The Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged the crypto exchange is flouting rules and selling unregistered securitiesA federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday grilled Coinbase and the US securities regulator about their divergent views on whether and when digital assets are securities, in a case closely watched by the cryptocurrency industry.Coinbase argued against classifying cryptocurrencies as securities by saying that the digital coins are like Beanie Babies, more akin to collectibles than stakes in a company. Continue reading...
Sundar Pichai's memo acknowledges redundancies would come on top of round of layoffs reported last weekGoogle's chief executive has told employees to expect more job cuts this yearafter a recent round of layoffs that affected 1,000 staff.Sundar Pichai said in a memo to staff on Wednesday that some roles may be impacted" as he said divisions within the tech company continued to make changes. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6HYK5)
South Korean firm will hope generative AI text, voice, image and video tools can help it regain top spot in phone marketSamsung has leaned heavily into AI tricks for its latest premium S24 Android phones, including instant phone call translation, new Google search and advanced image and video-editing features as it attempts to reignite waning consumer interest.The Galaxy S24 series, launched at an event in California on Wednesday, is led by the largest and most expensive titanium-clad Ultra", which features the very latest Qualcomm chips, the brightest screens and most powerful cameras. But in a change for the dominant South Korean firm, hardware updates have taken a backseat to flashy features powered by its new Galaxy AI brand. Continue reading...
by Hollie Richardson and Hannah Verdier on (#6HYH9)
In this week's newsletter: Find out how the no strings attached' site hack forever altered thousands in Exposed. Plus: five of the best podcasts that ended too soon Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe Godmother
Social media firms relying on AI for moderation generate unviable reports which prevent authorities from investigating casesSocial media companies relying on artificial intelligence software to moderate their platforms are generating unviable reports on cases of child sexual abuse, preventing US police from seeing potential leads and delaying investigations of alleged predators, the Guardian can reveal.By law, US-based social media companies are required to report any child sexual abuse material detected on their platforms to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC acts as a nationwide clearinghouse for leads about child abuse, which it forwards to the relevant law enforcement departments in the US and around the world. The organization said in its annual report that it received more than 32m reports of suspected child sexual exploitation from companies and the public in 2022, roughly 88m images, videos and other files. Continue reading...
Tech giant said it would delete entries for locations deemed personal' or sensitive, but 18 months later, it's still retaining data in some casesA year and a half has passed since Google first pledged to delete all location data on users' visits to abortion clinics with minimal progress. The move would have made it harder for law enforcement to use that information to investigate or prosecute people seeking abortions in states where the procedure has been banned or otherwise limited. Now, a new study shows Google still retains location history data in 50% of cases.Google's original promise, made in July 2022, came shortly after the supreme court's decision to end federal abortion protections. The tech giant said it would delete entries for locations deemed personal" or sensitive, including medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, and abortion clinics". It did not provide a timeline for when the company would implement the new policy. Five months after that pledge, research first reported by the Guardian and conducted by tech advocacy group Accountable Tech in November 2022 showed that Google was still not masking that location data in all cases. Continue reading...
Mysticism has long found a home online, but the rise of generative AI through services such as ChatGPT is making it easier than ever to project a sense of magic upon technologyA TikTok tarot card reader gazes at me through the screen and draws a card.If you're seeing this," she coos, it was meant for you." And in a sense, she's right. But it wasn't fate that brought me here, it was an algorithm. Continue reading...
We asked the podcaster and writer to share her comedy diet. Like anyone who was online in the 2000s, her list includes fanficI grew up in an era where pre-pubescent friendships were formed by gathering around a desktop computer watching video after YouTube video. Charlie the Unicorn (funnier than I remember) and Harry Potter Puppet Pals (less funny than I remember) were seen as the height of comedy. Aside from the occasional 6pm viewing of Australia's Funniest Home Videos, my diet of comedy was restricted to 240p internet videos, passed around like schoolyard contraband.I have to admit that not much has changed - I still spend a lot of time on the internet, and my friends and I incessantly quote obscure pop culture references turned memes. At times, I fear this has rotted my brain. Anyways, here's a selection of videos I find funny. Continue reading...
iPhone maker ends South Korean rival's 12-year lead, as Xiaomi, Honor and Google divide Android marketApple has overtaken Samsung as the world's top smartphone seller, ending the Korean tech firm's 12-year run as industry leader.The iPhone took the top spot in 2023 with 234.6m units sold, according to figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC), overtaking Samsung's 226.6m units. Continue reading...
by Tik Root in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with phot on (#6HXKX)
Teachers say mobile phones make their lives a living hell - so one Massachusetts school barred them Sign up to our free coaching newsletter to help you spend less time on your phoneWhen the weather is nice, the Buxton boarding school moves lunch outside. Students, faculty and guests grab their food from the kitchen, and eat together under a white tent that overlooks western Massachusetts' Berkshire mountains.As the close of the school year neared last June, talk turned to final assignments (the English class was finishing Moby-Dick) and end-of-year fun (there was a trip planned to a local lake). It was, in most ways, a typical teenage afternoon - except that no one was on their phones. Continue reading...
Instruction manuals died out as video games introduced tutorials instead. But now games such as Tunic and The Banished Vault are bringing them backPlayers of a certain age will no doubt have fond memories of the paper instruction manuals that once came with every video game. Dan Marshall, creator of The Swindle and Lair of the Clockwork God, certainly does. He remembers the ritual of poring over the manual for a new game on the bus ride home from the shops, trying to absorb all of its information in preparation for playing the game itself.He vividly recalls receiving Bullfrog's 1993 game Syndicate via mail order early one morning, then impatiently waiting hours for his brother to wake up so he could play it on the PC in his room. And for that solid time I did nothing but read the manual over and over and over again," Marshall says. Continue reading...
Musk says he is not comfortable with Tesla becoming market leader in AI and robotics without at least 25% voting controlThe Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, said he would be uncomfortable growing the automaker to be a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without having at least 25% voting control of the company, nearly double his current stake.Musk said on Monday in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that unless he got stock in the world's most valuable automaker that was enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned", at Tesla, he would prefer to build products outside of the electric-vehicle manufacturer. Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: To see where an IT flaw became a crisis, you have to look past the technology altogether. Plus, Substack's biggest names jump ship Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereThe Post Office Horizon scandal has long been a frustrating one to follow as a technology reporter, because - for all that it stems from the botched rollout of a massive government IT project - it isn't a technology story at all.There is a desire, with stories like this, to uncover the one specific fault from which the disaster unfolded. Take Grenfell Tower: there were flaws throughout the system, uncovered in harrowing detail by the inquiry into the fire, but it's also clear that the deadly error was cladding the building with flammable panels. Identifying that fulcrum point leads to further questions in both directions (how were the panels deemed safe and could the building have been safely evacuated even given that flaw), but it is clear where the catastrophe lies.I really liked using Substack and have had great interactions with their team over the years and don't actually want to move tbh. But it's clear that it's time. So, over the next month, I'll be migrating off the site.After much consideration, we have decided to move Platformer off of Substack. Over the next few days, the publication will migrate to a new website powered by the nonprofit, open-source publishing platform Ghost.Substack's tools are designed to help publications grow quickly and make lots of money - money that is shared with Substack. That design demands responsible thinking about who will be promoted, and how.The company's defense boils down to the fact that nothing that bad has happened yet. But we have seen this movie before, from Alex Jones to anti-vaxxers to QAnon, and will not remain to watch it play out again. Continue reading...
Social media firms have faced scrutiny from Congress over their impact on young users, but parents who have lost kids to online harm are now leading the chargeThe night of 23 June 2020 passed by like any other for 16-year-old Carson Bride. The teen had just gotten a new job at a pizza restaurant, his mother, Kristin Bride, said, and the family had been celebrating at home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He wrote his future work schedule on the kitchen calendar after dinner, said goodnight, and went to his room for bed. But the next morning, Kristin says, the family woke to complete shock and horror": Carson had died by suicide.Kristin soon discovered that in the days leading up to his death, her son had received hundreds of harassing messages on Yolo - a third-party app that at the time was integrated into Snapchat and allowed users to communicate anonymously. Search history on Carson's phone revealed some of his final hours online were spent desperately researching how to find who was behind the harassment and how to put an end to it. Continue reading...
A limited-edition Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat' trading card drew in a new, younger audience to the Amsterdam gallery but caused mayhemIn early November, I was standing in a long line at the Van Gogh gift shop in Amsterdam waiting to purchase a Pokemon ballpoint pen. It was one of the few remaining items left in the store - this was the second month of the establishment's Pokemon collaboration, but the clamour for the limited edition merchandise was ceaseless. Everything from T-shirts to notebooks to shoulder bags with an image of Pikachu on the front had been picked bare, leaving only prints and postcards behind the till. It was barely past midday but the number of people crammed into the shop meant the area was soon cordoned off with others now rejected entry until it calmed down.This had become an all too familiar sight for attendees and staff. From the very start of the collaboration, which began in September for the museum's 50th anniversary and was intended to introduce new audiences to the work of the Dutch artist, the Pokemon merch caused mayhem as eager fans - and scalpers - clamoured for the best stuff. But the main cause was a single item: a limited edition Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat" trading card. As soon as the card was made available, it sold out online, while desperate gallery visitors had to enter scrums to try and pick one up. Footage of the Poke riots soon hit Twitter (now known as X), and later, eBay listings had the card on sale for up to $900. In mid-October, the card was discontinued. Continue reading...
YouTube robotics tutorials helped 17-year turn his concern for his grandmother into a device that alerts carers if Alzheimer's patients fall or wander offIn the blissful summer that Hemesh Chadalavada spent with his grandmother in 2018, the pair watched endless movies and ate her chicken biryani. Late one evening, as Chadalavada, then 12, sat on his own in front of the television, Jayasree got up in her nightdress and went to make tea at her home in Guntur, southern India.After she had returned to her bedroom, Chadalavada went into the kitchen to find that his grandmother, then 63, had left the gas on. Continue reading...
Import ban applies to Apple's Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches and stems from patent infringement dispute with MasimoUS Customs and Border Protection has determined that Apple's redesigned Apple Watch is not subject to an import ban, according to a Monday court filing.The import ban, issued by the US International Trade Commission (ITC), applies to Apple's current Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches and stems from a patent infringement dispute with the medical-monitoring technology company Masimo. Continue reading...
UK's national library apologises to researchers, saying full recovery could take until end of the yearThe British Library is restoring online its main catalogue, containing 36m records of printed and rare books, maps, journals and music scores, 11 weeks after a catastrophic cyber-attack.However, access is limited to a read-only" format, and full restoration of services provided by the UK's national library could take until the end of the year. Continue reading...
The world needs people willing to stand up for freedom of expression - which makes Musk's trajectory all the sadderIs there anyone in the world who is a bigger hypocrite on free speech than Elon Musk?I say this as someone who wishes Elon Musk actually cared about free speech. In my opinion, social media companies censor their users too much. The myriad restrictive rules often end up backfiring on those who push for them. The suspension process is often opaque and arbitrary. Ultimately, a public square filled with frank and free exchange of competing views - one that explicitly tilts in favor of allowing more speech on the edges than it bans - is a good thing. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy are cars designed to be capable of going much faster than the speed limit? (Don't tell me they're made with the Autobahn in mind.) Andy Crosby, north WalesPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
Once confined to weightlifting, workout hype tracks have become a hugely popular (and profitable) genre online. Jenny Valentish goes in search of the daddy of them allPerhaps my father walked out on me, the speaker hypothesises, his voice thundering over crashing drums (the kind that accompany tense moments on reality TV shows).Absent fathers are a common theme of motivational workout speeches, and so the narrator in my earbuds takes the form of Dad; sometimes Encouraging Dad, but more often Shouting Angrily from the Sidelines Dad.Give up!Don't give up!The more valuable you are, the more a team will pay for you. Same with YouTube. The more value you give, the more people watch.Stop with the YouTube binge sessions! Continue reading...
Image library CEO speaks out amid anger over harvesting of material for training data' for AI companiesRishi Sunak needs to decide whether he wants to back the UK's creative industries or gamble everything on an artificial intelligence boom, the chief executive of Getty Images has said.Craig Peters, who has led the image library since 2019, spoke out amid growing anger from the creative and media sector at the harvesting of their material for training data" for AI companies. His company is suing an AI image generator in the UK and US for copyright infringement. Continue reading...
Glasgow University has set up virtual trips showing stories behind the poems and exploring the poet's lifeGuests attending Burns Night suppers this month can get unexpected help in appreciating Scotland's national bard - thanks to virtual reality. The Art of the Burns Supper has been created by Glasgow University researchers and takes participants on virtual trips that reveal the stories behind his poems and songs and his love of whisky - and haggis.The VR experiences have been created by scanning items from Burns collections across Scotland as well as key sites and places in his life. The result is an eclectic vision of the poet whose birthday is celebrated by Scots across the world on 25 January. Continue reading...
by Michael Savage, Shanti Das, James Tapper on (#6HV7H)
A 1999 note highlighted concerns of subpostmasters about the Horizon system and heralded decades of ministerial failingsIn any big scandal with the power to dominate the nation's attention, there are inevitably key moments when events could have been stopped in their tracks. Yet few early warnings could have been as prescient as a seven-page memo handed to a Post Office official 25 years ago.During a fractious meeting at Newcastle rugby club in 1999, the note set out a litany of concerns from subpostmasters in the north-east of England who had been piloting the now infamous Horizon accounting system. The issues, including with balancing their accounts, were causing stress and forcing some to work well into the night. Continue reading...
Study warns that lack of reporting may mask the dangers of still-mostly-illegal scooters on roads and pavementsThe majority of e-scooter accidents that involve someone needing hospital treatment are not being recorded in official road accident figures, a new study reveals, sparking fears that their dangers have been underplayed.The analysis found that just 9% of injuries involving e-scooters and recorded by 20 emergency departments over a two-month period were found in official figures. And just over a quarter of the most serious injuries were recorded in road casualty data. Continue reading...
As the Post Office debacle has amply demonstrated, putting blind faith into a new form of technology can be perilousIt doesn't take much imagination to describe what happens when a large corporation, over 16 long years, is allowed vindictively to prosecute 900 subpostmasters for theft, false accounting and fraud, when shortfalls at their branches were in fact due to bugs in the accounting software imposed on them by that corporation, as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history".But then Rishi Sunak is not the most imaginative of men. The US Marines, on the other hand, have an economical term that fits the Horizon fiasco like a glove: it was a clusterfuck" - primly defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as a very rude word for a complete failure or very serious problem in which many mistakes or problems happen at the same time". Continue reading...
If there's one area in which artificial intelligence could actually be useful, it's in the writing of computer codeAs you have doubtless noticed, we are in the middle of a feeding frenzy about something called generative AI. Legions of hitherto normal people - and economists - are surfing a wave of irrational exuberance about its transformative potential. It's the newest new thing.For anyone suffering from the fever, two antidotes are recommended. The first is the hype cycle monitor produced by consultants Gartner, which shows the technology currently perched on the peak of inflated expectations", before a steep decline into the trough of disillusionment". The other is Hofstadter's law, about the difficulty of estimating how long difficult tasks will take, which says that It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law". Just because a powerful industry and its media boosters are losing their marbles about something doesn't mean that it will sweep like a tsunami through society at large. Reality moves at a more leisurely pace. Continue reading...
Creators of these chatbots often tout them as a way to combat loneliness, but they can create unhealthy attachments and affect gender rolesIt is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a computer must be in want of an AI girlfriend. Certainly a lot of enterprising individuals seem to think there's a lucrative market for digital romance. OpenAI recently launched its GPT Store, where paid ChatGPT users can buy and sell customized chatbots (think Apple's app store, but for chatbots) - and the offerings include a large selection of digital girlfriends. Continue reading...
Walking the dog led the photographer to a magical, misty moment with an elephantHimanshu Roy was walking his dog, Rio, through his home area of Vesu, part of the Indian city of Surat, when he saw the man and the elephant.We don't often see elephants here; Vesu is a very developed and residential area," Roy says. She and her owner had just arrived for a diksha ceremony, when a person renounces their wealthy life and donates everything they have to follow a spiritual path." Continue reading...
With market capitalizations neck-and-neck at $2.887tn and $2.875tn, Microsoft pulls ahead due to worries about iPhone salesMicrosoft's stock market value ended a trading session higher than that of Apple's for the first time since 2021 on Friday, making it the world's most valuable company as worries about demand hit the iPhone maker's shares.Apple crept up 0.2% on Friday, while Microsoft added 1%. With that, Microsoft's market capitalization stood at $2.887tn, its highest ever, according to LSEG data. Apple's market capitalization was $2.875tn, calculated with data from a Thursday filing. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6HSZD)
AI companions, hidden speakers, bird-spotting binoculars and sideways-driving cars shine at annual tech show in Las VegasThe next year in technology is to be dominated by upgrades for everything from catflaps to binoculars to cars, devices that disappear in your home including transparent televisions, plus a new era of spatial computing brought in by some very expensive goggles.Those are the predictions from the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas that drew to a close this week. Unlike previous years, the event was not dominated by the big technology and car firms but rather a record-breaking 1,400 startups displaying their prototypes in hopes of catching the eyes of consumers and investors alike. Continue reading...
For many, the game became the sound of the 90s - but Josh Mancell tells us how the music for PlayStation's first mascot game originated in Kraft cheese and KraftwerkWhen people are playing video games, they want to have fun," Josh Mancell, composer for Naughty Dog's early Crash Bandicoot games, tells me. It's a simple statement, but one that laid the foundations for everything the PlayStation's most famous mascot would come to represent. Even when players were banging their heads against their CRT TVs in frustration as the paranoid, eerie music of Slippery Climb began playing again for the hundredth time, Crash Bandicoot was fun. And Mancell's soundtrack was there, from beginning to end, to remind you of that.The characteristically eccentric, manic energy that fuelled Crash's madcap platforming adventures didn't come out of nowhere, though. As I was working on the game, I was definitely throwing stuff against the wall to see what would stick," Mancell says. Continue reading...
From the 80s driving experience of Outrun and After Burner's dogfighting F-14 to Golden Axe's high fantasy hack-'em-up - here's what you wished was in your local arcadeAt the close of 2023, Sega announced its plans to reimagine several of its greatest arcade games, including Crazy Taxi and Golden Axe, for current home consoles. It's a welcome endeavour as modern gamers reared on Sonic the Hedgehog may overlook the company's incredible heritage. While we've been trained to think of Sega as a perennial also-ran in the console wars, it dominated the arcade scene for years, some of its biggest hits occurring during the Sega Saturn era. So here's a gentle reminder of the greatest coin-op games in the manufacturer's long history. Continue reading...
Critics say assumption in English and Welsh law that computers are reliable' reverses usual burden of proof in criminal casesMinisters need to immediately" update the law to acknowledge that computers are fallible or risk a repeat of the Horizon scandal, legal experts say.In English and Welsh law, computers are assumed to be reliable" unless proven otherwise. But critics of this approach say this reverses the burden of proof normally applied in criminal cases. Continue reading...
Tech giant among others - including Amazon and Meta - to cut workforce as business predictions slowed down in the past yearGoogle has laid off a thousand workers in its hardware, voice-assistance and engineering teams as part of cost-cutting measures, according to the Alphabet Workers Union.The cuts come as Google looks towards responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead", the company said in a statement. Continue reading...
US justice department accuses company of absolutely horrific, criminal conduct' over targeted campaign waged by employeesThe online retailer eBay will pay a $3m fine to resolve criminal charges over a harassment campaign waged by employees who sent live spiders, cockroaches and other disturbing items to the home of a Massachusetts couple, according to court papers filed on Thursday.The justice department charged eBay with stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. The employees already were prosecuted in the extensive scheme to intimidate David and Ina Steiner more than three years ago. The couple produced an online newsletter called EcommerceBytes that upset eBay executives with its coverage. Continue reading...
Kelly Carlin decries comedy special on YouTube that generated a fake Carlin, saying no machine will ever replace his genius'Kelly Carlin, the American radio host and daughter of the late comedian George Carlin, has criticized the release of a new comedy special featuring an AI-generated version of her father, who died in 2008 due to heart failure.My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination. No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI-generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again," Kelly Carlin wrote in a series of tweets on X. Continue reading...
by Hollie Richardson and Rachel Aroesti on (#6HRXE)
In this week's newsletter: Mobeen Azhar explores jawdropping' cases from the criminal underworld in Catching the Kingpins. Plus: five of the best podcasts about real-life stories Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereFootball's Greatest
by Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent on (#6HRVE)
Chinese artist responds to debate about data-scraping as he prepares for new collaboration with AIArt that can be easily replicated by artificial intelligence is meaningless", according to the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who believes even Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse would have had to rethink their approach if AI had existed in their era.Ai Weiwei's comments feed into the current charged debate about the rise of AIs that use data scraped from artists' websites to create original" images in their style.Ai vs AI is part of CIRCA 20:24 and launches on 11 January Continue reading...
Through the new product models, chatbot agents could be developed with their own personalities or themesOpenAI on Wednesday launched its GPT Store, a marketplace where paid ChatGPT users can buy and sell specialized chatbot agents based on the company's language models.The company, whose wildly popular product ChatGPT helped kickstart the boom in AI, already offers customized bots through its paid ChatGPT Plus service. The new store will allow users to offer and monetize a broader range of tools. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian