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US tech firm says giving government oversight of security changes could endanger encrypted productsApple has said planned changes to British surveillance laws could affect iPhone users' privacy by forcing it to withdraw security features, which could ultimately lead to the closure of services such as FaceTime and iMessage in the UK.The firm has become a vocal opponent of what it views as UK government moves against online privacy, and it said last month that provisions in the forthcoming online safety bill could endanger message encryption. Continue reading...

Tool is said to have been pitched to several US news outlets as an aid for journalists rather than a replacementGoogle is testing an artificial intelligence tool that can write news articles, in the latest evidence that the technology has the potential to transform white-collar professions.The product, known as Genesis, uses AI technology to absorb information such as details of current events and then create news stories. The tool was pitched to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal's owner, News Corp as a helpmate", according to the New York Times. Continue reading...

Fireplace Games' debut has comedic sword-fighting and an appealing anti-authoritarian vibeFrom Assassin's Creed to Rocksteady's Batman trilogy, from Absolver to For Honor, games never tire of coming up with interesting permutations of combat duels to fulfil the power fantasy of being a suave fighter. And then there's En Garde!, a game determined to let us know that you can't spell funeral without fun.You take on the role of Adalia de Volador, a renowned swashbuckler, ready to face a cruel Count-Duke and his minions in battle. In colourful environments that make Spain look like a giant theatre stage, Adalia confronts her enemies with a sharp sword and an equally sharp tongue. The heart of En Garde! is the carefully controlled chaos of its combat - you parry, attack and jump away from large groups of enemies, none of whom politely wait for their turn to stab you. Adalia can kick barrels, drop chandeliers, throw jugs left on tables and smack enemies with lutes. Foes come equipped with more than 3,000 individual voice lines, adding a chorus of haha!" hoho!" and surrender now!" to the fighting as you run rings around them.En Garde! is out 16 August on PC Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: With the release of the much-hyped movie, hear how a doll became an icon in LA Made: The Barbie Tapes. Plus: five of the best Women's World Cup podcasts

Report comes amid concerns Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, Neuralink and Twitter, is spread too thinTesla narrowly beat Wall Street expectations in the second quarter of 2023, but shares began to fall in after hours trading following an earnings call that offered shareholders little reassurance surrounding Tesla's promised Cybertruck release and other production concerns.Revenue for the quarter topped $24.97bn compared with analyst predictions of $24.7bn. Continue reading...

Algorithm-driven viral video app overtakes YouTube and Instagram as most used single source of news for young teenagersTikTok has become the most popular news source for 12 to 15-year-olds, according to the UK's communications watchdog.Ofcom's latest report on news consumption in the UK has revealed that the viral video app is now the most used single source of news across all platforms for young teenagers, followed by YouTube and Instagram. Continue reading...

The Barons and Hungry Ghosts actor shares what makes her laugh online, including Jennifer Coolidge, a cute baby and multiple ethnic dads'

There are anarchic, erotic undertones to NPC streaming', the trend in which ordinary people play video-game charactersIf you haven't seen them yet, the videos are mesmerizing. A content creator with long, straight hair sits at her kitchen table, rapidly stringing together nonsense catchphrases, over and over with the same cheerful expression and tone. Yes yes yes. Mmm, ice cream so good. Ooh, you got me feeling like a cowgirl. Gang gang. Mmm, ice cream so good. Yes yes yes."The trend is called NPC streaming" - named after the non-playable characters in video games that awkwardly repeat pre-programmed phrases and movements. Its most recognizable face is Pinkydoll, a Montreal content creator whose ice cream so good" clips went viral this week. Those phrases are actually her real-time reactions to gifts from her thousands of viewers, who send over digital ice-cream cones, roses, doughnuts and hearts, which pop up as cartoon graphics on the screen. The gifts are worth anywhere from half a cent to a few dollars - but with a big audience it adds up. In a full day of NPC streaming, Pinkydoll says she's netted more than $7,000. Continue reading...

Advances in generative artificial intelligence could supercharge the propaganda playbook, experts warnA banal dystopia where manipulative content is so cheap to make and so easy to produce on a massive scale that it becomes ubiquitous: that's the political future digital experts are worried about in the age of generative artificial intelligence (AI).In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, social media platforms were vectors for misinformation as far-right activists, foreign influence campaigns and fake news sites worked to spread false information and sharpen divisions. Four years later, the 2020 election was overrun with conspiracy theories and baseless claims about voter fraud that were amplified to millions, fueling an anti-democratic movement to overturn the election. Continue reading...

Head of global affairs at Facebook owner claims AI's development is running behind hype' about its risksNick Clegg has defended the release of an open-source artificial intelligence model by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, as he claimed that hype" about AI's dangers was running ahead of the technology's development.The president of global affairs at Meta and former UK deputy prime minister spoke on Wednesday after the company said it was opening access to its new large language model (LLM), Llama 2, which will be free for research and commercial use. LLMs are trained on vast amounts of data and underpin generative AI products such as the ChatGPT chatbot. Continue reading...

Gaming is a huge force for good, but developers using gambling industry tactics are causing nothing but harm Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereOver the weekend, the Guardian published a trio of stories about video game addiction. One was about the 850 people referred to an NHS treatment clinic in the last three years (of whom 227 were under 18). Another was on developers' use of tactics from the gambling industry to keep people spending on games. The third was by the director of the National Centre for Gaming Disorders, calling for industry regulation to better protect young people.These stories concern a problem that is certainly real, especially so for people affected by compulsive gaming behaviour, whose stories are no less affecting than those of gambling addicts. They also highlight a need for mechanisms to help struggling people. For adults, it is possible to exclude yourself from casinos and lock yourself out of online gambling accounts, should you request it; no such possibility exists if you're finding yourself dropping thousands on a free-to-play mobile game instead. For under-18s, the paucity of help available to families and young people struggling with social isolation or destructive behaviour at home, of which compulsive gaming can be a part, is one fact of a youth mental health crisis across the UK, where 250,000 young people are going without help. Continue reading...

Listing on Australian government's classification board website describes Bluey video game as a treasure hunt-style game

Move gives start-ups and other businesses a low-cost opportunity to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's BardMark Zuckerberg's Meta is making a commercial version of its artificial intelligence model freely available, in a move that gives startups and other businesses a low-cost opportunity compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard.A new version of a Meta large language model (LLM), called Llama 2, will be distributed by Microsoft through its Azure cloud service and will run on the Windows operating system, Meta said in a blogpost, referring to Microsoft as our preferred partner" for the release. LLMs underpin generative AI products like the ChatGPT chatbot, although ChatGPT's owner has not open-sourced - or made widely available to others - its LLM, called GPT-4. Continue reading...

State supreme court said UberEats driver did not give up his right under state law to sue on behalf of a large group of workersUber must face a lawsuit claiming it should have covered UberEats drivers' work-related expenses, California's top court said on Monday, in what could be a major blow to companies in the largest US state and a win for labor advocates.In a unanimous ruling, the California supreme court said UberEats driver Erik Adolph did not give up his right under state law to sue on behalf of a large group of workers even though he signed an agreement to bring his own work-related legal claims in private arbitration. Continue reading...

Antonio Guterres calls for new UN body along the lines of IPCC to tackle threats posed by artificial intelligenceMalicious use of artificial intelligence systems could cause a horrific" amount of death and destruction, the UN secretary general has said, calling for a new UN body to tackle the threats posed by the technology.Antonio Guterres said harmful use of AI for terrorist, criminal or state purposes could also cause deep psychological damage", and he said AI-enabled cyber-attacks were already targeting UN peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. Continue reading...

Firm benefited from close relationship with Emmanuel Macron when he was economy minister, inquiry findsA French parliamentary investigation into Uber has concluded there are serious flaws" in France's system of governing the gig economy, with gaping loopholes" in rules around transparency still in place almost 10 years after the ride-hailing app established itself in Paris and beyond.The six-month investigation, prompted by the Guardian's Uber Files revelations last year and involving 67 hearings and testimony from 120 witnesses, found Uber benefited from a close relationship with Emmanuel Macron when he was the economy minister and the company was trying to establish its services. Continue reading...

Entering a crowded field, the Nintendo Famicom came to dominate the market in the 1980s, leaving a family orientated legacy that continues to be felt todayWhen the Nintendo Famicom, known abroad as the Nintendo Entertainment System, was launched on 15 July 1983, it entered a market crowded with formidable rivals. Six other consoles were released in Japan that year, including the Sega SG-1000, which arrived on the same day and would later be redesigned as the Master System in the west. Also in the running were the My Vision from Nichibutsu, the Pyuta Jr. from Tomy and the PV-1000 from Casio - all major consumer electronics manufacturers. But it was the Famicom that became a sales phenomenon, shifting more than 2.5m units by the end of 1984 and completely dominating the Japanese games industry.When it was redesigned as the NES and launched in the US in 1985, it revitalised the country's flagging games sector after an infamous crash a few years earlier. Its reach was truly global: even in markets where the console wasn't officially launched, bootlegged versions were rife. The Famicom is by far the most copied console of all time, and so called Famiclones" are still being made now. Continue reading...

Elon Musk has said advertising has plunged on his social media platform and it is cashflow negativeAn investor in Elon Musk's Twitter has written down their stake in the business by 47% as advertisers rein in their spending on the social media platform.The move by ARK Investment Management came as an analysis firm claimed that usage of the Twitter killer" Threads app has fallen by half since its launch by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. Continue reading...

Content moderation and algorithmic safeguards are meant to help protect the privacy of people in legally contentious cases. So what went wrong? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereSocial media imploded and the BBC practically ate itself last week as the scandal over Huw Edwards allegedly paying for explicit images from an unnamed young person unspooled.But what you knew, and when, depended largely on where you looked. Continue reading...

Critics say app - partly owned by a Saudi investor - promoting image of Mohammed bin Salman while critical voices are punishedSaudi Arabia appears to be exploiting the US messaging app Snapchat to promote the image of its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, while also imposing draconian sentences on influencers who use the platform to post even mild criticism of the future king.The California-based company, which last year agreed to a collaboration" with the Saudi culture ministry, has more than 20 million users in the kingdom - including an estimated 90% of 13-to-34-year-olds - and the crown prince has met personally with some of the platform's biggest Snapchatters" for informal talks about current events, according to people familiar with the encounters. Continue reading...

People are turning to chatbot impersonations of lost loved ones to help them grieve. Will AI help us live after we're dead?When Sunshine Henle's mother, Linda, died unexpectedly at the age of 72, Henle, a 42-year-old Floridian, was left with what she describes as a gaping hole of silence" in her life.Even though Linda had lived in New York, where she worked as a Sunday school teacher, the pair had kept in constant contact through phone calls and texting. I always knew she was there, no matter what - if I was upset, or if I just needed to talk. She would always respond," says Henle. Continue reading...

Shareholders sued the directors over stock option awards in 2017, accusing them of unfair and excessive compensationTesla Inc's directors will return $735m to the company to settle claims they grossly overpaid themselves in one of the largest shareholder settlements of its kind, according to a Monday filing in a Delaware court.The settlement resolves a 2020 lawsuit by a retirement fund that holds Tesla stock and challenged stock options that were granted to Tesla directors starting in June 2017. Continue reading...

Device launched by Steve Jobs in 2007 with promise to reinvent the phone' sells for 300 times original priceA 2007 Apple iPhone has been sold at auction for $190,372.80 (145,416) - 300 times its original sale price.The 4GB model , originally bought for $599, was still in its factory wrapping and was in exceptional condition, the auction listing said. The auctioneer LCG Auctions described the device as a popular high-end collectible" and exceedingly rare". Continue reading...

Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful; PS5, PC (version played)

It's the defining cyber crime of the 2020s, and hackers are only just beginning to exploit its potential to make money and sow mayhemIn the past year, some of the UK's most recognised institutions, from the Guardian to Royal Mail, have been hit with the defining cyber crime of our time: ransomware. Hackers locking up computer networks and demanding payment for the keys to restore them have snarled operations and left victims scrambling to recover.Nearly every sector of society, including healthcare, business, government and education, has now been targeted by ransomware gangs making demands that stretch into the tens of millions. Ironically, just a few months before the release of my own book on ransomware, my publisher was hit with a bruising attack, leaving my co-author and I unable to reach our editors via phone or email.Renee Dudley is a technology reporter at ProPublica and co-author of The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World From Cybercrime Continue reading...

Biggest and most premium Amazon slate yet is let down badly by Fire OS and lack of key appsThe Fire Max 11 is Amazon's first premium tablet and is designed to look and feel more like an iPad at half the cost. But while the appearance of the new machine is a step up, it falls far short of expectations when it is turned on.The new tablet starts at 249.99, undercutting Apple's cheapest iPad by more than 100 and just half of the price of the 10.9in model. Continue reading...

As unprecedented weather leads to increasing climate anxiety, there's a raft of different apps catering for every kind of forecastOne day in 2020, close to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Matt Rickett realized he was checking weather apps all the time. He immediately understood why: Everything felt so unpredictable, so out of control," he says. Just knowing that something was going to happen, tomorrow, that people said was gonna happen, was reassuring."The next year Rickett, who lives in Austin, Texas, decided to stop using social media: I didn't like the control it had over my life," he says. But I still had the energy, the need to look at my phone, for some reason. So I got even more into weather." Continue reading...

Software giant acquiesced after US trade commission expressed concern that Activision Blizzard acquisition would hurt gamersMicrosoft has signed a binding agreement to ensure that the Call of Duty video game franchise remains available on Sony's PlayStation platform after Microsoft's $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the tech company said on Sunday, easing concerns from Sony and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).A tweet from Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming's CEO, read: We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games." Continue reading...

Latest sign that aggressive cost-cutting measures since Musk acquired Twitter are not enough to get cashflow positiveTwitter's cashflow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could be cashflow positive by June.Need to reach positive cashflow before we have the luxury of anything else," Musk said in a tweet replying to suggestions on recapitalization. Continue reading...

Experts say LBRY's failure casts shadow on future of other alt-tech' sites as Twitter becomes more receptive to far rightLBRY, the company whose video-sharing technology and bespoke cryptocurrency once powered the extremist-friendly video platform Odysee, announced on Twitter this week that it would close its doors after a federal judge in New Hampshire fined the firm more than $111,000 for securities fraud.The announcement saw the value of its LBRY Credit (LBC) cryptocurrency - which was at the center of the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) two-year prosecution of the company - sink to around 1/3000th of a cent by Thursday night. Continue reading...

The inventiveness and artistry of the Lumiere brothersA nude woman reclines on a tumble of fabric, a flower in her hair and bracelet on her wrist, frankly challenging the viewer with her gaze. It's almost Manet's Olympia, but not quite. This photograph is an Autochrome, the process invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere in 1904 and explored by the Observer Magazine on 2 November 1980, with recently unearthed images from the French Photographic Society.Autochrome was an early answer to frustration at the limitations of photography in capturing the colour and complexity of real life and its secret was an unlikely ingredient': potato starch. Minute grains of starch were dyed in primary colours, carefully mixed and held on a glass plate with silver bromide solution.' Continue reading...

EU legislation will herald greener devices, with greater longevity for software and access to user-replaceable partsThe current status quo of smartphone design, repair and longevity could finally be upended in favour of users - and the planet. That is the message from campaign groups on the landmark overhaul of rules concerning batteries and eco-sensitive design working their way through the various legislative bodies of the European Union - a market big enough to force manufacturers to change, even if EU rules don't directly apply to other regions.MEPs voted on 14 June to accept new battery regulations, elements of which look to ensure cells in smartphones and gadgets can be replaced with parts available for five years after the device is discontinued. In many cases, the rules say, batteries should be user-replaceable without requiring the use of specialised tools" and without the heat or solvents typically required to unglue components today. Manufacturers also won't be able to use software to stop batteries installed by third parties from working. Continue reading...

From excessive praise to overly perfect grammar, what to look out for to avoid getting scammed

EV manufacturer Lordstown Motors, lauded by Trump in 2020, has gone bankrupt - what now for the once-proud auto-making region?When Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicles (EV) manufacturer in Ohio's Mahoning Valley, declared bankruptcy last month, it was the latest blow to a region that has seen decades of extravagant promises fail to deliver.The 5,000 new jobs executives vowed to create in 2020 generated fresh hope for the shuttered General Motors Lordstown plant, which once functioned as an economic engine for the area and a critical piece of the nation's industrial heartland. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence produces plausible verdicts on hotels, restaurants and tech in an instant

Can the simple, serendipitous beauty of day-to-day life' really be found in a handball hangout?There's an old handball court at Venice Beach that David Ingraham - a musician as well as photographer - describes as a quintessentially southern California location". It is, the Young Dubliners drummer says, always busy and wonderfully diverse, packed with people from all over the world, making it a prime street-photography spot".He doesn't see this particular shot, which he captured back in 2015 on an iPhone 8, as a product of good luck, however. I had an idea in my mind's eye of what I wanted, so I positioned myself accordingly and then observed, waited, shot, repeated," Ingraham says. Taking a quick shot and then moving on rarely results in anything worthwhile. I couldn't have got something like this without doing my homework first, studying the work of the masters of the craft, such as Alex Webb and Henri Cartier-Bresson." Continue reading...

The Federal Trade Commission's request to pause the deal was rejected, clearing the few remaining hurdles for it to go throughA US appeals court on Friday rejected the Federal Trade Commission's request to pause Microsoft's $69bn (53bn) purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.The appeals court decision removes one of the few remaining hurdles stopping Xbox maker Microsoft from closing the deal and expanding its gaming business. Continue reading...

State's chief information security officer says information from Victorian departments and agencies was accessed

Humans need to excel at things AI can't do - and that means more creativity and critical thinking and less memorisationEducation strikes at the heart of what makes us human. It drives the intellectual capacity and prosperity of nations. It has developed the minds that took us to the moon and eradicated previously incurable diseases. And the special status of education is why generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are likely to profoundly disrupt this sector. This isn't a reflection of their intelligence, but of our failure to build education systems that nurture and value our unique human intelligence.We are being duped into believing these AI tools are far more intelligent than they really are. A tool like ChatGPT has no understanding or knowledge. It merely collates bits of words together based on statistical probabilities to produce useful texts. It is an incredibly helpful assistant.Rose Luckin is professor of learner-centred design at the UCL Knowledge Lab in London Continue reading...

Cool design, competitive price, solid performance and good battery life - but let down by lack of supportThe Phone 2 is the latest Android smartphone from Nothing, a London-based company that specialises in good value devices with a novel transparent aesthetic.Costing 579 ($599), it offers top-phone specs for a mid-range price. After the success of its first handset, the Phone 1 last year, Nothing has stuck with its unique design, which takes the classic metal and glass slab of most mobiles and livens them up with a transparent back that exposes a series of LED strips.Screen: 6.7in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (394ppi)Processor: Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1RAM: 8 or 12GBStorage: 128, 256 or 512GBOperating system: Nothing OS 2.0 (Android 13)Camera: 50MP main and ultrawide, 32MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSSWater resistance: IP54 (splash-resistant)Dimensions: 162.1 x 76.4 x 8.6mmWeight: 201.2g Continue reading...

Adoption rate of latest AI systems exceeds that of voice-assisted smart speakers, with one in 10 using them at least once a dayMore than a quarter of UK adults have used generative artificial intelligence such as chatbots, according to survey showing that 4 million people have also used it for work.Generative AI, which refers to AI tools that produce convincing text or images in response to human prompts, has gripped the public imagination since the launch of ChatGPT in November. Continue reading...

Khan accused of giving herself unchecked power' by taking aggressive steps to regulate big tech firms such as TwitterLina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, faced a grueling four hours of questioning during a House judiciary committee oversight hearing on Thursday.Republicans criticized Khan - an outspoken critic of big tech - for mismanagement" and for politicizing" legal action against large companies such as Twitter and Google as head of the powerful antitrust agency. Continue reading...

FTC makes move on claims OpenAI has run afoul of consumer protection laws by putting personal reputations and data at riskThe maker of ChatGPT is under investigation by the main US competition watchdog over whether it has broken consumer protection law by damaging people's reputations with its responses and misusing personal data.The move against San Francisco-based OpenAI marks the strongest regulatory threat yet to a company that sparked the frenzy in generative artificial intelligence, enthralling consumers and businesses while raising concerns about its potential risks. Continue reading...

Soho theatre, London

Tesla boss claims pro-humanity' xAI offers realistic alternative to pausing development of superintelligenceElon Musk has launched an artificial intelligence startup that will be pro-humanity", as he said the world needed to worry about the prospect of a Terminator future" in order to avoid the most apocalyptic AI scenarios.Musk said xAI would seek to build a system that would be safe because it was maximally curious" about humanity rather than having moral guidelines programmed into it. Continue reading...

The AI satire in the most recent season has been used as an example of why the Screen Actors Guild must strike to protect their careersWith the most recent season of Black Mirror, you sensed that Charlie Brooker was keen to move away from his reputation as a prophet. Time and time again since his series hit the air, it has managed to correctly predict the future in all sorts of horrible ways. But this season felt like it was deliberately skewing away from reality precisely to avoid this happening again. After all, unless a hapless demon destroys Earth - or unless Britney Spears literally turns into a werewolf - then Brooker is probably in much safer territory.Reader, it has happened already. Less than a month after it debuted, the Black Mirror episode Joan Is Awful has already become the unlikely figurehead of the potential Screen Actor's Guild strike. Continue reading...

The latest release from Dutch studio Team Reptile sets adventurers loose in the futuristic metropolis of New AmsterdamAs a teenager growing up in Laren, a town of a little over 10,000 people in North Holland, Dion Koster didn't have much to do. But he did develop a few passionate, interrelated interests: skateboarding, breakdancing, hip-hop and graffiti. So when Sega released Jet Set Radio Future on the Xbox in the winter of 2002 - a remake of the Dreamcast title Jet Set Radio about music-pumping, graffiti-tagging skater gangs in futuristic Tokyo - the 13-year-old Koster could hardly believe his luck. It was as if the game had been made for him.It really entranced me," he says. It took all the things that me and my friends were doing and threw it into the future. It added technology. It added the cyber to the funk." Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: A new series produced by the world's most famous party girl delves into the origins of iconic clubs from London to Lagos. Plus: five of the best travel podcasts

Former head of employee benefits files proposed class action over workers laid off after Elon Musk acquired companyTwitter allegedly refused to pay at least $500m in promised severance to thousands of employees who were laid off after Elon Musk acquired the company, a lawsuit filed on Wednesday claims.Courtney McMillian, who oversaw Twitter's employee benefits programs as its head of total rewards" before she was laid off in January, filed the proposed class action in San Francisco federal court. Continue reading...

Anthropic releases chatbot able to process large blocks of text and make judgments on what it is producingA US artificial intelligence company has launched a rival chatbot to ChatGPT that can summarise novel-sized blocks of text and operates from a list of safety principles drawn from sources such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Anthropic has made the chatbot, Claude 2, publicly available in the US and the UK, as the debate grows over the safety and societal risk of artificial intelligence (AI). Continue reading...