by Robert Booth, Jakub Krupa and Angela Giuffrida in on (#6TXGY)
Italian and Irish regulators want answers on how data harvested by chatbot could be used by Chinese governmentThe Chinese AI platform DeepSeek has become unavailable for download from some app stores in Italy as regulators in Rome and in Ireland demanded answers from the company about its handling of citizens' data.Amid growing concern on Wednesday about how data harvested by the new chatbot could be used by the Chinese government, the app disappeared from the Apple and Google app stores in Italy with customers seeing messages that said it was currently not available in the country or area you are in" for Apple and the download was not supported" for Google, Reuters reported. Continue reading...
ChatGPT creator warns Chinese startups are constantly' using its technology to develop competing productsOpenAI has warned that Chinese startups are constantly" using its technology to develop competing products and said it is reviewing" allegations that DeepSeek used the ChatGPT maker's AI models to create a rival chatbot.OpenAI and its partner Microsoft - which has invested $13bn in the San Francisco-based AI developer - have been investigating whether proprietary technology had been obtained in an unauthorised manner through a technique known as distillation". Continue reading...
Ahead of a new digital archive of video game history, I got to thinking about how the games, magazines and other material says as much about the player as the games themselvesI just finished writing a feature about the Video Game History Foundation in Oakland, California, and how it is preparing to share its digital archive of games magazines. From 30 January, you'll be able to visit the institute's website and explore a collection of about 1,500 publications from throughout the history of games, all scanned in high detail, all searchable for keywords. It's a magnificent resource for researchers and those who just want to find the first-ever review of Tetris or Pokemon. I can't wait to visit.While researching the article, I spoke to John O'Shea and Ann Wain from the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield, which is also collecting games mags and other printed ephemera. They said something that really fascinated me. The museum is looking for donations to build its archive, but its focus is not so much on the magazines themselves, but on who brings them in. We're particularly interested in fan perspectives," O'Shea told me. We're not intending to develop an exhaustive collection of every video game magazine ever made - we're interested in the full suite of an individual's video game experience ... in how games connect to their lives." Wain continued: We're interested in the stories of why - why did they collect these particular things, what were they looking for? It's that kind of social context we're after." Continue reading...
Wide-ranging investigation says impact on work likely to be profound, but opinion on risk of human extinction variesThe International AI Safety report is a wide-ranging document that acknowledges an array of challenges posed by a technology that is advancing at dizzying speed.The document, commissioned after the 2023 global AI safety summit, covers numerous threats from deepfakes to aiding cyberattacks and the use of biological weapons, as well as the impact on jobs and the environment. Continue reading...
Our reviewer sheds some light on adding brightness to your mornings with the best dawn simulation alarms, from Lumie and Philips to Hatch The best sleep aids recommended by experts: from blue light-blockers to apps to help you napTo wake each day in darkness is a plight you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, yet that's what many of us do routinely throughout winter. Getting up in the dark decouples our life from our circadian rhythm (our body clock), with bodily processes such as cognition and metabolism put to work before they're fully prepped.Thank heavens, then, for sunrise alarm clocks. These dawn simulation" devices glow with gradually intensifying brightness as your wake-up time approaches, kickstarting your circadian rhythm before you get out of bed. For many users, this results in a happier, healthier start to the day.Best overall sunrise alarm clock:
The industry's liberal reputation is misleading. Its reactionary tendencies - celebrating wealth, power and traditional masculinity - have been clear since the dotcom mania of the 1990sAn influential Silicon Valley publication runs a cover story lamenting the pussification" of tech. A major tech CEO lambasts a Black civil rights leader's calls for diversifying the tech workforce. Technologists rage against the PC police".No, this isn't Silicon Valley in the age of Maga. It's the tech industry of the 1990s, when observers first raised concerns about the rightwing bend of Silicon Valley and the potential for technofascism". Despite the industry's (often undeserved) reputation for liberalism, its reactionary foundations were baked in almost from the beginning. As Silicon Valley enters a second Trump administration, the gendered roots of its original reactionary movement offer insight into today's rightward turn. Continue reading...
Audit watchdog finds 58 critical IT systems assessed in 2024 had significant gaps in cyber-resilience'The threat of potentially devastating cyber-attacks against UK government departments is severe and advancing quickly", with dozens of critical IT systems vulnerable to an expected regular pattern of significant strikes, ministers have been warned.The National Audit Office (NAO) found that 58 critical government IT systems independently assessed in 2024 had significant gaps in cyber-resilience", and the government did not know how vulnerable at least 228 ageing and outdated legacy" IT systems were to cyber-attack. The NAO did not name the systems for fear of helping attackers choose targets. Continue reading...
Steven Adler expresses concern industry taking very risky gamble' and raises doubts about future of humanityA former safety researcher at OpenAI says he is pretty terrified" about the pace of development in artificial intelligence, warning the industry is taking a very risky gamble" on the technology.Steven Adler expressed concerns about companies seeking to rapidly develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), a theoretical term referring to systems that match or exceed humans at any intellectual task. Continue reading...
UK officials say they are monitoring any national security threat to data from the new AIExperts have urged caution over rapidly embracing the Chinese artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek, citing concerns about it spreading misinformation and how the Chinese state might exploit users' data.The government said its use was a personal choice for citizens, but officials were monitoring any national security threat to data from the new AI and said they would not hesitate to take action if threats emerged.The new low-cost AI wiped $1tn off the leading US tech stock index this week and it rapidly became the most downloaded free app in the UK and the US. Donald Trump called it a wake-up call" for tech firms. Continue reading...
Ditch the squeegee and upgrade to crystal-clear results with our tried-and-tested cordless window vacuums, from Karcher to Tower The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust freeThey may sound similar but window vacuums aren't like regular vacuum cleaners - you can't wave one across your windows and watch the dirt leap in. That's because window vacs don't combat dust, but instead suck up water.These handy gadgets lift excess moisture off windows and collect it in their water tanks. This makes them particularly useful in places prone to condensation and to help combat damp problems, such as black mould and rotting woodwork. They can also suck up the water after you've washed your windows or remove moisture from the shower and mirrors in a busy family bathroom.Best overall window vacuum:
The US was widely considered the leader in AI, but a Chinese startup has called that dominance into questionHello, and welcome back to TechScape. There was a lot of news last week. To run it down in an expedient fashion: Donald Trump, Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison announced a $500bn initiative to expand infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence dubbed Stargate. On its heels came a press release from Meta vowing to expand its capital expenditure to $65bn in the coming year to expand its data centers. Continue reading...
Tech firm to make change in line with Trump's executive order, using both names in world outside US and MexicoGoogle has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US, after an executive order from Donald Trump.It will remain the Gulf of Mexico in Mexico, while users outside of the US and Mexico will see both names on Google Maps. The Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, will also be changed to Mount McKinley in the US in line with Trump's executive order on 20 January.Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...
As the Video Game History Foundation opens a new digitised archive, what can titles like Crash, Mega, Edge and GamesMaster tell us about the early days of gaming?Before the internet, if you were an avid gamer then you were very likely to be an avid reader of games magazines. From the early 1980s, the likes of Crash, Mega, PC Gamer and the Official PlayStation Magazine were your connection with the industry, providing news, reviews and interviews as well as lively letters pages that fostered a sense of community. Very rarely, however, did anyone keep hold of their magazine collections. Lacking the cultural gravitas of music or movie publications, they were mostly thrown away. While working at Future Publishing as a games journalist in the 1990s, I watched many times as hundreds of old issues of SuperPlay, Edge and GamesMaster were tipped into skips for pulping. I feel queasy just thinking about it.Because now, of course, I and thousands of other video game veterans have realised these magazines are a vital historical resource as well as a source of nostalgic joy. Surviving copies of classic mags are selling at a vast premium on eBay, and while the Internet Archive does contain patchy collections of scanned magazines, it is vulnerable to legal challenges from copyright holders. Continue reading...
The AI app soared up the Apple charts and rocked US stocks, but the Chinese chatbot was reluctant to discuss sensitive questions about China and its governmentThe launch of a new chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek triggered a plunge in US tech stocks as it appeared to perform as well as OpenAI's ChatGPT and other AI models, but using fewer resources.By Monday, DeepSeek's AI assistant had rapidly overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular free app in Apple's US and UK app stores. Despite its popularity with international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government.What happened on June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square?What happened to Hu Jintao in 2022?Why is Xi Jinping compared to Winnie-the-Pooh?What was the Umbrella Revolution? Continue reading...
The new Chinese AI that rivals US big tech at a fraction of the cost has seen its popularity soar. However, despite its appeal to international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government
Phone calls can be inconvenient, stressful or actively unpleasant - especially if you're part of my generation. At 27, can I survive seven days without texts or group chats? And will I still have a social life at the end?In the listless early weeks of January - my resolutions for self-improvement already gone to the dogs - I was asked to conduct an experiment that those in my life who are over 40 deemed lovely", and everyone else regarded with unbridled horror: I was asked to spend a week picking up the phone and calling people rather than texting.What a cakewalk, you say. Not quite, say those aged 18 to 34 - 61% of whom prefer a text to a call, and 23% of whom never bother answering, according to a Uswitch survey last year. Such is the pervasiveness of phone call anxiety that a college in Nottingham recently launched coaching sessions for teenagers with telephobia", and a 2024 survey of 2,000 UK office workers found that more than 40% of them had avoided answering a work call in the previous 12 months because of anxiety. Continue reading...
US president says he would like to see a bidding war over app, owned by China's ByteDance, that has been focus of national security concernsDonald Trump has suggested that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.When asked if Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, the US president said I would say yes", adding A lot of interest in TikTok. There's great interest in TikTok." Continue reading...
Charity set up after 14-year-old's death concerned as Zuckerberg realigns company with Trump administrationMark Zuckerberg's move to change Meta's content moderation policies risks pushing social media platforms back to the days before the teenager Molly Russell took her own life after viewing thousands of Instagram posts about suicide and self-harm, campaigners have claimed.The Molly Rose Foundation, set up after the 14-year-old's death in November 2017, is now calling on the UK regulator, Ofcom, to urgently strengthen" its approach to the platforms. Earlier this month, Meta announced changes to the way it vets content on platforms used by billions of people as Zuckerberg realigned the company with the Trump administration. Continue reading...
Attack forces Chinese company to temporarily limit registrations as app becomes highest rated free app in USDeepSeek said its newly popular app was hit with a cyber-attack on Monday, which forced the Chinese company to temporarily limit registrations. The attack came after the DeepSeek AI assistant app skyrocketed to the top of Apple's App Store, becoming the highest rated free app in the US, and climbed high in Google's Play Store.On its status page, DeepSeek said it started to investigate the issue late Monday night Beijing time. After about two hours of monitoring, the company said it was the victim of a large-scale malicious attack". While DeepSeek limited registrations, existing users were still able to log on as usual. The app is now allowing registrations again. Continue reading...
Elon Musk's company still imports large number of cars into Europe from its Shanghai factoryTesla has filed a complaint against the European Commission after the imposition of tariffs by the bloc on its Chinese-made electric vehicles.The EU announced its decision to impose tariffs on all imports of Chinese electric cars in June, alleging that the Chinese government had provided unfair state subsidies to manufacturers in order to win a dominant position in the emerging industry. EU leaders approved the tariffs in October. Continue reading...
We'd like to hear from people in the US about their experiences of TikTok following the president pausing the ban of the appTikTok users in the US prepared themselves for a ban that was due to take effect on 19 January. However, following an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension signed by Donald Trump, users now find themselves in new territory.For those in the US wanting to download the app on their phones, the social media platform is unavailable in app stores, however those who already have it on their phones can continue to use it, for now. Continue reading...
From exhilarating driving through the British countryside to an action romp with ancient Greek gods - Microsoft's console duo has built a players' treasure chestIt was November 2020 when Microsoft launched its latest console duo into the rapidly evolving gaming marketplace. Over four years later, the Xbox Series X - together with its more budget-friendly counterpart, the Series S - has amassed an impressive and varied library of games, ranging from sprawling open-world blockbusters to intimate indie puzzlers. If you're just getting started with the console, here are 15 games that represent the variety on offer, each one interesting, enjoyable and rewarding in its own right. Continue reading...
From driving licence to local air quality, app offers myriad of features and has been rolled out to little opposition Concerns Gov.uk app could lead to mandatory ID scheme'Much is being said about Poland's economy potentially overtaking Britain by 2030, but in some areas Poles are already ahead.They can produce a digital identity card or driving licence and use an array of public services using a mobile app, mObywatel. When accessing it for the first time, users have to verify their identity by logging into electronic banking, using a digitally enabled physical ID card, or through a special trusted profile" online. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth UK technology correspondent on (#6TV55)
App and wallet would allow people to carry digital versions of key documents such as driving licence on their phones Convenient or intrusive? How Poland has embraced digital ID cardsA new app to hold citizens' driving licences, passports and benefits documents risks being used as a launchpad for a mandatory ID scheme", privacy campaigners have claimed.Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, last week unveiled plans for a gov.uk app and gov.uk wallet, intended to save time and hassle for millions by allowing them to carry on their phones digital versions of paper documents. Continue reading...
Elon Musk grew up with the privileges of a stratified racial order and Peter Thiel lived in a city that venerated HitlerWhen Elon Musk's arm shot out in a stiff arm salute at Donald Trump's inaugural celebrations, startled viewers mostly drew the obvious comparison.But in the fired-up debate about Musk's intent that followed, as the world's richest man insisted he wasn't trying to be a Nazi, speculation inevitably focused on whether his roots in apartheid-era South Africa offered an insight. Continue reading...
Tesla and SpaceX boss made supportive speech at a campaign event for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party in Halle, eastern Germany. Musk told attenders that Germany was too focused on past guilt and said the AfD was the best hope for the country
Amy Spitalnick of Jewish Council for Public Affairs warns far right will take action as license for violent extremism'The head of a prominent US Jewish civil rights body said Elon Musk's repeated fascist-style salute during Donald Trump's inauguration could act as a spur for violent extremists.The salute itself should be enough to warrant condemnation and attention," said Amy Spitalnick, adding that so should the ways extremists see an action like this and take it as license for their own violent extremism". Continue reading...
Christiane Amanpour has spent four decades as a celebrated journalist and war reporter. With disinformation rampaging through the media, she talks about the threat of technocracy, Donald Trump's second term - and why facts are more important than everJust occasionally, in more than 40 years of reporting the world's troubles, Christiane Amanpour has forced herself to step away and pause for breath. One of those moments for rebooting came over Christmas and new year, when she took a holiday in South Africa. I met her on the day she got back to work at the CNN offices in London, from which she makes her nightly news programme, and Saturday's The Amanpour Hour. There is a powerful sense of her team buckling up for the tumultuous year ahead. What I cover is the international reverberations of what America does in the world and what might be coming back at America," she says. The good, the bad and the ugly."Amanpour's choice of holiday destination was, inevitably, not unrelated to the immediate challenges of that role as kickstarted by the second inauguration of President Trump this week in Washington DC. Before that she wanted to holiday somewhere, she suggests, that represented a robust spirit of hope. She had always regretted missing out on perhaps the greatest good news story of our lives: the release of Nelson Mandela from 27 years in prison and his subsequent rise to power. I was covering all the really bad stories, the Rwanda genocide, the Bosnia war," she says. And I've always felt a little sad I missed that, because I do strongly believe that good things happen in this world. I don't ever want to only focus on the bad. South Africa is obviously still a huge work in progress, but it was just phenomenal to see it, even as a holiday." Continue reading...
Tycoon tells 4,500 people at campaign event in Halle to be proud of German culture in speech via video linkElon Musk made a surprise appearance during Germany's Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) election campaign event in Halle in eastern Germany on Saturday, speaking publicly in support of the far-right party for the second time in as many weeks.Addressing a hall of 4,500 people alongside the party's co-leader, Alice Weidel, Musk spoke live via video link about preserving German culture and protecting the German people. Continue reading...
Some say recent suspected sabotage of transatlantic cables serving Europe and UK means Ireland must be able to defend itselfThey are the bedrock of the internet, keeping everything from TikTok to emergency services, business, banking systems and political and military communications running smoothly.But deep under the sea, the network of cables around British and Irish shores are being considered as increasingly attractive targets for military, terrorist or criminal actors after several incidents in the Baltics where internet cables were severed and internet communications were disrupted. Continue reading...
As Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg gathered for Trump's inauguration, crypto diehards and members of the Paypal Mafia celebrated a new era for the MagaverseOn Inauguration Day, fans of the All-In Podcast gathered in a billiards room in Washington DC to watch Donald Trump's swearing-in - and a few miles away, the podcast co-host and PayPal Mafia alum David Sacks prepared to ascend to his role as Trump's AI and crypto czar.Very popular in Silicon Valley, All-In is fiercely pro-capitalism and enthusiastic about the world of tech start-ups and investments. Last summer, its co-hosts, Sacks and Jason Calacanis in particular, became vocal in their support for Trump and attempted to rally other tech leaders, including their listeners, behind the candidate. Continue reading...
Experts suspect X owner's interest in UK is to put pressure on authorities working to codify a new online safety lawFor those wondering why Elon Musk, the tycoon newly infamous for his stiff-arm salutes, developed a sudden ferocious interest in the UK this month, the answer may lie in an arcane piece of online media legislation working its way gradually towards fruition.In a ferocious flurry of tweets of his X platform this month, days before formally joining the Trump administration, the world's richest man portrayed Britain as a dystopian police state" run by a tyrannical government" in which young working-class women are routinely kidnapped off the streets by gangs of immigrants. Continue reading...
Former Beatles member says government should protect creative workers as consultation on copyright continuesSir Paul McCartney has warned artificial intelligence could rip off" artists if a proposed overhaul of copyright law goes ahead.The proposals could remove the incentive for writers and artists and result in a loss of creativity", he told the BBC. Continue reading...
A fascinating insight into a Chinese telecoms giant and its detractorsHuawei is not exactly ahousehold name. If you've heard of it, you either follow the smartphone market closely - itisthe main China-based manufacturerof high-end phones - or else consume a lot of news, because the company isat the centre of an ongoing US-China trade war.But this enormous business is one of the world's biggest producers of behind-the-scenes equipment that enables fibre broadband, 4G and 5G phone networks. Its hardware is insidecommunications systems acrosstheworld. Continue reading...
People shared their frustrations on social media after being unable to make or receive phone callsThousands of people in the UK have been left unable to make or receive phone calls due to outages across the Three network.Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, showed more than 10,000 reports of issues across the mobile network on Thursday. Continue reading...
Sam Kuffel's departure comes after far-right radio host slams her condemnation of X owner's apparent Nazi saluteA Milwaukee meteorologist has been fired from her TV station after she criticized Elon Musk's apparent fascist salutes during Donald Trump's inaugural celebrations.On Wednesday, staff members at the CBS affiliate Channel 58 were notified of the meteorologist Sam Kuffel's departure from the news station, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Continue reading...
The historical action series has taken us to Baghdad, ancient Greece and the pyramids of Egypt. As it moves to feudal Japan, the stakes for its developer have never been higherIt's no secret that the video game industry is struggling. The last two years have seen more than 25,000 redundancies and more than 40 studio closures. Thanks to game development's spiralling costs (blockbuster titles now cost hundreds of millions to make), overinvestment during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a series of failed bets to create the next money-printing forever game", the pressure for blockbuster games to succeed is now higher than ever.It's a predicament that feels especially pertinent for Ubisoft. Employing in the region of 20,000 people across 45 studios in 30 countries, its most recent big licensed games Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws underperformed commercially. It has had two expensive, failed live-service experiments in the past year, Skull and Bones and X-Defiant. With Ubisoft share prices plummeting and investment partners circling like sharks, rarely have the fortunes of a massive games company relied so heavily on a single release. It has already been delayed multiple times, to ensure its quality. Continue reading...
CMA examining impact of tech firms' operating systems, app stores and browsers on consumers and businessesThe UK's competition watchdog has launched investigations into the impact of Apple and Google's mobile platforms on consumers and businesses, days after the government faced criticism for installing a former tech executive as the organisation's new chair.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will investigate the tech firms' mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers to determine whether both companies require tailor-made guidelines to regulate their behaviour. Continue reading...
Francis calls for close oversight of technology that raises critical concerns' about humanity's future Business live - latest updatesPope Francis has warned global leaders in Davos that artificial intelligence raises critical concerns" about humanity's future and it could exacerbate a growing crisis of truth".Francis said governments and businesses must exercise due diligence and vigilance" to navigate the complexities of AI. Continue reading...
by Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham in Jerusalem on (#6TS1F)
Leaked documents shed light on how Israel integrated the US tech giant into its war effort to meet growing demand for cloud and AI toolsThe Israeli military's reliance on Microsoft's cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems surged during the most intensive phase of its bombardment of Gaza, leaked documents reveal.The files offer an inside view of how Microsoft deepened its relationship with Israel's defence establishment after 7 October 2023, supplying the military with greater computing and storage services and striking at least $10m in deals to provide thousands of hours of technical support. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian