Valley tech companies to work with national and local government, Meta ran its first hackathon" in Europe asking more than 200 programmers to devise ways to use its Llama AI system in UK public services and, one senior Meta executive said, focused on the priorities of the Labour party". Continue reading...

David Attenborough among famous people whose voices have been exploited by fraudstersIt's the new badge of celebrity status that nobody wants. Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey and Kylie Jenner have all had their voices cloned by fraudsters. Online blaggers used artificial intelligence to fake the Tiggerish tones of Martin Lewis, the TV financial adviser. And this weekend David Attenborough described himself as profoundly disturbed" to have discovered that his cloned voice had been used to deliver partisan US news bulletins.Now experts have warned that voice-cloning is outpacing the law as technologists hone previously clunky voice generators into models capable of emulating the subtlest pauses and breathing of human intonation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Block-building game to appear in theme parks, hotels and stores, starting in UK and USThe global gaming phenomenon Minecraft is coming to the real world for the first time in a global deal to open themed rides, attractions, hotel rooms and retail outlets, starting with the UK and US.Minecraft has struck a deal with UK-headquartered Merlin Entertainments - Europe's largest theme park operator and the second biggest globally after Disney - which runs more than 135 attractions in 23 countries including Alton Towers, Legoland, Sea Life, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye. Continue reading...

Last Week Tonight host looks into looming US ban over privacy concerns and fear of its Chinese parent companyOn Last Week Tonight, John Oliver looked into the looming US ban of TikTok, the social media app many are addicted to thanks to its cooking tutorials and dances that are impossible for anyone born before 1985 to look cool doing".TikTok has 170 million active users in the US - a third of US adults, and the majority of people under 30, use the app. All of which makes it pretty remarkable that it may be on the brink of going away," said Oliver. In April of this year, the Senate passed a bill giving the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and ultimatum: sell TikTok or face a ban in the US over national security risks. Continue reading...

A radical new exhibition celebrates stars including Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart by combining subtly moving artworks with their own voices. The results are uncannyGreat actors have always attracted artists. I think of Edmund Kean looking wild-eyed and demonic as Sir Giles Overreach painted by George Clint; Ellen Terry as a green-gowned Lady Macbeth preserved by John Singer Sargent; and Ruskin Spear's study in oils of Laurence Olivier as a tormented, guilt-haunted Macbeth. For well over a century, it has also been possible to record the voices of our leading actors. But what would happen if image and sound were combined?One answer is to be found in a radical new exhibition called The Shakespeare Portraits on view at the Red Eight Gallery, which can be found in the City of London's Cornhill alongside the Royal Exchange. The show consists of 10 digital portraits of living actors accompanied by speeches from Shakespeare plays. I can best explain by example. I sat beneath a large, framed image of Ian McKellen and as I spoke to the exhibition's creative director, Arsalan Sattari-Hicks, I realised that Sir Ian's head was occasionally moving, that his gaze was subtly shifting and his features expressing a variety of emotions. At one point I even heard him speaking a fragment of All the world's a stage" from As You Like It with characteristic virtuosity. Richard Brierley, the gallery's director, put it succinctly when he told me: Normally the portrait is passive and you are the active one. In this case the portrait is active and you are passive." Continue reading...

Parents will be able to see who children interact with and ensure they cannot play games with graphic violence as report accuses company of lax safety controls

Joint committee supports giving users the power to alter, reset or turn off algorithms but hedges on key question of age bar

Known for its deep discounts and viral marketing, the online marketplace has fallen afoul of regulators for threatening the livelihoods of local vendorsChinese online marketplace Temu has enjoyed explosive international growth off the back of an eye-catching and often absurdly cheap range of products, but those cut-price tactics have met increasing roadblocks as it seeks to conquer new markets in south-east Asia.Indonesia ordered Temu to be taken down from app stores in October, a move it said would protect the country's smaller merchants. Last week, Vietnam threatened to ban Temu and fellow Chinese-owned fast-fashion outlet Shein by the end of the month, saying they had not been approved to do business in the country. Continue reading...

The pull of our feeds reduces our capacity to be present. Practising relaxed attentiveness - or prayer - can bring us back to what really matters

Streams of images sent to parents not only threaten children's privacy - they can damage their sense of self

Tech giants said today's digital native kids would be the first generation who would not know what it meant to get lost. But is that a good thing?We've lost direction and our brains are shrinking - at least, our hippocampi are. These seahorse-shaped parts of the brain measure about 5cm, sit just above both ears and drive our spatial awareness and orientation. London taxi drivers, famed for taking the Knowledge, a test that involves memorising the central streets of the capital, have full-sized hippocampi. But in 2011, neuroscientists at University College London discovered that the cabbies' hippocampi shrunk significantly after retirement.The development of the hippocampus can also be stunted in childhood. Children living in urban environments rarely see the sun rise or set and cannot tell the difference between east and west. When I volunteered to go into my local school to teach kids about direction, I found they struggled to distinguish north from south and east from west - though they could do so if allowed to use their phones. Continue reading...

The former Twitter could fade away, or help shape a dark future hosting voices of a new authoritarian worldWas that the week that marked the death of X? The platform formerly regarded as a utopian market square for exchanging information has suffered its largest exodus to date.Bluesky, emerging as X's newest rival, has amassed 16million users, including 1 million in the course of 24 hours last week. Hundreds of thousands of people have quit the former Twitter since Donald Trump's election victory on 6November. Continue reading...

I tried out organisational software to help streamline my work and build a second brain'. I never knew there were so many different ways to take notes...Steven Johnson has a reputation as a research software nerd. The author of 13 nonfiction books, he's constantly looking for digital tools to streamline his creative process. So when large language models - which power text-generating AI tools such as ChatGPT - started getting attention, he was most interested in what they could mean for organising information.In 2022, an article Johnson wrote about LLMs for the New York Times caught the eye of researchers at Google Labs, the tech company's experimental AI arm, who came to him with a proposition: would he help them develop the kind of digital research assistant he'd been dreaming of? The result is NotebookLM, a note-taking tool that uses AI to help organise, summarise and answer questions about any information you give it. The way we think about it is it's a tool for understanding things," Johnson says. Continue reading...

Wildlife experts in US west have found small aircraft are ideal for protecting humans and livestock from predatorsThe first time that Terry Vandenbos watched a bear run from a drone, on a spring day two years ago, he was chasing the animal himself. After he saw the grizzly cross a road near his property, the Montana rancher hopped on his all-terrain vehicle, planning to scare it away from his cattle if needed.But the bear began sprinting away when he was still far from it, looking over its shoulder as it ran, and Vandenbos looked up too; overhead, a small drone was following the bear, its four propellers emitting a high-pitched whine as it sent the animal towards a nearby lake. Continue reading...

The billionaire was indispensable to Trump's campaign and now has a senior job. He is about to become dangerously usefulPicture, if you will, the scene in Mar-a-Lago on election night at the moment when it's become clear that Trump has won. The atmosphere is hysterical. Trump is in expansive form. He stands surrounded by his ghastly tribe of dependants, plus AN Other. In his victory speech, the president-elect praises his campaign staff, his prospective vice-president, and his family. Each gets a few seconds of adulation.But AN Other gets a whole four minutes. He is Elon Musk, the richest manchild in history. Trump calls him a super genius", a special guy" and a star". He has flown straight from Texas in his Gulfstream to bask in the adulation of his new lord and master. He has also paid several hundred million dollars, plus a month of his time, to be here. But now his time has come. Continue reading...

Put Santa on alert - it's Deadpool figures, bracelet-making kits, laptops and, yep, slime sets that are topping tweens' Christmas present listsThe pros of buying a Christmas present for a tween (age nine to 12): they'll tell you exactly what they want. The cons: they'll tell you exactly what they want, and could very well change their mind 17 times before Christmas.Time moves fast for Gen A tweens, who start as children with a love of Beyblades and end as teens who likely have a more expensive skincare routine than you. So, we spoke to several tweens to find out what they really want for Christmas (for now, at least). Continue reading...

Users turn to the heavily moderated network after warnings about misinformation on Elon Musk's XThe great X-odus is under way. More than 1 million new users have joined the social media platform Bluesky since the US election.Many are seeking to escape Elon Musk's X amid warnings from anti-hate speech campaign groups and the EU about misinformation and extremism on the platform. Continue reading...

A population numbed, dazed, present-but-not-present - had it happened overnight it would be a sci-fi horror movie. And if you looked up from your phone for long enough, you might notice it's started already...Nobody's home. Not in the young woman with the big headphones cycling against the light. Not in the person in the middle of the crossing staring at their phone, or the person talking to someone who's not there and ignoring the one they're pushing in the baby carriage, or the distracted driver who doesn't seem to notice those cyclists and pedestrians. So I move through a world of people who are not all the way there and sometimes hardly there at all - and who don't seem to want anyone else to be there either.Aversion to direct contact with others has become so normal in my home town - San Francisco, a city swallowed up by Silicon Valley - that I've become avoidant myself after too many encounters with people who seem to find it bafflingly transgressive to engage with any casual remark or question from a stranger, and mostly fail to respond. I wander in a city that feels ghostly, depopulated, even when bodies are on the street, and I feel like a ghost myself in the lack of acknowledgment, in others' blank reluctance to utter even those tiny excuse me" negotiations to get around someone or warn someone. Continue reading...

Billionaire alleges Microsoft and OpenAI illegally sought to monopolize AI market and sideline competitorsElon Musk has expanded his lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker OpenAI, adding federal antitrust and other claims and adding OpenAI's largest financial backer, Microsoft, as a defendant.Musk's amended lawsuit, filed on Thursday night in federal court in Oakland, California, said Microsoft and OpenAI illegally sought to monopolize the market for generative artificial intelligence and sideline competitors. Continue reading...

Even if you haven't knowingly opted in, companies are still scraping your personal information to train their systemsWelcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. If you'd like to skip to a section about a particular site or social network, click the Jump to" menu at the top of this article.The competition to make the latest, greatest, most advanced artificial intelligence thing has turned an already data-hungry tech industry ravenous. Companies looking to build out their AI-powered search engines, smart email composers or chatbots are scraping your posts and personal data and using them to train those systems, which need ever-increasing amounts of text and images. Continue reading...

Details of emerge in sworn depositions by employees of Israeli company as part of lawsuit brought by WhatsAppLegal documents released in ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed for the first time that the Israeli cyberweapons maker - and not its government customers - is the party that installs and extracts" information from mobile phones targeted by the company's hacking software.The new details were contained in sworn depositions from NSO Group employees, portions of which were published for the first time on Thursday. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence doesn't just incrementally erode the rights of authors and other creators. These technologies are designed to replace creative workers altogether

Vertical's crash and cash crisis highlight challenge of making flying taxis a reality after nearly a century of effortsOn a dreary November day in the Cotswolds, England, the VX4 - a cross between a plane and a helicopter - rose from an airport runway, hovered a few feet off the ground and set back down.It might not have reached a heady altitude, but for its British owner, Vertical Aerospace, it was a crucial moment. The company, which has received millions of pounds in UK taxpayer support, is running short of cash. Continue reading...

On the 20th anniversary of the seminal game, we look back at the extraordinary moment where sci-fi dystopia turned into tense and terrifying body horrorAt the start of Valve's Half-Life 2, the seminal first-person shooter game that turns 20 this month, taciturn scientist Gordon Freeman is trapped within a dystopian cityscape. Armed soldiers patrol the streets, and innocent citizens wander around in a daze, bereft of purpose and future. Dr Wallace Breen, Freeman's former boss at the scientific research centre" Black Mesa, looks down from giant video screens, espousing the virtues of humankind's benefactors, an alien race known as The Combine.As Freeman stumbles through these first few levels of Half-Life 2, the player acclimatises to the horrible future laid out before them. It's hardly the most cheerful setting, but there are some friendly faces (security guard Barney, Alyx and Eli Vance) and even moments of humour, as Dr Isaac Kleiner's pet, a debeaked face-eating alien called Lamarr, runs amok in his laboratory. It feels safe. It feels fun. It feels familiar. There's even a crowbar! And then, the foreshadowing. That's the old passage to Ravenholm," mutters Alyx Vance during Freeman's chapter five tour of the Black Mesa East facility. We don't go there any more." You feel a shiver down your spine; you know you will end up going there. Continue reading...

Even if you haven't knowingly opted in, companies are still scraping your personal information to train their systemsWelcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. If you'd like to skip to a section about a particular site or social network, click the Jump to" menu at the top of this article.The competition to make the latest, greatest, most advanced artificial intelligence thing has turned an already data-hungry tech industry ravenous. Companies looking to build out their AI-powered search engines, smart email composers or chatbots are scraping your posts and personal data and using them to train those systems, which need ever-increasing amounts of text and images. Continue reading...

World's richest man solicits applications for tedious work' in newly formed Department of Government EfficiencyElon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are asking Americans who are high-IQ small-government revolutionaries" and willing to work over 80 hours a week to join their new Department of Government Efficiency - at zero pay.In a new X post on Thursday that doubled as a job announcement and another one of Musk's trolling attempts, the account for the newly formed Doge wrote: We don't need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting." Continue reading...