Information Commissioner's Office to investigate whether Elon Musk's firms have complied with data protection lawElon Musk's X and xAI companies are under formal investigation by the UK's data protection watchdog after the Grok AI tool produced indecent deepfakes without people's consent.The Information Commissioner's Office is investigating whether the social media platform and its parent broke GDPR, the data protection law. Continue reading...
Known as white gold', lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet - ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe's largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community?It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don't see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I'm standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK's transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. And if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic," he says. Though that is not what it's about."We'll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. There was a continental collision at the time," Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter, explained to me before my visit. This collision caused the bottom of the Earth's crust to melt, with the molten material rising higher in the crust and forming granite. There are lots of different types of granite that intrude at different times, more than 10m years or so," she says. The rock is made of minerals and, if you've got the right composition in the original material and the right conditions, then within those minerals there are some called mica. Some of those micas contain lithium." Continue reading...
Pearson, Experian and others fall sharply after startup unveils software to automate a range of professional servicesEuropean publishing and legal software companies have suffered sharp declines in their share prices after the US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic revealed a tool for use by companies' legal departments.Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude, said its tool could automate legal work such as contract reviewing, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance workflows, legal briefings and templated responses. Continue reading...
New US-owned app struggled with a storm and was accused of blocking content critical of Trump - can it recover?Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm Blake Montgomery, writing to you from Doha, where I'm moderating panels about AI and investing as part of the Web Summit Qatar.I want to bring your attention to the impact of a Guardian story. In December, we published a story, A black hole': families and police say tech giants delay investigations in child abuse and drug cases", about grieving families and law enforcement officers who say that Meta and Snapchat have slowed down criminal investigations. (The tech companies contend that they cooperate.) This month, Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to compel social media platforms to respond to warrants in 72 hours.Elon Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known, emails showTesla discontinues Model X and S vehicles as Elon Musk pivots to roboticsWhat is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI botsThe slopaganda era: 10 AI images posted by the White House - and what they teach usApple reports record iPhone sales as new lineup reignites worldwide demandSouth Korea's world-first' AI laws face pushback amid bid to become leading tech powerCan you guess our screen time? A priest, pensioner, tech CEO and teenager reveal all Continue reading...
Annual review highlights growing capabilities of AI models, while examining issues from cyber-attacks to job disruptionThe International AI Safety report is an annual survey of technological progress and the risks it is creating across multiple areas, from deepfakes to the jobs market.Commissioned at the 2023 global AI safety summit, it is chaired by the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, who describes the daunting challenges" posed by rapid developments in the field. The report is also guided by senior advisers, including Nobel laureates Geoffrey Hinton and Daron Acemoglu. Continue reading...
CEO Alex Karp hails iconic' financial results despite criticism over contracts with ICE and homeland securityPalantir celebrated its latest financial results on Monday, as the tech company blew past Wall Street expectations and continues to prop up the Trump administration's push to deport immigrants.Palantir has secured millions of dollars in federal contracts amid Trump's crackdown on immigrants. The multibillion-dollar Denver-based firm creates tech focused on surveillance and analytics, to be used by the government agencies and private companies. Continue reading...
Minister announces Microsoft, Cisco and Adobe to help apply AI to local schools, hospitals, GPs and businessesIn 2002 Barnsley toyed with a redesign as a Tuscan hill village as it sought out a brighter post-industrial future. In 2021 it adopted the airily vague slogan the place of possibilities". Now it is trying a different image: Britain's first tech town".The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has anointed the South Yorkshire community as a trailblazer for how AI can improve everyday life" in the UK. Continue reading...
Millions of dollars have been raised for Bondi hero Ahmed al-Ahmed, while campaigns are backing families hit by Victoria's bushfires. What does this way of giving mean for the charity sector?Within hours of the Bondi beach terror attack, the money had already begun to pour in. As images of the tragedy flooded social media, people from around the world donated tens of thousands of dollars to the victims, their families and first responders.Passing the hat around the neighbourhood or the local pub has always been a staple response in times of crisis. But today, that instinct to open your wallet has been exponentially supercharged via a digital simulacrum: online crowdfunding platforms. Continue reading...
Online gaming legend Mark Fischbach writes, directs and stars in this feature about a convict on a vague intergalactic mission - but his barebones production has nothing to showWilliam Goldman's old showbiz maxim continues to apply that nobody knows anything. Independently financed horror movie Iron Lung has been smuggled into multiplexes without the usual promotional hoopla, where it was keenly awaited by the massed followers of its Hawaiian writer-director-star Mark Fischbach, better known as YouTube gaming legend Markiplier. Many of us have long sensed culture is making a decisive break with the analogue in favour of the (perhaps terminally) online and Fischbach's film makes that paradigm shift not just visible but visceral; it feels not unlike spending 12 hours on Twitch with all the curtains closed.Though Markiplier is approaching the horror genre from a notionally fresh angle - by adapting Dave Szymanski's eponymous space-submarine sim - he lands on the narratively rusty idea of an astronaut straying beyond his depth; this is Moon in dimmer light. Beset by ominous rumbles and mounting doubts about the state of mankind, the begrimed and squalid craft singlehandedly piloted by Fischbach's straggle-haired convict Simon is indistinguishable from the average teenage bedroom. Our hero staggers round this intergalactic deathtrap completing vaguely specified missions - ram this, repair that, download something or other - like a harassed dad ticking off his Sunday to-do list. In this, Simon proves more proficient than Fischbach's offscreen self, who is either stumped by or oblivious to the film's fundamental issues. Continue reading...
The once-lauded director of Black Swan and The Wrestler has drowned himself in AI slop with an embarrassing new online seriesIf you happen to find yourself stumbling through Time magazine's YouTube account, perhaps because you are a time traveller from the 1970s who doesn't fully understand how the present works yet - then you will be presented with something that many believe represents the vanguard of entertainment as we know it.On This Day ... 1776 is a series of short videos depicting America's revolutionary war. What makes On This Day notable is that it was made by Darren Aronofsky's studio Primordial Soup. What also makes it interesting is that it was created with AI. The third thing that makes it interesting is that it is terrible. Continue reading...
New Mexico attorney general accuses Meta of failing to safeguard children against trafficking and sexual abuseMeta's second major trial of 2026 over alleged harms to children begins on Monday.The landmark jury trial in Santa Fe pits the New Mexico attorney general's office against the social media giant. The state alleges that the company knowingly enabled predators to use Facebook and Instagram to exploit children. Continue reading...
OpenClaw is billed as the AI that actually does things' and needs almost no input to potentially wreak havocA new viral AI personal assistant will handle your email inbox, trade away your entire stock portfolio and text your wife good morning" and goodnight" on your behalf.OpenClaw, formerly known as Moltbot, and before that known as Clawdbot (until the AI firm Anthropic requested it rebrand due to similarities with its own product Claude), bills itself as the AI that actually does things": a personal assistant that takes instructions via messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram. Continue reading...
Some users are stepping away from the app after it made a deal to create a US entity and updated terms and conditionsMany TikTok users across the US say they're rethinking their relationship with the platform since its ownership and terms and conditions have recently changed, with some citing censorship and lack of trust as reasons why they're removing themselves from the app.Keara Sullivan, a 26-year-old comedian, says TikTok jumpstarted her career and provided a pathway to getting a manager and a literary agent. Continue reading...
In-person interactions break down barriers in east London, as AI startups also try to bridge communication divideWesley Hartwell raised his fists to the barista and shook them next to his ears. He then lowered his fists, extended his thumbs and little fingers, and moved them up and down by his chest, as though milking a cow. Finally, he laid the fingers of one hand flat on his chin and flexed his wrist forward.Hartwell, who has no hearing problems, had just used BSL, British Sign Language, to order his morning latte with normal milk at the deaf-run Dialogue Cafe, based at the University of East London, and thanked Victor Olaniyan, the deaf barista. Continue reading...
App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it's facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitorA little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life.TikTok's calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to a group of US investors, among them the business software giant Oracle. The app's time under Chinese ownership had been marked by a meteoric ascent to more than a billion users, which left incumbents such as Instagram looking like the next Myspace. But TikTok's short new life in the US has been less than auspicious. Continue reading...
by Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent on (#738CV)
The march of wearable tech is coming to the aid of women in what some say is a long underserved marketFor any bodily function you want to measure these days there is a gadget - a wristband for step-counting, a watch to track your heart rate or a ring for measuring sleep.Now the march of wearable tech is coming to the aid of what some say is a long underserved market: menopausal women. Continue reading...
In the final part of this series, we look at how infighting has ripped the left apart online while the right has flourished - and how some progressives are turning the tide
A lawsuit filed last week alleges tech firm can access virtually all' private communications, a claim the company has deniedUS authorities have reportedly investigated claims that Meta can read users' encrypted chats on the WhatsApp messaging platform, which it owns.The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week, which claimed Meta can access virtually all of WhatsApp users' purportedly private' communications". Continue reading...
TUC urges ministers to bring forward changes to protect workers amid concerns over apps such as TemperThe fashion retailer Urban Outfitters, the bed specialist Dreams and the operator of several Royal Parks cafes have been criticised for the use of the gig economy app Temper to take on staff - some of whom can end up earning below minimum wage.The TUC is urging the government to bring forward promised reforms to protect gig economy workers amid concerns that those hired by apps such as Temper are missing out on significant employment rights including sick pay, rest breaks, holiday pay and a minimum hourly rate. Continue reading...
Hundreds of parents, teens and school districts have claimed social media is intentionally addictive and harmfulSocial media companies will have to answer to a jury - for the first time - for allegations that their products are intentionally addictive and harmful to young users' mental health. Hundreds of parents, teens and school districts sued Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, leading to a series of landmark trials that began this week. Jury selection in the first case started on Tuesday in Los Angeles court.Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is among the big tech CEOs who are expected to testify. Both sides are likely to bring in experts to hash out the science behind alleged addiction to social media. Continue reading...
In the second part of our series on digital politics, we look at how online provocateurs have advanced extreme political ideas - and watched them seep into the mainstream
A wave of affordable Chinese-made EVs is accelerating the shift away from petrol cars, challenging longheld assumptions about how transport decarbonisation unfolds Don't get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereLast year, almost every new car sold in Norway, the nature-loving country flush with oil wealth, was fully electric. In prosperous Denmark, which was all-in on petrol and diesel cars until just before Covid, sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) reached a share of 68%. In California, the share of zero-emissions vehicles hit 20%. And at least every third new car now bought by the Dutch, Finns, Belgians and Swedes burns no fuel.These figures, which would have felt fanciful just five years ago, show the rich world leading the shift away from cars that pump out toxic gas and planet-heating pollutants. But a more startling trend is that electric car sales are also racing ahead in many developing countries. While China is known for its embrace of electric vehicles (EVs), demand has also soared in emerging markets from South America to south-east Asia. BEV sales in Turkey have caught up with the EU's, data published this week shows.The Fukushima towns frozen in time: nature has thrived since the nuclear disaster but what happens if humans return?The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprisedThe 16-month battle to reveal the truth about Sydney Water's poo ballsPowering up: how Ethiopia is becoming an unlikely leader in the electric vehicle revolutionMy Tesla has become ordinary': Turkey catches up with EU in electric car salesThe electric vehicle revolution is still on course - don't let your loathing of Elon Musk stop you joining up Continue reading...
My use of mobile phones has been compulsive - has it been for better or for worse? From a priest to a pensioner, a teenager to a tech CEO: can you guess our screen time?In 2003, the Stanford social scientist BJ Fogg published an extraordinarily prescient book. Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do predicted a future in which a student sits in a college library and removes an electronic device from her purse". It serves as her mobile phone, information portal, entertainment platform, and personal organiser. She takes this device almost everywhere and feels lost without it."Such devices, Fogg argued, would be persuasive technology systems ... the device can suggest, encourage, and reward." Those rewards could have a powerful effect on our relationship with these devices, akin to gamblers pumping quarters into slot machines. Continue reading...
by Charis McGowan, Chris Broughton and Alexandra Jone on (#737XY)
From the person who scrolls on the toilet to the one without any social media, what do their digital habits tell us? Will Storr: we have lost so much of ourselves to smartphones - can we get it back?Dayeon, 16: the teenager who spends less than an hour a day on screens Continue reading...
by Presented by Michael Safi with Chris Stokel-Walker on (#737E3)
With Donald Trump tearing up the world order, governments across Europe are having to confront the fact that most of the technology they rely on comes from US companies. French officials have taken a step this week to reduce their dependence on US digital infrastructure, announcing they have stopped using Zoom, the US-owned video meeting software, in favour of a French-made program. But how viable is this? And what are the risks? The Guardian's Michael Safi speaks to the tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker - watch on YouTube Continue reading...
At a family gathering over Christmas, I took on my 76-year-old mother once again at virtual bowling. Could I finally best her?My mother bore me. My mother nurtured me. My mother educated me. She has a resilience unmatched, a love all-forgiving. She is the glue that holds our family together. But right now, I am kicking her ass at video game bowling, and it feels good!In the 00s, my mum was the best Wii Bowling player in the world. She was unbeatable. Strike after strike after strike. The Dudette in our family's Big Lebowski. So when she said she was coming to visit us in Canada, I thought the time was right to buy the updated Nintendo Switch Sports version of her favourite game. She's 76 now, and I might finally have a chance of beating her, I thought, especially if I allowed myself a cheeky tune-up on the game before she arrived. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Smartwatches, Oura rings, smart home devices and Fitbits being weaponised, says RefugeDomestic abusers are increasingly using AI, smartwatches and other technology to attack and control their victims, a domestic abuse charity says.Record numbers of women who were abused and controlled through technology were referred to Refuge's specialist services during the last three months of 2025, including a 62% increase in the most complex cases to total 829 women. There was also a 24% increase in referrals of under-30s. Continue reading...
The Institute for Public Policy Research also argues that tech companies must pay publishers for content they useAI-generated news should carry nutrition" labels and tech companies must pay publishers for the content they use, according to a left-of-centre thinktank, amid rising use of the technology as a source for current affairs.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said AI firms were rapidly emerging as the new gatekeepers" of the internet and intervention was needed to create a healthy AI news environment. Continue reading...
Meta wowed Wall Street with improvements in ad targeting fueled by AI alongside huge investment. Microsoft had less to show for its billions spentBig tech earnings so far this week have sent a clear warning: investors are willing to overlook soaring spending on artificial intelligence if it fuels strong growth, but are quick to punish companies that fall short.The contrast was clear in Thursday's stock market reaction to earnings from Microsoft and Meta, highlighting how dramatically the stakes have changed since the launch of ChatGPT started the AI boom more than three years ago. Continue reading...
Analysis finds at least 150 channels on messaging app that have distributed AI-generated images and videoMillions of people around the world have created and shared deepfake nudes on the secure messaging app Telegram, a Guardian analysis has shown, as the spread of advanced AI tools industrialises the online abuse of women.The Guardian identified at least 150 Telegram channels - large encrypted group chats popular for their secure communication - that appeared to have users in many countries, from the UK to Brazil, China to Nigeria, Russia to India. Some of them offer nudified" photos or videos for a fee: users can upload a photo of any woman, and AI will produce a video of that woman performing sexual acts. Many more offer a feed of images - of celebrities, social media influencers and ordinary women - made nude or made to perform sexual acts by AI. Followers are also using the channels to share tips on available deepfake tools. Continue reading...
Lord Stockwood says people in government definitely' talking about idea as technology disrupts industries Business live - latest updatesThe UK could introduce a universal basic income (UBI) to protect workers in industries that are being disrupted by AI, the investment minister Jason Stockwood has said.Bumpy" changes to society caused by the introduction of the technology would mean there would have to be some sort of concessionary arrangement with jobs that go immediately", Lord Stockwood said. Continue reading...
Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here's what you need to know to navigate the trollingIt started with an image of Trump as a king mocked up on a fake Time magazine cover. Since then it's developed into a full-blown phenomenon, one academics are calling slopaganda" - an unholy alliance of easily available AI tools and political messaging. Shitposting", the publishing of deliberately crude, offensive content online to provoke a reaction, has reached the level of institutional shitposting", according to Know Your Meme's editor Don Caldwell. This is trolling as official government communication. And nobody is more skilled at it than the Trump administration - a government that has not only allowed the AI industry all the regulative freedom it desires, but has embraced the technology for its own in-house purposes. Here are 10 of the most significant fake images the White House has put out so far. Continue reading...
Parents, teachers and young people share their views on whether social media restrictions would work in the UKPressure is mounting on the UK government to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s, after a decisive vote in House of Lords in favour of Australian-style restrictions.Peers backed a Tory-led amendment to the children's wellbeing and schools bill by 261 votes to 150, despite the government opposing the move. Ministers are already considering a ban as part of a consultation due to report by the summer and so the Lords amendment is unlikely to pass in the Commons. Starmer is also understood to want to wait until evidence from Australia's ban, which came into force in December, has been assessed, though the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has urged him to just get on with it". Continue reading...
The laws have been criticised by tech startups, which say they go too far, and civil society groups, which say they don't go far enoughSouth Korea has embarked on a foray into the regulation of AI, launching what has been billed as the most comprehensive set of laws anywhere in the world, that could prove a model for other countries, but the new legislation has already encountered pushback.The laws, which will force companies to label AI-generated content, have been criticised by local tech startups, which say they go too far, and civil society groups, which say they don't go far enough.Add invisible digital watermarks for clearly artificial outputs such as cartoons or artwork. For realistic deepfakes, visible labels are required.High-impact AI", including systems used for medical diagnosis, hiring and loan approvals, will require operators to conduct risk assessments and document how decisions are made. If a human makes the final decision the system may fall outside the category.Extremely powerful AI models will require safety reports, but the threshold is set so high that government officials acknowledge no models worldwide currently meet it. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#735QX)
Starmer's team is wary of spies but such fears are not new - with Theresa May once warned to get dressed under a duvetWhen prime ministers travel to China, heightened security arrangements are a given - as is the quiet game of cat and mouse that takes place behind the scenes as each country tests out each other's tradecraft and capabilities.Keir Starmer's team has been issued with burner phones and fresh sim cards, and is using temporary email addresses, to prevent devices being loaded with spyware or UK government servers being hacked into. Continue reading...
by Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent on (#735JN)
Beijing's AI policy is focused on real-life applications but Chinese companies are beginning to articulate their own grand visionsStanding on stage in the eastern China tech hub of Hangzhou, Alibaba's normally media-shy CEO made an attention-grabbing announcement. The world today is witnessing the dawn of an AI-driven intelligent revolution," Eddie Wu told a developer conference in September. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) will not only amplify human intelligence but also unlock human potential, paving the way for the arrival of artificial superintelligence (ASI)."ASI, Wu said, could produce a generation of super scientists' and full-stack super engineers'", who would tackle unsolved scientific and engineering problems at unimaginable speeds". Continue reading...
Owner Google moves to block Barb data access months after allowing 200 channels to be monitoredYouTube has been criticised by the TV and advertising industry after suspending its participation in a key measurement system that compares viewership on the social media site with other streamers such as Netflix and TV broadcasters.YouTube's owner, Google, has sent cease and desist" letters to Barb, which publishes audience figures that are used as the UK industry standard, and Kantar Media, its research partner in the service. Continue reading...
In the fiercely competitive market of the online multiplayer game, Highguard's rocky start means it now has a lot to prove Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIn the fast-paced, almost psychotically unforgiving video game business, you really do have to stick the landing. Launching a new game is an artform in itself - do you go for months of slowly building hype or a sudden shock reveal, simultaneously announcing and releasing a new project in one fell swoop? The latter worked incredibly well for online shooter Apex Legends, which remains one of the genre's stalwarts six years after its surprise launch on 4 February 2019. What you don't do with a new release, is something that falls awkwardly between those two approaches. Enter Highguard.This new online multiplayer title from newcomer Wildlight Entertainment has an excellent pedigree. The studio was formed by ex-Respawn Entertainment staff, most of whom previously worked on Titanfall, Call of Duty and the aforementioned Apex Legends. They know what they're doing. But the launch has been ... troubled. Continue reading...
Workers informed after message erroneously said affected employees in US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been toldAmazon has told workers it is cutting 16,000 jobs around the world to streamline its operations, hours after sending out a message to staff about the layoffs apparently in error.It is the second big wave of job cuts at the US online retail company, and comes just three months after the company said it was slashing 14,000 roles. Amazon employs about 1.5 million workers worldwide. Continue reading...
We need an honest reckoning with other factors that threaten young people's wellbeing, from poverty to academic stressOur children's feelings are not for sale, and nor are they to be manipulated.So said Emmanuel Macron this week, after French lawmakers voted to ban under-15s from social media. Admittedly, he then repeated these sentiments in a post on X, in the time-honoured manner of parents solemnly lecturing children to do as we say, not as we do.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...
Popularity of EVs in country is part of global trend of emerging markets spurning fossil fuel cars at surprising speedsWhen Berke Astarcolu bought a BMW i3 in 2016, he was one of just 44 people in a country of 80 million to buy a battery electric vehicle (BEV) that year. By the time he bought a Tesla in 2023, BEVs were no longer a complete oddity in Turkey, making up 7% of new car sales.Fast-forward two years and electric cars are selling so fast that Turkey has caught up with the EU in its rate of adoption. Its market is now the fourth largest in Europe, behind Germany, the UK and France. Continue reading...
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, co-directed by Daniel Roher, delves into the world of AI through the lens of personal anxietyAre we barreling toward AI catastrophe? Is AI an existential threat, or an epochal opportunity? Those are the questions top of mind for a new documentary at Sundance, which features leading AI experts, critics and entrepreneurs, including Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, with views on the near-to-midterm future ranging from doom to utopia.The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell and produced by Daniel Kwan (one half of The Daniels, the Oscar-winning duo behind Everything Everywhere All At Once), delves into the contentious topic of AI through Roher's own anxiety. The Canadian film-maker, who won an Oscar in 2023 for the documentary Navalny, first became interested in the topic while experimenting with tools released by OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot ChatGPT. The sophistication of the public tools - the ability to produce whole paragraphs in seconds, or produce illustrations - both thrilled and unnerved him. AI was already radically shaping the film-making industry, and proclamations on the promise and peril of AI were everywhere, with little way for people outside the tech industry to evaluate them. As an artist, he wondered, how was he to make sense of it all? Continue reading...
Advertising Standards Authority says firm advised by George Osborne trivialised risks of cryptocurrency'A cryptocurrency company advised by George Osborne has been banned from showing a set of adverts that suggested using its services could be a solution to the cost of living crisis.Coinbase, which appointed the former Conservative chancellor to chair its global advisory council last year, has been told by the UK's advertising watchdog that its adverts were irresponsible" and trivialised the risks of cryptocurrency". Continue reading...
From rhino-sized Rhyhorns to worm-like Diglett, visitors to PokePark Kanto will roam a forest populated by lifelike Pokemon statues when the attraction opens next weekIn Japan, February is normally a period of quiet reflection, a month defined by winter festivals in Sapporo's snowy mountains and staving off the cold in steaming hot springs. Traditionally, international tourists start to arrive with the blossoms in spring - but thanks to the opening of Pokemon's first ever amusement park on 5 February, this year, they are likely to come earlier.Unlike the rollercoaster-filled thrills of Tokyo Disney Sea or Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, PokePark Kanto is essentially a forest populated by models of the creatures from the perennially popular games. Nestled in the quiet Tokyo suburb of Inagi, half an hour from the city centre, the park is a walkable forest with more than 600 Pokemonin it. Where the Mario-themed Super Nintendo World slots neatly into the massive Universal Studios Japan, PokePark Kanto is hidden in the back of the less glitzy, funfair-esque Japanese theme park Yomiuri Land. Continue reading...
Mobile Fortify app being used to scan faces of citizens and immigrants - but its use has prompted a severe backlashImmigration enforcement agents across the US are increasingly relying on a new smartphone app with facial recognition technology.The app is named Mobile Fortify. Simply pointing a phone's camera at their intended target and scanning the person's face allows Mobile Fortify to pull data on an individual from multiple federal and state databases, some of which federal courts have deemed too inaccurate for arrest warrants. Continue reading...
