Technology | The Guardian

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...

James Farrar pursued ride-hailing firm for holiday pay and minimum wage after 2021 supreme court rulingA former Uber driver has won a payout of more than 20,000 owed to him for more than seven years after a tribunal ruled the gig economy firm failed to respect minimum wage and holiday entitlement laws.James Farrar, who brought the landmark supreme court case that forced Uber to recognise drivers as having more extensive employments rights than it would previously admit, is one of more than 70,000 drivers with whom the firm has recently agreed settlements. While Uber has not said how much it has had to pay out so far, it set aside about 465m. Continue reading...

Doordash, GrubHub, Uber and Relay lawsuits claim that the $17.96 per hour wage set to start on 12 July would deal blow to businessA week before New York City's app-based delivery workers were poised to see an hourly minimum wage increase, several tech companies fired a legal salvo that has temporarily delayed this change.Doordash, GrubHub, Uber and Relay filed lawsuits in Manhattan state civil court on 6 July, alleging that a recently greenlit $17.96 hourly minimum wage for app delivery workers - set to start on 12 July - would deal a blow to their business, also claiming it would harm this legion of workers. Under the law, the minimum wage would increase to some $19.96 for app delivery workers in 2025. Continue reading...

Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, PC; Netflix/Night School Studio, Omega Force

Judge dismisses FTC request to halt deal over concerns it would give Microsoft exclusive access to Activision gamesA US judge has ruled that Microsoft may go forward with its planned $69bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, while the UK competition watchdog said it was ready to discuss changes answering its concerns over the deal.The US competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), had originally asked the judge to stop the proposed deal, arguing it would give Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming console, exclusive access to Activision games including the bestselling Call of Duty. Continue reading...

Law and finance sectors could be among most affected, according to organisation's employment outlookMajor economies are on the cusp of an AI revolution" that could trigger job losses in skilled professions such as law, medicine and finance, according to an influential international organisation.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the occupations at highest risk from AI-driven automation were highly skilled jobs and represented about 27% of employment across its 38 member countries, which include the UK, Japan, Germany, the US, Australia and Canada. Continue reading...

Hundreds join action at online retailer's Coventry site in standoff over pay, conditions and union rightsThis is a picket line," says Rachel Fagan emphatically. The GMB union's Midlands regional organiser stands in front of a line of striking workers several rows deep at Amazon's vast BHX4 warehouse in Coventry, during industrial action designed to embarrass the online behemoth during a high-profile sales event.About 900 workers at the Coventry warehouse are taking three days of strike action from 11 July to 13 July, coinciding with its Prime Day sales event on Tuesday and Wednesday. Along the picket line, one worker holds up a placard carrying the union's familiar refrain: I am not a robot." Continue reading...

Suzi Dougherty's photograph of 18-year-old Caspar deemed suspicious' by judges, even though it was taken on her mobile

Twitter's boss has also challenged Meta's chief executive to a literal dick-measuring contest'. What's got into the billionaire manbaby?The world's richest toddler is at it again. Elon Musk, a very stable tech genius, is throwing a temper tantrum over Mark Zuckerberg launching the Twitter rival Threads. You would think a capitalist such as Musk would welcome a little healthy competition, but he doesn't seem keen to compete in the business arena. Instead, he has challenged Zuckerberg to a literal dick-measuring contest". Musk, who is 52 years old, prefaced that invitation by tweeting: Zuck is a cuck." It's not clear whether he had professional help crafting this zinger or if it came to him in a flash of brilliance.How is Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, enjoying all this, I wonder? She probably thought she would be stewarding a struggling tech company's return to greatness; instead, she is managing a manbaby's outbursts. She probably expected she would be leading complex strategy meetings; instead, one imagines, she is being briefed by her underlings about what a cuck is. Continue reading...

Meta wants its new rival to be a friendly, news-free space. But with missing features, it might not leave Elon Musk's platform in the dust quite yet Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereIt feels as if the death of Twitter has been greatly exaggerated since Elon Musk took ownership of the company. Indeed, it's not Musk, but Meta's launch of Threads - which has 100 million-plus users in a matter of days - that could be the biggest threat to Twitter at present. Threads, though, appears to be a very different social media beast. For starters, Meta's response to Twitter is accessed through your Instagram account, meaning you can automatically follow the accounts you already follow on Instagram. And though it looks quite similar to Twitter, with short text-based posts, it differs in key ways.Friendly and news-free Continue reading...

Can 100 million new users be wrong? You betI signed up for Threads the other day, somewhat against my better judgment. After all, Threads doesn't have the best blood lines; nothing in its lineage suggests that it will be the secretariat of social media good behavior or ethics.It is the spawn of Meta, which we still might know as Facebook if Mark Zuckerberg and his brain trust hadn't decided to rename their behemoth after its many reputation-damaging misdeeds. Those include allowing users' data to leak out, as well as distributing untold amounts of hate and lies and ultimately, giving Donald Trump an invaluable helping hand in his disastrous 2016 election by spreading Russian disinformation. (Recall, too, the scandal surrounding Facebook's relationship with the political data firm Cambridge Analytica.)Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The platform's parent company has gotten into several knots before about mishandling sensitive informationIn just a matter of days, Meta's new Threads app has reached 100 million users, solidifying the Twitter competitor's claim to the title of the most rapidly downloaded app ever.That rapid growth has concerned privacy experts, who warn that few users realize just how much information the app collects. They point out that Meta has put the launch of Threads in the European Union on hold because it's unclear whether the way the company handles user data and shares it across different platforms, including Threads, will run afoul of impending privacy regulations. Continue reading...

Judge looking into alleged hacking of ministers' phones with NSO Group spyware says Israel has not responded to requestsA Spanish judge investigating the alleged hacking of ministers' phones with Pegasus spyware has shelved his investigation over a complete" lack of cooperation from Israel, a court statement said on Monday.In June 2022, Jose Luis Calama said he had sent a formal request for international judicial assistance, known as a letter rogatory, to the Israeli government asking for information about the software made by the Israeli firm NSO Group. Continue reading...

Shadow work and pensions secretary will talk up possibilities of artificial intelligence as colleague discusses dangers for workersLabour would use artificial intelligence to help those looking for work prepare their CVs, find jobs and receive payments faster, according to the party's shadow work and pensions secretary.Jonathan Ashworth told the Guardian he thought the Department for Work and Pensions was wasting millions of pounds by not using cutting-edge technology, even as the party also says AI could also cause massive disruption to the jobs market. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg's rival to Elon Musk-owned platform has grown rapidly since launch last Wednesday

Comedian known for Miranda Sings character faces accusations of inappropriate behavior with minors and wearing blackfaceColleen Ballinger's podcast Oversharing and several of her live shows have now been canceled as the YouTuber known for her satirical teenage persona Miranda Sings continues to face criticism for allegedly behaving inappropriately toward underaged fans and wearing blackface.Ballinger's co-host, Trisha Paytas, called the ordeal embarrassing" in a YouTube video this week, confirming that the duo's podcast would end after just three episodes. Continue reading...

US comedian and two other authors say artificial intelligence models used their work without permissionThe US comedian and author Sarah Silverman is suing the ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta for copyright infringement over claims that their artificial intelligence models were trained on her work without permission.Silverman has filed the suits along with two authors, Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, in which they claim the AI models developed by OpenAI and Meta used their work as part of their training data. Continue reading...

Twitter owner calls Facebook founder a cuck' as rancour grows over launch of Threads, a competitor to Musk's networkTwitter owner Elon Musk has suggested he and Mark Zuckerberg should have a literal dick-measuring contest" in the latest broadside aimed at his rival billionaire.In a message inspired by the Meta chief executive's launch last week of Threads, a Twitter competitor, Musk added a ruler emoji. Continue reading...

Shops, hotels, even dentists: absolutely everyone who takes your money wants to know how they are doing (or drilling). It's driving me up the wallMulti-grit sandpaper, a water butt connector pipe link kit", a five-pack of AAA batteries, slow blow" fuses, vacuum cleaner bags, a tea towel and nail clippers. Tidying my inbox, I see these are some of the things I've been asked to give feedback on recently. The purveyors of these high-end lifestyle items - truly worthy of my aspiration to become an aesthete" of the week in the Financial Times - would love my thoughts. So here goes: no idea; no idea; generated electricity adequately; no idea; yes, they are vaccum cleaner bags; what tea towel ... Hang on, I actually do have an opinion on the nail clippers. The business end - the beak? - is deeper than normal, so I keep nicking my fingertips. No stars.I see from searching for the dread phrase Love to hear from you" that the dentist who hasn't answered my plaintive queries about my broken tooth also wants feedback, as does the chain hotel where I left my favourite skirt, leading to multiple unanswered phone calls and them eventually denying all knowledge of it. It's time to get my Oprah on - you get zero stars and you get zero stars, and you, and you! Continue reading...

Data shows the micro-blogging website has been shedding users since early 2023, not long after Elon Musk's takeoverTwitter's website traffic is tanking" according to the chief of internet services company Cloudflare, amid signs users are migrating to alternative platforms such as Threads, BlueSky and Mastodon.On Sunday, Matthew Prince posted a graph from Cloudflare's ranking of the most popular websites in the world showing Twitter has been in decline since the start of 2023, not long after Elon Musk took over the platform. Continue reading...

Long reviled by Twitter's owner, @elonmusksjet is now tracking the billionaire's jet from the new social media appThe college student whose Twitter account monitored the course of Elon Musk's private jet has moved his tracking project to Meta's newly launched Threads.On Thursday, Jack Sweeney, a Florida college student and aviation enthusiast, launched his first post on Threads under the handle @elonmusksjet after Twitter suspended his tracking operation last December. Continue reading...

HateAid in Germany alerted the social media giant to antisemitic and racist tweets, which were not taken downTwitter faces a landmark legal challenge after the social media giant failed to remove a series of hate-filled tweets reported by users in what could be a turning point in establishing new standards of scrutiny regarding online antisemitism.The California-based company, owned since last year by Elon Musk, was alerted to six antisemitic or otherwise racist tweets in January this year by researchers at HateAid, a German organisation that campaigns for human rights in the digital space, and the European Union of Jewish Students EUJS but did not remove them from its platform despite the tweets apparently clearly contravening its own moderation policy. Continue reading...

White nationalist Richard Spencer and white supremacist Nick Fuentes join app, according to Media MattersMark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, has said he wants to make kindness" a focus of his company's new Threads app.Following the launch of the app last week, Zuckerberg hoped to draw a direct contrast to Twitter which, with more than 250 million users, has seen a surge in hate speech and misinformation since Elon Musk took over as CEO. Continue reading...

Developers should grasp the opportunity to address misogyny in society rather than entrench it, says Liz JacksonYour article (Never underestimate a droid: robots gather at AI for Good summit in Geneva, 6 July) begins by listing four of the robot delegates that are attending the AI for Good summit - all four are feminised robots" - and I remembered the thought I had when I saw Ai-Da perform poetry at the Ashmolean in Oxford in 2021: why does a robot need boobs?Robotics and AI are fields undoubtedly occupied primarily by men and yet many robots, and AI assistants (think Siri, Alexa and so on) often take on a feminised" form. Perhaps we are more comfortable telling a feminised voice to do things for us. Continue reading...

Known as the people's missile', the bomb costs about 2,300 to build and can be transported in a car boot

The US author's violent tale of death row inmates starring in gladiatorial contests for mass entertainment is an intriguing conceit, but its execution is heavy-handedNana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars comes to publication freighted with hype because of its stark envisioning of American death row prisoners forced to fight one another to the bloody end, with the bouts televised. The prisoners are mainly Black and they become stars in the entertainment industry on the outside", with gimmicky names and basic, almost caveman-like signature weapons. Instead of the Norse god Thor's hammer Mjolnir, here there's a hammer called Hass Omaha, a scythe named LoveGuile and a mace labelled Vega. The inmates have the chance to move up the fighters' league and finally be free - if they kill enough of their fellow prisoners. A giant fighter called Barry Harris - fight name Rave Bear - looked like he'd been pulled from a woodchipper" by the end of a match. Other characters are called Hurricane Staxxx, Gunny Puddles, Ring Ya Bells - an overripe blend of gamer IDs, B-movie love interests, prison nicknames, wrestling monikers and pure grand guignol.The novel is a crushingly painful, loaded and on-the-nose commentary on racism, exploitation, inequality and the legacy and loud echoes of slavery in the US. The prison system, big business, the entertainment industry, local policing, tech surveillance and the military have all fused into one hellish mega-complex: the fighters are pushed around by soldier-police", their every move recorded and broadcast, both for security and to scintillate their reality TV audience; their magnetised restraints made from the latest tech, their fights sponsored by food and beverage brands and trumpeted as family entertainment. Indeed, as one character reflects: All other sport was just a metaphor for this." Yet the result is that millions of viewers worldwide are consuming poison, no matter how savoury the package". Continue reading...

A new Cambridge University institute will try to harness the good and anticipate the bad effects of artificial intelligenceStephen Cave has considerable experience of well-intentioned actions that have unhappy consequences. A former senior diplomat in the foreign office during the New Labour era, he was involved in treaty negotiations which later - and unexpectedly - unravelled to trigger several international events that included Brexit. I know the impact of well-meant global events that have gone wrong," he admits.His experience could prove valuable, however. The former diplomat, now a senior academic, is about to head a new Cambridge University institute which will investigate all aspects of artificial intelligence in a bid to pinpoint the intellectual perils we face from the growing prowess of computers and to highlight its positive uses. An appreciation of the dangers of unintended consequences should come in handy. There has been a lot of emphasis in the media on AI leading to human extinction or the collapse of civilisation," says Cave. These fears are exaggerated but that does not mean AI will not cause harm to society if we are not careful." Continue reading...

... and discovered a hall of mirrors. Can the 70 million who signed up in two days last week to Mark Zuckerberg's new social media have got it wrong?It's a truth universally acknowledged that there is the real world, with all its sprawling ambiguity and apathy, and then there is Twitter, where absolute certainty and tribal division reign supreme. And it's a further truth, almost as widely accepted, that if you want to be an opinion-former, wield influence and make an impact, you had better not spend too much time in the real world.Yet for the past 17 years that is where I've chosen to remain. A journalist without Twitter is a bit like an exhibitionist who's agoraphobic - how are you going to be seen? And what chance do you have of generating that digital meteorological phenomenon of which we all, individuals and businesses, walk in awed terror: the Twitterstorm? Continue reading...

Data from Greg Johnson's Counter-Currents sheds light on how organization promotes its ideology onlineA data leak from the website of a white nationalist publisher has revealed recordings, published and unpublished documents, and hitherto private interview recordings that shed light on the way in which the organization promotes its ideology online.The internal data from Counter-Currents, a publishing house co-founded and run by notoriously secretive far-right ideologue Greg Johnson, was exposed in an Amazon cloud storage container that was left unlocked on the open internet. Continue reading...

Four Guardian reporters on the platform that defined the early years of their career - and what its end might mean for themFor months now, Twitter users have been anticipating the platform's demise. The technology is buggy and often appears to be breaking down. There's a new corporate crisis every week. It's a strange feeling to witness the death spiral of a major social media platform - not a planned shutdown or an attempted government ban, but a social network becoming a ghost town before our very eyes.This week Mark Zuckerberg successfully launched Threads, a Twitter competitor that claimed 70m sign-ups by its second day. It has been widely interpreted as a potential death blow to an already struggling platform. Continue reading...

Would wind and fog stop the PhD student getting the shot she was after?Dominika Koszowska is a self-confessed night owl but she had woken up extra early that morning with the goal of capturing the sunrise. The photographer, who is studying for a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, was visiting the Faroe Islands with her friend Michal.The weather outside our rented cottage wasn't encouraging; it was grey and gloomy, but we decided to head for the Skeidhsskardh mountain anyway. We arrived to wind and huge amounts of fog. Michal walked ahead, and suddenly it began to lift. It ended up being one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen, and I was able to capture him looking out over this spectacle of nature with my phone." Continue reading...

It's not enough to build learning around a single societal shift. Students should be trained to handle a rapidly changing worldFrom one day to the next, our profession was wiped out. We woke up and discovered our skills were redundant." This is what two successful graphic designers told me about the impact of AI. The old promise - creative workers would be better protected than others from mechanisation - imploded overnight. If visual artists can be replaced by machines, who is safe?There's no talk of a just transition" for graphic designers, or the other professions about to be destroyed. And while there's plenty of talk about how education might change, little has been done to equip students for a world whose conditions shift so fast. It's not just at work that young people will confront sudden changes of state. They are also likely to witness cascading environmental breakdown and the collapse of certain human-made systems.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...