The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts This week's question: How can we learn from unrequited love?What's the point of having speed limits if camera-warning signs and apps allow drivers to slow down in advance - then just continue speeding? Maybe the UK government in its new consultations on road safety should add the question of hiding speed cameras to their list of concerns. I'm a driver, but also a pedestrian and cyclist and get fed up with seeing cars zooming down local roads at way more than 20 or 30mph. There are flashing lights that tell drivers what speed they're doing, but there's no penalty for going over at those points. Amy, CornwallSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its rootsI am a science-fiction writer, which means that my job is to make up futuristic parables about our current techno-social arrangements to interrogate not just what a gadget does, but who it does it for, and who it does it to.What I do not do is predict the future. No one can predict the future, which is a good thing, since if the future were predictable, that would mean we couldn't change it. Continue reading...
Big tech treats our attention like a resource to be mercilessly extracted. The fightback begins hereIn the last 15 years, a linked series of unprecedented technologies have changed the experience of personhood across most of the world. It is estimated that nearly 70% of the human population of the Earth currently possesses a smartphone, and these devices constitute about 95% of internet access-points on the planet. Globally, on average, people seem to spend close to half their waking hours looking at screens, and among young people in the rich world the number is a good deal higher than that.History teaches that new technologies always make possible new forms of exploitation, and this basic fact has been spectacularly exemplified by the rise of society-scale digital platforms. It has been driven by a remarkable new way of extracting money from human beings: call it human fracking". Just as petroleum frackers pump high-pressure, high-volume detergents into the ground to force a little monetisable black gold to the surface, human frackers pump high-pressure, high-volume detergent into our faces (in the form of endless streams of addictive slop and maximally disruptive user-generated content), to force a slurry of human attention to the surface, where they can collect it, and take it to market. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#72XMS)
Experts warn use of VPNs makes it hard to limit access to technology that can create nonconsensual explicit imagesDays after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images", the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the country.Still here! That DNS block in Malaysia is pretty lightweight - easy to bypass with a VPN or DNS tweak," Grok's account on X said in response to a question from a user. Continue reading...
Our reviewer loved this wake-up light more than any other he's tested - it's even knocked his previous best sunrise alarm off the top spot Read the full ranking in our sunrise alarm clock testSince I first tested sunrise alarm clocks last winter, I've come to suspect that there's no such thing as getting up on the wrong side of bed. What we ought to be worried about is waking up on the wrong side of dawn.During summer (and other times of the year, for late risers), the sunrise begins to rouse us before we wake up. The brain kicks into gear and sends signals to initiate all sorts of bodily processes, from metabolism to hormone release, which helps us to feel ready for the day. It's a fundament of our circadian rhythm - and we miss out on it whenever we wake before it gets light. Continue reading...
Progress of artificial general intelligence could stall, which may lead to a financial crash, says Yoshua Bengio, one of the godfathers' of modern AIWill the race to artificial general intelligence (AGI) lead us to a land of financial plenty - or will it end in a 2008-style bust? Trillions of dollars rest on the answer.The figures are staggering: an estimated $2.9tn (2.2tn) being spent on datacentres, the central nervous systems of AI tools; the more than $4tn stock market capitalisation of Nvidia, the company that makes the chips powering cutting-edge AI systems; and the $100m signing-on bonuses offered by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta to top engineers at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Continue reading...
How would you feel if your therapist's notes - your darkest thoughts and deepest feelings - were exposed to the world? For 33,000 Finnish people, that became a terrifying reality, with deadly consequencesTiina Parikka was half-naked when she read the email. It was a Saturday in late October 2020, and Parikka had spent the morning sorting out plans for distance learning after a Covid outbreak at the school where she was headteacher. She had taken a sauna at her flat in Vantaa, just outside Finland's capital, Helsinki, and when she came into her bedroom to get dressed, she idly checked her phone. There was a message that began with Parikka's name and her social security number - the unique code used to identify Finnish people when they access healthcare, education and banking. I knew then that this is not a game," she says.The email was in Finnish. It was jarringly polite. We are contacting you because you have used Vastaamo's therapy and/or psychiatric services," it read. Unfortunately, we have to ask you to pay to keep your personal information safe." The sender demanded 200 in bitcoin within 24 hours, otherwise the price would go up to 500 within 48 hours. If we still do not receive our money after this, your information will be published for everyone to see, including your name, address, phone number, social security number and detailed records containing transcripts of your conversations with Vastaamo's therapists or psychiatrists." Continue reading...
Portland Communications, founded by Keir Starmer's communications chief, linked to so-called black hat editsA high-profile PR company founded by Keir Starmer's communications chief has been accused of commissioning changes to Wikipedia pages to make them more favourable towards clients.Portland Communications, founded by Tim Allan, has been linked to the so-called black hat edits, sometimes referred to as Wikilaundering". Several changes were made to Wikipedia pages by a network of editors, allegedly controlled by a contractor working on Portland's behalf. Continue reading...
Moderators accuse social media firm of unfair dismissal after it fired hundreds in UK just before vote to form unionTikTok moderators have accused the social media company of oppressive and intimidating" union busting after it fired hundreds of workers in the UK, beginning the process just before they were due to vote on forming a union.The moderators wanted to establish a collective bargaining unit to protect themselves from the personal costs of checking extreme and violent content, and have claimed TikTok is guilty of unfair dismissal and breaching trade union laws. Continue reading...
The team behind Baby Steps discuss why they made a whiny, unprepared manbaby the protagonist - and how players have grown to love Nate as he struggles up a mountainI don't know why he is in a onesie and has a big ass," shrugs game developer Gabe Cuzzillo. Bennett just came in with that at some point."I thought it would be cute," replies Bennett Foddy, who was formerly Cuzzillo's professor at New York University's Game Center and is now his collaborator. Working on character design and animation brings you over to liking big butts. I could give you an enormous amount of evidence for this." Continue reading...
Move comes as calls for Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow around worldTikTok will begin to roll out new age-verification technology across the EU in the coming weeks, as calls grow for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s in countries including the UK.ByteDance-owned TikTok, and other major platforms popular with young people such as YouTube, are coming under increasing pressure to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children. Continue reading...
Despite restrictions announced this week, Guardian reporters find standalone app continues to allow posting of nonconsensual contentX has continued to allow users to post highly sexualised videos of women in bikinis generated by its AI tool Grok, despite the company's claim to have cracked down on misuse.The Guardian was able to create short videos of people stripping to bikinis from photographs of fully clothed, real women. It was also possible to post this adult content on to X's public platform without any sign of it being moderated, meaning the clip could be viewed within seconds by anyone with an account. Continue reading...
Patrick Vallance says robots would take away repetitive' tasks, but Sadiq Khan warns AI will usher in new era of mass unemployment'Advances in AI and robotics will transform human jobs, starting with roles in warehouses and factories, the UK science minister has said, as the government announced plans to reduce red tape for robot and defence tech companies.Patrick Vallance said technological progress was creating a whole new area" for robots to work in. What's really changing now is the combination of AI and robotics. It is opening up a whole new area, particularly in the sorts of things like humanoid robotics. And that will increase productivity, it will change the human job," he told the Guardian. Continue reading...
Letters sent using campaign group's template as Keir Starmer indicates Australia-style move being consideredMPs' inboxes have been flooded with letters calling for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s, as the prime minister indicated such a move was being considered.More than 100,000 people have contacted their local MP since the grassroots organisation Smartphone Free Childhood launched an email campaign on Tuesday evening with a template calling for reasonable, age-appropriate boundaries". Continue reading...
A social media content moderator becomes obsessed with a violent video in this restrained, unsettling workplace thriller starring Lili ReinhartHere is a workplace drama, of sorts. Like many people, Daisy (Lili Reinhart) works a desk job using a computer. Unlike most people, fainting at work is a rite of passage; she moderates videos on social media that have been reported for violating the terms of service. That means watching everything from horrible porn to horrible politics to horrible accidents and everything in between, a non-stop diet of videos with titles such as fetus in blender" or strangulation but she doesn't die".Her boss takes her to task for deleting a graphic video showing a suicide, which supposedly has news value and should have been left up. But the tipping point for Daisy is a really nasty video titled nailed it", which shows violence and cruelty that she believes is real and non-consensual. So begins a low-key quest to track down the perpetrator, though she is far from sure what she will do when she finds them. Nor is she altogether sure why it is this particular video, of all the trash and hatred washing over her, day in, day out, that has inspired her obsession. Her colleagues and boss shrug off her concerns: this video is nothing special. Continue reading...
Simon Foster says he will give report into force's handling of Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban careful consideration' in deciding Craig Guildford's fateHere are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. It will allow him to show he's willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration," was their rationale.Sure enough, Starmer announced phase two" of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. We need to know who is in our country," he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally".In policy terms, I don't think you particularly gain anything by making the government's planned new digital ID compulsory.One example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government's plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a British ICE" that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.Here is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.In just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.We welcome Starmer's reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a 1.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless. Continue reading...
The plan was to get on a bicycle to earn some money. It wasn't to get hit by cars, thumped by skinheads or to see my surroundings in a whole new lightAt first I didn't realise I'd been punched. I'm not sure why my brain assumed a bird had flown into me, but I suppose a magpie attack was more likely than a random bloke lashing out at my ribcage, so it took a second to realise what was happening.I was on my bike, waiting in a side street for traffic to clear. The punch came from behind and by the time my mouth let fly a few expletives, the culprit was leaving. Then he caught wind of my colourful language and turned back to get in my face. He was a skinhead in a bad mood. Accusing me of being in his way, he told me I was lucky he didn't do more damage. I paused mid-reply. This was the moment I realised he was ready to go to hell tonight, and the only thing he wanted to take with him was me. Continue reading...
by Helena Horton, Aisha Down and Priya Bharadia on (#72TDZ)
While Grok has introduced belated safeguards to prevent sexualised AI imagery, other tools have far fewer limitsSince discovering Grok AI, regular porn doesn't do it for me anymore, it just sounds absurd now," one enthusiast for the Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot wrote on Reddit. Another agreed: If I want a really specific person, yes."If those who have been horrified by the distribution of sexualised imagery on Grok hoped that last week's belated safeguards could put the genie back in the bottle, there are many such posts on Reddit and elsewhere that tell a different story. Continue reading...
Air fryers have taken over our kitchens, but which wins the crown for the crispiest cooking? Our expert peeled 7kg of potatoes to find out The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and testedAir fryers inspire the sort of feelings that microwaves did in the 1980s. I vividly remember those new-fangled boxes being spoken about often, either dismissively or with delight. A rash of cookbooks followed, and dinner changed across the land. Fast-forward a few decades, and air fryers have become the same kind of kitchen disruptors", offering time-saving convenience and healthier cooking, but with the added allure of easily achieved, mouth-watering crispiness.Since launching with a single-drawer design, air fryers have evolved. Sizes range from compact to XL, while drawer configurations can be double, split or stacked. Alongside air frying, many will grill, roast and bake, and some will dip to lower temperatures for dehydrating, fermenting and proving dough. One we tested features steam cooking, allowing you to whip up dim sum as easily as a roast dinner, while another included racks for cooking on four levels.Best air fryer overall:
Exclusive: Health secretary issues invitation in push for UK to consider copying landmark restrictions in AustraliaWes Streeting has asked Jonathan Haidt, a bestselling author and high-profile advocate of banning social media for under-16s, to speak to his officials in his push for the UK to consider following a landmark ban in Australia.The health secretary has invited Haidt to address an event with staff, charities and MPs after the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he was open to stricter limits for young people. Continue reading...
Workers will be able to use other identification for right to work, meaning digital form not mandatoryMinisters have rolled back plans for a central element of the proposed digital ID plans, leaving open the possibility that people will be able to use other forms of identification to prove their right to work.This will mean that the IDs, announced to some controversy in September, will no longer be mandatory for working-age people, given that the only planned obligatory element was to prove the right to work in the UK. Continue reading...
by Lucy Hough Aaron Sharp Bryony Moore Zoe Hitch on (#72TC8)
The UK government is threatening Elon Musk's X with a ban. The social media platform is under pressure from ministers over the use of the Grok AI tool to manipulate images of women and children to remove their clothes.Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, has launched an investigation into X - and the government says it will support a ban if Ofcom decides to press ahead. Continue reading...
Video of raids and migrant arrests shared by profile with slogan restoring order and control to our borders'A Home Office TikTok account posting footage of deportations and arrests set to dramatic music has been criticised for turning brutality" into clickbait".An account called @SecureBordersUK was created on Tuesday with the slogan: Restoring order and control to our borders." Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6XWEW)
There's no need to buy new - unless your model's ready for retirement. Our technology expert compares the top Apple smartwatches available right now The best running watches - testedThe best Apple Watch may be the one already on your wrist.Each generation of Apple's smartwatch is fairly iterative, with most of the best features added via software updates, which means there's no need to buy a new device each year. That said, if your watch has seen better days, or it's stopped receiving updates, then your best options are set out below.Best Apple Watch for most people:
UK media regulator is investigating whether X has breached the Online Safety Act - what could happen next?The UK government is threatening Elon Musk's X with the nuclear option under the country's online safety laws: a ban. The social media platform is under pressure from ministers after it allowed the Grok AI tool, which is integrated within the app, to generate indecent images of unsuspecting women and children.The government has said it will support the media regulator Ofcom, which has launched an investigation into X, if it decides to push ahead with a ban. But is such a move likely? Continue reading...
Despite internet blackout, a small number of Iranians are risking their lives to share messages as protests continueFor most of Iran, the internet was shut off on Thursday afternoon - the most severe blackout the country has seen in years of internet shutdowns, coming after days of escalating anti-government protests.For a very small sliver of the country, it is still possible to get photos and videos to the outside world, and even to make calls. The Telegram channel Vahid Online on Monday posted photos of dead bodies lying next to a street in Kahrizak, on the southern outskirts of Tehran; on Sunday, it shared a video of Iranians chanting death to Khamenei" at a funeral. Continue reading...
A flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK's Online Safety Act to the testThe unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. Monday's announcement that X is being investigated was Ofcom's most combative move since key provisions in the Online Safety Act came intoforce. None of the other businesses it has challenged or fined have anything like the global reachor political clout of Elon Musk's social media giant. Whatever happens next, this is a defining moment. What is being defined is the extent to whichsome of the wealthiest companies on the planetare under democratic control.But the announcement is only a first step. Ofcom has given no indication of how long its investigation will take. On Friday Downing Street described as insulting the decision to limit the use of the imagemaking Grok AI chatbot to X's paying subscribers. The government said that this amounted to turning the creation of abusive deepfakes into a premium service".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...
Kicking under-16s off the social platforms is tempting, but it ignores the root of the problem: the older generations who made them so toxic in the first placeKemi Badenoch is evolving into one of those politicians who, whatever she says, is not just likely to be wrong, but is likely to say the opposite of what's right. She says Greenland is not a big deal (a second-order issue" is how she described it to the BBC) - it is a big deal. She says net zero is too expensive - the opposite is true: net-anything-but-zero is a cost we can't afford.But her promise to ban under-16s from using social media, echoing Australia's recent move, is hard to write off completely; people across the spectrum, including Andy Burnham, agree with it. Nobody who has ever met a teenager, or read the news, will be completely at ease with the role of social media in young lives. There are horrific effects, which have been well documented and inadequately addressed ever since the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing suicide and self-harm content online. Continue reading...
by Dan Milmo, Helena Horton and Kiran Stacey on (#72RSA)
Liz Kendall describes content as vile and illegal and says Ofcom has the government's backing to use its full powersThe UK media watchdog has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X over the use of the Grok AI tool to manipulate images of women and children by removing their clothes.Ofcom has acted after a public and political outcry over a deluge of sexual images appearing on the platform, created by Musk's Grok, which is integrated with X.Failing to assess the risk of people seeing illegal content on the platform.Not taking appropriate steps to prevent users from viewing illegal content such as intimate image abuse and CSAM.Not taking down illegal material quickly.Not protecting users from breaches of privacy law.Failing to assess the risk X may pose to children.Not using effective age checking for pornography. Continue reading...
When Hollow Knight: Silksong came out last summer I was in so much pain that I didn't know if I'd be able to play it. Could a video game teach me anything new about suffering?Last year I became uncomfortably well acquainted with suffering. In March I started experiencing excruciating pain in my right arm and shoulder - burning, zapping, energy-sapping pain that left me unable to think straight, emanating from a nexus of torment behind my shoulder blade and sometimes stretching all the way up to the base of my skull and all the way down into my fingers. Typing was agony, but everything was painful; even at rest it was horrible. I couldn't play my guitar; I couldn't play video games; I couldn't sleep. I learned how quickly physical suffering lacerates your mental wellbeing.I'd had episodes of nagging pain from so-called repetitive strain injuries before, the product of long hours hunched over laptops and game controllers over the course of decades, but nothing like this. A few months later, after the initial unrelenting agony had subsided to a permanent hum of more moderate pain, it was diagnosed as brachial neuritis, inflammation of the nerve path that travels from the base of your neck down to your hand. (Nobody knows what causes it, but it sometimes happens after an infection or an injury.) The good news, I was told by a neurologist, was that it usually gets better in about one to three years, and I hadn't lost any function in my right hand. The bad news was that there was nothing much to be done about the pain in the meantime. Continue reading...
I have paid two monthly 108 instalments but am now phone-less and out of pocketI ordered a 544 phone from Amazon. A tracking update later informed me that it may be lost" and I could request a refund. I pressed the refund option and was directed to customer service, which insisted I wait a week to claim.A week later I was told I needed to file an incident report from the email address associated with my account. When I complied, the report was rejected as coming from an address that didn't meet certain security standards". Continue reading...
Media bosses expect web referrals to plunge and want journalists to emulate content creators, report findsMedia companies expect web traffic to their sites from online searches to plummet over the next three years, as AI summaries and chatbots change the way consumers use the internet.An overwhelming majority are also planning to encourage their journalists to behave more like YouTube and TikTok content creators this year, as short-form video and audio content continues to boom. Continue reading...
Labour Greater Manchester mayor says he agrees with Kemi Badenoch about need to protect young peopleNo 10 is facing renewed pressure to ban social media for under-16s after the Conservatives and the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, supported limits to prevent harm to children.The government is understood to have no plans for a blanket ban" on social media use by under 16s. However, sources said it was closely monitoring the impact of moves taken to prevent children setting up accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions tackles a road safety issue Read this week's replies: Can you really fake it to make it?What's the point of having speed limits if camera-warning signs and apps allow drivers to slow down in advance - then just continue speeding? Maybe the UK government in its new consultations on road safety should add the question of hiding speed cameras to their list of concerns. I'm a driver, but also a pedestrian and cyclist and get fed up with seeing cars zooming down local roads at way more than 20 or 30mph. There are flashing lights that tell drivers what speed they're doing, but there's no penalty for going over at those points. Amy, CornwallPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
Zurich-based firm taps into latest robot tech to fibre-spray' high-end sports shoes worn by the likes of Roger FedererA robot leg whirs around in a complex ballet as an almost invisible spray of flying fibre" builds a hi-tech 300 sports shoe at its foot.This nearly entirely automated process - like a sci-fi future brought to life - is part of the gameplan from On, the Swiss sports brand that is taking on the sector's mighty champions Nike and Adidas with a mix of technology and chutzpah. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood testsGoogle has removed some of its artificial intelligence health summaries after a Guardian investigation found people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading information.The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are helpful" and reliable". Continue reading...
As synthetic personas become an increasingly normal part of life, meet the people falling for their chatbot loversLamar remembered the moment of betrayal like it was yesterday. He'd gone to the party with his girlfriend but hadn't seen her for over an hour, and it wasn't like her to disappear. He slipped down the hallway to check his phone. At that point, he heard murmurs coming from one of the bedrooms and thoughthe recognised his best friend Jason's low voice. As he pushed the door ajar, they were both still scrambling to throw their clothes on; her shirt was unbuttoned, while Jason struggled to cover himself. The image of his girlfriend and best friend together hit Lamar like a blow to the chest. He left without sayingaword.Two years on, when he spoke to me, the memory remained raw. He was still seething with anger, as if telling the story for the first time. I got betrayed by humans," Lamar insisted. I introduced my best friend to her, and this is what they did?!" In the meantime, he drifted towards a different kind of companionship, one where emotions were simple, where things were predictable. AI was easier. It did what he wanted, when he wanted. There were no lies, no betrayals. He didn't need to second-guess a machine. Continue reading...
The put her in a bikini' trend rapidly evolved into hundreds of thousands of requests to strip clothes from photos of women, horrifying those targetedLike thousands of women across the world, Evie, a 22-year-old photographer from Lincolnshire, woke up on New Year's Day, looked at her phone and was alarmed to see that fully clothed photographs of her had been digitally manipulated by Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, to show her in just a bikini.The put her in a bikini" trend began quietly at the end of last year before exploding at the start of 2026. Within days, hundreds of thousands of requests were being made to the Grok chatbot, asking it to strip the clothes from photographs of women. The fake, sexualised images were posted publicly on X, freely available for millions of people to inspect. Continue reading...
Exclusive: US vice-president sympathetic' to concerns over Grok-generated pornography, says deputy PMJD Vance, the US vice-president, has agreed that it is entirely unacceptable" for platforms such as X to allow the proliferation of AI-generated sexualised images of women and children, David Lammy has told the Guardian.The deputy prime minister said Vance, usually known as an AI enthusiast, expressed concern about how the technology was being used to fuel hyper-pornographied slop" online when they met in Washington on Thursday. Continue reading...
Ministers warn platform could be blocked after Grok AI used to create sexual images without consentElon Musk has accused the UK government of wanting to suppress free speech after ministers threatened fines and a possible ban for his social media site X after its AI tool, Grok, was used to make sexual images of women and children without their consent.The billionaire claimed Grok was the most downloaded app on the UK App Store on Friday night after ministers threatened to take action unless the function to create sexually harassing images was removed. Continue reading...
Nick and Brooke Shirley have for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issuesYouTube influencer Nick Shirley, whose viral video alleging fraud by daycare centers servicing Minneapolis's Somali American community came days ahead of the Trump administration's declaration of a national funding freeze, has for years published conspiracy-minded takes on hot-button rightwing issues.He also has close ties to the White House, Republicans, and to representatives of an earlier generation of rightwing partisan ambush journalists" such as James O'Keefe. He worked with Minnesota Republicans to produce the viral video on Somali-run daycares. Continue reading...
From the greatest cartoon racing game in history to a remastered version of an Alien-inspired sci-fi shooter, here are the Switch's must-play games The 15 best games to play on the Nintendo Switch in 2025Although the Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for several months, not everyone has made the leap to the new machine and there is still much to enjoy on the original console in 2026 (and beyond). From timeless Mario adventures to cutesy shooters to chasm-deep role-playing quests, here are 15 games no Switch owner should be without. Continue reading...
Move comes after governments and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned the AI tool and some have opened inquiries into sexualised contentIndonesia temporarily blocked Elon Musk's Grok chatbot on Saturday due to the risk of AI-generated pornographic content, becoming the first country to deny access to the AI tool.The move comes after governments, researchers and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned and some have opened inquiries into sexualised content on the app. Continue reading...
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