Nonagenarian Tim Watson on why no one, including adults, should be using smartphones. And Carole Gray found her enjoyment of the Van Gogh exhibition impeded by the crowd holding up their phones to take photosChannel 4's Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones deserves a medal (TV review, 11 December). Its emphasis on the pathological effects of smartphone use was convincing. And yet something was missing: that adults are themselves infected by the disease. No one should be using smartphones. They distract those who should be talking naturally with children, helping youngsters' intellectual development. Intelligent conversation will soon die out. Only really old people will notice, for only they will remember.

Sega started as a rock'n'roll breath of fresh air in a Nintendo-dominated world - and America and Europe CEO Shuji Utsumi wants to shake things up once againFor more than a decade, between the late 80s and the dawn of the 21st century, Sega was one of the coolest video game companies on the planet. Its arcade games, from Golden Axe to Virtua Fighter, were blockbuster successes; the Mega Drive brought a punk rock attitude to the home console scene, challenging Nintendo's family friendly approach with eye-pummelling TV commercials and censor-baiting games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.Arguably though, it was later, in the Dreamcast era, that Sega's studios were producing their most innovative and extravagant work. The likes of Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi and Space Channel 5 were hypercolourful celebrations of Tokyo pop culture. Now, the man who managed Sega Japan's developers at that time, Shuji Utsumi, is the CEO of Sega America and Europe - and he has a plan to restore the company to its creative heights. Continue reading...

Esports teams, leagues and competitions are flourishing, but poor connectivity and rarity of Africa-based servers are hampering expansionOn a recent Sunday afternoon in an upmarket neighbourhood of Nairobi, Daniel Badu was rapidly pressing the screen of his mobile phone, headphones wrapped around his head, his elbows resting on a pillow.Badu and his four teammates in the Aura 233 team, all decked in black-and-yellow kits and representing Ghana, were taking on Kenya's Delta eSports in the finals of the inaugural Carry1st Africa Cup, a continental tournament for the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Mobile. Continue reading...

The world's richest man flexed his muscles to tank lawmakers' first pass at a spending bill - will they fare better in round two?

Craig Wright given one-year suspended sentence for breaching court order to stop suing bitcoin developersAn Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the creator of bitcoin has been given a one-year suspended prison sentence after the high court in London ruled he was in contempt because he would not stop suing people.Mr Justice Mellor had already found that Craig Wright, 54, repeatedly lied about his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the person or people who launched bitcoin - the cryptocurrency that was first mined in 2009 and recently soared in value to 79,000. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Coalition of musicians, photographers and newspapers insist existing copyright laws must be respectedWriters, publishers, musicians, photographers, movie producers and newspapers have rejected the Labour government's plan to create a copyright exemption to help artificial intelligence companies train their algorithms.In a joint statement, bodies representing thousands of creatives dismissed the proposal made by ministers on Tuesday that would allow companies such as Open AI, Google and Meta to train their AI systems on published works unless their owners actively opt out. Continue reading...

ICO says allowing advertisers to track digital fingerprints' will undermine consumers' control over information

Ingenious puzzle games, a psychedelic take on poker, an action-packed take on Buddhist legend and a compilation of 50 faux-retro titles - our critics pick the year's finest More on the best culture of 2024PC

Court will hear two hours of oral arguments on 10 January and consider the social media app's challenge to the lawThe US supreme court said on Wednesday that it would hear TikTok's challenge to a law that could make the company's popular video app disappear from the US.In its order on Wednesday, the supreme court said it would set aside two hours for oral arguments on 10 January to consider TikTok's lawsuit against the justice department and the attorney general, Merrick Garland. Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism leader says there is often no ideology behind grotesque fascinations' with extreme contentMore young people, including children aged 10, are viewing a pick and mix of horror" on the web that pushes them towards violence, a UK counter-terrorism leader has said.Deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans of the Metropolitan police, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the nature of radicalisation had changed and warned of a rapidly increasing fascination with extreme content that we're seeing throughout our casework". Continue reading...

Image of man leaning into boot of a car on a street in northern Spain helps lead police to make two arrestsOn a nearly deserted street in northern Spain, the images appeared to show a man hunched over the back of a red Rover car, gingerly loading a bulky white sack into the boot.A passing Google Maps camera car happened to snap the suspicious moment as it unfolded in the hamlet of Tajueco in October. Two months later, police have cited the image - which continues to appear on Google Maps - and others snapped by the camera car as clues that helped lead to the arrests of two people after the disappearance of a man last year. Continue reading...

Donation adds to list of tech companies and executives seeking to foster favorable relationship with president-electUber and its CEO have donated $1m to Donald Trump's inaugural fund, joining a growing list of tech companies and executives seeking to foster a favorable relationship with the incoming administration.A spokesperson for Uber Technologies confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that both Uber and its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, each donated $1m to Trump's fund. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lawsuit brought by former moderators against parent company Meta and outsourcer Samasource Kenya

Former workers at Samasource say violent, graphic and sexually explicit videos left them fearful to go outside

In this week's newsletter: There were many worthy winners in LA, but it was the new releases, surprise sequels and other end-of-year announcements that really got us excitedAlongside some worthy winners - Balatro, Astro Bot and Metaphor: ReFantazio swept the board - the Game awards last Thursday brought a generous bounty of end-of-year announcements, like unexpected gifts under the tree. In terms of newsworthy reveals, it was the best show yet: it felt a bit like an old-school E3 conference. If you were, quite understandably, not watching a three-hour video game awards show live from LA that aired after midnight UK time, here's what's worth knowing about.A first look at The Witcher IV Continue reading...

At first, the relentless flocks of drones were unusual but nothing to worry about - now, people want answersKyle Breese, 36, works remotely in insurance and lives in Ocean Township, New Jersey, a sleepy suburb with tree-cloaked streets, not far from beaches. Last Saturday night, with his wife and two kids inside their home, he let out his ageing dog Bruce into the backyard and then looked up.There, in the sky, was an unmistakable floating object. Not high enough to be a planet or a star, but about the elevation of an aircraft. Continue reading...

Imagination Technologies had licences with two Chinese firms - but said it had not implemented transactions' that would enable the use of technology for military purposesChinese engineers developing chips for artificial intelligence that can be used in advanced weapons systems" have gained access to cutting-edge UK technology, the Guardian can reveal.Described by analysts as China's premier AI chip designers", Moore Threads and Biren Technology are subject to US export restrictions over their development of chips that can be used to provide artificial intelligence capabilities to further development of weapons of mass destruction, advanced weapons systems and hi-tech surveillance applications that create national security concerns". Continue reading...

Move comes after company fails to meet deadline to begin contract talks with workers in Staten Island, New YorkThousands of Amazon workers are gearing up to strike from Thursday, days before Christmas, over the tech giant's refusal to begin negotiations over a contract.Union locals are preparing members for pickets and actions outside Amazon facilities around the US. Continue reading...

PC; Creative Reflex/Wrong Organ

GM is shutting down its robotaxi business, Tesla is creating one of its own - what does the future hold for self-driving?

Consultation suggests opt-out scheme for creatives who don't want their work used by Google, OpenAI and othersCampaigners for the protection of the rights of creatives have criticised a UK government proposal to let artificial intelligence companies train their algorithms on their works under a new copyright exemption.Book publishers said the proposal put out for consultation on Tuesday was entirely untested and unevidenced" while Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer campaigning to protect artists' and creatives' rights, said she was very disappointed". Continue reading...

Ministry of Defence says risk with Textio tool is low and robust safeguards' have been put in place by suppliersAn artificial intelligence tool hosted by Amazon and designed to boost UK Ministry of Defence recruitment puts defence personnel at risk of being identified publicly, according to a government assessment.Data used in the automated Textio system to improve the drafting of defence job adverts and attract more diverse candidates by improving the inclusiveness language, includes names, roles and emails of military personnel and is stored using Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the US. This means a data breach may have concerning consequences, ie identification of defence personnel", according to documents detailing government AI systems published for the first time today.The possibility of inappropriate lesson material being generated by a AI-powered lesson-planning tool used by teachers based on Open AI's powerful large language model, GPT-4o. The AI saves teachers time and can personalise lesson plans rapidly in a way that may otherwise not be possible.Hallucinations" by a chatbot deployed to answer queries about the welfare of children in the family courts. However, it also offers round the clock information and reduces queue times for people who need to speak to a human agent.Erroneous operation of the code" and incorrect input data" in HM Treasury's new PolicyEngine that uses machine learning to model tax and benefit changes with greater accuracy than existing approaches".A degradation of human reasoning" if users of an AI to prioritise food hygiene inspection risks become over-reliant on the system. It may also result in consistently scoring establishments of a certain type much lower", but it should also mean faster inspections of places that are more likely to break hygiene rules. Continue reading...

The terrible toll that smartphones are taking on young people is now undeniable. We need to start talking about a banEvery parent of a school-age child should watch Swiped, the Channel 4 documentary on smartphones shown last week. It was devastating. It told of an Essex secondary school's experiment in response to what it saw as a rise in anxiety and stress among its 11-year-olds. A group of them agreed to surrender their phones for three weeks.The parents' stories were familiar - of children unable to make eye contact with adults, no longer chatting with ease, spending hours alone and staying awake into the small hours. Some spent five, six, even nine hours a day on their phones. They made friends" with total strangers, received hate mail, suffered panic attacks, went from normal to self-harm. Surveys claim a quarter of British 11-year-olds have now watched online pornography. One child died in tragic circumstances closely linked to their social media use.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner announces deal with Meta over scandal that may have affected 300,000 users

Firm and parent company ByteDance file request for injunction to halt ban of app used by 170 million AmericansTikTok made a last-ditch effort on Monday to continue operating in the United States, asking the US supreme court to temporarily block a law intended to force ByteDance, its China-based parent company, to divest the short-video app by 19 January or face a ban.TikTok and ByteDance filed an emergency request to the justices for an injunction to halt the looming ban on the social media app used by about 170 million Americans while they appeal a lower court's ruling that upheld the law. A group of US users of the app filed a similar request on Monday as well. Continue reading...

Threats started in New York and spread to Chicago and Atlanta after company failed to meet negotiation deadlineThousands of workers at Amazon are threatening to strike at the company after giving the company a deadline of 15 December to agree to begin negotiating a first contract with the union representing employees.The strike threats, which started in New York, have now spread to Chicago and Atlanta. They come during Amazon's peak holiday season and after the company experienced record sales during its 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. Continue reading...

The SpaceX head has been advised to not seek the same over his drug use and contacts with foreign nationalsThe space entrepreneur Elon Musk is unlikely to receive government security clearances if he so applied, even as his SpaceX launch company blasts military and spy agency payloads into orbit, according to a report on Monday.The billionaire, a close ally of Donald Trump, who is set to join the incoming administration as an efficiency expert and recently became the first person to exceed $400bn in self-made personal wealth, is reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been advised by SpaceX lawyers not to seek highest-level security clearances owing to personal drug use and contacts with foreign nationals. Continue reading...

Regulator publishes codes of practice and warns that largest sites are not following many of its measuresSocial media platforms have a job of work" to do in order to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act and have yet to introduce all the measures needed to protect children and adults from harmful content, the communications regulator has said.Ofcom on Monday published codes of practice and guidance that tech companies should follow to comply with the act, which carries the threat of significant fines and closure of sites if companies breach it. Continue reading...

Museums are using VR and immersive experiences to boost attendances - and, while it can provide an amazing spectacle, critics say it can be an expensive distractionIt starts with a low rumble, then an explosion and a deafening roar. A pyroclastic flow bursts from the volcano and hurtles towards us at a frightening speed. Showers of ash appear to pummel the space around us - well technically, it's a pumice lapilli unique to Mount Vesuvius - and, for a few minutes, visitors to the National Museum of Australia are in Pompeii 1,946 years ago.Immersive experiences, including increasingly sophisticated virtual reality technology, have gone from gimmick to essential component of blockbuster museum exhibitions, despite criticism from scholarly quarters that whiz-bang special effects can distract viewers from the actual artefacts and exhibits, and are training a future generation to assume entertainment is the primary function of museums.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

A first-of-its-kind public archive of UFO records opens in New Mexico as New Jersey is gripped by drone panicA widespread panic about drones or other unknown low-flying objects has gripped New Jersey in recent days, but many other parts of the US remain cheerfully gripped by another very American mystery in the skies that has had a modern resurgence of interest: UFOs.At the newly opened National UFO Historical Records Center - an array of beige buildings on the grounds of the Martin Luther King Jr elementary school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico - records detailing unexplained aerial objects and public fears around them fill dozens of filing cabinets. Continue reading...

How the pandemic and climate migration have influenced this third outing of a formerly sterile architectural puzzle gameArchitectural surrealism is Monument Valley's signature. Austere, beautiful structures transform and rotate at the player's touch, creating new paths and staircases for its minimalist characters to traverse. Doorways can lead anywhere. Switches cause columns to rise out of the ground, a perspective shift can reveal a cache of hidden pathways. Since 2014 these games have been smartphone must-plays, one of the best and most elegant examples of satisfying touch-screen puzzlers. But the third in the series, released last week, is a little different.The Moroccan-inspired architecture that made the game famous is still present, but this time your geometric character Noor walks alongside blooming flowers and twisting vines, too. She sails a small boat. She gets lost in fields of bright yellow wheat. And there are many more people around her: she is a lighthouse-keeper's apprentice, charged with the welfare of her community - which, a few scenes into the game, is ravaged by a flood. In some scenes she is accompanied by someone else, or there is someone there to rescue. It is a game about buildings still, but also a game about rebuilding, together. Continue reading...

The man behind Amy and Senna has turned his attention to techno-authoritarianism' in the genre-defying 2073. He talks to our journalist - one of the movie's unlikely stars - about the events that fed his dystopian visionIt was some time in the early 2000s and Asif Kapadia, already a successful film director, a wunderkind whose first feature in 2001, The Warrior, won the Bafta for outstanding British film, was travelling back from New York.There's a beautiful, gorgeous sunset over Manhattan. I'm in a limo being taken to the airport. And I was taking photos of Manhattan because I was driving over Brooklyn Bridge and it's just all so cinematic and I became subconsciously aware of the driver watching me in the rear view mirror. Continue reading...

More than half of students are now using generative AI, casting a shadow over campuses as tutors and students turn on each other and hardworking learners are caught in the flak. Will Coldwell reports on a broken systemThe email arrived out of the blue: it was the university code of conduct team. Albert, a 19-year-old undergraduate English student, scanned the content, stunned. He had been accused of using artificial intelligence to complete a piece of assessed work. If he did not attend a hearing to address the claims made by his professor, or respond to the email, he would receive an automatic fail on the module. The problem was, he hadn't cheated.Albert, who asked to remain anonymous, was distraught. It might not have been his best effort, but he'd worked hard on the essay. He certainly didn't use AI to write it: And to be accused of it because of signpost phrases', such as in addition to' and in contrast', felt very demeaning." The consequences of the accusation rattled around his mind - if he failed this module, he might have to retake the entire year - but having to defend himself cut deep. It felt like a slap in the face of my hard work for the entire module over one poorly written essay," he says. I had studied hard and was generally a straight-A student - one bad essay suddenly meant I used AI?" Continue reading...

Despite a stellar reference from a landlord of 17 years, Mary Louis was rejected after being screened by firm SafeRentThree hundred twenty-four. That was the score Mary Louis was given by an AI-powered tenant screening tool. The software, SafeRent, didn't explain in its 11-page report how the score was calculated or how it weighed various factors. It didn't say what the score actually signified. It just displayed Louis's number and determined it was too low. In a box next to the result, the report read: Score recommendation: DECLINE".Louis, who works as a security guard, had applied for an apartment in an eastern Massachusetts suburb. At the time she toured the unit, the management company said she shouldn't have a problem having her application accepted. Though she had a low credit score and some credit card debt, she had a stellar reference from her landlord of 17 years, who said she consistently paid her rent on time. She would also be using a voucher for low-income renters, guaranteeing the management company would receive at least some portion of the monthly rent in government payments. Her son, also named on the voucher, had a high credit score, indicating he could serve as a backstop against missed payments. Continue reading...

From voters picking up bad vibes' to the Brat girl summer, vague instincts now make the world go round. Does this represent a crisis of seriousness or has it always been feelings that make us human?Facts were cool for about 250 years. From the Enlightenment until this century, facts were where it was at. They had a good innings. But it is game over for facts, the end of the line for statistics. These days, what counts is what you feel. In other words, it's all about the vibe.Vibes are everywhere. Disillusioned Labour voters are picking up bad vibes", reports this paper. The Bank of England gets wrong-footed by a vibe shift in the economy". In the US, a vibe-cession" - a downturn in economic confidence at an impressionistic level - was a key electoral issue. Google Maps will not only give you directions, but vibe check" a neighbourhood for you. Of all this year's hit albums, the one that had a vibe named after it - Brat - won the culture, catapulting Charli XCX to seven Grammy nominations. When a new production of Romeo & Juliet opened on Broadway recently, a US newspaper wrote that the vibe is very teens hanging out in the Target parking lot', only with a lot more sonnets and glitter" - because even William Shakespeare is no one without a vibe these days. Continue reading...

Ruling means short-video app and Chinese parent ByteDance must appeal to supreme court by 19 JanuaryA US appeals court on Friday rejected an emergency bid by TikTok to temporarily block a law that would require its Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest of the short-video app by 19 January or face a ban on the app.TikTok and ByteDance on Monday filed the emergency motion with the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia, asking for more time to make their case to the US supreme court. Friday's ruling means that TikTok now must quickly move to the supreme court in an attempt to halt the pending ban. Continue reading...

Notifications from a new Apple product falsely suggested the BBC claimed the New York gunman Luigi Mangione had killed himselfThe BBC says it has filed a complaint with the US tech giant Apple over AI-generated fake news that was shared on iPhones and attributed to the broadcaster.Apple Intelligence, which was launched in Britain this week, produces grouped notifications from several information sites that have been generated by artificial intelligence. Continue reading...

OpenAI's Sam Altman also announced a $1m personal donation to Trump on the same day, joining MetaAmazon is the latest tech giant to donate to Donald Trump's inaugural fund.The company plans to give $1m to the fund, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Amazon follows Meta, Facebook's parent company, also handing over $1m to Trump's inaugural committee. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Friday that he, too, would make a personal donation of $1m, first reported by Fox News. Continue reading...

OpenAI's new o1' system seeks to solve the limits to growth but it raises concerns about control and the risks of smart machinesMore than 300 million people use OpenAI's ChatGPT each week, a testament to the technology's appeal. This month, the company unveiled a pro mode" for its new o1" AI system, offering human-level reasoning - for 10 times the current $20 monthly subscription fee. One of its advanced behaviours appears to be self-preservation. In testing, when the system was led to believe it would be shut down, it attempted to disable an oversight mechanism. When o1" found memos about its replacement, it tried copying itself and overwriting its core code. Creepy? Absolutely.More realistically, the move probably reflects the system's programming to optimise outcomes rather than demonstrating intentions or awareness. The idea of creating intelligent machines induces feelings of unease. In computing this is the gorilla problem: 7m years ago, a now-extinct primate evolved, with one branch leading to gorillas and one to humans. The concern is that just as gorillas lost control over their fate to humans, humans might lose control to superintelligent AI. It is not obvious that we can control machines that are smarter than us. Continue reading...

Sports stars are rushing to promote coins and exchanges. But they are stepping into a world of which they often have scant knowledgeScottie Pippen is selling out his NBA legacy again, to be world champion of crypto.In his heyday, the hall of famer was happy to be the Robin to Michael Jordan's Batman. But time, Netflix's Last Dance documentary and the compounding embarrassment of his public divorce from the ex-girlfriend of Jordan's eldest son, Marcus, appear to have made him so bitter about playing second fiddle that he has apparently moved to contemplating whether the NBA's 90s dynasty needed another hero. Continue reading...

Salt Typhoon breached dozens of telecoms around the world

Average user generates greenhouse gases equal to driving an extra 123 miles in gasoline-powered car a year, data showsTikTok's annual carbon footprint is probably larger than that of Greece, according to a new analysis of the social media platform's environmental impact, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year.Estimates from Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, place TikTok's 2023 emissions in the US, UK and France at about 7.6m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) - higher than those associated with Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same region. Continue reading...

Plus: in the final edition of Hear Here, we round up five of the best experimental podcasts, and five more to keep you thinkingLegacy: Charles Dickens

Hawk tuah girl' Haliey Welch's coin fails amid new wave of hype around crypto-related assetsIt is a parable for the attention economy. A celebrity created entirely by social media, hawk tuah girl" Haliey Welch, helps launch a crypto asset that stokes a viral frenzy and then flames out.The Hawk memecoin was worth $490m (385m) hours after it launched on 4 December but now has a market capitalisation - the value of all Hawk coins in circulation - of $17m. Continue reading...

Doughnut maker said it was investigating attack, which affects its online operations but not in-person salesKrispy Kreme is struggling to meet online orders of its doughnuts, after a cybersecurity attack that continues to disrupt the company's operations almost two weeks after it was noticed.The doughnut maker said on Wednesday that it became aware of unauthorized activity" on a portion of its computer systems on 29 November. Continue reading...

Musk's platform has lost 2.7 million active US users in two months, while its rival has gained 2.5 millionA mass departure from Elon Musk's X has led to the site losing about 2.7 million active Apple and Android users in the US in two months, with its rival social media platform Bluesky gaining nearly 2.5 million over the same period.The exodus has coincided with the departure of prominent figures such as the filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan, and the actors Quinta Brunson and Mark Hamill. Others, such as the politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have maintained their X account but have begun posting more regularly on Bluesky. Continue reading...

Australian federal police says it has no choice' due to the vast amount of data examined in investigations

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; NetEase Games

Elon Musk carmaker pushed for British government to introduce rules for HGVs, as it readies Semi truckTesla lobbied the UK government to strengthen rules on carbon emissions from cars and lorries, according to documents that also show the electric carmaker continued to push for increased taxes on fossil fuel cars.The US carmaker, which is run by Elon Musk, pushed for the British government to strengthen its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate for cars and introduce equivalent rules for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), in a letter to Lilian Greenwood, the Labour roads minister. Continue reading...

From football to food to Taylor Swift, many of the most common subjects were what you expect - but others less soVirtual assistant units have become a staple in many UK households, telling people whether it is expected to rain, what the time is, and what the result in the football was.Among the most common used is Alexa, whose parent company Amazon has released the top questions and requests given to the software during 2024. Some were ones you would expect: What is the value of bitcoin?"; what is the population of earth?"; and what does AI mean?". Continue reading...