While the technology is set to play a growing role in modern warfare, there remains an unresolved ethical challengeShould the AI-powered drones of the future have a licence to kill? The question is becoming ever more pressing as governments and the defence industry acknowledge that drone systems will play an increasingly crucial role in future warfare.With drones being deployed in huge numbers in the Ukraine war and AI being used to assist bombing missions in the Iran conflict, there is an expectation among some observers that weapons will have to operate with increased operational autonomy, which means they will need something approximating a moral framework. Continue reading...
Breach confirmed by Meta raises concerns about how safe it is to rely on AI for key security measures such as passwordsHackers used Meta's AI-powered support chatbot to infiltrate high-profile Instagram accounts, the company confirmed on Monday, saying it had resolved the problem after researchers exposed it.The targets ranged from Barack Obama's White House account to Sephora and the US Space Force Chief Master Sergeant, according to reporting from 404 Media. Everyday users complained of similar hijackings on Reddit and X over the weekend. Continue reading...
by Nick Robins-Early and Blake Montgomery on (#7619T)
Financial stakes of AI race rise as Elon Musk's SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are slated to go public this yearAnthropic has filed confidentially for an initial public offering on the US stock market, the company announced on Monday. The AI firm makes the Claude chatbot, popular with software engineers and other business clients, and has seen a meteoric rise this year.The company did not disclose the valuation it will target on the stock market, nor did it make public other terms of the offering. The startup announced on Thursday that it had raised $65bn in funding to value the company at $965bn post-money. Anthropic was valued at $380bn in February. Continue reading...
Record-breaking box office for Backrooms and Obsession has opened the door for twentysomething YouTube creators as the industry rethinks what audiences wantAt this time last year, the idea of a wide-release feature film-maker cutting their teeth on YouTube was, if not unheard of, certainly still a niche origin story. Siblings Michael and Danny Philippou had just released Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their surprise horror hit Talk to Me, to pretty-good reviews and OK box office; clearly they would continue to work, but the slightly diminished returns didn't predict a YouTube explosion. Nor did the outright lousiness of Shelby Oaks, from longtime YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, when it premiered in theaters later in 2025. Generous horror-festival buzz died down as more people actually laid eyes on the movie; Stuckmann was an obvious enthusiast, and some saw promise in his first effort, but a clumsy found-footage pastiche without much emotional sense didn't seem like the next big thing, either.But in 2026, something has shifted. In January, YouTuber Markiplier self-released his adaptation of the video game Iron Lung to theaters, and it outgrossed any number of big-studio titles. Then Curry Barker, whose comedy sketches have been a YouTube fixture, unveiled his feature debut Obsession. The film, made for under a million dollars, has become the box office phenomenon of the summer so far, managing a virtually unheard-of feat when its second and third weekends actually outgrossed its first. Obsession is sharing multiplex space with Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, who previously brought the spooky internet meme to life in a series of YouTube shorts. Despite being set in a series of purgatorial, sparsely furnished, fluorescent-lit liminal spaces", it was the top movie at the North American box office this weekend, poised to become the biggest-grossing movie from distributor A24 in a matter of days. Backrooms also opened to bigger numbers than any number of starrier or bigger-brand 2026 titles like Wuthering Heights, Scream 7, The Devil Wears Prada 2 or the last Pixar movie. That makes three YouTube-trained film-makers who have presided over some of this year's biggest and/or most surprising hits. With them have come countless social media posts about how YouTube, not film school, provides the real training tomorrow's directors need. Continue reading...
From Google co-founder Brin spending $82m to fight a billionaire tax to Google and Meta funding a joint Super Pac, Silicon Valley is engaged in an existential fight for its political power at homeTech billionaires have shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of the 2 June primary election in California, in an unrivaled attempt to influence who gets to run the state that Silicon Valley calls home.The industry has used a cover-all-bases approach, funding candidates and ballot measures big and small, contributing to what looks to be the most expensive primary season in California history. The goal, experts say, is to gain both political and regulatory leverage that will perpetuate dominance in business.Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent $82m since January, more than any other donor, to fight a billionaire tax that's up for a vote on the November ballot.Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan has received more donations than any other candidate, including from top executives at Google, Amazon, Snap, LinkedIn, Reddit and Palantir.Crypto mogul Chris Larsen has funded three Super Pacs with $26m to sway campaigns across California, including giving $1m to back a primary candidate for state insurance commissioner.Google and Meta have collectively funded a Super Pac with $10m to back assembly and senate candidates in local district races across the state.Silicon Valley money is flowing toward city primaries as well as state-level ones, with tech-backed Pacs sponsoring voter guides suggesting how to vote on local tax measures. Continue reading...
Launching in the UK this month, this new pint-sized console revives the motion-controlled video game boom of the 00s - with better, safer techFor a wonderful moment in the noughties, video games became a truly universal pursuit. As I witnessed my controller-phobic aunt swing a Wii remote and nail a tennis serve, while my great-grandmother furrowed her brow over sudoku puzzles on her Nintendo DS, it seemed my long-derided hobby had finally gone mainstream. The Nintendo Wii flew off the shelves, inspiring a wave of competitors such as the Xbox Kinect camera that encouraged people to play games by moving their bodies. But the tide turned: outside of still-niche VR gaming and the odd controller-waggler on the Switch, motion-controlled gaming has barely been seen for more than a decade.Now, 20 years later, a new console is aiming to get the whole family flailing in front of the TV once again: the Nex Playground. Launching in the UK later this month, the first thing that struck me about this family-friendly device is just how tiny it is. The size of two and a half Rubik's Cubes taped together, this impressively unintrusive device swaps cumbersome controllers for camera-controlled minigames, putting you and your family directly in the game. Using a wide-angle lens and AI-powered tracking tech, the Nex Playground offers over 50 games that track players' bodies as they leap, flail and dance about the living room. It's not hard to see the appeal. Continue reading...
The roots of AI in rightwing ideology is examined in Valerie Veatch's enjoyable doc, including an array of colourful, often crazed, figuresDirector Valerie Veatch made her name with documentaries such as Love Child (about an online gaming-addicted couple whose child died of malnutrition) and Me at the Zoo (about American vlogger Cara Cunningham), films that explore the intersection of real-world subcultures and internet communities. Her latest continues in this vein, although its self-set remit is a bit broader, more urgent and germane to everyone right now: the pursuit of artificial intelligence, its dark history in eugenics and highly debatable utility today (despite the stock-market bubble pushing the value of a half-dozen companies towards the stratosphere).The thrust of the film is largely polemic, guiding the viewer towards AI-sceptical conclusions one persuasive soundbite at a time. Nevertheless, it also serves as a very useful, straightforward primer on AI history, touching on a dazzling array of colourful, often crazed figures, including Victorian British eugenicist Francis Galton, Silicon Valley founding father and overt racist William Shockley and current-day jillionaire jerk Elon Musk. Sadly, the film is not so up-to-date that it covers Musk and former friend-turned-foe Sam Altman's recent courtroom brawl, but that doesn't detract from the thrust of Veatch and her interviewees' arguments. Continue reading...
Coalition of more than 100 organisations says move could lead to more children ending up in adult detention facilitiesA coalition of more than a hundred refugee children's organisations has said controversial plans to use AI to assess the age of young asylum seekers could lead to more children wrongly ending up in adult prisons or detention centres.The warning follows a Home Office announcement on Friday of a contract to roll out AI facial age estimation technology on young asylum seekers whose age is disputed. Continue reading...
Sarah Wynn-Williams did not speak during event after lawyers warned of possible sanctions from tech firmFacebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams was forced to sit in silence on stage at an event at Hay festival, after lawyers advised her not to speak because of ongoing legal action brought by Meta.Wynn-Williams, whose bestselling memoir, Careless People, details her years working at Facebook, was due to appear in conversation with the investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu. Continue reading...
by Presented by Alyx Gorman, produced by Bertin Huynh on (#760DX)
From digital twins to models sculpted' by programmers, generative AI has been popping up all over the fashion industry. When an Australian e-commerce retailer started using AI-generated models to sell products, lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman had to see if the garments were more than mere pixels.The Iconic, which sells the dress worn in this video, said in a statement: Where AI-generated imagery is used to advertise products for sale on our platform, our expectation is that it is clearly labelled and that the product itself is represented as accurately as possible for customers.'Meanwhile, Atoir, the designer, said: The Australian fashion industry is highly competitive, particularly for independent brands. We believe that when used responsibly, tools like this can help smaller businesses to operate with greater agility while still maintaining the creative standards and product integrity that matter to both the brand and the customer'
A new belief set is uniting some of the wealthiest men in the world around a transhuman' future - actual humanity be damnedSam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the Internet a few years ago to propose that homo sapiens would be the first species to design our own descendants". In his best case scenario, the merge" between humans and artificial intelligence occurs at some point over the next 50 years. The alternative, where we remain simply human and the machines follow their own path, is more ominous. If two different species both want the same thing and only one can have it - in this case, to be the dominant species on the planet and beyond - they are going to have conflict," he wrote.More recently, Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who at one point last year was granted the power to reconfigure the US federal government, argued on his social media platform, X, that it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence" - our role in the history of the cosmos reduced to that of the low level code that boots up a computer before you can run sophisticated programs on it. Continue reading...
While companion robots are being introduced and virtual experiences hope to take loneliness away', one expert agrees tech should never replace the human element
Experts say AI firm's engagement with Vatican risks creating feelgood' discourse that lacks critical examinationWhy did Anthropic's founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI?In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology's most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers, accelerating war and exploiting the environment. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo. Continue reading...
Guardian readers in the US spoke of fears about unregulated AI in response to the pope's encyclical warning about the risks of the technologyIn his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the culture of power" driving the AI age.Calling for the most rigorous" ethical constraints on AI - which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today - the first US-born pope also warned of new forms of slavery" emerging through the digital economy. Continue reading...
Speaking at Amazon's AI on the Lot event, the Rogue One film-maker Gareth Edwards said it'll do anything you ask' and it's going to be better than CGI'Jurassic World Rebirth and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards has enthusiastically endorsed the use of generative AI in film-making, saying it is a fucking genius at helping you" and it's going to be better than CGI".Edwards was speaking at AI on the Lot, an event in Culver City, California, organised by Amazon, and in remarks reported by the Hollywood Reporter said: I can't see a reason why you wouldn't become interested in this stuff as a film-maker. It's so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It's going to be better than CGI." Continue reading...
Exclusive: IPPR thinktank calls for new measures to boost employees' influence at pivotal moment' in historyWorkers urgently need more bargaining power over the way AI is adopted in the workplace to ensure the benefits are fairly shared, according to a TUC-backed report from a leading thinktank.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a package of measures to boost employees' influence at what it calls a pivotal moment in the history of work". Continue reading...
The intelligent and thoughtful encyclical is an important warning of the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. Silicon Valley is wrong to dismiss itOften I'm asked if I think that the novels of the future will all be written by AI. It's not so much a question as a provocation. Do I worry that a machine can do what I do, only better? I usually say something like: No algorithm is going to write Anna Karenina!" which is also not a real answer.So I'm grateful to Pope Leo XIV, the American pope, for his recently issued letter to the world, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It's a long (more than 40,00 words), intelligent and thoughtful encyclical in which the pope addresses the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. Now when someone asks my opinion of AI, I can refer them to the pope's letter, or at least chapter three. Continue reading...
When Ben Elton didn't distract from the pain of moving my body, I found the perfect solution - the interactive smartphone game Zombies, Run!At 56, I am running my first marathon, an old, fat, bald dad surrounded by millennials in body-hugging Lycra and smiles that look AI-generated. But I am ahead of them. For they are only competing for positions and personal bests, and I am being chased by zombies.The black dog of depression hit me around the time of my last birthday. I didn't feel I had achieved anything of note for an eternity. I used to work out but, for years, work kept getting in the way. I decided to kill two circling, carcass-sniffing vultures with one stone and run my first marathon. Continue reading...
Claude's parent company's $65bn in latest funding round underscores vast sums of money still flowing into industryAnthropic, the AI firm behind the Claude chatbot, announced on Thursday it had raised $65bn in funding to value the company at $965bn post-money. The move makes Anthropic the world's most valuable AI startup, eclipsing its competitor OpenAI.The deal marks an exceedingly successful period of growth for Anthropic, which was once considered to be a smaller player in the global AI arms race. The widespread adoption of its products by large enterprise businesses, especially following its release of powerful coding assistants late last year, has turned it into a dominant player in the industry. Continue reading...
Picture was created by administrator in charge of station's Facebook account who wanted to create friendlier image'It was an arresting image and an irresistible story. A group of tough Thai police officers - five men and one woman - all wearing elaborate festival-style dresses, surrounding a drug dealer they had caught while undercover.The image, released by local police, was so compelling that it found its way on to the front page of the UK's Daily Star, as well as in picture stories in the Telegraph, the Sun and the New York Post. Continue reading...
Infinity Ward's new game in the storied shooter genre embraces change with a potentially controversial real-world settingThere was a time when Call of Duty (CoD) regularly courted controversy. In 2009, Modern Warfare 2's infamous No Russian" mission saw players (optionally) shooting screaming civilians in a Moscow airport. In 2022's entry, a drone strike mission that drew chilling parallels to the real-world US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani two years earlier was featured. The series has not always been straightforwardly palatable.In recent years, however, the world's most popular shooter game has largely swapped grit for melodrama, following the misadventures of a troop of larger than life elite soldiers. For 2026's Modern Warfare 4, however, Activision's shooter series and its developer Infinity Ward are back in tabloid-baiting territory. Continue reading...
As part of a growing anti-tech movement, startup dumb.co is pushing flip phones as a way for young people to find social and spiritual freedom'They aren't as dumb as they look," our facilitator said, referring to the dark gray flip phone in his hand. He just as easily could have been talking about us, the 28 New York residents before him who had signed up to use the device for the entire month of March. He explained that the relic was loaded with WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Maps, Uber, Microsoft 2FA - nothing like my seventh-grade flip phone.We each had paid $75 to participate in Month Offline, or MO, a program that challenged us to swear off our smartphones entirely. Another $25 went to dumb.co, the company behind MO, for the so-called dumbphones we would use as we navigated daily life. Continue reading...
Datacentres used 22% of country's electricity last year, pushing up household bills, study suggestsEnergy demand by datacentres in Ireland has added hundreds of euros to household electricity bills in a pattern that could be replicated across Europe, according to a report.Ireland's growing number of datacentres last year used 22% of the country's electricity, more than all urban homes combined, according to the Central Statistics Office. The equivalent figure in the US and UK is 6%. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#75YJM)
Finnish-US startup has sold 5.5m rings worldwide since it was founded in 2013 and is valued at $11bnStylish Finnish-American smart ring company Oura may be the darling of wearables, adorning the fingers of celebrities and sportspeople, but it is not resting on its laurels as it heads towards an IPO later this year. This week it launched the world's smallest smart ring, the Ring 5, its latest evolution of the device that defined a whole category.The Ring 5 is 40% smaller and with longer battery life than the highly popular Ring 4. It also promises to squeeze the health-tracking features of a smartwatch into a less techy piece of jewellery just 2.28mm thick, focused on sleep, stress, readiness and heart health. Continue reading...
In this competitive market, gen Z has started to turn to untraditional ways to land a job - including dating appsSibusisiwe Khupe, 26, entered the job market once again in September after a wave of unexpected layoffs at London marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy.She knew landing her next full-time role was not going to be easy. Young workers have been hit hard by the weakening UK job market as vacancies fall and unemployment climbs to a five-year high. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#75YJQ)
Crisp 27in 5K Mac monitor is packed with features and some of the best HDR performance you can get for work or playApple's new 27in Studio Display XDR is its best monitor yet, with an exceptionally bright and gorgeous 5K screen that wants to be the pro display for Mac-wielding content creators everywhere, with a price tag to match.Built to be paired with the latest or high-end Macs, the Studio Display XDR costs from 2,599 (3,099/$2,899/A$4,799), although it is a cool 3,000 if you want it with a stand. It sits above the standard 1,499 Studio Display and is 2,000 cheaper than the 2019 Apple Pro Display XDR it replaces. Continue reading...
A gentle daily puzzle is quietly becoming the most joyful part of my morning routine and reminds me that not every win needs to be epicThere's been some pretty big news in the last couple of weeks in video game world: the long-running space shooter Destiny 2 is winding up after almost nine years, PlayStation appears to have decided to stop releasing its flagship single-player games on PC, and Microsoft wants us to look like we're shouting every time we type XBOX. But the biggest news for me is that I have found my new favourite word game. I am going to be so bold as to call it the new Wordle.Ribbit is one of the varied suite of daily games on Puzzmo, an online puzzle platform. It launched at the beginning of January, but I only recently discovered it because I have been unwell, bored, and spending too much time on my phone. Puzzmo's daily hits include a satisfying shape-arranging game, variations on chess that make me feel extremely stupid, and pleasing word games, which are my favourites. Circuits has you making connections between the beginnings and ends of phrases (eg stone cold > cold medicine > medicine cabinet") as fast as you can. Bongo gives you a bunch of letter tiles and asks you to arrange them for a maximum score. Continue reading...
Agreement averts strike and shows latest impact of AI boom as two more chipmakers join $1tn clubEmployees at Samsung Electronics' memory chip division are to receive bonuses averaging about 310,000 each through a landmark profit-sharing agreement, as the AI boom drives up chipmakers' profits.Fears of a strike at Samsung were averted on Wednesday after two unions for the world's largest memory chipmaker said 74% of the 62,616 workers who cast their votes had backed the deal. Continue reading...
The company's data editor trawls through billions of queries to deliver a portrait of the world's preoccupationsAs anyone who has procreated this century knows, childrearing involves daily rounds of online searching. The most common parenting-related queries feature in What We Ask Google, a valiant attempt by the search giant's data editor Simon Rogers to create a surprisingly hopeful picture of humankind" (that's the subtitle) from searches performed over the past two decades. Why do babies get hiccups?" we ask. When do babies teethe?" Why do toddlers bite?" How do you know if your child has ADHD?" How to tell kids about divorce?"Since 2006, engineers have used Google Trends to make sense of common (and anonymised) queries like these, going back as far as 2004, when phones were dumb and less than half of UK households had internet access. Rogers, a British former Guardian journalist based in California, views the results as a kind of social mirror. Continue reading...
Streaming platform says remix tool agreed with Universal Music Group will protect artists from piracySpotify's chief executive has defended the company's move into AI-generated music, claiming it offers users and creators a better alternative to piracy and unregulated AI slop.Last week, the platform announced a new feature in which premium users will be allowed to create their own, AI-generated remixes and song covers using music from participating artists. Continue reading...
by Anna Heikkinen in Santiago de Chile. Photographs b on (#75WXY)
The country is positioning itself as Latin America's next technology hub, but communities are pushing backThe Andes mountains frame what was once a wetland - now a stretch of dry, yellowed grass. Rodrigo Vallejos, a final-year law student, noticed the change five years ago while observing the Quilicura wetland, on the northern outskirts of Santiago. One of Chile's largest swamps, spanning 468.4 hectares (about 1,200 acres) and partially protected, was drying up right before his eyes.What you see here is a wetland without water," says Vallejos, who has investigated the causes alongside activists from the group Resistencia Socioambiental de Quilicura. I discovered that Quilicura is home to the largest concentration of datacentres in Latin America." Continue reading...
