Technology | The Guardian

Chip, memory, battery and power upgrades add to laptop's appeal along with new webcam and Apple IntelligenceApple's upgraded MacBook Pro for 2024 gets a significant power boost with the M4 chip, double the memory as standard, even longer battery life and a price cut, ending the year on a high.The longstanding laptop line now starts at 1,599 (1,899/$1,599/A$2,499), making it 100 or so cheaper than last year's M3 models. Though still an expensive, premium laptop, it comes with at least 16GB of RAM rather than 8GB, which was an upgrade worth paying extra for on previous models.Screen: 14.2in mini LED (3024x1964; 254 ppi) ProMotion (120Hz)Processor: Apple M4, Pro or MaxRAM: 16, 24, 32 or up to 128GBStorage: 512GB, 1, 2, 4 or 8TB SSDOperating system: macOS 15.1 SequoiaCamera: 12MP Centre StageConnectivity: wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 3x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4, HDMI 2.1, SD card, headphonesDimensions: 221.2 x 312.6 x 15.5mmWeight: 1.55kg Continue reading...

Tech elites scored local and national wins after backing Donald Trump and conservative California ballot measures

Americans will be stuck cleaning up after Maga's destructive streak because men like this never clean up after themselvesOur mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do. Our mistake was to see the joy, the extraordinary balance between idealism and pragmatism, the energy, the generosity, the coalition-building of the Kamala Harris campaign and think that it must triumph over the politics of lies and resentment. Our mistake was to think that racism and misogyny were not as bad as they are, whether it applied to who was willing to vote for a supremely qualified Black woman or who was willing to vote for an adjudicated rapist and convicted criminal who admires Hitler. Our mistake was to think we could row this boat across the acid lake before the acid dissolved it.We knew what the problems were, and we wanted to fix them. The principal problems that got us to this bleakest moment in American history are intertwined. They are the crisis of masculinity, the failure of the mainstream news media and the rise of Silicon Valley, and in a way they are all the same problem. Continue reading...

The singer-songwriter hosts a podcast talking to ordinary people about their often extraordinary lives. Plus: five of the best 90s podcasts Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe Sunshine Place

Meta says it will comply if required, but the technology is not ready to enforce proposed age limit across up to 40 apps

Securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders accuses the social media platform of misleading them about misuse of user dataThe US supreme court grappled on Wednesday with a bid by Meta's Facebook to scuttle a federal securities fraud lawsuit brought by shareholders who accused the social media platform of misleading them about the misuse of user data.The justices heard arguments in Facebook's appeal of a lower court's decision allowing the 2018 class action suit led by Amalgamated Bank to proceed. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages in part to recoup the lost value of the Facebook stock held by the investors. It is one of two cases coming before them this month - the other one involving artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia on 13 November - that could lead to rulings making it harder for private litigants to hold companies to account for alleged securities fraud. Continue reading...

There are already signs of a return on the Tesla chief's political investment, and there could be more to come

AI has given us the pope in a puffer, but it is also predicted to wipe out 200,000 entertainment jobs. We report from a crucial event in Portugal, full of angry artists, digital miracles - and a surprising amount of optimismThe first piece of AI-generated video I ever made moved me to tears - tears of laughter. Given the chance to fool around with Runway AI's Gen-3 Alpha, I dropped in an image of an eagle carrying off a wolf. Moments later, the picture sprang into life. The eagle slowly flapped its wings as it glided down a mountainside, dropping the wolf from its talons. Except the bird only had one leg - and its plummeting prey sprouted wings from its tail and morphed into a wolf-headed goose. It was weird and hilarious.Make no mistake, though - this is the future. Generative AI has given us amusingly surreal images such as the pope in a puffer jacket and a 90s nightclub where everyone is Gordon Ramsay, but the entertainment industry is not laughing. In fact, it's panicking. A recent statement opposing the unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI" has been signed by more than 25,000 writers, actors and musicians, including Julianne Moore, Kazuo Ishiguro and Thom Yorke. Continue reading...

The industry may be struggling, but being surrounded by 20,000 fans in the O2 arena reminded me that gaming isn't just a business - it represents culture and community Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereGiven the deluge of bad news emanating from the games industry over the past 10 months, it was somewhat reassuring this weekend to sit in a crowd of 20,000 happy, passionate fans, watching the biggest event in the esports calendar: the League of Legends world championship finals. The event, at the O2 arena in London, was the culmination of a globetrotting five-week competition to discover the best team in the world. Never having attended before - mostly because the final is usually held in Asia, where the best players tend to come from - I wasn't really sure what to expect. Would I be able to follow what was happening? Would I care? It turns out the answers to those questions were sort of" and hell, yes".For the uninitiated, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game (Moba for short) in which two teams of five players choose warriors from a selection of 170, and then battle to control a fantasy-themed map before destroying the other's home base. The arena is divided into three lanes with an area known as the jungle in the middle, and each of the team members patrols their own specific section - like any traditional team sport. Adding complexity is the fact that all the champion characters have their own skills, weapons and magical attacks, and throughout the game, they also have to defeat monsters and dragons to earn experience points that make them more powerful. It's both a deep strategy game and a bewildering riot of stomping warriors, galloping horsemen and levitating wizards. Continue reading...

Elon Musk turning you off Tesla? Here are the best EVs from other carmakers, chosen and driven by our expert

Republican candidate is seen as pro-crypto and price of bitcoin has followed his position in the polls

Initial test run of GPT-4o technology can help with regulations but cannot provide predictions or opinions'It speaks a bit of Welsh, can recite the building regulations, refuses to say whether Rishi Sunak is better than Keir Starmer and won't explain the UK corporation tax regime. The government is launching an artificial intelligence chatbot to help businesses chart the 700,000 page labyrinth that is the Gov.UK website and it looks like users can expect varied results.The experimental system will be tested by up to 15,000 business users before wider availability, possibly next year. Before you get started it warns: The biggest limitation of AI tools like me is a problem known as hallucination'. This means we sometimes make up false information or facts but present them to you confidently." Continue reading...

As competition watchdog looks poised to approve tie-up, questions raised over what it could mean for prices, competition and investment

A commercial failure by comparison with its rival the PlayStation, the Saturn nevertheless boasted stylish, genre-defining titles that are still played and beloved by retro games enthusiasts todayIt is one of the greatest injustices of video game history that the Sega Saturn is widely considered a failure. The console, which was launched in Japan on 22 November 1994, almost two weeks ahead of the PlayStation, is continually and pejoratively compared to its rival. We hear about how Sony produced a high-end machine laser targeted at producing fast 3D graphics, while Sega's engineers had to add an extra chip to the Saturn at the last minute. We read that Sony's Ken Kutaragi provided creators with a much more user-friendly development system. We know that Sony undercut the price of Sega's machine, using its might as a consumer electronics giant to take the financial hit. All of that is true, but what aren't always mentioned are the vast success of the Japanese Saturn launch, and the extraordinary legacy that Sega's 32-bit machine left behind.What I remember is this: Edge magazine reporting from Akihabara in Tokyo, where its Japanese correspondent had joined a queue outside the major Laox computer game centre to try and snag one of the thousand or so machines not already preordered by fans. Two-and-a-half hours later, the writer emerged with his purchase, which included a copy of Virtua Fighter, the best arcade fighting game of the year. It was a lucky buy: the shelves were emptying fast all over town. Sega shifted an unprecedented 200,000 units that day. Continue reading...

Activities of those aged 0 to three often involve sensory exploration and embodied cognition, researchers findAlthough it has been argued that under-threes should not have any screen time at all, research has found that digital tech can offer rich opportunities" for young children's development.A two-year study, Toddlers, Tech and Talk, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and led by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), working with Lancaster, Queen's Belfast, Strathclyde and Swansea universities, looked at children's interactions with everything from Amazon Alexa to Ring doorbells, in diverse communities across the UK, to find out how tech was influencing 0- to three-year-olds' early talk and literacy. Continue reading...

UK consumer group Which? finds some everyday items including watches and speakers are stuffed with trackers'Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers stuffed with trackers" are among examples of smart devices engaged in excessive" surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?The organisation tested three air fryers, increasingly a staple of British kitchens, each of which requested permission to record audio on the user's phone through a connected app. Continue reading...

Nintendo Switch, Acquire/ Nintendo

When human solvers battle artificial intelligence, who is able to think more cryptically, faster? And are some devious clues just too tough for software?The Times hosts an annual crossword-solving competition and it remains, until such time as the Guardian has its own version, the gold standard.This year's competitors included a dog. Rather, an AI represented as a jolly coffee-drinking dog named Ross (a name hidden in crossword"), and who is embedded on the Crossword Genius smartphone app.1ac MP ousted by Liberal, absolutely without authority (9)13d Radical overhaul of motorsport's image (9) Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleges TikTok's algorithm exposed teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disordersSeven French families have filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the platform of exposing their adolescent children to harmful content that led to two of them taking their own lives at 15, their lawyer said.The lawsuit alleges TikTok's algorithm exposed the seven teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion told broadcaster Franceinfo on Monday.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Even bigger titanium superphone packs very long battery life and great camera but Apple Intelligence isn't killer featureThe iPhone 16 Pro Max is Apple's latest superphone, with a massive screen, the fastest chip and the most advanced cameras on an iPhone, ready to be your entertainment powerhouse, if you can squeeze it into a pocket or bag.This enormous iPhone comes at an equally huge price. Starting at 1,199 (1,449/$1,199/A$2,149) the 16 Pro Max tops the iPhone 16 series, towering above the 999 16 Pro and 899 16 Plus, though, at least it comes with double the starting storage of the rest.Screen: 6.9in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)Processor: Apple A18 ProRAM: 8GBStorage: 256, 512GB or 1TBOperating system: iOS 18Camera: 48MP main, 48MP UW and 12MP 5x zoom, 12MP front-facingConnectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, Thread, USB-C, Satellite, UWB and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)Dimensions: 163 x 77.6 x 8.25mmWeight: 227g Continue reading...

With poor internet and electricity, Palestinians flock to co-working spaces and find hope despite Israel's attacksIt took more than 20 minutes and eight dropped WhatsApp calls to finally connect with Farida Algoul in Gaza. Internet service is not reliable anywhere in the territory, including in the provisional co-working space in the city of Deir al-Balah, where she and 50 or so others work remotely.An English teacher by training, Algoul splits her time between a makeshift classroom in a tent, where she teaches for free, and a table in this cafe turned workspace where she translates documents from Arabic to English. Over the grainy video call, other freelancers who had been forcibly displaced to the central Gazan city could be seen working alongside her, all of them vying for the coveted internet connection. Continue reading...

Google and its rivals are increasingly employing AI-generated summaries, but research indicates their results are far from authoritative and open to manipulationDoes aspartame cause cancer? The potentially carcinogenic properties of the popular artificial sweetener, added to everything from soft drinks to children's medicine, have been debated for decades. Its approval in the US stirred controversy in 1974, several UK supermarkets banned it from their products in the 00s, and peer-reviewed academic studies have long butted heads. Last year, the World Health Organization concluded aspartame was possibly carcinogenic" to humans, while public health regulators suggest that it's safe to consume in the small portions in which it is commonly used.While many of us may look to settle the question with a quick Google search, this is exactly the sort of contentious debate that could cause problems for the internet of the future. As generative AI chatbots have rapidly developed over the past couple of years, tech companies have been quick to hype them as a utopian replacement for various jobs and services - including internet search engines. Instead of scrolling through a list of webpages to find the answer to a question, the thinking goes, an AI chatbot can scour the internet for you, combing it for relevant information to compile into a short answer to your query. Google and Microsoft are betting big on the idea and have already introduced AI-generated summaries into Google Search and Bing. Continue reading...

Online services that promise to find people romantic matches have been likened to gambling products designed to keep customers hookedDesigned to be deleted" is the tagline of one of the UK's most popular dating apps. Hinge promises that it is the dating app for people who want to get off dating apps" - the place to find lasting love.But critics say modern dating is in crisis. They claim that dating apps, which have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times worldwide, are exploitative"and are designed not to be deleted but to be addictive, to retain users in order to create revenue. Continue reading...

Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg; Finji; PC, Mac

Abdo Mohamed and Hossam Nasr organized event outside headquarters to reject company doing business in IsraelTwo Microsoft employees who were fired last week after organizing a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza say the company retaliated against them for their pro-Palestinian activism.The two, Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist, and Hossam Nasr, a software engineer, organized the event outside Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on 24 October. They were fired later that evening. Continue reading...

Posts lauding anything from running in the rain to tiredness and a comfy bed are springing up on Instagram and TikTokWhat a privilege it is to run in the rain. What a privilege it is to have a house I need to clean." Social media is usually criticised for being a toxic space, but an emerging trend is pushing back against negativity with gratitude.Posts entitled What a privilege" feature everything from images of cosy beds (What a privilege it is to be exhausted after a long day) to videos of travelling (What a privilege it is to carry a heavy bag) to kitchen hobs (What a privilege it is to think about what to make for dinner everyday) have sprung up on Instagram and TikTok. Continue reading...

Rail bosses admitted earlier this week they still use the surprisingly persistent technologyThere's not much Dolly Parton and Northern rail bosses can claim to have in common. Frustrated commuters from Manchester to Middlesbrough might complain the train service barely works 9 to 5. What does unite the two is that neither can let go of the fax machine.Banned by the NHS in England and dropped by the Premier League after one too many player transfers crumbled amid faulty transmissions, the persistence of the screeching and buzzing fax was this week blamed for commuter misery by the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. Continue reading...

Company reports $94.9bn in revenue, slightly beating Wall Street projections in first look at demand for its new phoneApple reported strong demand for the iPhone 16 in its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, though overall sales in China slightly decreased year-over-year. The company reported $94.9bn in revenue, up 6% year-over-year, and $1.64 in earnings per share (EPS). The company's earnings slightly beat Wall Street projections of $94.4bn in sales and an EPS of $1.60.The company saw $46.2bn in revenue from iPhone sales, up from $43.8bn year-over-year. Fourth-quarter revenue from its services division, which include subscriptions, increased from $22.31bn to $24.97bn year-over-year. Continue reading...

Feed is rife with posts of individuals deemed suspicious and calls for doxxing with little evidence provided of faultWhile Elon Musk faces his own election integrity questions offline, the X owner has deputized his followers to spot and report any potential instances of voter fraud and irregularities". The community he spawned is rife with unfounded claims passed off as evidence of voter fraud.Musk opted not to show up to a required court appearance on Thursday in Philadelphia to respond to a lawsuit challenging his political action committee's daily $1m voter giveaway. Meanwhile, online, he has started a dedicated community space on X, formerly Twitter, where he has asked users to share any issues they see while voting. Users posting on the self-contained feed, the election integrity community", quickly began pointing out what they deemed as evidence of fraud and election interference. Continue reading...

Shares rise as company reports quarterly revenue of $158.9bn - more than analysts had forecastAmazon became the latest of the magnificent seven" tech giants to report quarterly earnings on Thursday, with all eyes once again on cloud computing and any sign of a return on vast AI investments. Shares in the e-commerce giant rose in after-hours trading.The company reported revenue of $158.9bn against analyst expectations of $157.2bn, and earnings per share of $1.43, compared to $1.16 expected by Bloomberg analysts. Continue reading...

Canvassers discovered they were working to drum up turnout for Trump after signing non-disclosure agreementsElon Musk's get-out-the-vote effort for Donald Trump has come under renewed scrutiny after paid canvassers reported not knowing beforehand that they were being hired to support the former president.Workers recruited by Musk's America Pac to canvass in the battleground state of Michigan only discovered they were working for the Space X and Tesla entrepreneur to drum up voter turnout for Trump after signing non-disclosure agreements, Wired reported. Continue reading...

Vast datacentres are being built worldwide, amid growing concerns about the environmental costs. So should we all be considering a data diet - if not complete digital sobriety?Nearly 20 years ago, the British mathematician Clive Humby coined a snappy phrase that has turned into a platitude: data is the new oil". He wasn't wrong. We have an insatiable appetite for data, we can't stop generating it, and, just like oil, it's turning out to be bad news for the environment.So the Guardian set me a challenge: to try to give a sense of how much data an average person uses in a day, and what the carbon footprint of normal online activity might be. To do that, I tried to tot up the sorts of things I and millions of others do every day, and how that tracks back through the melange of messaging services, social networks, applications and tools, to the datacentres that keep our digital lives going. Continue reading...

The project that began in the Canary Islands mimics the way leaves capture water droplets from fog in order to produce waterThey call it cloud milking, a zero-energy technique to extract water from fog that is revolutionising the recovery of forests devastated by fire and drought.The idea began as a pilot project in the Canary Islands. The plan was to exploit the moisture-laden sea of clouds" that hangs over the region in order to aid reforestation, and has since been extended to several other countries to produce drinking water, and to irrigate crops. Continue reading...

PC, PS5, Xbox; Deck Nine/Square Enix

Experts say top chief executives are treading a fine line to avoid any backlash in the event of a Trump victoryAfter the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, America's business leaders came out strongly in their criticism of Donald Trump. Now - as the Harris campaign brands Trump a fascist" and Trump threatens retribution against the enemy from within" - there appears to be a conspiracy of silence.In fact, as the nation heads to the polls in an election that is too close to call, some of America's most powerful chief executives appear to be cozying up to Trump again. Continue reading...

A fascinating fortnightly show explores the darker side of the scare industry. Plus: five of the creepiest podcasts Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereBrown Girls Do It Too: Big Boy Energy

District attorney says awards to registered voters from billionaire's pro-Trump America Pac are an illegal lottery'A judge ordered all parties, including Elon Musk, to attend a court hearing in Philadelphia on Thursday in a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by the billionaire from awarding $1m to registered US voters in battleground states before the 5 November election.The Philadelphia district attorney's office filed the lawsuit on Monday. It called the giveaway by Musk's America Pac, which backs Donald Trump, an illegal lottery" that entices Pennsylvania residents to share personal data. Continue reading...

Revenue from Azure cloud business increased by 22% as company focuses attention on artificial intelligenceMicrosoft reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday fueled by growth in its Azure cloud business, as five of the Magnificent Seven" tech megacaps roll out quarterly earnings this week.AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, function, and business process," the company's CEO, Satya Nadella, said in a press release. On an earnings call, Nadella said Microsoft's AI business was on track to surpass an annual run-rate of $10bn next quarter, which will make it the fastest growing business in our history to reach this milestone". Continue reading...

Company beats financial predictions but does not increase daily users as much as Wall Street thought it mightMeta's blowout year continues after the company reported another stellar financial quarter on Wednesday. But shares fell in after-hours trading after the company missed Wall Street expectations for daily active users.Wall Street analysts had high expectations for the Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, projecting an 18% jump in sales year over year. The company reported $40.6bn in sales, a 19% increase year over year that outpaced investor expectations of $40.19bn. Meta, which saw a 25% jump in its share price over the past two months, reported $6.03 in earnings per share (EPS), surpassing Wall Street's expectations of an EPS of $5.29. Continue reading...

Monthly users rose by nearly half thanks to AI translation feature, and deals for AI training with Google and OpenAI boosted revenueReddit on Tuesday reported a quarterly profit for the first time in its 20-year history. Shares of the company, popular for its user-led communities known as subreddits, rose more than 35% as markets opened the next day.The company reported nearly 100 million monthly users, an increase of 47% from the year prior, and a profit of $29.9m. Its revenue reached $348.4m, a year-over-year increase of 68%, handily beating analysts' expectations. Continue reading...

An expert in digital forensics and family violence says surveillance by spyware is rare - more often it happens via everyday features such as location sharing

Sony is shutting down Firewalk, the studio behind its live-service flop, Concord. It's the biggest, most expensive casualty of an increasingly crowded hero shooter market - and it won't be the last Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt's official: after Sony pulled its struggling hero shooter Concord from sale shortly after it launched, the studio that made it will now be closing. Firewalk Studios was bought by Sony less than two years ago, as part of a strategy to improve PlayStation's live-service portfolio. The closure of Firewalk cements Concord's place as one of the biggest and most consequential flops in gaming history: the cost to Sony will have been in the hundreds of millions, with estimates of Concord's development cost ranging from $200m to $400m in total.Sony also closed Neon Koi, a developer with offices in Helsinki and Berlin, which focused on mobile action games with epic stories" but had yet to release a game. Continue reading...

Halloween is coming, and our minds are turning to scary games. But which titles are genuine fright fests? Our writers decided to find out in the most ill-advised way possibleShepton Mallet prison in Somerset is the world's oldest correctional facility. It is also reportedly one of the most haunted. Between its opening in 1625 and its closure in 2013, it saw hundreds of inmates, from Victorian street urchins to wayward American GIs to the Kray twins. Now a tourist attraction, it occasionally opens to paying guests who want to spend a night behind bars. Some are paranormal investigators, some are brave tourists, and others are video game journalists with a silly idea: how scary would it be to play five recent horror games all night, locked in a haunted prison?Carrying just a torch, an electromagnetic field (EMF) detector, and a laptop, we wandered the prison finding spine-chilling locations in which to play these immersive supernatural masterpieces. Here is what happened ... Continue reading...

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the authors.This week from 2018: How an extreme libertarian tract predicting the collapse of liberal democracies - written by Jacob Rees-Mogg's father - inspired the likes of Peter Thiel to buy up property across the Pacific. By Mark O'Connell Continue reading...

Analysts expected 12% year-on-year revenue gains, but company reports 15%, buoyed by performance in ads and cloud servicesAlphabet, parent of Google and YouTube, saw a third straight quarter of better-than-anticipated gains as it reported earnings on Tuesday. The tech giant had largely exceeded analyst expectations for the previous two quarters, and Tuesday's results showed growth in both digital advertising and demand for Google Cloud. Shares rose in after-hours training.The momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools," said the CEO, Sundar Pichai. Continue reading...

A French newspaper has revealed the whereabouts of world leaders with the use of the hugely popular running app. So is it time to stop it tracking your location?

Campaigners say 21% of people at workshops did not disclose on their applications relationships with firms being discussedMore than one in five attenders at EU events on regulating big tech companies did not disclose links to the industry when applying to take part, according to transparency campaigners who say hidden networks are distorting public debate.Researchers at three NGOs analysed nearly 4,000 registrations at European Commission workshops organised earlier this year to test companies' compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law to curb anti-competitive behaviour. Continue reading...

As a new show co-created by an AI performer opens in France, industry leaders including Wayne McGregor, Tamara Rojo and Jonzi D contemplate the technology's possibilities and perilsI think AI's going to change everything," Tamara Rojo, artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, told me earlier this year. We just don't know quite how." The impact of artificial intelligence on the creative industries can already be seen across film, television and music, but to some extent dance seems insulated, as a form that so much relies on live bodies performing in front of an audience. But this week choreographers Aoi Nakamura and Esteban Lecoq, collectively known as AE, are launching what is billed as the world's first AI-driven dance production, Lilith.Aeon. Lilith, the performer, is an AI entity, who has co-created the work, with Nakamura and Lecoq. She" will appear on an LED cube that the audience move around, their motion triggering Lilith's dance.Nakamura and Lecoq insist they're interested not in chasing the latest technology for its own sake but in enhancing their storytelling. Working as dancers with theatre company Punchdrunk turned them on to the idea of immersive experiences, which led to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and now AI. Their question is always: How can we make this tech come alive?" But not in a robots-taking-over-the-world way. Continue reading...

The tech titans have picked up the phone and called the ex-president. Plus: AI chatbots and sharing your baby's photos Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWelcome back. Today in the newsletter: tech executives play phone tag with Donald Trump, the liability of AI chatbots, and talking through sharing your baby's photos online with your family. Thank you for joining me.The CEOs of the biggest tech companies in the world are looking at the neck-and-neck polls, picking up their phones, and putting their ducks in a row for a potential Donald Trump presidency. The former US president has never shied away from threatening revenge against his perceived enemies, and tech's leaders are heading off retributive regulatory scrutiny. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; Treyarch/Raven/Activision