Technology | The Guardian

Sections of industry back synthetic alternatives to fossil fuels, but case is much stronger for aviationMost bright red sports cars do not make much of their green credentials. Yet a test run in Bicester, Oxfordshire, by the startup Zero Petroleum last month gave a glimpse of a future in which combustion engines did not add new carbon to the atmosphere. The car was running on e-fuel: petrol made using electricity, hydrogen from water, and carbon captured from the air.The automotive industry is steadily moving away from fossil fuels, and a firm global consensus has emerged that battery electric vehicles are the way forward. Yet that consensus took a knock in March when the EU – to the shock of energy experts, environmental campaigners and much of the car industry – opened a small back door to e-fuels. Continue reading...

Positive report comes after company’s rare stumbles on revenue, profit and sales in February and highlights strength of the brandApple posted better-than-anticipated second-quarter earnings on Thursday, boosting hopes of a tentative tech recovery and sending company shares up.The company reported revenue of $94.84bn in its second-quarter earnings, up from a predicted $92.96bn, and an all-time record in its services division. It also reported a March quarter record for iPhone sales. Continue reading...

Experts warn Brussels it cannot afford to leave artificial intelligence in the hands of foreign firms such as GoogleThe EU has been warned that it risks handing control of artificial intelligence to US tech firms if it does not act to protect grassroots research in its forthcoming AI bill.In an open letter coordinated by the German research group Laion, or Large-scale AI Open Network, the European parliament was told that “one-size-fits-all” rules risked eliminating open research and development. Continue reading...

CMA to look at underlying systems of artificial intelligence tools amid concerns over false information

These tiny 1980s home arcade machines are returning to a table near you – updated, upgraded and packed with classic video gamesIn the early 1980s, before the arrival of affordable home computers and major consoles, handheld electronic games were the most desirable hi-tech toys out there. From Mattel’s Soccer and Auto Race, to the legendary Nintendo Game & Watch series, these pocket-sized gadgets were the kings of the Argos winter catalogue.Among the many emergent designs, however, the tabletop games were my favourites. Astro Wars, Caveman, Tron … these beautiful devices were designed to resemble miniature arcade machines, complete with teeny joysticks, buttons and detailed artwork. Most featured built-in vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) which were capable of emitting light and colour, unlike the dour monochrome screens found on LCD-based electronic games such as Game & Watch. They ate up batteries but that didn’t matter: they were designed to be played at home so most could be plugged in. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Why has the social network been in total chaos since the world’s richest man took control? Flipping the Bird investigates. Plus: five of the best podcasts about planet Earth

Federal Trade Commission says network has ‘repeatedly violated its privacy promises’ and misled parents over children’s message appThe US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is accusing Facebook of misleading parents about protections for children and is proposing to tighten an existing agreement on privacy to include a ban on profiting from minors’ data.The FTC said on Wednesday that Facebook misled parents about how much control they had over who their children had contact with in the Messenger Kids app and was deceptive about how much access app developers had to users’ private data, breaching a 2019 agreement on privacy. Continue reading...

Corporate clients that outsource work to Capita – including Aviva and Phoenix Group – must ‘assess fallout from data breach’The City regulator has contacted Capita’s corporate clients urging them to ascertain whether their customers’ data has been compromised after a cyber-attack on the outsourcer in March.The Financial Conduct Authority said it had written to firms it regulates and which outsource work to Capita to ensure they are “fully engaged” in assessing the fallout from the data breach. Continue reading...

New features on app to encourage travellers to consider renting single rooms rather than whole propertiesAirbnb is going back to its roots, the company has announced, with a renewed focus on renting out single rooms to travellers concerned about cost-of-living increases.Labelled Airbnb Rooms, the short-term rental app will launch a range of features designed to encourage travellers to consider renting a single room in a house to save money and have new experiences on the move. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: A UK regulator blocked a $70bn acquisition last week not because of any threat now, but over worries about a future monopoly

Companies join forces to tackle unwanted tracking via Apple’s gadget and similar devices such as TileApple and Google are teaming up to thwart unwanted tracking through AirTags and similar gadgets.The two companies behind the iPhone and the software that powers Android phones on Tuesday submitted a proposal to set standards for combatting secret surveillance on Bluetooth devices that were created to help people find lost keys, keep tabs on luggage or to locate other things that have a tendency to be misplaced. Continue reading...

Group has removed AI images used to promote their reports on social media, including fake photos of Colombia’s 2021 protestsWhile the systemic brutality used by Colombian police to quell national protests in 2021 was real and is well documented, photos recently used by Amnesty International to highlight the issue were not.The international human rights advocacy group has come under fire for posting images generated by artificial intelligence in order to promote their reports on social media – and has since removed them. Continue reading...

Websites churn out content, often advancing false narratives, to saturate with adverts, says anti-misinformation firmChatbots pretending to be journalists have been discovered running almost 50 AI-generated “content farms” so far, according to an investigation by the anti-misinformation outfit NewsGuard.The websites churn out content relating to politics, health, environment, finance and technology at a “high volume”, the researchers found, to provide rapid turnover of material to saturate with adverts for profit. Continue reading...

The neural network pioneer says dangers of chatbots were ‘quite scary’ and warns they could be exploited by ‘bad actors’The man often touted as the godfather of AI has quit Google, citing concerns over the flood of misinformation, the possibility for AI to upend the job market, and the “existential risk” posed by the creation of a true digital intelligence.Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who with two of his students at the University of Toronto built a neural net in 2012, quit Google this week, as first reported by the New York Times. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: The tech behemoth was set to acquire the Call of Duty makers, then the UK regulator stepped in – but not for the reason you might think

Technology presuming to recreate humanity is central to Mary Shelley’s masterpiece. It is more relevant today than ever

Royal watchers with hundreds of thousands of followers on the app are gearing up to cover the event for younger audiencesAmanda Matta, 28, is eagerly anticipating the king’s coronation. The TikToker, known as “matta_of_fact” posted her first video on the topic in December last year, and has “lots more coverage, explainers and analysis” coming up for her channel.Matta has 1.2 million subscribers, an enviable audience for even established media outlets, and has become an influential voice on the app when it comes to the royals. Continue reading...

I rumbled a chatbot ruse – but as the tech improves, and news outlets begin to adopt it, how easy will it be to spot it next time?A couple of weeks ago I tweeted a call-out for freelance journalists to pitch me feature ideas for the science and technology section of the Observer’s New Review. Unsurprisingly, given headlines, fears and interest in LLM (large language model) chatbots such as ChatGPT, many of the suggestions that flooded in focused on artificial intelligence – including a pitch about how it is being employed to predict deforestation in the Amazon.One submission however, from an engineering student who had posted a couple of articles on Medium, seemed to be riding the artificial intelligence wave with more chutzpah. He offered three feature ideas – pitches on innovative agriculture, data storage and the therapeutic potential of VR. While coherent, the pitches had a bland authority about them, repetitive paragraph structure, and featured upbeat endings, which if you’ve been toying with ChatGPT or reading about Google chatbot Bard’s latest mishaps, are hints of chatbot-generated content. Continue reading...

Musk calls the one-click move a win for both the public and media organisationsTwitter CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the social media platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with one click, calling it a win for both the public and media organisations.The feature, to be rolled out in May, will enable users who do not “sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article”, billionaire owner Musk tweeted. Continue reading...

National Crime Agency assessing risk after data of some National Smallbore Rifle Association members ‘compromised’Police are investigating a cyber-attack involving potentially thousands of British gun owners, raising concerns that organised criminals may target them for firearms.The National Crime Agency (NCA) is assessing the level of risk after the National Smallbore Rifle Association (NSRA) confirmed that data belonging to some of its members had been “compromised”. Continue reading...

Conservationists in the Brazilian Amazon are using a new tool to predict the next sites of deforestation – and it may prove a gamechanger in the war on loggingIt took just the month of March this year to fell an area of forest in Triunfo do Xingu equivalent to 700 football pitches. At more than 16,000 sq km, this Environmental Protection Area (APA) in the south-eastern corner of the Brazilian Amazon, in the state of Pará, is one of the largest conservation areas in the world. And according to a new tool that predicts where deforestation will happen next, it’s also the APA at highest risk of even more destruction.The tool, PrevisIA, is an artificial intelligence platform created by researchers at environmental nonprofit Imazon. Instead of trying to repair damage done by deforestation after the fact, they wanted to find a way to prevent it from happening at all. Continue reading...

Microchips are an issue, of course, but China also makes the alloy wheels our cars mostly roll on. And what about TikTok? We look at ways a conflict might inflict yet more harm on our struggling businessesAs the world struggles with the economic fallout from the Ukraine war, fears are mounting about a conflict that would be even more consequential: a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.Last week, Taiwan’s foreign minister said he was preparing for the possibility of a conflict with China in 2027, and a leaked memo from a four-star US general said his “gut” told him the US – which is committed to defending Taiwan – would be at war with China in 2025. Continue reading...

Three-day quest for innovations to tackle waiting list of 138,052 attacked as ‘wasting time on nonsense ideas that will go nowhere’The Home Office plans to use artificial intelligence to reduce the asylum backlog, and is launching a three-day hackathon in the search for quicker ways to process the 138,052 undecided asylum cases.The government is convening academics, tech experts, civil servants and business people to form 15 multidisciplinary teams tasked with brainstorming solutions to the backlog. Teams will be invited to compete to find the most innovative solutions, and will present their ideas to a panel of judges. The winners are expected to meet the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in Downing Street for a prize-giving ceremony. Continue reading...

Now a co-founder of Semafor, formerly of Politico, BuzzFeed and the New York Times, the author expertly pulls readers inBen Smith is a willing passenger on the rollercoaster also known as the internet. He reported for Politico, was founding editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed News and did a stint as a columnist for the New York Times. Then he co-founded Semafor. Graced with a keen eye and sharp wit, he has seen and heard plenty.People and businesses crash, burn and sometimes rise again. BuzzFeed News is no more. The New York Times trades 75% higher than five years ago. Tucker Carlson is off the air. Roger Ailes is dead. Twitter ain’t what it used to be.Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral is published in the US by Penguin Random House Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Surely we go to the cinema to be jolted and discomfited by someone else’s ideas – not to see ourselves in easy meetcute rom-coms with Marilyn Monroe

Scam calls are an industrial-sized nuisance. Aided by an ‘ethical hacker’, the BBC’s hit daytime breakout show Scam Interceptors is making must-see TV by turning the tables on the con artistsIt’s Thursday morning in the Scam Hub – a darkened room at the BBC’s Pacific Quay studio in Glasgow full of glowing screens and people feverishly tapping away on laptops under the glare of TV cameras – and the atmosphere is tense. We’re eavesdropping on a call between a man in the UK and a scammer in Kolkata, India, who has managed to talk her way inside the unwitting scamee’s Amazon account.Believing that he’s receiving a benevolent customer service call warning of rogue activity, the man has been conned into giving away a private passcode. Worse, the scammer has convinced him to download software to his phone granting remote access to his device, which could allow the harvesting of much more sensitive information including bank details. Continue reading...

E-commerce behemoth, in the midst of aggressively cutting costs including laying-off 27,000 workers, reported revenue growthAmazon shares jumped more than 11%, as income from its cloud computing and advertising units beat estimates for the first quarter of the year.The e-commerce behemoth, which is in the midst of aggressively cutting costs including laying-off 27,000 workers, said revenue for the quarter was $127.4bn, a 9% growth compared with the $116.4bn it reported during the same period last year.Reuters contributed reporting Continue reading...

Downing Street responds to stinging attack from US firm’s president over blocking of $69bn Activision dealDowning Street has defended the UK as an “extremely attractive” place for tech startups after Microsoft’s president said Brexit Britain was worse for business than the EU, in a stinging attack on the UK’s decision to block a $69bn (£55bn) deal to take over Activision Blizzard.Microsoft rounded on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday after a surprise decision to block its planned takeover of the Call of Duty games developer, with its president, Brad Smith, describing it as the “darkest day in our four decades in Britain”. Continue reading...

Park theatre, London

In this week’s newsletter: From couples keen to bring in a third party to exploring your bi-curiosity, the ‘sexologist’ has it all covered in Sex Therapy. Plus: five of the best podcasts with a purpose

Judge in Autopilot death case says defence argument ‘deeply troubling’ and wants Tesla CEO interviewed under oath on safety claimsA California judge has tentatively ordered Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the capabilities of Tesla’s Autopilot features after the company questioned the authenticity of the remarks, claiming Musk is a “target for deep fakes”.The ruling came in a lawsuit against Tesla, filed by the family of Walter Huang who was killed in a car crash in 2018. Continue reading...

Lawyers for the disgraced entrepreneur told a judge she would not be turning herself in as she is appealing custody rulingTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has again delayed the start of her 11-year prison sentence for fraud charges, after appealing a previous decision that would have required her to turn herself in on 27 April.Lawyers for Holmes, who is currently out on bail, informed US district judge Edward Davila on Wednesday that she will not be reporting to prison as scheduled, because she is appealing Davila’s ruling that she remain in custody while it is determined whether she should get a new trial. Continue reading...

CMA surprised sector by saying deal would give Seattle firm undue power to shape cloud gamingMicrosoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the development conglomerate behind games including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush Saga, has been blocked by the UK’s competition watchdog in a surprise move. The $70bn (£65bn) purchase would have been the largest in gaming history but now, unless the two companies can convince a tribunal to overturn the ban on appeal, it is dead globally.But what does this mean for tech, gaming and Rishi Sunak’s goal for the “Unicorn Kingdom”? Continue reading...

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox Series X/S, PC; Respawn Entertainment/EA

The British comedian shares what makes him laugh online, which is mainly grandmas falling over (don’t worry, no nanas were hurt in the making of this list)

Competition and Markets Authority blocks what would have been biggest acquisition in gaming historyThe Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard has accused the UK of being “closed for business” after the competition regulator blocked its attempted takeover by Microsoft, which would have been the largest acquisition in gaming history.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) prevented the $68.7bn (£55bn) cash purchase because of concerns it would squash the cloud gaming market, sparking furious pushback from both sides of the deal. Microsoft said it would “discourage technology innovation and investment in the UK”, while Activision Blizzard vowed to “reassess our growth plans for the UK”. Continue reading...

A few hours with the biggest Nintendo Switch game of the year reveals a world that’s rich with creative potential – and funHowever carefully open-world video games are designed, whatever delights they lay out for you like a buffet of fun-morsels, they can never account for the unpredictably dumb actions of their players. I have been invited to Nintendo’s European headquarters to spend a couple of hours with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, probably this year’s most-anticipated video game, and so with the whole of Hyrule stretched out before me and a tantalising fort full of grimacing Bokoblin monsters to fight just down the hill, I choose to instead spend 20 minutes constructing a flame-throwing fortress on wheels.Using storied adventurer Link’s telekinetic powers to pick stuff up and smoosh it together, I painstakingly line up wheels on wooden bars that I’m using for axels, throw together wooden boards to create a boxy chassis, and take it for a couple of troubleshooting test drives before I attach flamethrowing gargoyle heads to the front. Unfortunately, the flamethrowers unbalance it, and as I careen down the road my self-made vehicle flips over and sets itself on fire. Link falls off and I watch as my hard work turns to literal ashes, its few non-flammable components tumbling unspectacularly to the ground. It turns out you should not try to make a flame-throwing go-kart out of wood. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Unrecord puts players in the role of a police officer, and looks every bit like real shootings – so how realistic is too realistic?

Canadian singer says she likes the ideas of ‘killing copyright’, as music industry scrambles to catch up with implications of AI-generated tracksGrimes has welcomed musicians to create new songs with her voice using Artificial Intelligence, saying she would split 50% of royalties on any successful AI-generated track that included her voice.The Canadian singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher, tweeted that it was the “same deal as I would with any artist I collab[orate] with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty,” she tweeted. Continue reading...

Redmond-based company exceeded analysts’ estimates, driven by its cloud computing and Office software businessesMicrosoft Corp beat Wall Street’s quarterly revenue and profit estimates on Tuesday, driven by growth in its cloud computing and Office productivity software businesses, and the company said artificial intelligence products were stimulating sales.The company forecast that revenue in its main segments for the current quarter would match or top Wall Street targets. Continue reading...

Google’s parent company reported a revenue of $69.8bn even as it races to implement cost-saving measuresAlphabet stocks rose in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the tech firm beat analyst expectations for first-quarter earnings, marking an unexpectedly bright spot in the otherwise struggling tech sector.The company reported first-quarter revenue of $69.8bn, up 3% year-over-year and above analyst predictions of $68.9bn. Its cloud business reported a profit for the first time since its launch, taking in $191m. Continue reading...

The government must do its bit to make new electric vehicles more affordable if mass adoption is to be achieved on the road to net zeroWhen the government controversially scrapped its discount on the purchase of electric cars last summer, the move was justified on the grounds that its work was done. After 11 years of subsidies, said ministers, the electric vehicle revolution had been “kickstarted”. As Britain strives to meet a 2030 target to end the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, that judgment is beginning to look a little complacent.Amid ongoing economic headwinds, data has emerged that suggests a drop-off in current demand for electric cars, despite notable public enthusiasm for their adoption in principle. Auto Trader, which hosts the country’s largest car sales website, reported this month that inquiries in relation to new electric vehicles had fallen significantly compared with last year. Continue reading...

Designation as ‘very large online platform’ along with 16 other major names means big penalties for breachesTwitter is among the tech firms that will face the toughest level of scrutiny under a new European Union regulatory regime for monitoring digital platforms, after warnings from Brussels that the Elon Musk-owned platform is unprepared for the new rules.The company, which Musk bought in October 2022, has been designated a “very large online platform” under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which means complying with measures such as publishing an independent audit of its compliance with the legislation. Continue reading...

Just as SpaceX’s Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly this month, Musk is a mess, too, thanks to Twitter’s blue ticksElon Musk is a man of many talents including, it would seem, resurrecting people from the dead. Over the weekend, a number of notable but no-longer-alive figures, including Anthony Bourdain, Hugo Chávez and Jamal Khashoggi had “blue checkmarks” suddenly appear on their dormant Twitter accounts. When you clicked on the checkmark you were informed that they’d provided their phone numbers to the platform and agreed to pay $8 a month to subscribe to Twitter Blue. The afterlife must be dire if people are signing up for Twitter’s paid features from beyond the grave.It wasn’t just dead celebs being mysteriously verified. The rollout of Twitter Blue was a spectacular mess. Once upon a time, having a blue tick by your name was a status symbol: a sign someone at Twitter HQ thought you were “notable” enough to verify. (Reader, I was not.) Then Musk came along, stripped people of their blue ticks, and said they’d only get the badge back if they paid up. Obviously only a complete loser would do that and the blue tick quickly became a scarlet letter. So when the checks mysteriously reappeared on the accounts of a number of high-profile – and very much alive – figures, including the author Stephen King and basketball star LeBron James, said figures swiftly announced that they hadn’t paid for the badge and wouldn’t be caught dead doing so. All of which would be incredibly embarrassing for Musk if he had any sense of shame. (Reader, he does not.) Continue reading...

From Pac-Man to pinball, French photographer Franck Bohbot transforms the neon chaos of amusement arcades into stunning works of art Continue reading...

Global companies like Google, Apple and Amazon could have to pay penalties of up to 10% of their global turnover as government gives competition watchdog more powerMajor tech firms face the threat of multibillion-pound fines for breaching consumer protection rules under new legislation that will tackle issues including fake online reviews and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel.The digital markets, competition and consumers bill will empower the UK’s competition watchdog to tackle the “excessive dominance” that a small number of tech firms hold over consumers and businesses. Continue reading...

Internet Watch Foundation says amount of material showing most extreme form of sexual abuse has doubled since 2020The most extreme form of child sexual abuse material accounted for a fifth of such content found online last year, according to a report.Category A abuse represented 20% of illegal images discovered online last year by the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based body that monitors distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). It found more than 51,000 instances of such content, which can include the most severe imagery including rape, sadism and bestiality.The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. Continue reading...

Shot at dawn | Emergency alerts at evensong | A message to Airstrip One | Ofsted’s ‘inadequate’ | Jack Nicholson in RedsAlexandra Pearce-Broomhead’s piece (Country diary, 24 April) is probably the most emotionally charged article I’ve seen in over 40 years of reading the Guardian. I have sons the same age as these young men who were shot for supposed crimes such as “desertion” and “cowardice” in the first world war. May my children never have to go through what these young men did.

Verification mark granted to account that was suspended in 2017 but reinstated following takeover by Elon Musk last yearTwitter has given a gold tick to Britain First, the far right political organisation, after a shake-up of its verification system under new owner Elon Musk.The party’s leader, Paul Golding, has also received a blue tick for his account, which means that his posts will be boosted in conversations and will be ranked higher in user searches. Golding was jailed in 2018 for religiously aggravated harassment. Continue reading...

He’s been at PlayStation since the beginning, and seen the games industry transform beyond recognition. He talks unlikely successes, AI, and gaming’s futureIn early 1993, Shuhei Yoshida joined Sony’s nascent PlayStation division as a business development guy – the first member of the team who didn’t have an engineering background. When he was working with Ken Kutaragi and the other architects of the original PlayStation, and later producing games from Crash Bandicoot and Gran Turismo alongside game development legends Mark Cerny and Kazunori Yamauchi, he freely admits that he could scarcely believe his luck. When I speak to him, on the eve of receiving Bafta’s prestigious fellowship award for his contribution to video games, he still seems endearingly surprised by his own success.“The people who have received [this award] before are all creators! Amazing, talented, genius people! I don’t know how I fit in,” he says. (Previous recipients of the award include Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima.) “But everybody says I deserve it, so I guess I deserve it.” Continue reading...