As SpaceX and OpenAI race toward IPOs, a tiny circle of tech leaders tightens its grip on AI's futureHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Let's recap a whirlwind five days that may determine the future of AI.SpaceX reveals plan for $1.75tn stock market debut that could make Musk a trillionaireMars colony and Grok warnings: five strange details in SpaceX's pitch to investorsThe main takeaways from Elon Musk's plans for $1.75tn SpaceX flotationMeta is rapidly reorganizing its workers' jobs around AI: Transfers aren't optional'Nvidia's revenue blows past Wall Street expectations as AI boom acceleratesIncoming Ofcom chair vows to take on tech bros'OpenAI makes breakthrough on 80-year-old maths problemMeta settles major social media addiction lawsuit with school districtTesla Cybertruck pulled from Texas lake after attempting wade mode' Continue reading...
The content creators behind channels like Chloe VS History are using AI tools to bring history to life in a really visceral way'I have just arrived in Tudor London, 1536," a young woman in a green puffer jacket tells the camera. I'm going to check in at my room in the inn, get into the market. Then, later I am meeting the actual king - yep, Henry VIII - in person."On YouTube and other social platforms, users are flocking to watch AI-generated history influencers", characters that vlog their travels to historical settings. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#75WBY)
Ellen Roome, whose son, Jools Sweeney, was 14 when he died, wants a ban put in place for under-16sThe mother of a teenager who believes he died in a TikTok challenge gone wrong has said Downing Street has been too slow to move towards a social media ban for under-16s, and accused the government of kicking it down the road".Ellen Roome, the mother of Jools Sweeney, 14, is among the families who will meet Keir Starmer on Tuesday as a consultation on a possible social media ban closes this week. Continue reading...
Recent college grads are not very fond of commencement speakers hyping up a technology they see as a threat to their career prospectsWhen Jacob Pagel graduated from Middle Tennessee State University this spring, predictions about artificial intelligence already had him questioning the value of his degree. Then a music executive started preaching about AI's transformative power during a commencement speech.This industry will change on you in a heartbeat. It has already changed more in the last 10 years than in the 50 years prior ... AI is rewriting production as we sit here," said Scott Borchetta, CEO of the record label Big Machine. After a few stray boos from graduates, he doubled down: Deal with it." Continue reading...
Like so many Britons, I usually consult a weather app before venturing out of the house - and often cancel plans if I don't like what I see. Here's what happened when I went cold turkey for a weekWhen I heard on the radio that more than half of British people would consider cancelling an outing if they saw a 40% chance of rain all day on their weather app, I felt seen. I, too, am a slave to my app. Not that I would ever make a decision based on one whole-day percentage. I pore over three-hourly breakdowns for chances of rain versus minutes of sunshine. If rain is on the cards, I check the probable millimetres. Less than one? I may well throw caution to the wind. Speaking of which, wind speed and direction must also be considered, along with overall and feels like" temperatures. For the cherry on top, I'll compare notes with a loved one's app if they use a different one, quietly mistrusting theirs, and simmering in silent rage if theirs wins.I'll admit, though, that my compulsion to check my app (I long ago chose WeatherPro, which I knew nothing about, but liked its layout and name) is borderline neurotic; I fret over probabilities and outfit appropriateness, when I could simply step outside for real-time hyper-local accuracy. I can lose procrastinatory hours consulting long-range forecasts, or checking the weather in Melbourne (where my sister lives) and holiday destinations I have no immediate plans to visit. Continue reading...
