Technology | The Guardian

Tech company says group linked to Revolutionary Guard still actively targeting Biden, Trump and Harris associatesGoogle said on Wednesday that an Iranian group linked to the country's Revolutionary Guard has tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris since May.The tech company's threat intelligence arm said the group was still actively targeting people associated with Biden, Trump and Harris, who replaced the US president as the Democratic candidate last month when he dropped out. It said those targeted included current and former government officials, as well as presidential campaign affiliates. Continue reading...

PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series XS, Xbox One; Red Thread Games; Spotlight by Quantic Dream

Meta has system for evaluating the effectiveness of its own moderation for Arabic language content but not HebrewMeta is struggling with moderating content related to the Israel-Palestine war, particularly in Hebrew, despite recent changes to internal policies, new documents have revealed.Internal policy guidelines shared with the Guardian by a former Meta employee who worked on content moderation outline a multilayered process for moderating content related to the conflict. But the documents indicate Meta, which owns the platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, does not have the same processes in place to gauge the accuracy of moderation of Hebrew content and Arabic content. Continue reading...

Justice minister signs extradition order for Megaupload founder 12 years after FBI-ordered raid over filesharing siteKim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct filesharing website Megaupload, is to be extradited to the US, the New Zealand justice minister says, which could end more than a decade of legal wrangling.German-born Dotcom has New Zealand residency and has been fighting extradition to the US since 2012 after an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. The high court in New Zealand first approved his extradition in 2017, with an appeal court reaffirming the finding the year after. In 2020, the country's supreme court again affirmed the finding but opened the door for a fresh round of judicial review. Continue reading...

Moses Swaibu tells all about betraying the sport he loved in a news podcast. Plus: five of the best podcasts about great love stories Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereConfessions of a Match Fixer

DoJ could force divestment of Android operation system and Chrome web browser following antitrust verdictA week after a judge ruled that Alphabet's Google illegally monopolized the online search market, the US Department of Justice is considering options that include breaking up the tech giant, worth some $2tn, according to reports from the New York Times and Bloomberg News.Divesting the Android operating system was one of the remedies most frequently discussed by justice department attorneys, the reports said. Continue reading...

Grok doesn't reject prompts depicting violent and explicit content as X owner calls it the most fun AI in the world!'The latest edition of Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok debuted a new image generation tool on Wednesday that lacked most of the safety guardrails that have become standard within the artificial intelligence industry. Grok's new feature, which is currently limited to paid subscribers of X, led to a flood of bizarre, offensive AI-generated images of political figures and celebrities on the social network formerly known as Twitter.The image generator can produce a variety of images that similar AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT have blocked for violating rules on misinformation and abuse. In prompts and images reviewed by the Guardian, Grok's output included representations of Donald Trump flying a plane into the World Trade Center buildings and the prophet Muhammad holding a bomb, as well as depictions of Taylor Swift, Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in lingerie - all women who are already frequent targets for online harassment. ChatGPT, by contrast, rejects such prompts for images by citing terms of service that prohibit depictions of real-world violence, disrespect to religious figures and explicit content. Continue reading...

Robotic, peculiar wording in recent issues of Cody Enterprise tipped a veteran reporter offA quote from Wyoming's governor and a local prosecutor were the first things that seemed slightly off to Powell Tribune reporter CJ Baker. Then, it was some of the phrases in the stories that struck him as nearly robotic.The dead giveaway, though, that a reporter from a competing news outlet was using generative artificial intelligence to help write his stories came in a 26 June article about the comedian Larry the Cable Guy being chosen as the grand marshal of the Cody Stampede parade. Continue reading...

Facebook founder shares photo of sculpture of Priscilla Chan, rendered in green with a large silver cloakMark Zuckerberg has raised eyebrows by commissioning a giant sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan.In a photo of the statue, posted to Instagram, the Facebook CEO and co-founder said he was bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife". Continue reading...

State-sponsored hacking campaigns are evolving in social engineering strategies and technical aspectsRussia's state security agency is launching increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks against US, European and Russian civil society members, in some cases by impersonating individuals who are personally close to the targets of the attacks, according to a new investigation by security researchers.A new report by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Access Now comes as the FBI has separately launched an investigation into suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting an adviser to Donald Trump and advisers to the Harris-Walz campaign. Continue reading...

Harris's track record, and time as California senator and AG, has tech leaders wondering if she'd have a friendlier approach to the industryAbout 700 wealthy Democratic supporters packed into San Francisco's Fairmont hotel on Sunday to see Kamala Harris in her first return to the city since launching her campaign for president. Among the crowd at the fundraiser, where the cheapest tickets cost $3,300 and went up to $500,000, was a mixture of tech billionaires, executives and Silicon Valley venture capitalists who have quickly embraced the vice-president in her bid for the White House.The event, which raised more than $12m, was the latest in the Harris campaign's outreach to tech Democrats and an extension of a relationship with Silicon Valley elites that goes back more than a decade. Continue reading...

Running a tea shop in the woods doesn't help arena fighter Alta to escape her trauma. Designers Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja explain how this cosy dream-fulfilment fantasy turned into something much more metaAt first, Wanderstop appears to tap into the same restless urge as many other cosy games: the wish to leave our stressful lives behind and escape to an anonymous wilderness. The game opens with you taking an assistant job in a woodland tea shop, where you spend your days cleaning, tending the garden, and researching the perfect tea blend to satisfy the needs of visiting customers. Scratch a little deeper, though, and you find a game tearing at the hollow rewards of the escapist fantasy.The bucolic setting is born out of an image game designer Davey Wreden became fixated on in the months after the release of 2015's The Beginner's Guide. His mind would repeatedly wander to a daydream of going to a tea shop in the woods and lying on a bench by the water. He sketched variations of the scene for months before deciding to make it as his next game. Continue reading...

An attempt to expose the billionaire founder of Microsoft fails to land a killer blowHouston, we have a billionaire problem. There are 2,781 individuals in the world worth more than a billiondollars, according to Forbes, and together these people have a net worth of $14.2tn, roughly the GDP of the Eurozone. The US boasts more super-rich than any other country, including eight of the planet's 10 richest men. (The top of the chart is all men, until you get to the L'Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, at number 15.) All but one of these eight made their fortunes in the tech sector, and you'll be familiar with many of their names: Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates.So what, you might say - there's no law against getting filthy rich. These people have worked hard for their Gulfstream jets and frigate-sized yachts. But with great piles of cash comes great power, and too often billionaires find ways around our frail systems of democratic oversight. They dodge taxes, bend politics and the media to their will, create monopolies, and disproportionately damage the planet. The problem isonly getting worse, since, as Thomas Piketty has pointed out, when the return on capital exceeds the rate of economic growth, big money grows faster than small money or no money at all. In 2024, according to Forbes, the billionaires are collectively $2tn better off than they were last year. Continue reading...

Campaign says cybersecurity measures prevented hacking but disclosure raises renewed fears of foreign interference

Plaintiff in New York case says he lost job after complaining that his manager openly celebrated terrorism against IsraelA Jewish former employee of Intel sued the chipmaker on Tuesday, saying he was fired after complaining that the senior executive he reported to openly celebrated antisemitism, Hamas and terrorism against Israel.The plaintiff, a former vice-president of engineering using the pseudonym John Doe, said Intel fired him on 2 April in a purported cost-cutting move barely two months after assigning him to report to Alaa Badr, vice-president of customer success. Continue reading...

New Pixel phones, foldable, watch and earbuds feature Gemini Live for free-flowing conversations with AI botGoogle is launching four phones, one of them foldable, two smartwatches and a set of earbuds packing its latest AI tech including the new advanced Gemini Live conversational experience, as the Android maker tries to outdo Apple and Samsung.The array of new Pixel products, announced at an event in California, mark the latest evolution of Google's own-brand Android devices as it attempts to prove its integrated AI and devices work better than rivals. Continue reading...

It started poorly with a 45-minute delay and rolling technical issues - and was lambasted on other platforms

The Democratic party has the chance to resurrect the zealous monopoly-busting spirit of its New Deal and Great Society heyday. They must use itGoogle is a monopolist." What has long been asserted by big tech skeptics is now the official position of the US district court for DC.Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google broke antitrust law by spending tens of billions annually to secure default search engine status across major web browsers, including Safari and Firefox. This coordinated campaign resulted in Google securing 90% of the global search market, despite its engine increasingly answering queries with spam pages, AI gibberish and product placements.Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has contributed to the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times Continue reading...

Twitter under the tech owner has become the perfect test case for the UK's new legislation - but critics say more needs to be done Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereWhat can the UK government do about Twitter? What should it do about Twitter? And what does Elon Musk even care?The multibillionaire owner of the social network, still officially branded as X, has had a fun week stirring up unrest on his platform. Aside from his own posts, a mixture of low-effort memes that look as if they're lifted straight from 8chan and faux-concerned reposts of far-right personalities, the platform at large briefly became a crucial part of the organisation of the disorder - alongside the other two of the three Ts: TikTok and Telegram.In the short term, Musk and fellow executives should be reminded of their criminal liability for their actions under existing laws. Britain's Online Safety Act 2023 should be beefed up with immediate effect. Prime minister Keir Starmer and his team should reflect if Ofcom - the media regulator that seems to be continuously challenged by the output and behaviour of outfits such as GB News - is fit to deal with the blurringly fast actions of the likes of Musk. In my experience, that threat of personal sanction is much more effective on executives than the risk of corporate fines. Were Musk to continue stirring up unrest, an arrest warrant for him might produce fireworks from his fingertips, but as an international jet-setter it would have the effect of focusing his mind.I think very swiftly the government has realised there needs to be amendments to the Online Safety Act,' Khan said in an interview with the Guardian. I think what the government should do very quickly is check if it is fit for purpose. I think it's not fit for purpose.'Khan said there were things that could be done by responsible social media platforms' but added: If they don't sort their own house out, regulation is coming.'If we just look at the act alone, Ofcom has the power to regulate online media content because section 232 says a television licensable content service" includes distribution by any means involving the use of an electronic communications network'. Ofcom could choose to assert its powers. Yet this is highly unlikely because Ofcom knows it would face challenge from the tech companies, including those fuelling riots and conspiracy theories.There is no difference, for example, between Elon Musk putting out videos on X about (so called) two-tier policing, or posts on detainment camps', or that civil war is inevitable', and ITV or Sky or the BBC broadcasting news stories ... The Online Safety Act is completely inadequate, since it only is written to stop illegal' content, which does not by itself include statements that are wrong, or even dangerous. Continue reading...

From the writer of lockdown hit Before Your Eyes, the new game uses VR or plain old webcam tech to see how life looks as a paranormally gifted infantHow do you follow the game that made the world cry? It's a question that's haunted writer Graham Parkes ever since 2021's Bafta-winning Before Your Eyes. Released during the height of lockdown, Parkes' webcam-controlled yarn uses players' blinks to fast-forward through protagonist Benny's memories, blinking in and out of each uplifting and gut-wrenching moment of his existence. It quickly gained a reputation for being a Twitch tearjerker, its affecting tale and months of pandemic-fuelled misery creating a perfect, Kleenex-blowing storm. As a writer, that has definitely been intimidating.," says Parkes, I'm interested in using games to tell concise, emotional stories, but we can't say that every single time we're going to make you weep."Still, tears or no, things are already looking pretty promising for Before Your Eyes' intriguing followup, Goodnight Universe. Developed by Nice Dream, an all-new studio formed by creators Graham Parkes and Oliver Lewin, Goodnight Universe has already won the 2024 game award at the Tribeca film festival, beating the brilliant Thank Goodness You're Here! to the punch. Continue reading...

A big-money business pitch is threatened when a tech entrepreneur's unpredictable inner child is unleashed after hypnotherapyThe squirm factor is high in this dark comedy of social awkwardness from Sweden, ruthlessly directed by first-time feature director Ernst De Geer to maximise audience discomfort. There are a couple of scenes here so excruciating I would have found it less painful watching someone getting their fingernails prised out with pliers. The Hypnosis stars Asta Kamma August and Herbert Nordrum as Vera and Andre, a couple in their 30s who are the founders of an app that tracks women's reproductive health in developing countries. Dressed in tasteful knitwear and limited-edition trainers, they look the part of startup entrepreneurs, and seem pleasant enough - though it's immediately clear that Andre dominates Vera, who is quieter.Things start to go pear-shaped when Vera sees a hypnotherapist to quit smoking. This is just before an important pitching event where the pair will be competing against other apps in front of big-money investors. At the session, Vera's hypnotherapist gently observes that she seems to be holding back her true self; she should listen to her inner child more. And something inside Vera switches and she loses her social inhibitions - in a way that I didn't quite buy into - instantly, and at full throttle. Continue reading...

Musk blames cyber-attack as conversation is delayed, resembling glitchy launch of Ron DeSantis's campaignAs a high-profile conversation between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was about to begin, users of X, formerly Twitter, were confronted with the message: This Space is not available."Spaces, X's livestreaming audio feature, was the chosen forum for the dialogue, but it wasn't working. Clicking on the link to the broadcast, hosted by Trump's dormant @RealDonaldTrump account, froze the site and rendered it unusable. Tweeters said they couldn't dial in; some said their browsers had crashed. Continue reading...

Bruce Daisley calls for beefed-up' online safety laws and compares tech billionaires to unaccountable oligarchs

It cannot be right that Musk can sow discord without personal risk. He's a jetsetter: perhaps fear of unexpected detention will concentrate his mindThe way social media is making headlines currently is not without precedent: a fragile narcissist posting relentlessly on a social network he's made his own. We know well how this has ended in the past; Donald Trump's furious posts after his election defeat led to the assault on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. The aftermath of that episode saw the then president suspended from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and even, to the dismay of those hoping to mood-board the Mar-a-Lago aesthetic, Pinterest.This time is likely to be different, not least because the person agitating the social media furore, Elon Musk, owns the platform he is using. Continue reading...

Summerhall, Edinburgh

X owner, who will interview Trump on Monday, has cast doubt on mail ballots and spread false claimsWhen Elon Musk took over as owner of Twitter, researchers and elections officials feared a rampant spread of misinformation that would lead to threats and harassment and undermine democracy.Their fears came true - and Musk himself has emerged as one of its main drivers. Continue reading...

It's easy to blame viral videos - and far harder to change the culture in which they thriveAmong those swiftly convicted and sentenced last week for their part in the racist rioting was Bobby Shirbon, who had left his 18th birthday party at a bingo hall in Hartlepool to join the mob roaming the town's streets, targeting houses thought to be occupied by asylum seekers. Shirbon was arrested for smashing windows and throwing bottles at police. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.In custody, Shirbon had claimed that his actions had been justified by their ubiquity: It's OK," he told officers, everyone else is doing it." That has, of course, been a consistent claim from those caught up in mass thuggery down the years, but for many of the hundreds of people now facing significant prison sentences, the defence" has a sharper resonance. Continue reading...

An abandoned Australian experiment' shows that the public can successfully object to what companies and politicians claim is inevitable progressScratch a digital capitalist and you'll find a technological determinist - someone who believes that technology drives history. These people see themselves as agents of what Joseph Schumpeter famously described as creative destruction". They revel in moving fast and breaking things" as the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, used to put it until his PR people convinced him it was not a good vibe, not least because it implied leaving taxpayers to pick up the broken pieces.Tech determinism is an ideology, really; it's what determines how you think when you don't even know that you're thinking. And it feeds on a narrative of technological inevitability, which says that new stuff is coming down the line whether you like it or not. As the writer LM Sacasas puts it, all assertions of inevitability have agendas, and narratives of technological inevitability provide convenient cover for tech companies to secure their desired ends, minimise resistance, and convince consumers that they are buying into a necessary, if not necessarily desirable future". Continue reading...

The networking site one is calling a cesspool' is riddled with oversharing and lunatics - it's time for changeIn need of a laugh? Spend an hour or two on the subreddit LinkedInLunatics. Trust me.There's the financial expert who believes it necessary to share with his friends, clients and community that he enjoys watching porn (in moderation, mind you!). There's the usual crowd of pundits who use cultural events like the Olympics competitions to teach us life lessons. Or the matchmaking company that thinks LinkedIn is Hinge. Continue reading...

Personalised videos from celebrities such as Elijah Wood were a lockdown hit for a firm once valued at 1bn. Now A-listers have deserted it - though there's always Nigel FarageIt started, as many things do, with drama in the WhatsApp group. It was 2021, and a loose coalition of my friends and acquaintances was passing the on-again, off-again lockdowns by playing a spectacularly vicious online game called Subterfuge, in which treachery and betrayal are all part of how to play.Only, this time, people had gone too far and someone had been upset badly enough that they had quit the group. To win him back, my friends came up with a dubious plan - they would have Nigel Farage, of all people, record an ironic apology video urging their departed comrade to rejoin the group. Continue reading...

A mirrored image shows how the photographer uses self-portraiture to explore feminism, motherhood and identityHeather McAlister was staying in a remote California farming community when she took this self-portrait. Wewere staying in Tomales, near the Point Reyes national seashore. The landscape is known for its simple farmhouse architecture and green hills lined with windswept cypress trees," she says. It'svery serene."She uses self-portraiture to interpret emotion", speaking to themes of femininity, feminism, motherhood, identity, all while confronting society's definitions of beauty while ageing. The women in the photo are both me," she explains. The images are mirrored, with one faded and ghost-like. Both women cover their faces with an allium bloom, making their age hard to determine." Continue reading...

Wojcicki, one of the most prominent women in tech, had been living with cancer for two yearsSusan Wojcicki, the former YouTube CEO and one of the first Google employees, has died at the age of 56 after two years of living with cancer.Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced the news of her death on Friday. Continue reading...

The England men's team's first foreign manager was blamed for their failure and had his private life splashed across the tabloids. Now, with months to live, he's got some scores to settleSven-Goran Eriksson is saying his farewells to the world. The former England men's football manager has pancreatic cancer, and is approaching the end of his life. In January, he announced he had at most a year to live. He is keen to talk. But he wants to do it in Sven style - calm, measured, drama-free. He tells me he wants to set the record straight. I had a lot to do with the press in a lot of countries, but especially in England. So why not tell my truth? What I think is the truth."Eriksson was England's first foreign manager. He seemed to belong more to the contemplative world of an Ingmar Bergman film than the cut and thrust of football - professorial, urbane, with a distinctive high forehead, spectacles and a kindly face. He wore immaculately pressed suits on the touchline and rarely showed emotion. While other managers threw tantrums, kicked water bottles or applauded referees ironically, Eriksson sat in silence and watched. He could just as easily have been meditating as managing a football team. Continue reading...

There are signs the billionaire is becoming unpopular with the very demographic group most likely to buy EVsElon Musk has long flirted with rightwing politics, and delights in pushing an image of himself as a contrarian showman. Yet in recent months the billionaire's political allegiances have started to raise a question for Tesla, the company that he built into the world's largest electric carmaker: just how far can he go before customers start to abandon his products?The German pharmacy chain Rossmann was one of the first to put its head above the parapet this week. The family-owned company announced that it would not add to the 34 Teslas in its company fleet because of Musk's endorsement of Donald Trump for US president. Continue reading...

Change in policy means developers will be able to communicate with customers outside App StoreApple on Thursday changed its policy in the European Union to allow developers to communicate with their customers outside its App Store after the commission charged the iPhone maker in June for breaching the bloc's tech rules.The commission had said that under most of the business terms, Apple allows steering only through link-outs", meaning that app developers can include a link in their app that redirects the customer to a web page where the customer can conclude a contract. Continue reading...

Catherine Suttle remembers when numbers were three digits, Dan Zerdin's grandparents thought a naked' phone was unsightly, and Janette Ward recalls how she rumbled her bossI smiled all the way through Viv Groskop's article (The hunt for a missing date, the numbers I'll never forget: we'll never match the magic of a landline, 2 August). It all rang true, so to speak. Never mind four digits, our family landline in the 1960s was three digits, which are embedded in my brain. Then we moved to a town and had five digits, which later became six, no less. On answering, Mum spoke these slowly and carefully until she identified the caller, then her voice could be pure joy if it turned out to be an old friend.Ours was wall-mounted by the front door and, as Viv says, it was a sort of gateway to everything else. I remember waiting all day for a phone call from a boy I liked, willing the phone to ring until I realised Nan had cut the line while pruning the roses. It turned out to be not the best match, so maybe Nan knew a thing or two about landlines and boys.

Hackers tried breaking into account of high-ranking official' on US presidential campaign, researchers sayMicrosoft researchers said on Friday that Iran government-tied hackers tried breaking into the account of a high-ranking official" on the US presidential campaign in June, weeks after breaching the account of a county-level US official.The breaches were part of Iranian groups' increasing attempts to influence the US presidential election in November, the researchers said in a report that did not provide any further detail on the apparent official in question. Continue reading...

X owner has cited transgender daughter Vivian's transition as reason for shift, blaming the woke mind virus'Once, the chief executive of one of the world's largest companies approvingly sharing a fabricated headline published by the leadership of a fascist party would have been news. For Elon Musk, it was just Thursday.Unusually for Musk, his post, a retweet of the Britain First co-leader Ashlea Simon sharing a fake Telegraph headline about detainment camps in the Falkland Islands for the English rioters, was deleted shortly after being sent. In the 30 minutes it was live on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter that he bought in 2022, it managed to rack up almost 2m views. Continue reading...

Lace up your simulators and waggle your joystick for gold, from Mario racing Sonic in the 200m freestyle or pole vaulting on a PlayStationOver the past three weeks the Paris Olympics have provided some spectacular sporting moments, from incredible victories to heartbreaking defeats to Snoop Dogg standing about in full equestrian regalia. For most of us, such sporting brilliance is way beyond reach - unless, that is, you have access to video games.Although there was no official tie-in this year, there have been many well-loved Olympic-inspired games over the past four decades. If you have an old Commodore 64, PlayStation or Wii, or a suitable emulator on your PC, here's how you can relive this summer's immortal sporting memories in the safety of your own home. Continue reading...

A Twitch streamer claims to be able to control games with her mind. I thought it was telekinetic baloney - so I went round to give it a goI am sitting in a house in North London with electrodes attached to my temporal lobes to supposedly learn how to control video games with my mind.Wait, let me explain. In July, twentysomething Twitch streamer Perri Karyal hit headlines when she claimed to have defeated two bosses in Elden Ring by thought alone. The cynics, being cynics, were soon to call her out on social media. It's faked," posted @gamerguru2924. What a fraud," yelled @saucypepperoni. This is some bullshit, why are you fools believing this?" considered @Pennywyze-ub7ry. Continue reading...

Decision from WFA follows X suit accusing advertisers of conspiring to withhold billions of dollars in revenue'A global advertiser alliance has discontinued its corporate responsibility program after a lawsuit from Elon Musk's X accused the group of orchestrating a massive advertiser boycott".The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) told members on Thursday that it would shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (Garm) following legal attacks from X, formerly Twitter, according to Business Insider, which first reported the news. Garm is a not-for-profit initiative within the WFA that helps brands avoid advertising alongside or monetizing harmful content. Continue reading...

Nuclear site awaits sentencing over breaches that it admitted could have threatened national securitySellafield has apologised after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to a string of cybersecurity failings at Britain's most hazardous nuclear site, which it admitted could have threatened national security.Among the failings at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria was the discovery that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Westminster magistrates court in London heard. Continue reading...

The Elon Musk-owned platform remains a vital tool for politicians despite misinformation about disorder in BritainWhen Keir Starmer was running to be Labour leader in 2020, his aides seriously considered whether they should leave Twitter for good.A number of those who remain close to Starmer as prime minister were then enthusiastic about moving off the platform. The party was still feeling wounded by the brutal election campaign and by the bitterness of the way it had been conducted on social media. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: Fashion loves a kooky accessory, but it is the sensible phone strap that is trending - and leaving hands free up and down the country Don't get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereFashion is not averse to a ridiculous accessory. See, recently, a tiny Fendi lollipop holder, specifically tailored to the measurements of a Chupa Chups and yours for 440, or a Gucci canvas pet carrier for 2,290. But, sometimes, a trend emerges that is - whisper it - practical and affordable. Enter, this summer, the jazzy phone strap - freeing the palms of everyone from parents and pub-goers to Hollywood stars.Look around at rush hour, and commuters and tourists alike have their phones hooked on to corded straps and slung across sweaty torsos. Meanwhile, the finishing touch to gen Z's OOTD videos on TikTok is to clip their phone on to a beaded strap and toss it around a wrist or shoulder. Continue reading...

Move is the latest of a string of CMA investigations into technology tie-upsAmazon's $4bn investment into US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is to be examined in the latest investigation into technology tie-ups by the UK's competition watchdog.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Thursday that it was launching a preliminary investigation into the deal, before deciding whether to refer it for an in-depth review. Continue reading...

From a quick message of support to a moan about your in-laws, the sound of a human voice is a blessing to a frazzled parentWhat is it about the voice note that bothers so many people? I've seen it accused of all sorts - of being narcissistic, invasive, annoying - yet as a communication method, it continues to thrive. Having been a late adopter, I now send them all the time, usually while pushing my son around the city in his buggy (something that is impossible to do while texting).Where once I felt annoyed when I received one, as though listening to another human being's voice were simply too demanding, now I'm excited to hear what the person has to say, and how. Funny, sad, entertaining, long-winded, digressive, insightful; whatever their style, I can't praise them enough.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat turn their hand to audio with True Tales of Possession. Plus: five of the best podcasts featuring A-listers Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereParanormal Activity: True Tales of Possession

Gameplay designer Adrien Poncet explains how this seafaring adventure anchors the idea of common effort' by linking problem-solving players out of timeAzure skies; crystalline waters; a flotilla emblazoned with welcome to Pleasureland". It sounds like a dream holiday but this is actually dystopia: continents lie submerged after the Great Flood; a disease caused by toxic plastic ravages every living organism.There's no mistaking Tides of Tomorrow for anything other than anxious cli-fi", but its tone is exuberant, brash and irreverent rather than moody or dread-laden. The setting is the fictional planet of Elynd which, says lead game designer Adrien Poncet, lets him and his colleagues take liberties with the science and technology they are depicting. We see one character inhaling ozen" from a canister - it's an oxygen-like substance keeping people alive. Elsewhere, players bear witness to striking and unsettling images, including a vast mass of bobbing plastic akin to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Continue reading...

Alex Hern reports on recent problems artificial intelligence companies have faced and asks whether the billions invested are paying offEven if the AI boom turns out to be an AI bubble, the LLMs aren't going anywhere," the Guardian's UK technology editor, Alex Hern, tells Michael Safi.Whether or not OpenAI goes bust, whether or not Google and Microsoft's valuations plummet back to the ground, there is this technology that was created. They may go bust, but that doesn't mean we're back to the world we were in in 2020, for good and for ill." Continue reading...

Analysis of more than 200,000 chatbot conversations shows how the new tech is actually being used. Turns out quite a lot of it is racy role play' ...Name: AI dirty talk.Age: Since 2022. Continue reading...