Technology | The Guardian

The world's richest person threatens to create the America Party' and the US president calls him a TRAIN WRECK'Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week in tech news, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are back at it, warring over the passage of the president's sweeping tax bill and the Tesla CEO's threat to create a third political party. Whether the richest person in the world is successful in those efforts will largely depend on the recruitment of another star politician. In other news, we want to know if you use generative artificial intelligence to write your personal messages - in what circumstances, and how often? Email tech.editorial@theguardian.com to let us know.His function in politics is that of an ATMThe vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it': the terrifying truth about why Tesla's cars keep crashingElon Musk's xAI gets permit for methane gas generatorsJury says Google must pay California Android smartphone users $314.6mTrump to start TikTok sale talks with China, he says, with deal pretty much' reachedTrump officials create searchable national citizenship databaseAI doesn't know what an orgasm sounds like': audiobook actors grapple with the rise of robot narratorsWimbledon chiefs defend AI use as Jack Draper says line calls not 100% accurate'Google undercounts its carbon emissions, report findsA billion people backing you': China transfixed as Musk turns against TrumpTrump and Musk's feud blows up again with threats of Doge and deportation

This nicely put together Swedish UFO throwback is notable for its early use of vlubbing' - using tech to match lip movements to new English dialogue. What's coming next?Here is a derivative but nicely put together sci-fi throwback, in which Inez Dahl Torhaug stars as Denise, a rebellious teenager in foster care whose father went missing in 1988. A dedicated ufologist for whom the truth was very much out there, Denise's dad was trying to find aliens when he vanished. Alien abduction? Government cover up? Regular old disappeared-guy? When his old car falls from the sky into a local barn eight years later, Denise joins forces with her father's friends at UFO-Sweden, including the likably nervous Lennart (Jesper Barkselius) plus assorted misfits, to investigate what leads they have, including the potential role of a shady-seeming organisation, the SMHI, AKA The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.You may gather from the names above that this is a Swedish film, and yet the dialogue is entirely in English. What gives? The unexpected twist is that the film is an early example of a technique that you can easily imagine becoming standard practice for streaming platforms hoping to reach multiple territories for minimal cost: AI-assisted dubbing. The original actors have re-recorded their lines and AI tech has been used to edit the visuals so that the lip movements from the original Swedish version match the new English dialogue. The technique is called vlubbing" (visual + dubbing) and the target audience is seemingly the kind that won't read subtitles or watch a traditional dub. Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism agencies are scrambling to maintain an advantage and thwart attacks as access to digital tools easesCounter-terrorism authorities have, for years, characterized keeping up with terrorist organizations and their use of digital tools and social media apps as a game of Whac-a-Mole.Jihadist terrorist groups such as Islamic State and its predecessor al-Qaida, or even the neo-Nazi group the Base, have leveraged digital tools to recruit, covertly finance via crypto, download weapons for 3D printing and spread tradecraft to its followers, all while leaving law enforcement and intelligence agencies playing catch up. Continue reading...

Here's a breakdown of how original Switch titles work on Switch 2, explaining everything from free Switch 2 updates to inbuilt backwards compatibility and the paid Switch 2 Edition upgradesOutside of the phenomenal Mario Kart World and next week's Donkey Kong Bananza, there isn't much new Nintendo software to keep early Switch 2 adopters occupied. Thankfully, Nintendo has seen fit to improve a heap of existing Nintendo Switch games on the shiny new system, both in the form of graphics-boosting free updates and more substantial paid reworks. The different options can be confusing, however, so here's an explanation of how it all works. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm's busiest timeCorporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company's warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet". It is not clear how many took up the offer. Continue reading...

Fall of 6.8% in early trading wipes $79bn off firm's value as market frets CEO's foray into politics will distract from roleShares in Tesla fell 6.8% by the close of US trading on Monday, wiping $79bn (60bn) off the company's value, amid investor concern that Elon Musk's launch of a new political party will present further problems for the electric car maker.Tesla's market capitalisation fell from just over $1tn to about $921bn after stock markets closed on Wall Street, with the value of Musk's stake in the company reduced by nearly $15bn, lowering it to below $120bn. Continue reading...

iPhone maker accuses European Commission of going far beyond what the law requires' in ruling

A deep dive into the surprising uses and linguistic shortfalls of the ubiquitous symbolsIn 2016, Apple announced that its gun emoji, previously a realistic grey-and-black revolver, would henceforth be a green water pistol. Gradually the other big tech companies followed suit, and now what is technically defined as the pistol" emoji, supposed to represent a handgun or revolver", does not show either: instead you'll get a water pistol or sci-fi raygun and be happy with it. No doubt this change contributed significantly to a suppression of gun crime around the world, and it remains only to ban the bomb, knife and sword emoji to wipe out violence altogether.As Keith Houston's fascinatingly geeky and witty history shows, emoji have always been political. Over theyears, people have successfully lobbied the Unicode Consortium - thecabal of corporations that controls the character set, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple - to include different skin colours and same-sex couples. It was easy to agree to add theface with one eyebrow raised, the guide dog and the egg. But not every request is granted. One demand for afrowning poo emoji" elicited this splendid rant from an eminent Unicode contributor, Michael Everson: Will we have a crying pile of poo next? Pile of poo with tongue sticking out? Pile of poo with question marks for eyes? Pile of poo with karaoke mic? Will we have to encode a neutral faceless pile of poo?" Continue reading...

Meta wiped out a business account and all contacts without warning for not abiding by community guidelinesI am the mentor of a young black entrepreneur, RM, who has had his personal and business social media accounts removed by Meta, which owns Instagram. There was no notice, no option to appeal and, from my understanding, no just cause. He had built up two successful businesses in clothing design and music events.Six days before the ban, he had sold 1,500 tickets for an electronic dance event in London. Instagram, rather than a website, is the platform for hiswork. However, he was suddenly informed that his content did not abide by Meta's community guidelines on violence and incitement. Continue reading...

Smallest and most affordable Framework still has brilliant modular ports, is upgradable and designed to lastThe modular and repairable PC maker Framework's latest machine moves into the notoriously difficult to fix 2-in-1 category with a fun 12in laptop with a touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge.The new machine still supports the company's innovative expansion cards for swapping the different ports in the side, which are cross-compatible with the Framework 13 and 16 among others. And you can still open it up to replace the memory, storage and internal components with a few simple screws. Continue reading...

Are these videos a sign of the times? Are they brainwashing me towards Christianity? Can scrolling deliver me salvation? Why can't I stop watching?

Other sectors also at risk from attacks, including healthcare, finance and telecommunications, expert warns

Billionaire says his new political party could try to turn attainable House and Senate seats to decide major issuesThe new US political party that Elon Musk has boasted about bankrolling could initially focus on a handful of attainable House and Senate seats while striving to be the decisive vote on major issues amid the thin margins in Congress.Tesla and SpaceX's multibillionaire CEO mused about that approach on Friday in a post on X, the social media platform he owns, as he continued feuding with Donald Trump over the spending bill that the president has signed into law. On Saturday, without immediately elaborating, the former Trump adviser announced on X that he had created the so-called America party. Continue reading...

President also says he may visit Xi Jinping or Chinese leader could come to US after Trump last month extended app sale deadline for third timeDonald Trump has said he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.The United States president said the US pretty much" had a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app. Continue reading...

Elon Musk is obsessive about the design of his supercars, right down to the disappearing door handles. But a series of shocking incidents - from drivers trapped in burning vehicles to dramatic stops on the highway - have led to questions about the safety of the brand. Why won't Tesla give any answers?It was a Monday afternoon in June 2023 when Rita Meier, 45, joined us for a video call. Meier told us about the last time she said goodbye to her husband, Stefan, five years earlier. He had been leaving their home near Lake Constance, Germany, heading for a trade fair in Milan.Meier recalled how he hesitated between taking his Tesla Model S or her BMW. He had never driven the Tesla that far before. He checked the route for charging stations along the way and ultimately decided to try it. Rita had a bad feeling. She stayed home with their three children, the youngest less than a year old. Continue reading...

Whether Nazi-punching your way through an Indiana Jones sequel or losing yourself in a beautiful fantasy world, you told us your best video game experiences of the first half of the year

Using emojis in text messages enhances connection and fun in close personal relationships, US study findsThe secret to a good relationship may be staring smartphone users in the face.A new study published in the journal Plos One found that using emojis in text messages makes people feel closer and more satisfied in their personal lives. Continue reading...

British No 1 says ousting of human line judges a shame' after crashing out to former finalist Marin CilicWimbledon bosses have defended the use of AI line judges after Jack Draper said the technology was not 100% accurate".The British No 1 said it was a shame" human line judges were ousted after crashing out in the second round to the 36-year-old former finalist Marin Cilic. Continue reading...

Peter Kyle calls for new leadership at Alan Turing Institute and greater focus on defence and national securityThe technology secretary has demanded an overhaul of the UK's leading artificial intelligence institute in a wide-ranging letter that calls for a switch in focus to defence and national security, as well as leadership changes.Peter Kyle said it was clear further action was needed to ensure the government-backed Alan Turing Institute met its full potential. Continue reading...

NAACP plans to sue over massive Memphis datacenter near Black residents, who have long dealt with pollutionElon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has been granted a permit to run methane gas generators at its massive datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee. The county health department approved the permit for the 15 machines late on Wednesday, a move that has sparked outcry from the local community and environmental leaders, who say the generators pollute their neighborhoods.Our local leaders are entrusted with protecting us from corporations violating on our right to clean air, but we are witnessing their failure to do so," said KeShaun Pearson, the director of the local environmental non-profit Memphis Community Against Pollution. Continue reading...

Former UK minister says platform, which will use AI to draft community notes, is leaving it to bots to edit the news'A decision by Elon Musk's X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of lies and conspiracy theories", a former UK technology minister has warned.Damian Collins accused Musk's firm of leaving it to bots to edit the news" after X announced on Tuesday that it would allow large language models to write community notes to clarify or correct contentious posts, before users approve them for publication. The notes have previously been written by humans. Continue reading...

Tesla said it delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 units a year agoTesla posted another big drop in quarterly deliveries on Wednesday, putting it on course for its second straight annual sales decline as demand falters due to backlash over CEO Elon Musk's political stance and an ageing vehicle lineup.Tesla said it delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 units a year ago. Analysts had expected it to report deliveries of about 394,378 vehicles, according to an average of 23 estimates from the financial research firm Visible Alpha, though projections went to as low as 360,080 units based on estimates from 10 analysts over the past month. Analysts use the number of vehicles delivered to customers as a metric of success to evaluate both automotive sales and production. Continue reading...

Former staff likened offices of video game company in Paris to a boys' club above the law'Three former executives at the video game company Ubisoft have been given suspended prison sentences for enabling a culture of sexual and psychological harassment in the workplace at the end of the first big trial to stem from the #MeToo movement in the gaming industry.The court in Bobigny, north of Paris, had heard how the former executives used their position to bully or sexually harass staff, leaving women terrified and feeling like pieces of meat. Continue reading...

As demand for audio content grows, companies are looking for faster - and cheaper - ways to make it

From the lab-born Tennis for Two to the console classics of Nintendo and Sega, the sport has been a constant, foundational force in gaming's riseWith Wimbledon under way, I am going to grasp the opportunity to make a perhaps contentious claim: tennis is the most important sport in the history of video games.Sure, nowadays the big sellers are EA Sports FC, Madden and NBA 2K, but tennis has been foundational to the industry. It was a simple bat-and-ball game, created in 1958 by scientist William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, that is widely the considered the first ever video game created purely for entertainment. Tennis for Two ran on an oscilloscope and was designed as a minor diversion for visitors attending the lab's annual open day, but when people started playing, a queue developed that eventually extended out of the front door and around the side of the building. It was the first indication that computer games might turn out to be popular. Continue reading...

Research could help cut energy use and is latest example of AI being used for advances in materials scienceAI-engineered paint could reduce the sweltering urban heat island effect in cities and cut air-conditioning bills, scientists have claimed, as machine learning accelerates the creation of new materials for everything from electric motors to carbon capture.Materials experts have used artificial intelligence to formulate new coatings that can keep buildings between 5C and 20C cooler than normal paint after exposure to midday sun. They could also be applied to cars, trains, electrical equipment and other objects that will require more cooling in a world that is heating up. Continue reading...

Research says Google's carbon emissions went up by 65% between 2019-2024, not 51% as the tech giant had claimedIn 2021, Google set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Yet in the years since then, the company has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024.New research aims to debunk even that enormous figure and provide context to Google's sustainability reports, painting a bleaker picture. A report authored by non-profit advocacy group Kairos Fellowship found that, between 2019 and 2024, Google's carbon emissions actually went up by 65%. What's more, between 2010, the first year there is publicly available data on Google's emissions, and 2024, Google's total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515%, Kairos found. The largest year-over-year jump in that window was also the most recent, 2023 to 2024, when Google saw a 26% increase in emissions just between 2023 and 2024, according to the report. Continue reading...

For his first Nintendo Switch 2 appearance, DK goes on a rhythmic rampage, powered up to new hulking heights by singing sidekick Pauline. It's big, brash and impossibly enjoyableWhile searching for gold in the dingy mines of Ingot Isle, a severe storm sweeps dungaree-donning hero Donkey Kong into a vast underground world. You think he'd be distraught, yet with the subterranean depths apparently rich in banana-shaped gemstones, DK gleefully uses his furry fists to pummel and burrow his way towards treasure. From here, the first Donkey Kong platformer since 2014 is a dirt-filled journey to the centre of the Earth.Much like the Battlefield games of old, Bananza is built to let you pulverise its destructible environments as you see fit. That seemingly enclosed starting area? You can burrow your way through the floor. Bored with jumping through a cave? Batter your way through the wall instead. There's a cathartic mindlessness to smashing seven shades of stone out of every inch of the ground beneath you, pushing the physics tech to its limits and seeing what hidden collectibles and passageways you unearth. Continue reading...

Two years after Immy killed herself, her mother Louise is still trying to understand how she found her way to a pro-suicide forum - and a man accused of supplying more than 1,000 packages of poisonJust a few hours before she ended her life, Immy Nunn seemed happy. She and her mother, Louise, had been shopping and had lunch. It was the final day of 2022 and Immy, who was 25, appeared positive about the new year. She talked about taking her driving test and looking for a new flat. She was excited about the opportunities her profile on TikTok was bringing her; known as Deaf Immy, she had nearly 800,000 followers, attracted by her honest and often funny videos about her deafness and her mental health.By the early hours of the next morning, Immy was dead, having taken poison she bought online, almost certainly after discovering it through an online pro-suicide forum. Continue reading...

Colombian artist and photographer Isabella Madrid explores the click to be saved' economy of hope in her project, Lucky Girl SyndromeGrowing up in Colombia - and online - has defined the way I create art: my identity has been formed by a country riddled with superficial and conservative values; a happy country but also one of the most violent; a country where men pray to virgins and kill the ones who are not.The internet felt like a safe space where I could be anyone - as a vulnerable young girl who felt out of place where I lived, it helped me define my personality and interests but it also alienated me from the real world and made me hyper aware of the way I looked and existed.Isabella Madrid is a Colombian artist and photographer Continue reading...

Alphabet's company found liable for making data transfers without permission while devices were idleA jury in San Jose, California, said on Tuesday that Google misused customers' cellphone data and must pay more than $314.6m to Android smartphone users in the state, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.The jury agreed with the plaintiffs that Alphabet's Google was liable for sending and receiving information from the devices without permission while they were idle, causing what the lawsuit had called mandatory and unavoidable burdens shouldered by Android device users for Google's benefit". Continue reading...

Tech firms notch victories in battle over copyrighted text, Trump's gold phone, and online age checksHello, and welcome to TechScape. If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that's OK, because they suck and we're cool."Google's emissions up 51% as AI electricity demand derails efforts to go greenInside a plan to use AI to amplify doubts about the dangers of pollutants Continue reading...

Dracula's daughter seeks a more peaceful life making plant-based blood substitutes in this Stardew-Valley-inspired, gently creepy farming gameWhat if you were a tiny, vegan vampire? That's the question posed by Moonlight Peaks, the gen Z-coded, achingly TikTok-ready supernatural life sim. Inspired by the popularity of cosy games" such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, Moonlight Peaks drapes you in the cape of Dracula's daughter, who has fled her father's corpse-ridden home to start a new, peaceful life.Soon, she settles among werewolves and witches in the supernatural farming town of Moonlight Peaks, where she grows crops and rears animals instead of subsisting on the blood of innocents. Both cosy and creepy, the game has you creating your own plant-based blood substitutes, befriending the town's residents and fixing a whole host of problems left in daddy Dracula's wake.Moonlight Peaks is out on PC in 2026 Continue reading...

No 10 must decide whether to build or buy' its AI technology as ministers increasingly lean on it to tackle crises

Exclusive: Shabana Mahmood told companies she wanted deeper collaboration' to tackle prisons crisis

From Fable and Life Is Strange to Last of Us, Thirsty Suitors and Unpacking, five queer game developers and writers pick their sweetest, realest, most meaningful scenesLife Is Strange, as a series, is really characterised by a patented mix of earnestness and cringe for me - but you can't fault its determination to put queer characters front and centre. It has been variably successful at this - the messy relationship between shy, photography-obsessed Max and chaotic blue-haired Chloe in 2015's original Life Is Strange was left somewhat ambiguous, but Alex Chen in Life Is Strange: True Colors was openly bi and pretty laidback about it. My favourite queer moment from the series, though, came in last year's Double Exposure. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says lack of action leaves firms at risk of sleepwalking' into problemsMore than one in four UK businesses have been the victim of a cyber-attack in the last year and many more risk sleepwalking" into such disruption unless they take urgent action, according to a report.About 27% of companies said their building had suffered a cyber-attack in the last 12 months, according to a survey of facilities managers, service providers and consultancies undertaken by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) and shared with the Guardian. The figure is up from 16% a year ago. Continue reading...

Channels serving AI slop feature videos full of false claims about celebs and their involvement with Sean Diddy' Combs for quick cashThis story was reported by Indicator, a publication that investigates digital deception, and co-published with the Guardian.Dozens of YouTube channels are mixing AI-generated images and videos with false claims about Sean Diddy" Combs's blockbuster trial to pull in tens of millions of views on YouTube and cash in on misinformation. Continue reading...

Instagram-inspired gadgets to spread or spray crops are gaining traction on UK farms but require deep pocketsThe idea came from an Instagram video," says Tom Amery, looking admiringly at one of three huge drones he has bought to help grow watercress on a Hampshire farm.The drone boasts four sets of rotary blades and is able to carry up to 50kg of fertiliser, seed or feed for spreading or spraying, and is the product of several years of meticulous research by Amery, often using the unlikely corners of social media dedicated to agricultural technology. Continue reading...

The company's rollout of its new driverless cars has gotten off to a wobbly start - and rival Waymo remains well aheadAfter years of promising investors that millions of Tesla robotaxis would soon fill the streets, Elon Musk debuted his driverless car service in a limited public rollout in Austin, Texas. It did not go smoothly.The 22 June launch initially appeared successful enough, with a flood of videos from pro-Tesla social media influencers praising the service and sharing footage of their rides. Musk celebrated it as a triumph, and the following day, Tesla's stock rose nearly 10%. Continue reading...

Industry figures are seeing beyond the illusion of invisibility' after series of investor kidnappingsCryptocurrency traders such as Mohammed Arsalan are prepared to watch their online assets expand and explode if they miss the right moment, making or breaking their fortunes in just minutes. All in a day's work on the internet. Offline, though, they have found themselves less equipped for the consequences of affluence. A string of kidnappings has plagued the industry over the past year and left traders across the globe paranoid, fearful and keen to invest in physical security measures.Arsalan grew up working class in Karachi, Pakistan. He hustles in any setting. At 14, he started a business exporting T-shirts overseas. By 17, the pandemic swept it all away. Inside, online and penniless, the booming world of Bitcoin beckoned him. Continue reading...

Some in the lagoon city are furious, others delighted, as celebrities descend for billionaire's sort-of nuptialsThe Black Death. Byron on the prowl. Rising water levels. Cruise ships the size of city blocks. Venice may have endured many tumultuous events and sinister challenges over the centuries but rarely in its long history has it had to contend with an issue quite as odd and quite as divisive as the sort-of nuptials of the world's fourth-richest person.Friday morning found the lagoon city doing what it does best: looking gorgeous and slightly unreal as it played host to thousands of tourists who posed in silver-prowed gondolas, chugged mid-morning spritzes or simply wilted in the muggy heat. Continue reading...

Increase influenced by datacentre growth, with estimated power required by 2026 equalling that of Japan'sGoogle's carbon emissions have soared by 51% since 2019 as artificial intelligence hampers the tech company's efforts to go green.While the corporation has invested in renewable energy and carbon removal technology, it has failed to curb its scope 3 emissions, which are those further down the supply chain, and are in large part influenced by a growth in datacentre capacity required to power artificial intelligence. Continue reading...

A solidly made and passably entertaining follow-up to the viral doll hit tries to swerve the franchise into summer blockbuster territory with mixed resultsAs the very first image of devil doll sequel M3gan 2.0 emerges on screen, of a desert with the words somewhere on the Turkish-Iranian border" popping up like it's a Bond movie, you'd be forgiven for double-checking if you're in the right cinema.The original, a grabby artificial intelligence (AI) riff on Child's Play and Annabelle, was a brisk, by-the-numbers domestic horror, released on the first weekend of 2023, a slot usually given to the very worst genre films. M3gan was smarter than most, often sly and frequently funny and introducing what's now become a rarity, an almost instant non-IP pop culture icon, whose virality exploded the film into a surprise smash (raking in over $180m from a $12m budget). Like the films it was inspired by, a franchise was inevitable although where we're taken in M3gan 2.0 was far less of a given. For the follow-up, writer-director Gerard Johnstone has swerved from horror to action while retaining and tweaking the comedy with a release date that's been upgraded to summer blockbuster territory. It doesn't always work - a two-hour runtime that's a little too long, world-saving stakes that are a little too big, funny lines that are a little too not funny - but it's a mostly watchable second-tier event movie that, in a world of inconsequential sequels that fail to justify their existence, will do. Continue reading...

Risk analyst Tony Cox's work has been backed by the chemical lobby, and some health experts are alarmedAn industry-backed researcher who has forged a career sowing doubt about the dangers of pollutants is attempting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to amplify his perspective.Louis Anthony Tony" Cox Jr, a Denver-based risk analyst and former Trump adviser who once reportedly claimed there is no proof that cleaning air saves lives, is developing an AI application to scan academic research for what he sees as the false conflation of correlation with causation. Continue reading...

Unrestricted AI use could add 1bn tons of planet-heating emissions in the US over the next decade, researchers sayUS Republicans are pushing to pass a major spending bill that includes provisions to prevent states from enacting regulations on artificial intelligence. Such untamed growth in AI will take a heavy toll upon the world's dangerously overheating climate, experts have warned.About 1bn tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide are set to be emitted in the US just from AI over the next decade if no restraints are placed on the industry's enormous electricity consumption, according to estimates by researchers at Harvard University and provided to the Guardian. Continue reading...

This imaginative sci-fi survival game is a work of art. But looking after the needy clones of myself I'd made to help run a space base, I was reminded all too clearly of my limitations and failingsOther than during that golden period when they were old enough to play games and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer but hadn't yet become evil teenagers, I don't think I'm very good at parenting. When my kids were babies I felt unnecessary and useless, a feeling I have been reminded of most days since. That's OK. We can't be good at everything. I can read words backwards and upside down but I can never find my house keys. I am brilliant at dancing to the Cure's The Lovecats on Dancing Stage MegaMix but terrible at DIY.Don't get me wrong: I love my children. I like hanging out with them socially as young adults because they are smart, funny and entertaining, but then they remember I am their dad, and everything is ruined as they ask me to do stuff then blame me for everything wrong in their lives. Continue reading...

He's spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive - and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast's videos simply very savvy clickbait - or acts of avant garde genius?Written and read by Mark O'Connell Continue reading...

Amendment to law will strengthen protection against digital imitations of people's identities, government saysThe Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people's identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe. Continue reading...

Six of demonstrators were arrested at protest against the company's work for Ice to help deport people from the USSix protestors who demonstrated in front of the New York City offices of Palantir Technologies were arrested on Thursday morning. The demonstrators had gathered to bring attention to the controversial firm and the work it does to power the deportation of immigrants from the US.The protestors stood in front of the Palantir offices on Manhattan's Avenue of the Americas, linking arms to block entrance into the building and forcing several people attempting to enter to shove past them. At one point, several demonstrators entered the lobby of the building holding up signs that read Palantir powers ICE", referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Continue reading...