by Dan Milmo, Priya Bharadia and Josh Taylor on (#75W26)
Campaigners, teenagers, legislators and experts give their opinions on the government's social media consultationChange is coming for social media platforms. The UK government's consultation on improving online safety for children will result in some form of action being taken against big tech. Even before the deadline for submissions has passed, ministers have pledged to introduce an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s or restrictions on addictive" features such as infinite scrolling.There is overwhelming pressure from safety campaigners and MPs for a further crackdown on social media platforms, despite the introduction of the Online Safety Act, which requires tech firms to shield children from harmful content. The deadline for contributions is Tuesday night and the government has promised to act swiftly. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Chancellor pushes for procurement of ships, steel, energy and AI to prioritise Britishness as well as costRachel Reeves has instructed cabinet colleagues to award government contracts in four critical industries directly to British companies, making clear her irritation that ministers have been sending too much government business abroad.In a letter seen by the Guardian, the chancellor tells every cabinet minister in charge of a spending department to buy British" wherever possible, adding that she is disappointed they are not already doing so. Continue reading...
A region known for its lack of walkability now has more obstacles for pedestrians to contend withRobots have taken over Los Angeles.It's not just the AI-generated videos that have caused angst in Hollywood. Our streets are full of driverless Waymo vehicles, covered in more sensors and gadgets than the Batmobile. And our walkways are home to fleets of boxes on wheels, hurrying past pedestrians and navigating outdoor bar-hoppers as the robots deliver smoothies and keto-friendly salads. Continue reading...
Pontiff calls for disarming' of artificial intelligence and apologises for church's delay in condemning slaveryPope Leo has denounced the culture of power" driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while warning that the technology must be subject to the most rigorous" ethical constraints as it infiltrates everything from work to war.In his encyclical - the first major text on safeguarding humankind of his papacy - he also apologised for the Catholic church's long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as a wound in Christian memory", and spoke of the new forms of slavery" due to the digital economy. Continue reading...
Definition of green facilities made in 2022, before release of ChatGPT, says Action to Protect Rural ScotlandA Scottish government policy designed to encourage datacentres to build in Scotland could lead to a massive volume of carbon emissions being ignored, according to an analysis by a Scottish charity.Green datacentres" are at the heart of Scotland's ambitions to develop economically. Enshrined in national policy, they are part of a larger, UK-wide effort to attract big AI investment to Scotland. Continue reading...
Anna Wintour has welcomed the Bezoses - and their patronage - with open arms. But after a controversial Met Gala, industry insiders are less enthusiasticThe press conference for the Met Costume Institute's spring exhibition is always a stately affair, but this year it was giving feudal lady addresses her serfs" or perhaps Marie Antoinette during the last days of Versailles". Here, among the spectacular marble sculptures of the art museum's American wing, was a beaming Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who Anna Wintour introduced as a force for joy", before adding that she and her husband, Jeff, have shown with this event that they genuinely, genuinely care about giving back". Meanwhile, in the outside world, protests against the Bezoses' involvement had been raging for days. The discrepancy between the word on the street and the deference within the glass-ceilinged room was head-spinning.The Met Gala has recently become a magnet for anti-excess protests, but this was its most controversial yet, owing to the $10m patronage of its honorary co-chairs, centibillionaires Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos. It was not the first time Jeff Bezos bankrolled the gala - Amazon was its lead sponsor in 2012. But this year's event came at a moment of soaring inequality, as Bezos's personal wealth has mushroomed and his Donald Trump-appeasing decisions have made him less popular than ever with New York City's left-leaning fashion and arts crowd. Continue reading...
As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous moveLong before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way.It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. With the help of a basic text editor program, I learned how to make websites - first basic, then increasingly complex - from scratch. The results were never as beautiful or polished as in my imagination, but I could live with that, because I was learning a craft. The painstaking hours of debugging and poring over arcane documentation for projects that I eventually abandoned never felt wasted. Continue reading...
PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligenceUK companies are performing yoga-level" stretches to describe themselves as AI specialists in an attempt to capitalise on the buzz around the technology, public relations firms have said.Weary communications executives tasked with securing media coverage for brands have complained that bosses in low-tech industries or running businesses that use automation but not generative AI, are increasingly demanding they are pitched to journalists as artificial intelligence companies. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian