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As the Goodbye Meta AI meme proved, many of us vastly overestimate our abilities to discern what's true online - but spotting misinformation isn't something we can do alone Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereIt's a wild world out there online, with dis- and misinformation flying about at pace. I'm part-way through writing a book about the history of fake news, so I'm well aware that people making stuff up is not new. But what is new is the reach that troublemakers have, whether their actions are deliberate or accidental.Social media and the wider web changed the game for mischief-makers, and made it easier for the rest of us to be inadvertently hoodwinked online (see: the odd Goodbye Meta AI" trend that I wrote about this week for the Guardian). The rise of generative AI since the release of ChatGPT in 2022 has also supercharged the risks. While early research suggests our biggest fears about the impact of AI-generated deepfakes on elections are unfounded, the overall information environment is a puzzling one. Continue reading...

The 271-page file overlooks almost everything that average voters, especially women, might find distasteful about VanceThe public got a peek into the inner workings of the Trump campaign last week, when the independent journalist Ken Klippenstein did what major news outlets refused to: he published the opposition research dossier on JD Vance's electoral vulnerabilities that was written by the Trump campaign in the lead-up to the VP announcement.The dossier, which was obtained in a hack thought to have been perpetrated by Iranian state interests, would have been compiled by Donald Trump's camp as part of a routine vetting process as the Republican campaign surveilled possible VP picks and assessed their strengths and weaknesses. It is thorough: at 271 pages, it contains a robust and factual accounting of the vice-presidential candidate's public statements and associations going back years. As such, it offers a unique perspective into how the Trump campaign views the race - and how they understand the controversial man who is now in their No 2 spot. Continue reading...

As generative AI advances, it is easy to see it as yet another area where machines are taking over - but humans remain at the centre of AI art, just in ways we might not expectWhen faced with a bit of downtime, many of my friends will turn to the same party game. It's based on the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, and involves translating brief written descriptions into rapidly made drawings and back again. One group calls it Telephone Pictionary; another refers to it as Writey-Drawey. The internet tells me it is also called Eat Poop You Cat, a sequence of words surely inspired by one ofthe game's results.As recently as three years ago, it was rare to encounter text-to-image or image-to-text mistranslations in daily life, which made the outrageous outcomes of the game feel especially novel. But we have since entered a new era of image-making. With the aid of AI image generators like Dall-E 3, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, and the generative features integrated into Adobe's Creative Cloud programs, you can now transform a sentence or phrase into a highly detailed image in mere seconds. Images, likewise, can be nearly instantly translated into descriptive text. Today, you can play Eat Poop You Cat alone in your room, cavorting with the algorithms. Continue reading...

Fortnite maker's lawsuit says Samsung Auto Blocker deters users from app downloads outside Google's Play storeFortnite video game maker Epic Games on Monday accused Alphabet's Google and Samsung, the world's largest Android phone manufacturer, of conspiring to protect Google's Play store from competition.Epic filed a lawsuit in US federal court in California alleging that a Samsung mobile security feature called Auto Blocker was intended to deter users from downloading apps from sources other than the Play store or Samsung's Galaxy store. It's Epic's second antitrust suit against Google. Continue reading...

Revamped open-fit earbuds improve popular formula with advanced features and smaller case, but are still disposableApple's latest AirPods have a new trick up their sleeves, offering noise cancelling without the need to block your ears with silicone tips.The AirPods 4 come in two versions. A standard set that are direct replacements for the outgoing model with a slightly refined shape, a smaller case and better sound for 129 (149/$129/A$219). But more interesting are the AirPods 4 with noise cancelling costing from 179 (199/$179/A$299).Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, SBC, AAC, H2 chipBattery life: up to five hours playback (30 hours with case)Water resistance: IP54 (splash resistant)Earbud dimensions: 30.1 x 18.3 x 18.1mmEarbud weight: 4.3g eachCharging case dimensions: 46.2 x 50.1 x 21.2mmCharging case weight: 34.7gCase charging: USB-C or wireless (Qi or Watch) Continue reading...

Abdul Hai, acquitted of murder over the death of Richard Everitt in 1994, said social media sites must be held accountableA man falsely accused of murder by Tommy Robinson on X has called for legislation to control Elon Musk's social media website, arguing it has become a platform for racism, bigotry, bias, prejudice and disinformation".Abdul Hai, who was acquitted of murdering the teenager Richard Everitt in 1994, told the Guardian that he is considering legal action against the social media site formerly known as Twitter, after Robinson, a far-right agitator, posted that he had been convicted of the crime. Continue reading...

AI apps are increasingly popular among small-scale farmers seeking to improve the quality and quantity of their cropSammy Selim strode through the dense, shiny green bushes on the slopes of his coffee farm in Sorwot village in Kericho, Kenya, accompanied by a younger farmer called Kennedy Kirui. They paused at each corner to send the farm's coordinates to a WhatsApp conversation.The conversation was with Virtual Agronomist, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide fertiliser application advice using chat prompts. The chatbot asked some further questions before producing a report saying that Selim should target a yield of 7.9 tonnes and use three types of fertiliser in specific quantities to achieve that goal. Continue reading...

New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac paint a damning portrait of the billionaire who turned the social media platform into a smaller business and a larger cesspoolIf Elon Musk is a name that sounds as if it was invented by Ian Fleming, there's more than a hint of the Bond villain about the South Africa-born American billionaire. It's not just the extraordinary wealth, which hovers around the quarter of a trillion dollars mark, but the SpaceX business that sends rockets into space and seeks Martian colonisation (very Hugo Drax and Moonraker) and the hypersensitive ego.All of these sides of Musk are on painful display in Kate Conger and Ryan Mac's book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter. So unappealing is the portrait this pair of New York Times technology reporters paint that a more fitting title might be Character Assassination. Or it would if it wasn't for the fact that Musk himself provides most of ammunition discharged in this damning account. Continue reading...

By focusing on its strengths and pooling information, the west can disrupt Russia's war machine - but there's no time to loseRussia is a mafia state" trying to expand into a mafia empire", the foreign secretary, David Lammy, told the UN, nailing the dual nature of Vladimir Putin's political model. On one hand Russia represents something very old - a world of bullying empires that invade smaller countries, grab their resources and indoctrinate their people into thinking they are inferior. But it is also something very new, weaponising corruption, criminal networks, assassinations and tech-driven psy-ops to subvert open societies. And if democracies don't act to stop it, this malign model will be imitated across the globe.Ukraine is resisting the older, zombie imperialism every day on the battlefield, and democracies will have to arm Ukraine and ourselves to constrain Russia properly. But how should we fight the more contemporary tools of political warfare that Russia pioneers? These are becoming ever more prevalent. Globalisation was meant to make us all so integrated that it would diminish the risk of wars. Instead, the free flow of information, money and people across borders also made subversion easier than ever. At the Labour party conference, Lammy indicated that democracies need to work together to stop Russia: Exposing their agents, building joint capability and working with the global south to take on Putin's lies."Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

OpenAI o1, AKA Strawberry, appears to be a significant advance, but its chain of thought' should be made public knowledgeIt's nearly two years since OpenAI released ChatGPT on an unsuspecting world, and the world, closely followed by the stock market, lost its mind. All over the place, people were wringing their hands wondering: What This Will Mean For [enter occupation, industry, business, institution].Within academia, for example, humanities professors agonised about how they would henceforth be able to grade essays if students were using ChatGPT or similar technology to help write them. The answer, of course, is to come up with better ways of grading, because students will use these tools for the simple reason that it would be idiotic not to - just as it would be daft to do budgeting without spreadsheets. But universities are slow-moving beasts and even as I write, there are committees in many ivory towers solemnly trying to formulate policies on AI use". Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg's new revamp is a far cry from the zip-up hoodies and suits emblematic of earlier eras of FacebookMark Zuckerberg is revamping his public image with new threads. With a trio of bold shirts worn in recent appearances, he's communicating that he came, he saw, he conquered and he will win again at any cost. The fits might be sick, but we would do well to beware.During a live, packed-auditorium podcast interview last week, the CEO of Meta wore a drop-shouldered black shirt reading pathei mathos", Greek for learning through suffering". At his 40th birthday party in May, he donned a black tee with the motto Carthago delenda est," which translates from Latin to Carthage must be destroyed." He wore a black shirt with black text that read Aut Zuck aut nihil" during Meta's Connect product demonstration on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The Italian photographer got more than just lunch when his visit to a cafe turned into a self-portrait opportunity with a novel backdropThe hilltop Roman town of Vasto, in southern Abruzzo, overlooks the Adriatic Sea. Seen here is the view from the Loggia Amblingh, a path along the medieval walls that still stand today. Except,that's not quite what is pictured.Davide Pitetti was indeed in Vasto's old town; that morning he had completed awallpapering job for alocal client and he had stopped for his lunch in a small shopping centre. The image in the background is in fact hand-painted on the wall of the cafe. Continue reading...

Hackers were trying to undermine Trump's campaign as Republican nominee for president, says Merrick GarlandThe US justice department unsealed criminal charges on Friday against three Iranian operatives suspected of hacking Donald Trump's presidential campaign and disseminating stolen information to media organizations.The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said on Friday afternoon that hackers were trying to undermine Trump's campaign, as the Republican nominee for president. Continue reading...

Ex-employee William Saunders says he is also concerned by reports Sam Altman could hold stake in restructured firmOpenAI's plan to become a for-profit company could encourage the artificial intelligence startup to cut corners on safety, a whistleblower has said.William Saunders, a former research engineer at OpenAI, told the Guardian he was concerned by reports that the ChatGPT developer was preparing to change its corporate structure and would no longer be controlled by its non-profit board. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg is embracing both AI and full-on imperial monomania. As for petty gripes about elections and teen mental health, so what?The good news is that Mark Zuckerberg has become bored of looking like an answer to the AI prompt efit of a teen villain". The bad? While the Meta overlord has grown out the Caesar hairstyle that has sustained him since 2016, he is now leaning in to open imperial monomania. This week's Meta Connect conference saw Mark take the stage in a T-shirt reading Aut Zuck Aut Nihil. Either Zuck Or Nothing. The original was Aut Caesar Aut Nihil and was enthusiastically adopted as a motto by one of the worst Borgias (tough field) ... but look, I'm sure it's ironic. Mark's such a gifted ironist.We'll get to the magic glasses and AI feedspam he was pushing at this week's event in a minute - but before we do, let's recap. Easily the most significant thing Mark Zuckerberg has said this year was that he isn't sorry any more - in fact, that he wished he'd never said sorry for most of what he'd ever said sorry for. I paraphrase only slightly. A couple of weeks ago, Zuckerberg appeared on stage for a podcast and called Facebook's willingness to offer stakes-free apologies for things he wasn't to blame for - like election manipulation or the effect of social media on teen mental health - a 20-year mistake". Continue reading...

Carmaker wants to appeal to employees' work ethic' but move prompts outrage from plant's unionThe boss of a Tesla factory has defended the decision to send managers to the homes of workers on long-term sick leave.In recent weeks, a director of Tesla's electric car plant in Germany sent managers to check up on about two dozen employees who have continued to be paid while being on sick leave over the past nine months. Continue reading...

Company plans announced as it reckons with departure of senior executives and seeks huge investment

X owner responds by saying people should avoid UK when they're releasing convicted pedophiles'Elon Musk has hit back at the UK government after he was not invited to an international investment summit following his controversial social media posts during last month's riots.Musk said on X on Thursday: I don't think anyone should go to the UK when they're releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts." Continue reading...

Reported move follows recent departure of senior figures from ChatGPT developerOpenAI is reportedly pushing ahead with plans to become a for-profit company, after more senior figures left the ChatGPT developer following the surprise exit of its chief technology officer, Mira Murati.The San Francisco-based startup is preparing to change its corporate structure as it seeks $6.5bn (4.9bn) in new funding, according to reports. Continue reading...

Though the message has been shared by many users, including celebrities, it offers no copyright or privacy protectionThe Goodbye Meta AI" message, which purports to protect the user from having the likes of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp use their accounts as an AI training camp, has become an increasingly common feature on timelines. It has been shared by actors and sports stars - including James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale and Tom Brady - as well as hundreds of thousands of others.But why - and what effect, if any, will it have? Continue reading...

False information spurred these west African migrants to come to the US. Now they receive even more misleading guidance about navigating their new homeThis article is co-published with Documented, a multilingual news site about immigrants in New York, and the Markup, a non-profit, investigative newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good.One video told viewers that new migrants easily get work permits and good jobs in the United States. Another warned viewers, once they are in the US, not to change their postal address or transfer their asylum case if they move to another state. Another instructed them to reapply for asylum if they do not receive an acknowledgment letter within a few months. Continue reading...

Online pledge by Smartphone Free Childhood signed by at least one parent at 6,537 schoolsAn online pledge to withhold smartphones from children until they are at least 14 has been signed by parents at 20% of schools across the UK, according to a campaign group.A parent pact" organised by Smartphone Free Childhood has been signed by at least one parent at 6,537 schools, with the signatories representing just under 35,000 children. There are 32,000 schools across the UK, including nurseries and pupil referral units. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: Slow Burn returns for a new season, examining the phoenix-like rise of the American media giant. Plus: five of the best reality TV podcasts Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWonder of Stevie

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Chief technology officer had taken over the ChatGPT maker when its board ousted CEO Sam Altman in NovemberIn a surprise move, OpenAI's chief technology officer announced on Wednesday that she would soon leave the company after six and a half years.In a note shared with the company and then posted to Twitter/X, Mira Murati wrote she was leaving the tech company behind ChatGPT. After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI ... I'm stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration," she said. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion, prototype that can project digital renderings of media, games and more onto real worldThe Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, presented new augmented reality glasses at the company's annual developer conference on Wednesday, debuting a prototype of the next phase in its expansion into smart eyewear. Zuckerberg also announced that Meta AI will be able to talk in the voice of Dame Judi Dench.The glasses, named Orion, have the ability to project digital representations of media, people, games and communications on to the real world. Meta and Zuckerberg have framed the product as a step away from desktop computers and smartphone into eyewear that can perform similar tasks. Continue reading...

The beauty trend that uses near-infrared light waves has surged in popularity - but can you achieve results at home?If you are interested in beauty trends and self-care, you've probably encountered red light therapy (RLT). Formally known as photobiomodulation, doctors first discovered that red and near-infrared light wavelengths sped hair regrowth in the late sixties. Later studies found it boosted wound healing. Since then, it has gradually entered the esthetics field, initially gaining traction as an in-office tool for post-operative recovery in plastic surgery patients, explains Dr Prem Tripathi, a facial plastic surgeon based in Alamo, California.By the mid 2010s, RLT devices emerged for use at home. These have surged in popularity as a non-invasive way to purportedly smooth wrinkles, heal acne and scars, improve skin tone and boost hair growth. Continue reading...

The comedian provides a crash course in standup history - including Norm Macdonald, Maria Bamford and Adam Sandler

Nintendo Switch; Grezzo/Nintendo

From playing Mario on a giant controller to spotting Pikmin hiding in corners, my visit to this delightful museum in Kyoto offered up experience over education Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereNintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyoto, 100 years before the release of the Game Boy. Long before it was a video game company, it made hanafuda cards adorned with scenes from nature, used to play several different games popular in Japan. By 1969, Nintendo had expanded its business to include western-style playing cards and toys, and the company built a plant to manufacture them in southern Kyoto. Until 2016, the Uji Ogura Plant operated both as a card factory and as a repairs centre for the company's consoles. Now has been turned into a Nintendo Museum, opening on 2 October, where the gaming giant's entire history will be on display.Nintendo flew me to Kyoto to see the museum this week. Along with the Super Nintendo World theme park, at Universal Studios in Osaka, it will be a major draw for video game tourists in Japan. It's laid out across two floors: upstairs, there is a gallery of Nintendo products, from playing cards through to the Nintendo Switch. Downstairs are the interactive exhibits, where you can play snatches of Nintendo games on comically gigantic controllers that require two people to operate, and immerse yourself for a not-entirely-generous seven minutes in a NES, SNES or N64 game in the retro area. Or you can step into a re-creation of a 1960s Japanese home and whack ping-pong balls with a bat (the Ultra Machine batting toy was developed by Gunpei Yokoi, the inventor of the Game Boy, and released in 1967). Continue reading...

Many fear the arrival of tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google in the state of Queretaro will place too much of a strain on scarce water and electricity resourcesIn a nondescript building in an industrial park in central Mexico, cavernous rooms hold stack after stack of servers studded with blue lights, humming with computations and cooled by thousands of little fans and large vents blasting great columns of air across the room.Datacentres are the lungs of digital life," says Amet Novillo, the managing director of Equinix Mexico, a digital infrastructure company, as he stands in the middle of the airflows that stop the hardware overheating. Continue reading...

Smart alarm clock ticks most boxes with distraction-free screen and room-filling soundAmazon's latest attempt to usurp the humble bedside alarm clock is the revamped Echo Spot, equipped with a speaker and small display for a customisable Alexa clock.The new Spot straddles the line between Amazon's Echo Show smart displays and its basic Echo smart speakers in price and capability. The Spot costs 80 (95/80/A$149), though frequently much less in Amazon's numerous sales.Dimensions: 113 x 103 x 111 mmWeight: 405gTouchscreen: 2.83inConnectivity: wifi 5 (ac), BluetoothSpeaker: 1.73in Continue reading...

Faulty update from cybersecurity company grounded hospitals, airports and payment systems in JulyA CrowdStrike senior executive apologized for causing a global software outage that ground the operations of hospitals, airports, payment systems and personal computers around the world to a halt in July.Adam Meyers, senior vice-president for counter-adversary operations at CrowdStrike, testified before Congress on Tuesday. Meyers will speak to the House homeland security cybersecurity and infrastructure protection subcommittee. In his testimony, he said: I am here today because, just over two months ago, on July 19, we let our customers down ... On behalf of everyone at CrowdStrike, I want to apologize." He will say the company has undertaken a full review of our systems" to prevent the cascade of errors from occurring again. Continue reading...

The standup comedian ripped into the AI cloud-based company's employees - and got praised for it onlineLast week, John Mulaney looked out on a crowd of corporate Salesforce employees and told them they were imminently replaceable.You look like a group who looked at the self-checkout counters at CVS and thought, This is the future,'" the comedian said. If AI is truly smarter than us and tells us that [humans] should die, then I think we should die. So many of you feel imminently replaceable." Continue reading...

Tigo's former investigator claims he was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns over 2017 attack on Tundu LissuGunmen tried to assassinate a Tanzanian opposition politician after a telecoms company secretly passed his mobile phone data to the government, according to evidence heard in a London tribunal.The mobile phone company Tigo provided 24/7 phone call and location data belonging to Tundu Lissu to Tanzanian authorities in the weeks before the attempt on his life in September 2017. Continue reading...

Hack continued in last 10 days, documents show, as campaign tries to spin it into sign of fear Trump instills in IranA suspected Iranian hack of Donald Trump's presidential campaign has continued within the last 10 days and may still be happening, according to a journalist who received illegally obtained documents from the Republican nominee's election effort.Judd Legum, the publisher of the progressive newsletter Popular Information, revealed that he was sent a letter that Trump's lawyer had written to the New York Times on 15 September from a source called Robert", as well as dossiers on three potential running mates, including JD Vance, the current GOP vice-presidential nominee. Continue reading...

Governor signed a law on Monday requiring state schools to create rules to restrict student cellphone use by 2026School districts in California will have to create rules restricting student smartphone use under a new law that the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, signed on Monday.The law requires districts to pass rules by 1 July 2026 to limit or ban students from using smartphones on campus or while they are under the supervision of school staff. Districts will have to update their policies every five years after that. Continue reading...

As research shows many have a poor online dating experience, those who have deleted the apps discuss pitfallsThe rise of dating apps in the last decade has changed the way people forge relationships, with Pew research conducted in 2022 finding that 53% of US adults under 30 had used online dating.But dating apps have caused dissatisfaction and despair among many users, as Pew found 46% of all users (and 51% of women) had a negative experience of online dating. Continue reading...

As Disney ditches the productivity platform following a data breach, the UK-based open-source tool Matrix prepares to step up with a bold claim: that it's hack-proof. Is mainstream tech ready for it? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereNever say we don't take you anywhere with these newsletters. I write this from the departure lounge at Berlin Brandenburg airport, where I can recommend its simulacrum of fish and chips but cannot recommend its security line (seriously, queue up early).I'm here for a conference run by a tech company you've never heard of that makes a technology you've never used: Matrix. That'll become important later. Continue reading...

Co-founder of expert group says unchecked power of these entities poses grave risk' to news environmentSocial media owners, politicians and governments are the biggest threats to a trustworthy online news environment, according to an expert group studying misinformation whose work is modelled on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) said owners of social media platforms topped a survey of concerns, followed by domestic and foreign governments and politicians. Continue reading...

Platform with millions of subscribers discloses a more proactive approach to reporting infringers to authoritiesThe Telegram founder and chief executive, Pavel Durov, said on Monday that the messaging platform had removed more problematic content" and would take a more proactive approach to complying with government requests. The announcement comes weeks after his arrest in France on charges of failing to act against criminals using the app.Telegram's search feature has been abused by people who violated our terms of service to sell illegal goods", Durov told the 13 million subscribers of his personal messaging channel. Continue reading...

Meta's changes include making teen accounts private and limiting sensitive content'. Many say it's not enoughSevey Morton first got an Instagram account when she was 10 years old. She used it to keep up with friends, but also to follow pop culture trends. Now 16, the San Diego high schooler says all the airbrushed perfection and slickly edited selfies from celebrities and influencers made her hyper-focused on her appearance, causing anxiety and body image issues.Being exposed to that at a very young age impacted the way I grew into myself," Morton said. There is a huge part of me that wishes social media did not exist." Continue reading...

As Chinese carmakers become more powerful, US fears installed sensors and software could be used for espionageThe Biden administration has proposed new rules that would in effect prohibit Chinese-made vehicles from US roads after a months-long investigation into software and digital connections that could be used to spy on Americans or sabotage the vehicles.The proposed rules come as Chinese automakers become more powerful in global markets, exporting a flood of high-tech vehicles and posing new challenges to western manufacturers, with governments fearing that installed sensors, cameras and software could be used for espionage or other data collection purposes. Continue reading...

The band's Martyn Ware has hit out at the fee offered for Temptation in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. But as music becomes ever more central to gaming, the sums get complicatedThe 1983 song Temptation by Heaven 17 is an undisputed classic of the synth pop era, a glacial paean to sexual tension denied the number No 1 spot only by the sheer might of True by Spandau Ballet. So how much should it be worth to a video game publisher in 2024? That's the question many asked when Heaven 17's Martyn Ware recently tweeted about a licensing offer from Rockstar to use the track in Grand Theft Auto VI. IT WAS $7500 [5,600] - for a buyout of any future royalties from the game - forever," he typed. To put this in context, Grand Theft Auto 6 [sic] grossed, wait for it... $8.6 BILLION. Ah, but think of the exposure... Go fuck yourself."The thread went viral and Ware was inundated with reactions, ranging from support to bewildered chastisement. Ware later clarified that the figure he gave was his share of a $22,500 payment to the whole band; industry experts waded in pointing out that the record label would also need to be paid, bringing the total offer up to a possible $45,000. Would that be fair for a song that may just feature on the GTA radio stations? GTA V featured 240 tracks on release and now has more than 400. As one industry insider told me about the Heaven 17 offer, you multiply that by a few hundred and you've got the biggest ever music budget for a video game." Continue reading...

There has been a huge wave of parental concern about smartphones this year. So do kids without them feel deprived - or more alive?Nothing has been able to stop smartphones taking over our lives and those of our children. But the inevitable backlash is in full flow. It's not only about family arguments over screen-time restrictions, or the often futile efforts of parents to minimise exposure to adult, radicalising or consumerist content. With the rising perception that phones are addictive and interfere with children's learning, creativity and concentration, and with more than 97% of 12-year-olds owning a smartphone, schools have been taking action. In February, the UK government issued guidance on smartphones and some schools have since banned them.Also in February, two concerned parents created the WhatsApp group Smartphone Free Childhood. The online community now has more than 120,000 members, with a local group in every county in the UK and thousands of school groups within those", according to the co-founder, Daisy Greenwell. Continue reading...

Bright OLED screen, voice control and a torch only add to go anywhere, track anything ability, but price increase stingsThe Fenix 8 is a landmark moment for Garmin. By adding voice control, an OLED screen and other niceties, it has merged its top Fenix and Epix adventure watch lines to better compete with increasingly advanced smartwatches from Apple, Samsung and other major players.The Fenix has always been where Garmin debuts its technology and features first before trickling them down into other products, such as the popular Forerunner series. It certainly feels more modern, but at 870 (1,000/$1,000/A$1,699) - a 120 or so increase over its already pricy predecessor - these new advances including diving tracking and AI assistant access do not come cheap. Continue reading...

Immersive training scenarios highlight experiences of minority ethnic colleagues in health serviceIn one scene, a black nurse called Tunde is told by his manager that personal protective equipment (PPE) was being locked away at night to prevent its theft during night shifts, during the pandemic when ethnic minorities were more likely to work these hours.In another, an Asian female doctor called Jasmine is dismissed by an HR manager after raising a double standard regarding requests for shift changes during the pandemic over childcare, something which her white colleagues were granted. Continue reading...

For his explosion event in Los Angeles, Cai Guo-Qiang built his own version of ChatGPT and employed a drone army to answer the question: what is the fate of humanity and AI?For decades, Cai Guo-Qiang has been the world's foremost fine artist of explosions. He is famous for his massive fireworks displays, from his glowing footsteps in the sky at the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to his 2015 Sky Ladder, a 1,650-foot flaming ladder to heaven featured in a Netflix documentary.Recently, the gunpowder artist has become obsessed with a new threatening technology: artificial intelligence. Continue reading...

The platform agrees to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, pays fines and takes down user accounts that the court had ordered removedElon Musk fought the law. The law appears to have won.X, Musk's social media platform, has backed down in its fight with the Brazilian judiciary, after complying with court orders that had blocked users in the country from accessing X. Continue reading...

The tech firm's federal approval to turn its earbuds into hearing aids is one in the eye for the monopolistic US healthcare agencyLike many professional scribblers, I sometimes have to write not in a hushed study or library, but in noisy environments. So years ago I bought a set of Apple AirPods Pro, neat little gadgets that have a limited degree of noise-cancelling ability. They're not as effective as the clunky (and pricey) headphones that seasoned transcontinental airline passengers need, but they're much lighter and less obtrusive. And they have a button that enables you to switch off the noise cancellation and hear what's going on around you.I remember wondering once if a version of them could also function as hearing aids, given the right software. But then dismissed the thought: after all, hearing aids are expensive, specialised devices that are often prescribed by audiologists - and also signal to the world at large that you are hard of hearing. Continue reading...