After I was turned into a memecoin, I looked into the hype behind the crypto that only a tiny percentage of people profit fromIn November last year, I was turned into a memecoin. Several, in fact.Someone alerted me that a memecoin called Dork Nerd Geek ($DNG) had been minted with a picture of my face, and it already had a market cap (the total value of all coins in circulation) of $29,000. Twenty minutes later it was $100,000. An hour later it was $800,000. Continue reading...
Artificial intelligence tool determines best candidates to take abiraterone, which can halve risk of death from diseaseDoctors have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can predict which men with prostate cancer will benefit from a drug that halves the risk of dying.Abiraterone has been described as a gamechanger" treatment for the disease, which is the most common form of cancer in men in more than 100 countries. It has already helped hundreds of thousands with advanced prostate cancer to live longer. Continue reading...
Party leader says he wants UK to be a crypto powerhouse' during speech at Las Vegas conferenceReform UK will accept donations through bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Nigel Farage has announced.During an appearance at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where he was introduced as a UK presidential candidate", Farage said: As of now, provided you are an eligible UK donor ... we are the first political party in Britain that can accept donations in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies." Continue reading...
Though the billionaire vowed modernization and efficiency, what's left is a trail of uncertainty and reduced functionalityElon Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday night, ending a contentious and generally unpopular run as a senior adviser to the president and de facto head of the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge). Though he promised efficiency and modernization, Musk leaves behind a trail of uncertainty and reduced functionality.The timing of Musk's departure lines up with the end of his 130-day term limit as a special government employee" but also plays a part in an effort by the billionaire to signal a wider shift away from Washington as he faces backlash from the public and shareholders. Musk has recently made a show of refocusing his efforts on his tech companies in interviews, saying that he has spent too much time focused on politics and plans to reduce his political spending in the future. Continue reading...
Tesla also buoyed by Elon Musk's confirmation that he will leave his role in the Trump administrationTechnology shares climbed on Thursday, buoyed by strong results from Nvidia, despite the AI chip company's boss issuing a warning about the rise of Chinese rivals.The Stoxx Europe tech index rose by 0.8% on Thursday following Nvidia's financial report, with the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML rallying by 2.4%. Continue reading...
by Presented by Michael Safi with Karen Hao; produced on (#6XKTK)
Technology journalist Karen Hao, who has been reporting on OpenAI since 2019, compares the company's unprecedented growth to a new form of empireIn 2019, before most of the world had heard of the company, the technology journalist Karen Hao spent three days embedded in the offices of OpenAI.What she saw, she tells Michael Safi, was a company vastly at odds with its public image: that of a transparent non-profit developing artificial intelligence technology purely for the benefit of humanity. They said that they were transparent. They said that they were collaborative. They were actually very secretive." Continue reading...
Chip-manufacturing company, widely seen as bellwether for AI business, reports $44.1bn in revenue for quarterNvidia beat Wall Street expectations in its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, marking another in a string of financial wins for the computer hardware giant. It reported $44.1bn in revenue in the quarter ending in April, up 69% from the previous year.The company exceeded investors' predictions of $43.3bn in revenue. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.81, under investor expectations of an adjusted earnings per share of 88 cents. The company also reported $39.1bn in data center revenue, up 73% from the year prior. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff and Joseph Gedeon on (#6XK0E)
Tesla boss says US president's One Beautiful Bill Act undermines' his Doge cost-cutting effortsDonald Trump said he will be negotiating his signature tax bill after Elon Musk publicly criticised the president's spending plan, saying it undermines" cost-cutting efforts that the world's richest man once spearheaded.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged the bill needs to get a lot of support" in Congress, adding we have to get a lot of votes". The president also said he was not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it" and confirmed he would be negotiating the legislation. Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent on (#6XKQ4)
Disinformation spread to mainstream channels in what experts call deliberate informational warfare'As missiles and drones crisscrossed the night skies above India and Pakistan earlier this month, another invisible war was taking place.Not long after the Indian government announced Operation Sindoor, the military offensive against Pakistan triggered by a militant attack in Kashmir that Delhi blamed on Islamabad, reports of major Pakistani defeats began to circulate online. Continue reading...
If Shakespeare were around today, he'd be making open-world shooters with the same depth and diversion as his playsLast week, the Guardian spoke to the team behind Lili, a video game retelling of Macbeth, shown at the Cannes film festival. The headline quote from the piece was Shakespeare would be writing for games today", which I have heard many times, and does make a lot of sense. Shakespeare worked in the Elizabethan theatre, a period in which plays were considered popularist entertainment hardly worthy of analysis or preservation - just like video games today! The authorities were also concerned about the lewd and violent nature of plays and the effect they may have on the impressionable masses - ditto!But if we agree that a 21st-century Shakespeare would be making games, what sort would he be making? If our central thesis is that Shakespeare would be interested in mass, popular entertainment, then - if we're talking pure revenue - he would be making casual smartphone games: Tencent's multiplayer arena battle game Honor of Kings, for example, made $2.6bn (1.9bn) last year. However, while the Bard was certainly interested in royalty and honour (and making money), it's hard to see Hamlet working as a multiplayer arena-based online battle game structured into an endless series of fast-paced skirmishes. Our titular hero would barely get out the words, O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!" before being vaporised in a scorching barrage attack. For similar reasons, I can't see Shakespeare making battle royale games such as Fortnite because, while he certainly liked a battle and lots of deaths, there's not a lot of room for narrative complexity or rousing military rhetoric when the sole aim is to shoot as many people as possible while dressed as a giant banana or Sabrina Carpenter. Continue reading...
In Thailand, exotic pets are increasingly popular among the wealthy elite, but few are prepared for a long-term commitment and campaigners say many animals are kept in cruel conditionsChampagne glasses clink at an exclusive Bangkok party, where guests in designer clothes laugh and mingle. They take turns posing with a cat, passing it casually from one to the other. But as the camera settles, it becomes clear this is no house cat - it's a lion cub. One woman, in a red cocktail dress, lifts the animal to her face and blows a kiss at the camera, a glass of wine balanced in her other hand.Clips such as this are flooding Instagram and TikTok, offering a glimpse into Thailand's booming captive lion trade. According to a new report by the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group the number of lions in captivity has more than tripled since 2018 - a trend fuelled in part by the rising popularity of exotic pets among the country's wealthy elite. A growing network of lion farms cater to this demand - many of them run by amateurs with little experience in wildlife care.Lion breeder Patamawadee Chanpithak plays with cubs in the nursery at her farm. Photograph: Ana Norman Bermudez Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6XJYB)
From remotely locking it using a locator, to backing up a replacement, steps to help you secure your dataLaptops are the workhorses of the world and can contain thousands of important documents, photos and treasured memories. Losing them can mean more than just downtime from work. Here's what to do in the event the worst happens.Try to locate it using Microsoft or Apple's Find My device service, lock it remotely and mark it as lost to help secure your data.Remove it as a trusted device for services you use, including your Apple or Microsoft account, cloud accounts, shops or other browser-based apps.Change your passwords for key accounts, including your Apple or Microsoft account. Start with your email to prevent thieves using it to gain access to your other accounts through password resets.Report the theft to the police by calling 101 in the UK and give them a description of the laptop, make, model, colour and serial number, which may be on the box or in your Apple or Microsoft account.Contact your insurance provider if you have cover, your laptop may come under some home contents policies.Tell your bank about any credit cards you may have details of stored on your laptop.Contact the laptop's manufacturer to report the theft so it can blacklist its serial number, which may prevent it being activated and used by someone else.Set a strong password or long pin that cannot be easily guessed, set up and use any face or fingerprint scanners and make sure the screen is set to lock after a short period, usually when the screen turns off.Turn on device encryption in your privacy and security settings if not already enabled.Set up two-step verification for your Microsoft or Apple account, as well as any others you use.Turn on Find My" in a Windows 10 or 11's security settings or in iCloud settings on a Mac, which will help you locate a lost laptop, remotely lock it and mark it as lost with a message on its screen for anyone who finds it.Back up your data regularly. On a Windows laptop you can use Windows Backup to store files and settings on Microsoft's OneDrive cloud service (5GB free). On a Mac you can use Time Machine to back up the laptop to an external drive or sync your apps and files with iCloud (you can store 5GB for free). Alternatively, copy files to an external drive but be sure to encrypt it first before backing up any sensitive documents.Host important documents in the cloud. Microsoft and Apple have cloud services, but there are many others including Google Drive, Dropbox and Proton Drive.Take note of your laptop's colour, model number and serial number, and store your proof of purchase somewhere safe.Consider putting the laptop on your home contents insurance, which may need it to be added to the high-risk or high-value items list, particularly if you take it out of the home. Otherwise, there is dedicated laptop or gadget insurance, with multiple cover levels including theft. Continue reading...
Adele Zeynep Walton's sibling Aimee was a talented artist who loved music. It was only after her death that Walton realised Aimee had been lured into a dangerous community - and that others may also be victims of itAdele Zeynep Walton knew something was wrong when she stumbled out of her caravan in the New Forest at 8am - she was camping with her boyfriend - and, through her sleepy fog, saw her parents' car driving towards her. Initially annoyed by the idea of a family walk so early in the day, she then noticed that the car was veering off the track and, as it drew closer, her mother looked hysterical". Straight away," she says. I was like, It's Aimee.'"Aimee, Walton's younger sister, was 21 and had suffered from poor mental health for some months. She loved music technology and art - her accomplished self-portraits dot the walls of the family's home in Southampton, where her bedroom has been left exactly as it was before her death. She was such a big fan of the singer Pharrell Williams that he called her up five times to dance on stage at his concerts. But, with her mental health deteriorating, she had become harder and harder to reach. For two months, we didn't know where she was, what she was doing," Walton says. Continue reading...
According to novelist Elif Shafak, the platform suggested she make her talk shorter because viewers can't focus for 19 minutes. Now ... where was I?Name: Ted Talks.Age: Ted started in 1984. Continue reading...
Once unshakable, Apple is showing rare signs of strain. Meanwhile, OpenAI bets billions on its next act, and Trump's crypto fans lose millionsHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week in tech: Apple struggles on multiple fronts, OpenAI grows increasingly ambitious, and Trump helps some of his fans lose money on cryptocurrency. Continue reading...
Anyone can buy a tiny spy camera and hide it in a mirror, fake smoke alarm or public toilet. But why would they? As cases of voyeurism against women soar in the UK, victims say it's too easy for men to get away with itThe first time Heidi Marney took a bath in her new, temporary home, she felt she was being watched. I had this overwhelming sense that there were eyes on me," she says. She remembers scanning the room. It was a big, double bath and above, on the wall, there was a TV with a device hanging down with a flashing red light." Marney sent a photo of it to a friend who assured her that it was a dongle and said he had one too so that he could get Sky in every room.Logic told me that, if someone was filming me, there'd be a camera in my bedroom," Marney continues, so I went to my room and looked everywhere - the wardrobe, the lights; I was meticulous. There was nothing, so I told myself I was being ridiculous. My landlord was the kindest human you could ever meet. He would never do that." She pauses for a second then sighs. I'll never ever ignore my instincts again." Continue reading...
The president's billionaire backer was ever-present at the start of Trump's term but is now pulling back from politics - and Republicans want to keep it that wayThe Oval Office was crowded, with reporters cautioned not to collide with the Resolute Desk. Standing beside them, dressed in black, was Elon Musk, billionaire ally of Donald Trump and head of his government efficiency drive.Elon is from South Africa - I don't want to get Elon involved," the US president told his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, during a discussion about crime against white farmers. He actually came here on a different subject: sending rockets to Mars. He likes that better." Continue reading...
Online bullying, violence and paedophilia have made young people sceptical of unfettered access to technologyIn 2019, when Sophie* was 12, her classmates sent her extreme and traumatising" videos that included an al-Qaida beheading, pornography and bestiality. She recalls an adult player in an online game persuading her to meet in person. Although her dad worked in IT, looking back she thinks: My parents' generation simply didn't have a clue."Now aged 18 and a student at the University of Edinburgh, she wouldn't allow her children to have a smartphone until they're adults. As a teen I would have been the biggest advocate on everyone having a phone, but I've 100% changed my opinion," she said. Continue reading...
When a university's rare weaving device was destined for the skip, a collective of artists, teachers and students united to rescue it. They bemoan how course changes are replacing deep skills with competency checklistsRachel, bad news," the text message read. They're disconnecting the loom tomorrow."Rachel Halton still doesn't know who made the decision, in October 2022, to summarily decommission the $160,000 Jacquard loom that had been a cornerstone of RMIT's renowned weaving and textile design courses for 20 years. Continue reading...
by Nicholas Chrastil in Birmingham, Alabama on (#6XGV3)
Butler Snow faces sanctions after lawyer cites false case law defending against inmate who says he was stabbed 20 timesIn less than a year and a half, Frankie Johnson, a man incarcerated at the William E Donaldson prison outside Birmingham, Alabama, says he was stabbed around 20 times.In December of 2019, Johnson says, he was stabbed at least nine times" in his housing unit. In March of 2020, an officer handcuffed him to a desk following a group therapy meeting, and left the unit, after which another prisoner came in and stabbed him five times. Continue reading...
For years, Alexa has been our on-call vet, DJ, teacher, parent, therapist and whipping boy. What secrets would the data reveal?She is always listening. She is unfailingly polite. She is often obtuse. She is sometimes helpful. She frequently frustrates. She isn't great with bashment artists. Or grime. Ordrum'n'bass. She needs to be spoken to slowly and clearly, as you'd talk to an aged relative with diminished faculties. She doesn't like French accents.Alexa, how long do wasps live for?" Continue reading...
Top US marketing professor Scott Galloway says on Pivot podcast Tesla owner has alienated his core demographic'The prominent US marketing professor Scott Galloway said Elon Musk's decision to implement brutal job and spending cuts within the federal government on behalf of the Trump administration was one of the greatest brand destructions" ever.Speaking on Friday's episode of the popular Pivot podcast, which he co-hosts, Galloway said Trump's billionaire businessman adviser alienated the customer base of his electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla - one of his most important holdings - while aligning himself with a president whose allies aren't interested in the kinds of cars the company makes. Continue reading...
Tens of millions of internet users in China's Henan denied access to five times more websites than usualChina's authorities appear to have implemented an enhanced version of the country's internet censorship regime in the central province of Henan, subjecting tens of millions of residents to even stricter controls on access to information than people in the rest of the country.A research paper published this month by Great Firewall Report, an internet censorship monitoring platform, found that internet users in Henan, one of China's most populous provinces, were, on average, denied access to five times more websites than a typical Chinese internet user between November 2023 and March 2025. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll and Kate Connolly in Berlin on (#6XGA6)
Arrest warrants issued for ringleaders after investigation by police in Europe and North AmericaEuropean and North American cybercrime investigators say they have dismantled the heart of a malware operation directed by Russian criminals after a global operation involving British, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, French, German and US police.International arrest warrants have been issued for 20 suspects, most of them living in Russia, by European investigators while indictments were unsealed in the US against 16 individuals. Continue reading...
Successful podcasters are filming their shows, putting traditional platforms under pressure. Does it add value or reflect YouTube's increasing might?It is four in the afternoon at Pellicci's, a family-run cafe on Bethnal Green Road in London that has been an East End institution for 125 years. Its famously loudmouthed owners, British-Italian siblings Nevio and Anna, have been serving fry-ups, soups, pasta and jam roly-polies since eight this morning. The cafe is now closed, but Anna and Nevio are just getting started on their second job as hosts of the podcast series Down the Caff, in which they interview people about food and life over a meal of the guest's choosing. The conversations are sweary, chaotic and an absolute hoot.Their guests so far include actor and Pellicci's regular Ray Winstone, Dexys' Kevin Rowland, rapper Hak Baker and 86-year-old YouTuber Marge Keefe, AKA Grime Gran. Today's interviewees are TikTok star John Fisher, AKA Big John, and his son, the boxer Johnny Fisher. When I tell Anna she must be due a lie down, she says: Tell me about it. In fact, tell him!" pointing at their longsuffering producer George Sexton-Kerr, who is busy moving Formica tables around to make way for the film crew. Continue reading...
Murderous mansions with carnivorous toilets or a fantasy lighthouse on misty shores, every gamer has a favourite property - here are some of oursThis year's surprise hit Blue Prince is a proper video game wonder. It's an architectural puzzler in which you explore a transforming mansion left to you by an eccentric relative. The place is filled with secrets, and whenever you reach a door you get to pick the room on the other side from a handful of options. The whole game is a rumination on houses and how we live in them. Nostalgic and melancholic, it feels designed to make us look harder at what surrounds us. Continue reading...
Sam Altman and Jony Ive say mystery product created by their partnership will be the coolest thing everEverything over the last 30 years, according to Sir Jony Ive, has led to this moment: a partnership between the iPhone designer and the developer of ChatGPT.Ive has sold his hardware startup, io, to OpenAI and will take on creative and design leadership across the merged businesses. I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this place, to this moment," he says in a video announcing the $6.4bn (4.8bn) deal. Continue reading...
Analysis comes as energy agency predicts systems will need as much energy by end of decade as Japan uses todayArtificial intelligence systems could account for nearly half of datacentre power consumption by the end of this year, analysis has revealed.The estimates by Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of the Digiconomist tech sustainability website, came as the International Energy Agency forecast that AI would require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today. Continue reading...
Translocating the Scottish play to Iran with help from the RSC, iNK Stories' version focuses on a Lady Macbeth contending with an oppressive surveillance stateThe Cannes film festival isn't typically associated with video games, but this year it's playing host to an unusual collaboration. Lili is a co-production between the New York-based game studio iNK Stories (creator of 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, about a photojournalist in Iran) and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and it's been turning heads with its eye-catching translocation of Macbeth to modern-day Iran.It's been such an incredible coup to have it as the first video game experience at Cannes," says iNK Stories co-founder Vassiliki Khonsari. People have gone in saying, I'm not familiar playing games, so I may just try it out for five minutes. [...] But then once they're in, there is this growing sense of empowerment that people from the film world are feeling." Continue reading...
In Brazil, the Chinese social media giant TikTok is said to be the latest company planning a supercomputer warehouse that will use vast amounts of water and energyIt is a warehouse the size of 12 football pitches that promises to create much-needed jobs and development in Caucaia city, north-east Brazil. But it won't have shelves stocked with products. This vast building will be a datacentre, believed to be earmarked for TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app, as part of a 55bn reais (7.3bn) project to expand its global datacentre infrastructure.As the demand for supercomputer facilities rises, fuelled by the AI boom, Brazil is attracting more and more tech companies. The choice of Caucaia is no accident. Several undersea cables carry data from the nearby capital of Ceara state, Fortaleza, to other continents. The closer to the cables, the greater the traffic capacity and the lower the latency, or response time, between two points on the internet network. Continue reading...
For years, the Switch has been a companion through life's changes, gaming milestones and a lifeline to fun in chaotic timesThe lifespan of a games console has extended a lot since I was a child. In the 1990s, this kind of technology would be out of date after just a couple of years. There would be some tantalising new machine out before you knew it, everybody competing to be on the cutting edge: the Game Boy and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1989 were followed by the Game Gear in 1990 and the Super NES in 1991. Five years was a long life for a gaming machine.Now, it's more like 10. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released in a couple of weeks, more than eight years since I first picked an original Switch up off its dock and marvelled at the instant transition to portable play. Games consoles often feel like they mark off particular eras in my life: the Nintendo 64 was the defining console of my childhood, the PlayStation 2 of my adolescence, and the Xbox 360 of the first years of my career, the first console launch I ever covered as a (ridiculously young) journalist. The Nintendo Switch came along just a few months after my first child was born, and for me it has become the games machine of that era of harried early parenthood. Continue reading...
Legal dispute resolved over popular video game ousted from store in 2020 in dispute over commissionThe popular video game Fortnite has returned to the iPhone app store in the US, ending a prolonged exile that was triggered by a legal showdown over the fees that Apple had been collecting for years through a payment system that the tech giant has been forced to change.Fortnite, one of the world's most popular games, hailed its app's long-awaited restoration to the iPhone and iPad in a Tuesday post, marking the first time it will be available on those devices since it was ousted in 2020 for trying to avoid the 15% to 30% commissions that Apple collects on in-app transactions. Continue reading...
After spending nearly $300m to help elect Trump last year, the tech billionaire says he has done enough'Elon Musk claimed on Tuesday that he would decrease the amount of money he spends on politics for the foreseeable future. If true, the reduction would represent a significant turnaround after the world's richest person positioned himself as the Republican party's most enthusiastic donor over the last year.I think, in terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk said during a video interview with Bloomberg News at the Qatar Economic Forum. Continue reading...
European manufacturers of electric vehicles are scrambling to match the technology of their Chinese rivalsIf Chinese carmakers are to be believed, a lot of people really love karaoke. Those people love karaoke so much that they want it in their family car.This was not something the European mind could comprehend a few years ago, according to Volkswagen's chief financial officer, Arno Antlitz. Yet the technology, included in electric cars sold by China's BYD and Xpeng, is just one example of the lessons that Volkswagen and its European counterparts have had to learn as they scramble to keep up with Chinese rivals on track to dominate the global electric car market. Continue reading...
Half of 16- to 21-year-olds support digital curfew' and nearly 70% feel worse after using social mediaAlmost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet does not exist, according to a new survey.The research reveals that nearly 70% of 16- to 21-year-olds feel worse about themselves after spending time on social media. Half (50%) would support a digital curfew" that would restrict their access to certain apps and sites past 10pm, while 46% said they would rather be young in a world without the internet altogether. Continue reading...
What to do you if you're worried your information may have fallen into the wrong handsAnother cyber-attack has hit the headlines - this one involving the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales.It comes hard on the heels of recent cyber-attacks that caused huge disruption at Marks & Spencer and the Co-op, and has prompted fresh reminders for people to be extra-vigilant for any suspicious activity. Continue reading...
Drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' capture of genetic testing firm in bankruptcy auction raises privacy concernsThe drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the genetic testing firm 23andMe Holding for $256m through a bankruptcy auction, the companies announced on Monday.Regeneron said it will comply with 23andMe's privacy policies and applicable laws with respect to the use of customer data and that it is ready to detail its intended use of the data to a court-appointed overseer. The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter. Continue reading...
