British content creators, who may lose a big chunk of their audiences, say they see the app as a gateway to AmericansIf TikTok disappears from the US, it won't just be its 170 million American users who will lose out.British TikTokers and business owners have told the Guardian they will also lose a sizeable chunk of their audiences after a ban. The video app has become a key gateway to Americans for the UK's online video creators, who make a living from accruing views and making sponsored content deals. With the ban scheduled to take effect on Sunday, a US-sized hole will appear in the global userbase. Continue reading...
As natural disasters make need to cut CO emissions clearer than ever, energy demand of AI systems is about to soarViolent weather events have been top of the news agenda for weeks, with scientists and fact-based news organisations attributing their increased severity to climate breakdown. The scientists consulted have all emphasised the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.At the same time there are predictions about artificial intelligence and datacentres urgently needing vast amounts of new electricity sources to keep them running. Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) have been touted as the green solution. The reports suggest that SMRs are just around the corner and will be up and running in the 2030s. Google first ordered seven, followed by Amazon, Microsoft and Meta each ordering more. Continue reading...
Union says Facebook-owner's policy changes will affect ability to retain talent and thrive as an inclusive business'UK staff at Facebook owner Meta feel concerned" and let down" about the company's decision to scrap factcheckers and diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, the trade union representing UK tech workers has warned the firm.The Prospect union, which represents a growing number of UK Meta employees, has written to Meta to express staff concern about the impact of the controversial decisions by chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. Continue reading...
Telecoms company hoped to convert roadside cabinets into charge points but will now shut down its sole installationBT has scrapped a plan to turn roadside green cabinets into electric car chargers, after only managing to install one.The British telecoms company had spied a chance to use the existing electricity connections to the cabinets, which usually house telephone and broadband internet equipment, to quickly install chargers. However, it will now shut down its sole charge point, in East Lothian, Scotland, according to the Fast Charge, a charging newsletter. Continue reading...
A larger screen, redesigned snap-off controllers and a new Mario Kart make an appearance in a reveal trailerNintendo has announced its long-awaited successor to the 150m-selling Switch console, called the Nintendo Switch 2. It will be out later in 2025.The first Nintendo Switch debuted on 3 March 2017, and pioneered the hybrid console: it can be played both on the move, with its snap-on controllers, and at home, connected to a TV. The Switch 2 follows the same model, with a larger screen and bigger, redesigned controllers that attach magnetically to its sides. The controllers can be used like a mouse, or held in the hands like a traditional joypad, and also have motion-control functionality. Continue reading...
Regulator Ofcom releases guidelines that call for use of face scans, credit cards checks or photo-IDUsers accessing online pornography in the UK could soon be required to have their face scanned, under measures announced by Ofcom to stop children seeing the material.Enforcement guidelines released on Thursday, which will apply to social media platforms as well as sites such as OnlyFans and Pornhub, stipulate that children will no longer be able to simply assert they are 18 to view pornography online. Continue reading...
How player-funded development launched a multiplayer game of galactic proportions - and costs - in Star CitizenHow much does it cost to make a video game? The development expenses of blockbuster games are closely guarded business secrets, but they have been climbing ever higher over the years towards big Hollywood-style spending.Industry leaks have exposed how the budgets of major video games are spiralling upwards: $100m, or $200m, even more. One of the bestselling franchises, Call of Duty, saw costs balloon to $700m (573m), a number only revealed recently when a reporter dug into court filings. Continue reading...
Outgoing president signs executive order to tackle US vulnerabilities after attacks that have cost country billionsThe Biden administration is making a final push to fortify America's cyber defenses against mounting threats from China and Russia, issuing a sweeping cybersecurity executive order just days before leaving office that aims to tackle vulnerabilities from outer space to consumer electronics.The wide-ranging directive is likely to be the administration's last big policy push before handing the keys over to Donald Trump, who heads to the White House next week and inherits a new world of cyber-attacks that have cost the nation billions of dollars and punctured government offices. Continue reading...
Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket has blasted off from Florida on its first mission to space. Its first attempt to launch, on 14 January, was cancelled because ice had accumulated on a propellant line. The company, founded by Jeff Bezos, cited no issues before launch and the rocket successfully reached orbit
Long-running leaks mean the usually secretive Nintendo have failed to keep a lid on its new console. With its official announcement due any minute now, here's what we know so farNintendo is likely to announce its next console this week, the follow-up to the 150m-selling Nintendo Switch, which came out in March 2017. There's just one problem: we already know almost everything about it. At this point there's very little that Nintendo could announce that would be a surprise to anyone who has been following the rumours closely.The trickle of Nintendo Switch 2 leaks began last summer, and built to a flood this month. Last week at the CES tech trade show in Vegas, accessory maker Genki arrived with a full-on model of Nintendo's next console, which it happily showed off behind closed doors to illustrate its forthcoming products. You can even look at a detailed render of the thing on Genki's website. It is a slightly larger, more powerful version of the Switch console we all know and love, with controllers that attach magnetically rather than sliding on and off the sides of the screen. It can still be played docked on your TV or on the go. Continue reading...
Whether you're chasing folding treadmills or gym quality on a budget, our top-rated running machines will accelerate your training The best running shoes to take you from trail to road to marathon, tried and tested by runnersAlthough the treadmill has been around since the early 1800s, when it was once used to punish prisoners (sounds about right), it didn't become a common feature in the home until the late 1960s, when William Staub unleashed his PaceMaster 600 on the US public.Where they were once a simple rolling deck, treadmills today are often glossy pieces of interactive tech. Many now offer on-demand, real-time workouts (pioneered by Peloton) and the latest blockbuster movies via streaming services. Even if your treadmill doesn't sport a whopping touchscreen display, it probably works nicely with heart-rate monitors, smartwatches and smartphone apps to track workouts and offer performance statistics after every session.Best treadmill overall:
Troubling new HBO docuseries An Update on Our Family looks at YouTube families and Myka Stauffer, the mom who rehomed' her adopted sonIn May 2020, the vlogger parents Myka and James Stauffer tearfully revealed to their nearly 1 million followers that the son they adopted from China just three years before had been rehomed". The child, Huxley, who was only five at the time and lived with autism, had been the star in so many YouTube videos sharing the Stauffer family's joys, struggles and brand partnerships. But in the month leading up to that May 2020 upload, titled an update on our family", followers noticed that he had been phased out, old videos featuring Huxley had been removed and comments from followers inquiring as to his whereabouts promptly deleted while Myka continued posting homemaking videos.After the Stauffers came clean, the backlash was (predictably) swift and unforgiving, calling out the family, which includes four other biological children, for exploiting Huxley to gain clicks and views, packaging his trauma as an adoptee into content, before deciding they were ultimately ill-equipped to meet his needs (I apologize for being so naive," a statement from Myka read). However, the internet's response, much of it furiously leaning into not just critical commentary but also wild conspiracy theory geared for even more clicks and views, became knock-on content perhaps as craven and predatory as the inciting behaviour. Continue reading...
Financial regulator alleges Musk later acquired shares of company at artificially low prices', stiffing shareholdersA US financial regulator has sued Elon Musk for allegedly failing to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock and later acquiring shares in the company at artificially low prices", stiffing other shareholders.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Musk late on Tuesday in federal court in Washington DC for alleged securities violations. According to the suit, Musk did not disclose that he had acquired a 5% stake in the company in a timely manner, which allowed him to underpay by at least $150m for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due". Continue reading...
RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, rockets to top of US app stores, along with ByteDance's Lemon8New users have piled in to the Chinese social media app RedNote just days before a proposed US ban on the popular social media app TikTok, as the lesser-known company rushes to capitalize on the sudden influx while walking a delicate line of moderating English-language content.In a live chat dubbed TikTok Refugees" on RedNote on Monday, more than 50,000 US and Chinese users joined the room. Veteran Chinese users, with some sense of bewilderment, welcomed their American counterparts and swapped notes with them on topics such as food and youth unemployment. Occasionally, however, the Americans veered into riskier territory. Continue reading...
Tech company rejects as pure fiction' a report that a deal could take place if it fails to avoid an impending banChinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok's operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban. Another option is that Musk acts as a broker in a deal to sell the app.Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of its Chinese parent, Bytedance, but have discussed other options including a sale to Musk, Bloomberg reported. The Financial Times reported on the same day that the officials had discussed the preliminary possibility of Musk functioning as a go-between for Bytedance and any potential buyer that would prevent the app from being shut down. Continue reading...
More women are using apps instead of the pill, but while some find them freeing', others had unwanted pregnanciesAfter 15 years on the contraceptive pill Francesca* decided that she wanted to know how her body felt without additional hormones. She started using a fertility tracking app - which tracks menstrual cycles or symptoms of ovulation to help estimate a woman's fertile window - after learning about them on social media.I had been taking hormones since my teens, and had no real conception of my menstrual cycle in my adult life," said the Londoner, now in her early 30s. She had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at 18 and told to continue taking the pill to help with symptoms. Remarkably, pretty much all of my hormonal imbalance symptoms started to subside after stopping taking the pill," she said. Continue reading...
by Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent on (#6TJEH)
As PM pins hopes on AI, what effect will building energy-hungry datacentres have on Labour's clean power pledge?Keir Starmer this week launched a plan to bring a 20-fold increase in the amount of artificial intelligence (AI) computing power under public control by 2030.But the race to build more electricity hungry AI datacentres over the next five years appears to work against another government target: to plug in enough low-carbon electricity projects to create a clean power system by the same date. Continue reading...
Richard Osman and Kate Mosse say plan to mine artistic works for data would destroy creative fieldsKate Mosse and Richard Osman have hit back at Labour's plan to give artificial intelligence companies broad freedoms to mine artistic works for data, saying it could destroy growth in creative fields and amount to theft.The best-selling novellists spoke out after Keir Starmer a national drive to make the UK one of the great AI superpowers" and endorsed a 50-point action plan that included changes to how technology firms can use copyrighted text and data to train their models. Continue reading...
Bundle up and break a sweat with these winter running accessories, from base layers and gloves to waterproof jackets The best running shoes to take you from trail to road to marathonIf you're tempted to stop running in the winter or retreat to the gym, think again. Whether it's getting out for fresh air and daylight on crisp, blue-sky days, or blowing away the cobwebs in the dark and rain after work, running outdoors can make winter more bearable.With a few changes to your attire and some nifty accessories, you can stay warm and dry and be safer. You won't need all of the below - it depends on where you run, how far and what time of day you get out. Everything featured is either unisex or available in women's and men's versions. Continue reading...
Workers at Teleperformance, customer support company for Apple, Google and Netflix, accuse it of union busting and surveillanceCall center workers for some of the world's biggest tech companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Netflix are accusing their employer of retaliating against union organisers, constantly surveilling staff and even refusing bathroom breaks.In the US or Europe, if you call for technical or customer support from a big tech company, you may be speaking with a worker at one of Teleperformance's call centers in Greece. Continue reading...
For years I've overlooked the many good reasons for leaving the social media platform. But now there is no other choiceJaron Lanier was chief scientist of the engineering office of Internet2 back in the day, which is to say, definitely one of the godfathers of the internet. In 2018, he set out the reasons to get rid of your social media in his book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. When I read it, I shorthanded it to: Facebook. I really should just close down my Facebook account." There was no way back then I would have got rid of Twitter. It was where I went to complain about Brexit, and that's all I did. Also, seven years ago, Twitter wasn't just porn and chatbots.Regarding Facebook, though, all Lanier's propositions were laid out in a buffet: in politics, it creates a bias not towards the left or right, but downwards". Any position that could be less evidenced, more stupid, would be the one that would fly. Continue reading...
The actor has shared selected items from his famous collection for a new exhibition taking place in Sag HarborSome celebrities collect art, rare film prints or plain old action figures. (Welcome to the club, Leonardo DiCaprio.) Tom Hanks, somewhat famously, collects something that's simultaneously more practical and unwieldy: typewriters. And unlike Steve Martin's paintings or Leo's figures, you can currently get a look at some of the Hanks typewriters at The Church, an exhibition venue in Long Island's Sag Harbor.Some of Tom's Typewriters includes 35 from his collection of over 300, chosen by Hanks himself. These include an electric typewriter from the set of Mad Men (the curators are, as yet, unclear as to how Hanks obtained this, but he's recording an electronic guide to accompany the show that they are hoping will explain), an original 1969 Olivetti Valentine" typewriter designed by Ettore Sottsass, and, in one of the more surprising touches, a relatively new model: a translucent typewriter, still manufactured by a company that pivoted from calculator production in the 1980s, for use by incarcerated writers. The exhibit also includes some less fancy beaters set aside for a more interactive experience; the physical presence, after all, is such a part of the typewriter's mystique. Continue reading...
Chief inspector of prisons issues warning after surge in weapons and drugs flown into high-security facilitiesDrones have become a threat to national security", the prisons watchdog has said, after a surge in the amount of weapons and drugs flown into high-security jails.Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, called for urgent action from Whitehall and the police after inquiries found that terrorism suspects and criminal gangs could escape or attack guards because safety had been seriously compromised". Continue reading...
Prohibition would bring the NHS, schools and local councils into line with government departmentsSchools, the NHS and local councils will be banned from making ransomware payments under government proposals to tackle hackers.In a crackdown on such cyber-attacks, operators of critical national infrastructure will be barred from bowing to demands when criminal gangs hold IT systems hostage. Continue reading...
Ex-workers say CEO declaring relocation of moderation and safety teams from California just a play for Trump approvalIn a carefully worded statement, Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Meta was moving its trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California and that the company's content review is going to be based in Texas". The thrust of these teams' work is to ensure that Facebook and Instagram users do not encounter hate speech, pornography and violent content.The CEO said moving the moderators to the Lone Star state will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content". It was part of a larger announcement that Meta was ending its factchecking program, easing content restrictions and focusing on free expression". Moderators are separate from Meta's factchecking efforts, which were done by third parties. Continue reading...
Class action alleges company is abusing its dominant position in the app market and 30% fee breaches lawsApple has been accused of dominating the tech market with a total shutout" of competitors as it faces claims it overcharged customers of the UK App Store, a court has heard.The claim alleges that the tech company is abusing its dominant position in the app market and that its 30% commission fee is in breach of European and UK competition laws. Continue reading...
As Meta abandons third-party factchecking in an ostensibly political move, the future of facts elsewhere remains murkyFactcheckers had no doubt about the real audience for the news this week - delivered via Mark Zuckerberg's medium of choice, the awkward video message - that, starting in the US, Meta would abandon professional, third-party factchecking across its networks in favor of the user-powered community notes" model used on X.This is all intended to curry favor with Trump," one factchecker wrote as soon as the news dropped, on the private WhatsApp channel where the community gathered to vent. Their public responses made the same point a little more diplomatically. Continue reading...
Amid reports of creation of fake racist images, Signify warns problem will get so much worse' over the next yearA rise in online racism driven by fake images is just the start of a coming problem" after the latest release of X's AI software, online abuse experts have warned.Concerns were raised after computer-generated images created using Grok, X's generative artificial intelligence chatbot, flooded the social media site in December last year. Continue reading...
Is tech calling the shots in your life? From making AI work smarter to tracking stolen phones, our expert explains how to get aheadAsking ChatGPT to write your emails is so two years ago. Generative AI tools are now going beyond the basic text-prompt phase. Take Google's NotebookLM, an experimental AI research assistant" that lets you upload not just text but also videos, links and PDFs. It will provide a summary of the content, answer questions about it, and even make a podcast-like AI overview" if you want it to - all while organising your original sources and notes. As AI tools advance, expect more features like this to be baked into everyday software. All the usual caveats of using AI apply: the responsibility for factchecking lies with you. Continue reading...
Can the AI Parky ever beat the real chatshow colossus? As the Virtually Parkinson podcast launches, our writer sits in on a bizarre interview with Monty Don - then ends up in the hot seat himselfAsk anyone who regularly interviews people and they'll tell you that few things are stranger than when the tables turn and you're the one being interviewed. This is especially true when the person interviewing you has been dead for a year and a half. But here we are. Virtually Parkinson is a new podcast in which celebrities are interviewed by an AI model trained to speak and act like the late Michael Parkinson. The announcement of the podcast last year prompted a flurry of vaguely apocalyptic reactions. It was sacrilegious, some said, tantamount to digging up and reanimating a national treasure against his will. It was pointless, others said - of all the transformative ways to use AI, you're blowing it on a podcast? Then there were folks like me, quietly nervous that Robot Parky was coming for our jobs.On that last grumble, at least, I don't need to worry yet. Primarily, this is because running Virtually Parkinson is a gargantuan operation. A normal interview traditionally only needs two participants. This, however, requires a small army. There's the subject and interviewer, plus an engineer, a researcher and a clutch of producers holed up in a control room whose roles include making sure the AI sounds like Parkinson, that it asks the sort of questions he would ask, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of both the subject and Parkinson, doesn't glitch, doesn't repeat itself, doesn't interrupt anyone in the middle of an answer and - most importantly - doesn't overuse the word fascinating". Continue reading...
For middle-aged users, it will be even harder to discern the truth' among extremist content, expert saysExperts fear the decision by Meta to drop professional factcheckers from Facebook will exacerbate so-called boomer radicalisation in the UK.Even before what Keir Starmer described as far-right riots" in England last summer, alarm bells were ringing amid fears older people were even more susceptible to misinformation and radicalisation than younger digital natives". Continue reading...
From Zuckerberg's handmade $900k timepiece to gen Z's pursuit of the authentic, smartwatches are being replacedFirst he ditched the grey hoodie. Then he grew out his curls. Now Mark Zuckerberg is shifting the styling focus to his left wrist. Announcing changes on Tuesday to Facebook and Instagram's factchecking programmes , the Meta boss wore a $900k (740k) watch from the Swiss brand Greubel Forsey. Hand-made using white gold, only three are created each year. It joins Zuckerberg's growing horological collection including a $1.2m rose gold timepiece from Patek Philippe and the thinnest watch ever made.But while an accessory with upwards of a six-figure price tag may be something only tech billionaires can afford, Zuckerberg is tapping in to a growing trend: the return of the mechanical wristwatch and old school digital timepiece. The trend is being fuelled by gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), many of whom have never worn a wristwatch before, typically using their smartphone to keep track of the time. Continue reading...
I already have too much stuff - and every time I go online I'm being pushed to buy more. Time to channel my inner deinfluencerI am uneasily aware that around this time last year I wrote that my drive to acquire material things had somewhat subsided: I was older and wiser, had everything I needed, was repelled by the sheer volume of stuff in the world, blah blah blah. Unfortunately, the internet seemingly viewed that as fighting talk, an impossible-to-turn-down challenge, and in recent months I have once more found myself wanting stuff. Lots of stuff.It's not surprising perhaps - stuff is everywhere, whispering, or shouting, to us from every screen we stare at. The constant stream of ads on Instagram is exhausting," said my best friend gloomily just last week, and she's right: my eyes are constantly assaulted with offers of miracle goop for my mature skin, wellness gadgetry, expensive knitwear and greenwashed disruptors" of almost everything. I just spent a minute scrolling and was offered, in quick succession, a calfPRO" (no idea, alarming), kombucha, cleanser, an eco frying pan, reminiscent of Phoebe Philo-era Celine" jumpers and, bafflingly, Canadian sea urchins.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The world's richest man looks to move Canada to the right as the beleaguered prime minister prepares to departThe decision by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, this week to resign as head of the Liberal party has set in motion a leadership race against the backdrop of a looming general election, which will be held amid political turmoil triggered by Donald Trump's America first" economic nationalism. It has also given Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, an opportunity to inject himself into yet another country's political turmoil.Since Trudeau's resignation on Monday, Musk has posted repeatedly about Canadian politics on X - the platform formerly known as Twitter he bought in 2022 for $44bn. He has praised clips of Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada's Conservative party, while relishing in Trudeau's downfall and engaging with rightwing Canadian influencers. Continue reading...
A damning report shows how local news cuts stymied coverage of the riots in Plymouth. What fills the vacuum? MisinformationOn 4 August 2024, the riots and disturbances that followed the killing of three children in Southport, on Merseyside, spread even further. That day, in the midst of a seething mess of far-right misinformation and rumour-mongering, the violence hit Rotherham - where people tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum-seekers - as well as Middlesbrough and Bolton. Serving notice of his new interest in UK affairs, Elon Musk posted a picture of violence in Liverpool on X with a characteristically measured caption: Civil war is inevitable." And 24 hours later, the wave of unrest reached the city of Plymouth.It gripped the city centre throughout the evening of 5 August. To quote from the Guardian's report, 150 officers in riot gear and with dogs sought to keep apart far-right rioters and Stand Up to Racism demonstrators". Other people turned out to defend a mosque. Bricks, bottles and fireworks were thrown. Six people were arrested, several police officers were injured, and two members of the public ended up in hospital: one local officer said the events were unprecedented".John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The government has promised a crackdown on synthetic image abuse - but campaigners warn it doesn't go far enoughIt began with an anonymous email. I'm genuinely so, so sorry to reach out to you," it read. Beneath the words were three links to an internet forum. Huge trigger warning ... They contain lewd photoshopped images of you."Jodie (not her real name) froze. In the past, the 27-year-old from Cambridgeshire had had problems with people stealing her photos to set up dating profiles and social media accounts. She had reported it to police but been told there was nothing they could do, so pushed it to the back of her mind. Continue reading...
How can we publicly debate policy in the face of the rising - and polarising - influence of the X owner and others whose only aim is to serve themselvesHow should we as a society interact with one another, debate, come to decisions? What impels politicians to focus and act on one thing and not another?The Athenians had the Agora, where (male, slave-owning) citizens gathered to debate and decide the issues of the day. In the early 20th century, John Reith envisioned the BBC, in a most patrician way, as a space where the nation could come together to enhance the (supposedly) British values of democracy, reasonableness and debate. Continue reading...
The city has a long history with tropical medicine and is now home to one of the largest biotech clusters in EuropeTucked away in the village of Leasowe, near Moreton on the Wirral peninsula west of Liverpool, the US pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is building a new 35m glass-clad laboratory building.It is part of a growing life sciences cluster in and around Liverpool, one of the largest in Europe, and a leader in vaccine development and manufacture, as well as infectious disease research projects in the UK. Continue reading...
Legislation to protect children in the digital realm is essential. But if it results in the loss of small cycling and cancer-care forums, something's gone wrongLondon Fixed Gear and Single-Speed (LFGSS) is an admirable online community of fixed-gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London. Sadly, this columnist does not qualify for membership: he doesn't reside in (or near) the metropolis, and he requires a number of gears to tackle even the gentlest of inclines - and therefore admires hardier cyclists who disdain the assistance of Sturmey-Archer or Campagnolo hardware.There is, however, bad news on the horizon. After Sunday 16 March, LFGSS will be no more. Dee Kitchen, the software wizard (and cyclist) who is the core developer of Microcosm, a platform for running non-commercial, non-profit, privacy-sensitive, accessible online forums such as LFGSS, has announced that on that date they will delete the virtual servers hosting LFGSS and other communities, and effectively immediately end the approximately 300 small communities that I run, and the few large communities such as LFGSS".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...
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