Technology | The Guardian

The Harvard ethicist and author on the similarities between digital technology and religion, the value of scepticism, and how to develop a positive relationship with our devicesGreg Epstein is the humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT. He was also TechCrunch's first ethicist in residence". In his new book, Tech Agnostic, he explores the idea that tech", by which he means modern digital technology, is a new global religion, with messianic leaders, dutiful followers, daily rituals of worship, and an inescapable influence on all facets of life.Why did you decide on religion as the analogy with which to understand the modern role of tech?

Washington Post contrasts the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration viewsElon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration views.The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, who has in recent weeks supported Donald Trump's campaign for a second presidency while promoting the Republican White House nominee's opposition to open borders" on his X social media site, has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a legal grey area". Continue reading...

New research reveals how app usage affects grades, adding to parents' worries about mental healthFirst, the good news. We middle-aged Brits are no longer condemned to the conversation- and soul-destroying monomania of debating house prices.Less good is what has displacedit - an epidemic of angst about when to allow teenagers a mobile, and what kind. I'm in the very late and a brick" camp, but parents end up discussing the options for a smartphone-free childhood, inevitably, on WhatsApp. Continue reading...

Child actor Kaylin Hayman fought back after she learned that a man had used AI to make child sex abuse materials from images on her Instagram pageLast year, Kaylin Hayman walked into a Pittsburgh court to testify against a man she'd never met who had used her face to make pornographic pictures with artificial intelligence technology.Kaylin, 16, is a child actress who starred in the Disney show Just Roll With It from 2019 to 2021. The perpetrator, a 57-year-old man named James Smelko, had targeted her because of her public profile. She is one of about 40 of his victims, all of them child actors. In one of the images of Kaylin submitted into evidence at the trial, Smelko used her face from a photo posted on Instagram when she was 12, working on set, and superimposed it onto the naked body of someone else. Continue reading...

The megalomaniacs who control X and Facebook are only able to pollute the public sphere and undermine democracy because of our deference to moneyThere are two kinds of aphrodisiac. The first is power. A good example was provided by the late Henry Kissinger, who could hardly be described as toothsome yet was doted upon by a host of glamorous women.The other powerful aphrodisiac is immense wealth. This has all kinds of effects. It makes people (even journalists who should know better) deferential, presumably because they subscribe to the delusion that if someone is rich then they must be clever. But its effects on the rich person are more profound: it cuts them off from reality. When they travel, writes Jack Self in an absorbing essay: The car takes them to the aerodrome, where the plane takes them to another aerodrome, where a car takes them to the destination (with perhaps a helicopter inserted somewhere). Every journey is bookended by identical Mercedes Vito Tourers (gloss black, tinted windows). Every flight is within the cosy confines of a Cessna Citation (or a King Air or Embraer)... The ultra-rich never wait in line at a carousel or a customs table or a passport control. There are no accidental encounters. No unwelcome, unapproved or unsanitary humans enter their sight - no souls that could espouse a foreign view. The ultra-rich do not see anything they do not want to see." Continue reading...

Get ready for a silk shirt undone to the navel, necklaces and big T-shirts, all aimed at humanising Meta's founderFor more than 20 years Mark Zuckerberg has made a Macbook grey T-shirt and equally drab-coloured hoodie his trademark. But now the Facebook founder has ditched his signature look in favour of something with a bit more oomph.His new wardrobe features jazzy embroidered floral shirts, boxy black T-shirts emblazoned with Latin phrases, chain necklaces and a shearling coat that would not look out of place on the set of the western drama Yellowstone. He has even grown out his tightly cropped Caesar cut for looser curls. Continue reading...

Trump campaign immediately blamed Biden White House and Kamala Harris for Chinese government-linked hackChinese government-linked hackers are believed to have targeted phones used by Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as part of a larger breach of US telecommunications networks, according to a New York Times report.The Trump campaign was informed this week that the phone numbers of the Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominee were among those targeted during a breach of the Verizon network, the paper said, citing sources. Continue reading...

Media mogul and leading artists join fight to stop tech firms using creative works for free as training dataIt is an unlikely alliance: the billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch and a panoply of leading artists including the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, the actors Kevin Bacon and Julianne Moore, and the author Kazuo Ishiguro.This week, they began two very public fights with artificial intelligence companies, accusing them of using their intellectual property without permission to build the increasingly powerful and lucrative new technology. Continue reading...

X owner renews hostilities with Center for Countering Digital Hate after it is linked to US election interference rowA UK-founded anti-hate speech campaign group dragged into the Labour US election interference row has vowed to carry on its work after Elon Musk's latest declaration of war" against the organisation.The Center for Countering Digital Hate returned to the crosshairs of the world's richest person this week after Musk alleged that it was violating laws against foreign interference in US elections. Continue reading...

Collaboration between leading garden designer and Microsoft to go on display at Chelsea flower show 2025Hardcore gardeners sometimes, when no one else is listening, talk quietly to their prize blooms. But at next year's Chelsea flower show, visitors will be encouraged to have a chat with its first ever AI-powered garden.The garden designer Tom Massey has partnered with Microsoft to create the Avanade intelligent" garden. Sensors in the soil are partnered with an AI trained on Royal Horticultural Society plant data and gardening advice, meaning visitors can ask the garden: How are you?" Continue reading...

State attorney general alleges without providing evidence that Google is manipulating search results, as tech firm says claim totally false'Missouri's Republican attorney general has said he is launching an investigation into Google over allegations it was censoring conservative speech, as the tech corporation dismissed the claims as totally false".I am launching an investigation into Google for censoring conservative speech during the most consequential election in our nation's history," Andrew Bailey said in a post on X, without citing any example or evidence for his censorship claim. Continue reading...

The invitation to EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate that comes with the game's unfortunately spelled sixth iteration is hard to resist, harder still to playI am feeling anxious about the world. We have had mayoral elections in my part of Canada in which one candidate was backed with more gold than Croesus, so it wasn't even a contest. In the UK people have not got the Labour government they hoped they were voting for. And as someone who lives a few hours' drive from the US border, I can only pray that Orange Hitler doesn't get in again. Or maybe I pray that he does, lest our neighbours to the south end up in an election-denial-driven repeat of the civil war. So I thought I'd play a game where I get to direct the rise and fall of civilisation myself instead. As a treat.Civilization 6 is what's known as a 4X game. 4X stands for EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate", a phrase that offends my pedantic spelling sensibilities. Unfortunately the four exes" I spent a lot of time doing here was Exert, Expire, Exclaim and then Exit due to this game's Execrable gamepad controls, which are as intuitive as a Heston Blumenthal recipe. I lost count of the times I moved the wrong unit, or had brain freeze trying to remember what button did what. I would have preferred a more common sense control system, mouse and keyboard support, or an interface that uses the power of thought, like that one Elon Musk pretends he has. Continue reading...

Car company sees biggest single-day stock gain since 2013 as CEO Elon Musk forecasts up to 30% in sales growthTesla shares closed up nearly 22% on Thursday - their biggest single-day gain in over a decade - as Elon Musk's bold forecast of surging sales reassured investors he was still looking to grow its core business of selling electric cars. At close, nearly $150bn was added to the company's market value.Musk forecast 20-30% in sales growth next year, promising to launch an affordable vehicle in the first half of 2025, and said efforts to slash production costs boosted margins in the third quarter. Continue reading...

You've decided you don't want to post pictures of your baby online. What about all the requests for cute photos from grandparents?Welcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered how to protect your baby's photos on the internet.You're a parent, and you've decided publicly posting your baby's face on the internet is just not for you. You've got a handle on how to actually protect your baby's photos on the internet (perhaps because you've read our guide!). Now it's just a matter of doing it. Continue reading...

Chipmaker disputed 2009 decision that it abused its market position in case dating back two decadesThe US chipmaker Intel has won a long-running battle to quash a fine of more than 1bn imposed by the European Commission for allegedly abusing its market dominance in the sale of computer chips.In a final ruling on Thursday, theEuropean court of justice upheld an earlier judgment that had quashed the 1.06bn (880m) fine and partly dismissed the charges of anticompetitive behaviour. Continue reading...

In Lewis Packwood's book Curious Video Game Machines, Voja Antoni explains how he built a home computer and published instructions for anyone to make their ownVery few Yugoslavians had access to computers in the early 1980s: they were mostly the preserve of large institutions or companies. Importing home computers like the Commodore 64 was not only expensive, but also legally impossible, thanks to a law that restricted regular citizens from importing individual goods that were worth more than 50 Deutsche Marks (the Commodore 64 cost over 1,000 Deutsche Marks at launch). Even if someone in Yugoslavia could afford the latest home computers, they would have to resort to smuggling.In 1983, engineer Vojislav Voja" Antoni was becoming more and more frustrated with the senseless Yugoslavian import laws. We had a public debate with politicians," he says. We tried to convince them that they should allow [more expensive items], because it's progress." The efforts of Antoni and others were fruitless, however, and the 50 Deutsche Mark limit remained. But perhaps there was a way around it. Continue reading...

The comedian bridges the gap between truth and fiction in Up in Smoke. Plus: five of the best podcasts with shocking twists Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereUp in Smoke

Megan Garcia said Sewell, 14, used Character.ai obsessively before his death and alleges negligence and wrongful deathThe mother of a teenager who killed himself after becoming obsessed with an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot now accuses its maker of complicity in his death.Megan Garcia filed a civil suit against Character.ai, which makes a customizable chatbot for role-playing, in Florida federal court on Wednesday, alleging negligence, wrongful death and deceptive trade practices. Her son Sewell Setzer III, 14, died in Orlando, Florida, in February. In the months leading up to his death, Setzer used the chatbot day and night, according to Garcia.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: With players caring less about advanced graphics and high-spec systems, the industry battleground is shifting away from hardware Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereLast week, my favoured gaming news site, VGC, asked former US PlayStation boss Shawn Layden whether he thought the pursuit of more powerful consoles was still the way to go for the video games industry. His answer was not what I expected.We've done these things this way for 30 years, every generation those costs went up and we realigned with it. We've reached the precipice now, where the centre can't hold, we cannot continue to do things that we have done before ... It's time for a real hard reset on the business model, on what it is to be a video game," he said. We're at the stage of hardware development that I call only dogs can hear the difference'. We're fighting over teraflops and that's no place to be. We need to compete on content. Jacking up the specs of the box, I think we've reached the ceiling." Continue reading...

The billionaire is pledging to give away $1m a day and campaigning hard - is deregulation the driving motivation?Over the weekend, Elon Musk pledged to give away $1m a day to registered voters in battleground states in the US who sign a petition by his America Pac in support of the first and second amendments. He awarded the first prize, a novelty check the size of a kitchen island, at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday and the second on Sunday in Pittsburgh. He says he'll keep doing it until the election on 5 November. The stunt is potentially illegal, experts say.After endorsing Donald Trump in July, Musk quickly founded America Pac and funded it with $75m. For the past several weeks, he's been making multiple in-person campaign appearances per day, focusing especially on Pennsylvania, a swing state.These constant fights with the full alphabet of regulatory agencies has coincided with Musk making numerous public statements in favor of deregulation, as well as calling for a full-scale audit of the federal government. That idea has found purchase with Trump, who announced in September that he would launch a Musk-led government efficiency commission that would audit federal agencies for places to cut. Musk wants to call it the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, invoking one of his favorite memes, an expressive shiba inu.Although the plan is vague on details and fails to address the obvious conflict of interest in Musk auditing the regulators that oversee his companies, both Trump and Musk have repeatedly brought up the idea of Musk holding some role in a potential Trump administration. During an appearance on Fox News earlier this week, Trump said that he would create a new position called secretary of cost-cutting' and appoint Musk.He's dying to do this,' Trump said. Continue reading...

Plus: World of Warcraft, polling and cats Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm Blake Montgomery, technology news editor at the Guardian US. Today in TechScape I'm deciphering Elon Musk's global political goals, a remarkable documentary filmed within World of Warcraft, polling on support for school phone bans, and cats on TikTok. Thank you for joining me. First, let's talk about Musk's global politics.Over the weekend, Musk pledged to give away $1m a day to registered voters in battleground states in the US who sign his Pac's petition in support of the first and second amendments. He awarded the first prize, a novelty check the size of a kitchen island, at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday and the second on Sunday in Pittsburgh. He says he'll keep doing it until the election on 5 November. The stunt is potentially illegal, experts say. Continue reading...

Enlarged iPhone gains two new buttons, faster chip and better camera, while lasting a long time on a chargeApple's iPhone 16 Plus takes the regular iPhone and adds two things: a much bigger screen and even longer battery life.The new plus-sized model has the exact same specs, camera and multiple additional buttons as the vanilla 16, offering the big screen Apple phone experience without blowing the budget on the most expensive 16 Pro Max with its massive 6.9in display.Screen: 6.7in Super Retina XDR (OLED) (460ppi)Processor: Apple A18RAM: 8GBStorage: 128, 256 or 512GBOperating system: iOS 18Camera: 48MP main + 12MP UW; 12MP front-facingConnectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, Thread, USB-C, Satellite, UWB and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)Dimensions: 160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8mmWeight: 199g Continue reading...

US company gives customers the ability to build own virtual agents as well as releasing 10 off-the-shelf botsMicrosoft is introducing autonomous artificial intelligence agents, or virtual employees, that can perform tasks such as handling client queries and identifying sales leads, as the tech sector strives to show investors that the AI boom can produce indispensable products.The US tech company is giving customers the ability to build their own AI agents as well as releasing 10 off-the-shelf bots that can carry out a range of roles including supply chain management and customer service. Continue reading...

ByteDance dismissed person in August it says maliciously interfered' with training of artificial intelligence modelsThe owner of TikTok has sacked an intern for allegedly sabotaging an internal artificial intelligence project.ByteDance said it had dismissed the person in August after they maliciously interfered" with the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models used in a research project. Continue reading...

Tesla owner says his America Pac will give money to people who sign petition to support first and second amendmentsElon Musk said on Saturday that America Pac, the Donald Trump-allied political action committee he founded, will give $1m every day until the presidential election to someone who signs his petition that appears to be a way to incentivize Republicans in battleground states to register to vote.We are going to be awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition," Musk said at a town hall event in Pennsylvania. One of the challenges we're having is how do we get the public to know about this petition because the legacy media won't report on it." Continue reading...

The owner of X is just one of many who may prefer Donald Trump to greater regulation under the DemocratsWay back in the 1960s the personal is political" was a powerful slogan capturing the reality of power dynamics within marriages. Today, an equally meaningful slogan might be that the technological is political", to reflect the way that a small number of global corporations have acquired political clout within liberal democracies. If anyone doubted that, then the recent appearance of Elon Musk alongside Donald Trumpat a rally in Pennsylvania provided useful confirmation of how technology has moved centre-stage in American politics. Musk may be a manchild with a bad tweeting habit, but he also owns the company that is providing internet connectivity to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield; and his rocket has been chosen by Nasa to be the vehicle to land the next Americans on the moon.There was a time when the tech industry wasn't much interested in politics. It didn't need to be because politics at the time wasn't interested in it. Accordingly, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple grew to their gargantuan proportions in a remarkably permissive political environment. When democratic governments were not being dazzled by the technology, they were asleep at the wheel; and antitrust regulators had been captured by the legalistic doctrine peddled by Robert Bork and his enablers in the University of Chicago Law School - the doctrine that there was little wrong with corporate dominance unless it was harming consumers. The test for harm was price-gouging, and since Google's and Facebook's services were free", where was the harm, exactly? And though Amazon's products weren't free, the company was ruthlessly undercutting competitors' prices and pandering to customers' need for next-day delivery. Again: where was the harm in that? Continue reading...

A gripping audio series about a killer-for-hire scam on the dark web is a reminder of how technology holds up a mirror to human natureThis column comes to you as a break from listening to a riveting podcast series called Kill List. It's about a secret website that journalist and author Carl Miller discovered on the dark web, the slimy underbelly of the internet. The site essentially runs what one might call an assassination market" or a murder-for-hire service. Customers identify and profile someone whom they wish to have killed and pay (in bitcoin, natch) for the service they require. Hence the title of the podcast series.The story starts in 2020 in the early days of the pandemic lockdown when a gifted IT expert and hacker, Chris Monteiro, was browsing the site and found a security vulnerability that, once exploited, gave him complete access to it. Inside, he found a kill list", rather like an Excel spreadsheet, of 175 people all over the world whom clients wanted murdered. For each target, there was usually lots of detailed information - address, photographs, habits, routes regularly travelled etc. It looked, I guess, superficially mundane - until you read the instructions" attached for each one. How much bitcoin should I pay?" Tell me the execution time in advance - I can't be there." I would just like this person to be shot and killed. Where, how and what with does not bother me at all." You get the idea. Continue reading...

The Dutch-Israeli author on a demonic club hit, her fish fixation, and her love of furniture restoration videosBorn in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1987, Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher who lectures in creative writing and comparative literature in the Netherlands. Her work has appeared in publications including LitHub, Electric Literature and Elle.com, and she has a David Attenborough-themed advice column, Dear David, in the online literary journal Longleaf Review. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, On (Not) Reading Anne Frank, received a notable mention in the 2018 Best American Essays collection. The Safekeep, published by Viking earlier this year, is Van der Wouden's debut novel and is shortlisted for the Booker prize. Continue reading...

Road safety agency opens evaluation over reported collisions in low visibilityThe US government's road safety agency has opened an investigation into 2.4m Tesla vehicles with the automaker's Full Self-Driving software after four reported collisions, including a fatal crash.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday said it was opening the preliminary evaluation after four reports of crashes when Full Self-Driving was engaged during reduced roadway visibility like sun glare, fog or airborne dust. Continue reading...

Matt Garman, head of AWS unit, says there are other companies around', according to transcriptA senior Amazon executive has suggested that staff who do not like the company's new five-days-a-week office-working policy should quit.The head of the tech company's cloud computing business told an internal meeting that if employees did not support the change they could look for a job elsewhere, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters. Continue reading...

Tesla and SpaceX chief's behavior sets him apart from even the most politically active billionaires - serving as a Trump policy adviser and mega-donorLess than a month before the presidential election, Elon Musk has made himself a near-constant presence in the race. At a rally for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Musk jumps with glee wearing a custom black Maga hat. On social media, he posts AI-generated images attacking Kamala Harris. Behind the scenes, he bankrolls one of the largest pro-Trump political action committees.The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has emerged as a unique influence on the campaign in ways that set him apart from even the most politically active billionaires and tech elite. He is all at once a vocal Trump surrogate, campaign mega-donor, informal policy adviser, media influencer and prolific source of online disinformation. At the same time, he is the world's richest man and the owner of one of the United States' most influential social networks, while also operating as a government defense contractor and wielding power over critical satellite communications infrastructure. Continue reading...

From gamifying your to-do list to going for a regular morning walk, top tips for improving concentration from psychotherapists, health coaches and other expertsForty-seven seconds. That was the average length of time an adult could focus on a screen for in 2021, according to research by Gloria Mark, aprofessor of informatics at the University of California. Twenty years ago, in 2004, that number stood at two-and-a-half minutes.Our attention spans - how long we're able to concentrate without being distracted - are shrinking. Our focus - how intensely we can think about things - is suffering too. The causes: technology that's designed to demand our attention; endless tools for procrastination at our fingertips; rising stress and anxiety disorders; and poor sleep quality. But there are solutions. From quick-fix hacks to major lifestyle changes, we asked experts for their tips on how to think harder for longer. Continue reading...

Data is vital to AI systems, so firms want the right to take it and ministers may let them. We must wake up to the dangerImagine someone drives up to a pub in a top-of-the-range sports car - a 1.5m Koenigsegg Regera, to pick one at random - parks up and saunters out of the vehicle. They come into the pub you're drinking in and begin walking around its patrons, slipping their hand into your pocket in full view, smiling at you as they take out your wallet and empty it of its cash and cards.The not-so-subtle pickpocket stops if you shout and ask what the hell they're doing. Sorry for the inconvenience," the pickpocket says. It's an opt-out regime, mate."Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: China's Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media Continue reading...

Using World of Warcraft-style animation, this documentary tells the story of Mats Steen, a boy with muscular dystrophy whose online popularity was only revealed after his deathIt's probably just an accident of scheduling, but this deeply affecting documentary is arriving just when there's a debate raging at the school gates about children's use of smartphones and social media. So while it's undoubtedly troubling how tech platforms set out to addict and exploit young minds, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin provides a fascinating counterargument about how online gaming at least can be a lifeline for some individuals who find themselves isolated in the real world, or IRL as the kids like to say.Born in 1989, Mats Steen started out like many other Norwegian children of his generation: energetic, sweet-natured, unusually pale. However, his parents Robert and Trude soon discovered that he had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic condition that eroded his ability to move and breathe and which would eventually kill him at the age of 25. By that point in 2014, Robert, Trude and Mats' sister Mia knew that Mats spent hours of his life online playing World of Warcraft using special equipment to accommodate his disability and had been publishing a blog about his life. Continue reading...

Internet Watch Foundation says illegal AI-made content is becoming more prevalent on open web with high level of sophisticationChild sexual abuse imagery generated by artificial intelligence tools is becoming more prevalent on the open web and reaching a tipping point", according to a safety watchdog.The Internet Watch Foundation said the amount of AI-made illegal content it had seen online over the past six months had already exceeded the total for the previous year. Continue reading...

Oversight Board says parent company Meta has serious questions' to answer over two posts allowed to remain onlineMark Zuckerberg's Meta must answer serious questions" about its handling of anti-immigration material, according to the company's content watchdog, as it opened an investigation into two Facebook posts.The Oversight Board is investigating Meta's decision to keep the posts online after acknowledging that it receives a significant number of complaints from users over content that shares anti-immigrant views. Continue reading...

Home computing and the gaming industry have their origins in the iconic early 80s hardware, documented here in an homage to an eccentric pioneerYou'll need a pretty high geek tolerance level for this very detailed and specialised account of Sir Clive Sinclair's bestselling ZX Spectrum home computer, whose appearance in 1982 with its rubbery keys was thought to be as lovably eccentric as the man himself. But with this he revolutionised the market, educated the British public about the importance of computing, and virtually created the gaming industry from scratch. It was originally to be called the Rainbow" in homage to its groundbreaking colour graphics; Sinclair instead insisted on Spectrum" as it was more scientific-sounding.Interestingly, the film shows that Sinclair's flair for the home computing market arose from his beginnings in mail order and assembly kits for things such as mini transistor radios targeted at hobbyists", that fascinatingly old-fashioned word. His first home computers were available as kits and to the end of his days, he was more interested in hardware than software; perhaps this intensely serious man never quite sympathised with the gaming culture that drove his product around the world. Continue reading...

The TV icon turned midlife expert hears from gutsy guests on their radical life changes in Begin Again. Plus: five of the best comfort listen podcasts Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereBegin Again

Company says it signed three agreements on developing small modular reactor nuclear power technologyAmazon.com said on Wednesday it has signed three agreements on developing small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear power technology, becoming the latest big tech company to push for new sources to meet surging electricity demand from data centers.Amazon said it will fund a feasibility study for an SMR project near a Northwest Energy site in Washington state. The SMR is planned to be developed by X-Energy. Financial details were not disclosed. Continue reading...

Known for her wild Imogenation', Heap has always reworked pop with tech, but her new data-mining project is her boldest yet. She explains why you can't stop progress'It's a very Imogen Heap way to say hello: I've got to show you this thing - it's going to change your life!"She beams at me, showing off a mysterious black device. The musician and technologist is an electric, eccentric presence even on video call, talking passionately and changing thoughts like a rally driver turns corners. She whirls me from her kitchen floor to her living room in her family home in Havering near London, familiar to thousands of fans (AKA Heapsters) who tune in to watch her improvise, via livestream, on a grand piano. She points to a glamorous white tent on the edge of a well-kept lawn: That's my tent I've been sleeping in, by the way," she laughs, enjoying the surprise. Continue reading...

Nima Momeni had no motive to stab Bob Lee to death, opening day of trial in San Francisco hearsThe tech consultant charged in Cash App founder Bob Lee's stabbing death had no motive to kill him and in fact was forced to defend himself against Lee, who had become aggressive while on a multi-day drug bender, lawyers for Nima Momeni said in opening statements on Monday.Prosecutors say Momeni, 40, planned the 4 April 2023 attack after a dispute over his younger sister, Khazar, with whom Lee was friends. They say Momeni took a knife from a unique set in his sister's condo, drove Lee to a secluded area and stabbed him three times, then fled. Continue reading...

Plus: art on Samsung TVs, babies' faces online and the iPhone 16 Pro reviewed Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm Blake Montgomery, technology news editor at the Guardian US. Thank you for joining me. Continue reading...

Sleek, celeb-favoured gadget tracks sleep, activity and heart health without a smartwatch, but comes at high costOura's stylish smart ring worn by celebrities and athletes alike has slimmed down for its fourth iteration, making it easier to put on, more comfortable to wear and last longer between charges.The Ring 4 swaps the clear plastic insides of its predecessor for shiny titanium to look even less like a cutting-edge piece of tech on your finger. It still weighs practically nothing - 3.3g to 5.2g depending on size - and comes in an expanded choice of 12 sizes and six finishes, including black, silver, gold and rose gold. Continue reading...

The safer phones bill could ban companies from applying algorithms for young doomscrolling' teensSocial media companies could be forced to exclude young teens from algorithms to make content less addictive for under-16s, under a new bill with heavyweight backing from Labour, Conservatives and child protection experts.The safer phones bill, a private member's bill from a Labour MP that has high priority in parliament, will be discussed by ministers this week. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Josh Simons, close ally of Starmer, suggests Musk manipulates platform's algorithm to boost his own interestsWestminster needs to wean itself off X, a close ally of Keir Starmer has said, as he suggested that Elon Musk was deliberately manipulating its algorithm to boost his own political and personal interests.Josh Simons, the MP for Makerfield and former head of the Starmerite thinktank Labour Together, said he believed the British political class was dangerously addicted to the platform, formerly known as Twitter. Simons maintains an active X profile, but says he is keen not to overuse" it. Continue reading...

One in four Australians don't have access to essential technology. The Smith Family says a national device bank could help close the gap

Creatures can converse and share their stories by voice or text through visitors' mobile phones at Museum of ZoologyIf the pickled bodies, partial skeletons and stuffed carcasses that fill museums seem a little, well, quiet, fear not. In the latest coup for artificial intelligence, dead animals are to receive a new lease of life to share their stories - and even their experiences of the afterlife.More than a dozen exhibits, ranging from an American cockroach and the remnants of a dodo, to a stuffed red panda and a fin whale skeleton, will be granted the gift of conversation on Tuesday for a month-long project at Cambridge University's Museum of Zoology. Continue reading...

German city's Sinfoniker says aim is not to replace humans but to play music human conductors would find impossibleShe's not long on charisma or passion but keeps perfect rhythm and is never prone to temperamental outbursts against the musicians beneath her three batons. Meet MAiRA Pro S, the next-generation robot conductor who made her debut this weekend in Dresden.Her two performances in the eastern German city are intended to show off the latest advances in machine maestros, as well as music written explicitly to harness 21st-century technology. The artistic director of Dresden's Sinfoniker, Markus Rindt, said the intention was not to replace human beings" but to perform complex music that human conductors would find impossible. Continue reading...

Freedom from the temptations pushed at us on a daily basis is now a class issueThey are problems of success, really, these modern ills. Social media addiction, gaming disorders, the compulsive over-eating of sugar and processed gloop: they are products of a society with more than enough food, leisure time and boredom, and without the life-or-death excitement that kept our ancestors busy.We could perhaps think of our rising addiction problems as something like a peacock's tail or companionable parasite - the costly signal that we no longer need to strain every nerveto stay alive. Only a species that is this superfluously good at survivalcould afford to hack its own anti-survival neural circuitry, targeting the pathways that insteadmake it more likely to die. Problems of success are harder, not easier, to deal with, of course - you wouldn't want to reverse the conditions that got us here. Releasing wolves back among us is not the right policy for tackling TikTok-addled teens. But the troubling fact is that a large portion of the economy now runs on addiction.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Formerly reviled music technology is more popular than ever as designers experiment for a growing group of enthusiastsQueen refused to use them. The Musicians' Union tried to ban them. Then computers overtook them. Synthesisers have been mocked, despised and discarded throughout their history, yet somehow they are entering a new golden era.A new wave of synth makers has emerged, creating machines that are more ambitious and often quirkier than their bleep-making predecessors, feeding the appetites of an expanding pool of enthusiasts. Continue reading...