Altman pleased' investigation over, saying he could have handled dispute with former board member with more grace and care'OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman has been reinstated to the firm's board of directors following an outside investigation into the turmoil that led the company to abruptly fire and rehire him in November.OpenAI said the investigation by the law firm WilmerHale concluded that Altman's ouster had been a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust" between Altman and the prior board and that the CEO's conduct did not mandate removal". Continue reading...
Tech giant takes a step back from years-long feud with game maker after pressure from European regulatorsUnder pressure from European regulators, Apple took a step back in its feud with Epic Games on Friday, clearing the way for Epic to put Fortnite and its own game store on iPhones and iPads in Europe.Earlier this week, Apple had taken steps to block Epic from starting up a store and bringing back the popular game, which Apple removed from its App Store in 2020 after Epic broke the iPhone maker's in-app payment rules in protest. Continue reading...
Experts say Gemini was not thoroughly tested, after image generator depicted variety of historical figures as people of colourGoogle's co-founder Sergey Brin has kept a low profile since quietly returning to work at the company. But the troubled launch of Google's artificial intelligence model Gemini resulted in a rare public utterance recently: We definitely messed up."Brin's comments, at an AI hackathon" event on 2 March, follow a slew of social media posts showing Gemini's image generation tool depicting a variety of historical figures - including popes, founding fathers of the US and, most excruciatingly, German second world war soldiers - as people of colour. Continue reading...
Six years since its voyage began, the oceanic co-op is landing on PS5 - and the team behind the game can't wait to empower the creativity of a whole new community of playersOne evening many months ago, Mike Chapman, the creative director of the co-op pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves, sat down to play the game with producer Joe Neate. This wasn't just a standard playtest - joining them online would be a crew of players they'd never taken to the ocean with before. It was a team from Sony Interactive Entertainment. The plan to bring the Xbox exclusive to PS5 had just been hatched; now it was time to get into the detail. We were educating them about the game, talking through what was special about it," says Neate. It was so surreal," chips in Chapman. Trying to find treasure on an island with a group from a different platform holder ..."The PS5 launch is scheduled for 30 April, and pre-orders are now open, but it's only the latest stage in the evolution of this fascinating game. Launched on 20 March 2018, it was the most ambitious project in the long history of veteran British studio Rare. Billed as a cooperative pirate adventure, Sea of Thieves gave players access to a vast multiplayer world of oceanic exploration, buried treasure and ship-to-ship battles. The design philosophy behind the game was simple, yet extremely risky: tools not rules. Players would be given everything they needed to set out on their own pirate adventures - even musical instruments and gallons of virtual grog - but there would be no overarching narrative, no skill trees, no complex character progression systems. The stories would come from the players themselves, as they built their crews and fought other buccaneers for fame and fortune. Continue reading...
Conspiracy theorists are still routinely targeting and abusing women and woke' game consultants. With a small studio currently under fire, the games industry's silence is deafeningTen years ago, a game developer's aggrieved ex-boyfriend published a vindictive screed accusing her of trading sex for favourable reviews of her indie game. This was leapt upon by the least savoury corner of the 2014 internet, 4chan, and kicked off a harassment campaign that broadened to include all women working in video game development or the gaming press, as well as the industry's LGBTQ+ community. Sensing blood in the water, alt-right" agitators on YouTube and Steve Bannon's Breitbart jumped on the bandwagon, and soon began to steer it - and Gamergate, as this manufactured outrage became known, mutated into one of the first fronts of the modern culture wars, driven by social media, misogyny and the weaponised disaffection of young men. Many of its tactics became part of the Trump election playbook.This week, a 16-person narrative design studio has found itself at the centre of a conspiracy theory that holds it responsible for the insidious prevalence of wokery" in modern video games. A group with more than 200,000 followers on PC games storefront Steam, as well as thousands in a Discord chat channel, believes that Sweet Baby Inc is secretly forcing game developers to change the bodies, ethnicities and sexualities of video game characters to conform to woke" ideology. They think that Sweet Baby has written and controlled almost every popular video game of the past five years, shutting straight white men out. As Trump once again heads out on the campaign trail, this is part of a broader far right panic about diversity and inclusion that has already resulted in proposed regressive anti-women and anti-woke legislation in the US and elsewhere. Continue reading...
Following the game's hero into hellish madness, Petri Alanko required an especially unsettling score. Enter a noise machine that disturbed even Stephen KingOn Petri Alanko's website, where the Bafta-nominated Finnish musician offers his services as a composer for video games and film, the artist and performer makes a bold claim: No deadlines missed since 1990". If you're a creative of any flavour, you're likely to read that with a mixture of awe, suspicion and incredulity. Deadlines are flexible, right? Right?It's not a boast, it's a service promise, more or less," laughs Alanko. I'm really good at scheduling my own work, but I am very careful when dealing with someone else for the first time. Not all clients know exactly what they want, despite me helping them to figure out what's needed. I need to be the creative, the analyst, as well as the crisis negotiator." Video game music production is often chaotic: composers have to be malleable, lean, adaptable, unafraid of killing their darlings or working to impossibly tight deadlines. That Alanko shrugs this off as simply part of the job is testament to his dedication. Continue reading...
Platform sent alert to US users urging them to protest bill that would make its parent company divest from the app or face a banLawmakers' offices have reportedly been flooded with calls from TikTok users speaking out against a bill that would force the platform's parent company to divest from the app or face a US ban.The bill, which is backed by more than a dozen representatives, passed unanimously out of the House energy and commerce committee on Thursday with a vote of 50 to 0. TikTok responded by pushing out a notification to many of its estimated 170 million US users, calling on them to contact Congress in protest. The notification included a mechanism that allows people to search for their representative's number by inputting their zip code. Continue reading...
As Bafta's video game awards celebrate their 20th outing, the full list of nominations reflects a outstandingly creative yearBafta has announced the nominations for the 20th Bafta games awards, which will take place in London on April 11.Leading the pack this year are Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 with 10 nominations; Spider-Man 2 with nine; Alan Wake 2 with eight; and six apiece for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Hi-Fi Rush, a colourful music-based action game from Japan's Tango Gameworks, picked up five nominations, as did Mintrocket's breakout hit Dave the Diver. Continue reading...
The tech giant said the lawsuit was near-sighted and akin to Hollywood's losing backlash against the VCRMicrosoft has responded to a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the New York Times over alleged use of content to train generative artificial intelligence, calling the claim a false narrative of doomsday futurology". The tech giant said the lawsuit was near-sighted and akin to Hollywood's losing backlash against the VCR.In a motion to dismiss part of the lawsuit filed on Monday, Microsoft, which was sued in December alongside ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, scoffed at the newspaper's claim that Times content receives particular emphasis" and that tech companies seek to free-ride on the Times's massive investment in its journalism". Continue reading...
Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, warns a coalition of environmental groupsClaims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, with the technology instead likely cause rising energy use and turbocharge the spread of climate disinformation, a coalition of environmental groups has warned.Advances in AI have been touted by big tech companies and the United Nations as a way to help ameliorate global heating, via tools that help track deforestation, identify pollution leaks and track extreme weather events. AI is already being used to predict droughts in Africa and to measure changes to melting icebergs. Continue reading...
by Hollie Richardson, Hannah Verdier and Rachel Aroes on (#6K5EZ)
In this week's newsletter: Comedian Joanne McNally explores one of the most bizarre celebrity conspiracy theories in a new BBC series. Plus: five of the best books podcasts Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWho Replaced Avril Lavigne?
Widow who depends on wifi to order medication and grocers was disconnected in the autumnI'm at my wits' end trying to understand how my BT landline and wifi can be cut off without the company receiving any instructions from me.I'm a 79-year-old widow living seven miles from a town and depend on wifi to order medication from the GP, groceries and many other things. Continue reading...
Linwei Ding, facing four counts of theft of trade secrets, accused of transferring confidential information to his personal accountA Chinese software engineer has been arrested for allegedly stealing artificial intelligence technology from Google while secretly working for two Chinese companies.Linwei Ding, 38, also known as Leon Ding, faces four counts of theft of trade secrets, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said in a statement. Continue reading...
Shane Jones said he warned management about the lack of safeguards several times, but it didn't result in any actionAn artificial intelligence engineer at Microsoft published a letter on Wednesday alleging that the company's AI image generator lacks basic safeguards against creating violent and sexualized images. In the letter, engineer Shane Jones states that his repeated attempts to warn Microsoft management about the problems failed to result in any action. Jones said he sent the message to the Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft's board of directors.Internally the company is well aware of systemic issues where the product is creating harmful images that could be offensive and inappropriate for consumers," Jones states in the letter, which he published on LinkedIn. He lists his title as principal software engineering manager". Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: Like Kratos's axe and Halo's Warthogs before it, Pacific Drive's beat-up banger and I have formed a lasting connection as we survive a scary world together Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereI had to give up on Pacific Drive, the weird-fiction-inspired driving survival game I recommended the other week. Not because it's bad - it's great - but because it needed 20-plus hours from me that I just do not have right now.Also, if I'm totally candid, it freaks me out. It's a game about probing further and further into a long-abandoned exclusion zone in a beat-up old car, and the anomalies you encounter. These range from pillars suddenly thrusting themselves from the earth to alarming hurricanes that shove you around the road, and all are excitingly inventive and creepy. Continue reading...
Employers are letting artificial intelligence conduct job interviews. Candidates are trying to beat the systemWhen Ty landed an introductory phone interview with a finance and banking company last month, they assumed it would be a quick chat with a recruiter. And when they got on the phone, Ty assumed the recruiter, who introduced herself as Jaime, was human. But things got robotic.The voice sounded similar to Siri," said Ty, who is 29 and lives in the DC metro area. It was creepy." Continue reading...
ChatGPT maker releases emails in support of claim Tesla boss backed plan to create for-profit unitOpenAI has hit back at Elon Musk's lawsuit accusing it of betraying its altruistic roots, claiming the Tesla chief executive had in fact supported the artificial intelligence company's plans to create a for-profit unit.Executives at the ChatGPT maker released a blogpost containing what they claimed was historical email correspondence with Musk in which the entrepreneur suggested merging the San Francisco-based startup with Tesla. Continue reading...
The meeting in Palm Beach, Florida - reported on by the New York Times - comes as Trump trails president Joe Biden in fundraisingDonald Trump met with billionaire Elon Musk in Florida over the weekend as the former Republican president seeks a major cash infusion for his re-election campaign, The New York Times reported.According to the Times, Trump met with Musk - one of the world's richest people - and a number of wealthy Republican donors on Sunday and hopes to have a one-on-one discussion soon with Musk, the CEO of both Tesla Inc and SpaceX, and the owner-executive chairman of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Continue reading...
Services refuse login attempts and feeds stall as Google's platform also experiences login problemsFacebook and Instagram experienced severe issues around the world on Tuesday, with the services refusing login attempts and feeds stalling.The outages were first reported at about 3.30pm GMT (10.30am EST, 2.30am AEDT) and began to clear at about 5pm. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6K3P4)
Funky design, fun software, decent performance and long battery life provide a lot of phone for the moneyLondon-based tech firm Nothing's latest Android attempts to shake up the budget phone market with something a little more interesting.Costing from 319 (329/A$529) the Phone 2a aims to take the cool design and intrigue that made its higher-end models stand out and package it up into something cheaper but still novel, sits alongside the full-fat Phone 2 costing 579.Screen: 6.7in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (394ppi)Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 7200 ProRAM: 8 or 12GBStorage: 128 or 256GBOperating system: Nothing OS 2.5 (Android 14)Camera: 50MP main and ultrawide, 32MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSSWater resistance: IP54 (splash resistant)Dimensions: 162 x 76.3 x 8.9mmWeight: 190g Continue reading...
Bowie's 1999 album Hours... was the first to go on sale online before hitting regular stores - and his experimentation caused horror in the music industryIt is far from his best album, and not even his best album of the 1990s, but Hours... is David Bowie's most significant album that decade. Not because of the music, however, but how it was released: the first album by a major artist on a major label to emerge as a download before it arrived physically.Writing about the album in August 1999 ahead of its September release, Rolling Stone called Hours... a cyber-coup": a continuation of Bowie's fascination with releasing music online, which he started with the Telling Lies single in 1996. He had also enthusiastically embraced webcasting and created his own internet service provider with BowieNet in 1998. I couldn't be more pleased to have the opportunity of moving the music industry closer to the process of making digital downloads available as the norm and not the exception," is how Bowie explained the Hours... release at the time. We are all aware that broadband opportunities are not yet available to the overwhelming majority of people, and therefore expect the success of this experiment to be measured in hundreds and not thousands of downloads. However, just as colour television broadcasts and film content on home video tapes were required first steps to cause their industries to expand consumer use, I am hopeful that this small step will lead to larger leaps by myself and others ultimately giving consumers greater choices and easier access to the music they enjoy." Continue reading...
Apple has been fined a whopping 1.8bn by the EU, but it still claims it's done nothing wrong. Plus, what happens when open source software gets into the wrong hands of some crypto fans Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereThe tech industry is one of the most valuable sectors on the planet, but it ultimately rests on the unpaid labour of an alarmingly small amount of hobbyists.That reliance is the blessing, and the curse, of open source software - coding projects put up on the internet for anyone to use, freely, in their own work. Some open source software solves simple problems elegantly enough that no one wants to redo the work unnecessarily; others tackle complex tasks that few have ever attempted.the most consequential figures in the tech world are half guys like steve jobs and bill gates and half some guy named ronald who maintains a unix tool called runk' which stands for Ronald's Universal Number Kounter and handles all math for every machine on earthA project called tea.xyz promised people they could get rewards for [their] open source contributions", complete with a flashy website describing how it would enhance the sustainability of open-source software".So far, it's achieved the exact opposite. Promising to reward open source contributors with crypto tokens, the project asked users to verify their access to open source projects by merging in a YAML file containing their crypto wallet address.The fine is nearly four times higher than expected in a move by the European Commission to show it will act decisively on tech companies who abuse their dominant position in the market for phones and online services.The European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said a smaller fine would have been nothing more than the equivalent of a parking fine" and was designed to act as a deterrent" to such practices for Apple and others.If a developer sells physical goods, serves ads in their app, or just shares an app for free, they don't pay Apple anything.When it comes to doing business, not everyone's going to agree on the best deal. But it sure is hard to beat free. But free isn't enough for Spotify. Continue reading...
Suit by former employees, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, follows a separate legal complaint by other workers seeking $500mElon Musk is facing a $128m lawsuit from four former Twitter executives who allege the billionaire tech mogul failed to pay them severance after buying the social network. The suit, filed on Monday in California, follows a separate legal complaint last year by rank-and-file employees seeking $500m in unpaid severance.Because Musk decided he didn't want to pay Plaintiffs' severance benefits, he simply fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision," the suit alleges. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6K2KP)
Squeezing high-end features into a more affordable frame makes for an excellent mid-range smart sports trackerGarmin's latest smart sports watch condenses all the great features from its higher-end Forerunner models into a cheaper, simpler running tracker with a bright OLED screen and long battery life.The Forerunner 165 is the new base model in Garmin's new lineup, priced from 250 (280/$250/A$429) compared with the 430 Forerunner 265.Screen: 1.2in AMOLEDCase size: 43mmCase thickness: 11.6mmBand size: standard 20mmWeight: 39gStorage: 4GBWater resistance: 50 metres (5ATM)Sensors: GNSS (GPS, Glonass, Galileo), compass, thermometer, heart rate, pulse OxConnectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+ (wifi with music) Continue reading...
by Hosted by Michael Safi with Geoffrey Hinton, Micha on (#6K2JB)
This is the story of Geoffrey Hinton, a man who set out to understand the brain and ended up working with a group of researchers who invented a technology so powerful that even they don't truly understand how it works. This is about a collision between two mysterious intelligences - two black boxes - human and artificial. And it's already having profound consequencesThanks to Michael Wooldridge - his book is called The Road to Conscious Machines.And Melanie Mitchell - her book is called Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. Continue reading...
The journalist and podcaster has been scrutinising Silicon Valley for decades, knows all the big players - and once believed that tech could save the world. But that was before greed and ego got in the wayThis is about love gone wrong," says Kara Swisher, looking back on a life spent studying the giants of Big Tech. I saw the possibilities of tech being the saviour of humanity - or at the very least, really helping people, in terms of community and knowledge and education. And instead, you know ..."She pauses, and wearily exhales. It's like that old expression: They promised us jetpacks, and this is what we got?' Like, are you kidding me?" But, she adds: The problem isn't tech. It's people." Continue reading...
We need nuance and empathy in addressing this complex issueWhenever the government talks about the dangers to children of the mobile phone we must picture this phone as a large rock under which a hundred shameful decisions live in darkness.I have concerns about mobile phones, of course I do. I've followed Esther Ghey's campaign to ban smartphones for kids, and how education secretary Gillian Keegan has leapt upon this, with cautious interest. My eldest child will soon be approaching secondary school, and while I'd vaguely assumed that her generation would find phones desperately unchic by the time they came of carrying age, associating them with dull and red-eyed parents, this does not appear to be the case. And the stories I hear from teachers or parents of teenagers sometimes chill me - the ways that bullying mutates online, or how phones exacerbate poor mental health, or teens' sinister, quotidian acts of surveillance. Continue reading...
Is the reported rise in mental illness among under-25s down to more awareness and less stigma - or is something truly amiss with young people? We ask therapists, academics and survivorsIt's a rite of passage for any new generation to be labelled lazy and feckless by their elders, and so it was for twentysomethings last week with the news that they are more likely to be out of work because of mental health problems.Instead of taking seriously the idea that a mental health crisis was developing, it was far easier to re-ink some cliches about workshy snowflakes and generation sicknote. Such insults have been levelled at every generation, from those now labelled millennials, generation X, baby boomers and the silent generation, and even as far back as Horace and Aristotle in ancient times. Continue reading...
Kavita Puri's superb account of the 1943 Bengal famine needs to be heard; Alexi Mostrous chills with an investigation into social media hate; and the madly articulate' David Baddiel and Sayeeda Warsi tackle politics head-onThree Million (BBC Radio 4) | BBC Sounds
It's cheap, quick and available 24/7, but is a chatbot therapist really the right tool to tackle complex emotional needs?Last autumn, Christa, a 32-year-old from Florida with a warm voice and a slight southern twang, was floundering. She had lost her job at a furniture company and moved back home with her mother. Her nine-year relationship had always been turbulent; lately, the fights had been escalating and she was thinking of leaving. She didn't feel she could be fully honest with the therapist she saw once a week, but she didn't like lying, either. Nor did she want to burden her friends: she struggles with social anxiety and is cautious about oversharing.So one night in October she logged on to character.ai - a neural language model that can impersonate anyone from Socrates to Beyonce to Harry Potter - and, with a few clicks, built herself a personal psychologist" character. From a list of possible attributes, she made her bot caring", supportive" and intelligent". Just what you would want the ideal person to be," Christa tells me. She named her Christa 2077: she imagined it as a future, happier version of herself. Continue reading...
The computing power for AI models requires immense - and increasing - amounts of natural resources. Legislation is required to prevent environmental crisisOne of the most pernicious myths about digital technology is that it is somehow weightless or immaterial. Remember all that early talk about the paperless" office and frictionless" transactions? And of course, while our personal electronic devices do use some electricity, compared with the washing machine or the dishwasher, it's trivial.Belief in this comforting story, however, might not survive an encounter with Kate Crawford's seminal book, Atlas of AI, or the striking Anatomy of an AI System graphic she composed with Vladan Joler. And it certainly wouldn't survive a visit to a datacentre - one of those enormous metallic sheds housing tens or even hundreds of thousands of servers humming away, consuming massive amounts of electricity and needing lots of water for their cooling systems. Continue reading...
Lives intersecting in the shared space of the city create a moment of visual serendipityMisha Vallejo Prut had just finished aclass at the London College of Communication where he was studying for an MA in photojournalism and documentary photography, and headed to a nearby cafe. It was 2014 and he was using an iPhone 5. The degree of pixelation in the image shows the inexorable march of time since I took this," says says Vallejo Prut, who is now based in Quito, Ecuador.Even so, I think the essence of that moment, the serendipitous intersection of lives within the shared space of the city, continues to echo the relentless pace of contemporary life." Continue reading...
Thief went on 9,000 spree with the victim's money before using her Uber account to travel to StanstedIf you are one of those people who keeps their debit card in their mobile phone case, has a note of their pin on their handset, or only ever uses mobile banking, you may want to rethink your setup after you read the case of Sami Souret*.On a recent night out the 28-year-old healthcare professional was kind enough to help a man who asked to borrow her phone. Less than six hours later, her 9,350 life savings had been spent by him on Apple products in London. And the final indignity: he used her Uber account to take a cab to Stansted airport. Continue reading...
Influencers advocating for mental health, self-love and parenting are reclaiming the space from Andrew Tate and his ilkInfluencers such as Andrew Tate have become bylines for toxic masculinity", attracting huge audiences of young men and boys with a mixture of quasi-motivational pep talks, fast cars and demonstrations of sexual prowess.But what about the other side of the coin? Are there any people making content for the same audience with healthier messages - or do men and boys just not want to hear it? Continue reading...
Three firms that represented a Tesla shareholder seek record fee from the electric vehicle maker because they benefited from the return of Musk's stock optionsThe lawyers who successfully argued that Elon Musk's $56bn pay package was excessive are seeking a record legal fee worth $6bn, payable in the electric car maker's stock, according to a court filing.We recognise that the requested fee is unprecedented in terms of absolute size," Friday's filing by the three law firms with the court of chancery in Delaware said. Continue reading...
Lawsuit says chief executive Sam Altman's deal with Microsoft has broken organisation's missionElon Musk has filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, of betraying its foundational mission by putting the pursuit of profit ahead of the benefit of humanity.The world's richest man, a founding board member of the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, claimed Altman had set aflame" OpenAI's founding agreement by signing an investment deal with Microsoft. Continue reading...
Fairshake Pac spends millions opposing progressive Senate candidate known for tough stance on crypto industryA Super Pac backed by the crypto industry has spent $10m on ads opposing Katie Porter's run for US Senate in California, as the young progressive congresswoman fights a tough battle to make it into a November Senate runoff with the Democratic frontrunner Adam Schiff.The Fairshake Pac announced early this year that it had raised $85m from leaders across the crypto community for the Pac and its affiliates, with the goal of supporting leaders who champion the interests of progressive innovation and responsible regulation". Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6K08V)
Israeli company NSO Group is accused in lawsuit by Meta's messaging app of spying on 1,400 users over a two-week periodNSO Group, the maker of one the world's most sophisticated cyber weapons, has been ordered by a US court to hand its code for Pegasus and other spyware products to WhatsApp as part of the company's ongoing litigation.The decision by Judge Phyllis Hamilton is a major legal victory for WhatsApp, the Meta-owned communication app which has been embroiled in a lawsuit against NSO since 2019, when it alleged that the Israeli company's spyware had been used against 1,400 WhatsApp users over a two-week period. Continue reading...
by Michael Safi and Alex Atack in Almendralejo, Spain on (#6K08Y)
Exclusive: Guardian investigation for podcast series Black Box reveals names connected to app that generated nonconsensual images of underage girls around the world
Singer had documented her experience with a rare form of cancer on platform and dedicated her last song to her sonCat Janice, the singer who went viral for dedicating her last song to her son and inspired a viral TikTok trend, has died from cancer, her family confirmed on Wednesday.Her family announced the news on her Instagram account: This morning, from her childhood home and surrounded by her loving family, Catherine peacefully entered the light and love of her heavenly creator. Continue reading...
by Michael Safi, Alexi Duggins, Hannah Verdier and Ho on (#6JZTB)
Dead River investigates the cause and effects of the Brazil catastrophe. Plus: five of the funniest podcasts that also teach you something Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHear Me Out
They appear on your phone uninvited, overlong and often three at time. This isn't a message. It's a one-woman showThere is a joke in the first season of the HBO show Hacks, pitched by Hannah Einbinder's gen Z character, Ava, to her boomer employer, Deborah Vance: I had a horrible nightmare that I got a voicemail," she says. Ha - gen Z hates voicemail; boomers don't understand jokes without punchlines. What?" shrieks Jean Smart's Vance. Ha - everyone's disgusting, and no single generation will give an inch to another.Sorry to insert gen X into the mix, but in the context of this particular flashpoint, we need to talk about voice memos. (Or audio messages, or voice texts, not to be confused with voice-to-text, which is something else entirely - all right, Grandma?)Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Lawsuit filed by publishers including Axel Springer allege Google abused its dominant position' in digital ad-techAlphabet's Google was hit with a 2.1bn ($2.3bn) lawsuit by 32 media groups including Axel Springer and Schibsted on Wednesday, alleging that they had suffered losses due to the company's practices in digital advertising.The move by the groups - which include publishers in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden - comes as antitrust regulators also crack down on Google's ad-tech business. Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: Sony's news that it is cutting jobs and cancelling projects for the mega-console underlines a depressing fact about game development - it's go big, or go home Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereI wrote last week about the decades-long console wars between Xbox and PlayStation - and how the Microsoft's looser attitude to releasing games everywhere people play them, even on rival consoles, might be the beginning of an end to them. Now we have news that Sony is laying off 900 people across its studios all over the world. Why is the maker of the hugely successful PlayStation 5, which has outsold its main rival by three to one, doing something so drastic? It seems that the end of the console wars might come not by choice, but by necessity: the way that the games industry worked in the past is simply not how it works now.The news that PlayStation would be laying off what amounts 8% of its workforce came via an all-company email from Jim Ryan, the company's outgoing boss - who, less than a week ago, was pictured celebrating his Sony career at London Studios with many people who now no longer have jobs: the company is closing it entirely, along with cuts at Firesprite, and there will be reductions in various functions" across the company in the UK. Guerilla Games (makers of the Horizon series), Naughty Dog (The Last of Us) and Insomniac (Marvel's Spider-Man) are also seeing reductions. At the time of writing, Sony employees at US studios were still waiting to hear how they would be affected. Please be kind to yourselves and to each other," the email ends, with almost jaw-dropping irony. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian