Technology | The Guardian

Interest groups have poured about £250,000 into all-party parliamentary groups in past five years• Crypto firm with links to parliamentary groups appears to have vanishedFor more than a decade, those worried about the reputation of parliament have warned that all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) can be a problem.Their supporters say they are a place for like-minded parliamentarians to discuss topics of special interest. But despite their unofficial nature, and with no formal role in the legislative process, APPGs can be a magnet for those who want to get close to MPs and peers – or to pretend that they are for the sake of polishing their reputations. Continue reading...

With its frequent dismemberments, repulsive creatures and total immersion, Dead Space spliced horror and sci-fi to make a truly classic video game – even though it initially tankedIt’s one of the more memorable intros in video game history: as part of a five-person team sent to investigate a communications blackout aboard the mining ship USG Ishimura, engineer Isaac Clarke boots up the vessel’s computer while his colleagues pace around nervously. Suddenly, the lights go out, and shadowy monstrosities appear from the walls, spearing two of the team as Clarke watches helplessly before they turn on him, chasing him unarmed into the bowels of the Ishimura, where even more horrors await.Fifteen years, two sequels and countless books, comics and spin-offs later, and Dead Space has become synonymous with video game sci-fi horror. Its enemies, the zombie-like Necromorphs, are hideously metamorphosed humans, perverted by the machinations of the Marker, a strange alien artefact that has engendered a worryingly familiar religion known as Unitology. It’s an experience that few players forget, and is being discovered by new fans this year thanks to Motive’s remake – but it almost didn’t get made. Continue reading...

Mark Read says artificial intelligence is helping firm win clients keen to tap into technology’s potentialFrom Serena Williams playing against incarnations of her younger self to millions of personalised messages from a Bollywood superstar to support small businesses in India, artificial intelligence and machine learning is driving a revolution in the global advertising industry.Mark Read, the chief executive of London-listed WPP, the world’s largest marketing services company, said AI-led advertising practices were helping it win clients hungry to embrace the potential of a new technology. Continue reading...

Nintendo Switch; Hal Laboratories/ Nintendo

Parent company, ByteDance, says action is ‘misguided’ and has contacted commission to ‘set the record straight’The EU’s executive body has banned its thousands of staff from using TikTok over cybersecurity concerns, a decision the Chinese-owned social video app has criticised as “misguided” and based on “fundamental misconceptions”.The European Commission sent an email to employees ordering them to delete the app from all work phones and devices, and any personally owned ones that use the commission’s apps and email. Employees have until 15 March to comply. Continue reading...

Leading tech firms reportedly ordered to remove workarounds allowing access to US-based serviceChinese regulators have reportedly clamped down on access to ChatGPT, as Chinese tech firms and universities push forward with developing domestic artificial intelligence bots.ChatGPT, the popular discussion bot created by US-based OpenAI, is not officially available in China, where the government operates a comprehensive firewall and strict internet censorship. But many had been accessing it via VPNs, and some third-party developers had produced programs that gave some access to the service. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Reporter Kim Barker explores an unsolved murder in her ‘mean’ hometown, in The Coldest Case in Laramie. Plus: five of the best podcasts about friendship

The tech giant has taken billions from game developers but failed to reinvest it, leaving the App Store a confusing mess for mobile gamersIn the 15 years since it launched the App Store, Apple has proved again and again that it cares very little about games – though it is happy to make billions from them. I should know: I was an App Store games editor for seven years.It all started so well. When the iPhone and iPad arrived, those devices transformed games almost as much as they upended the rest of the tech world. Suddenly everyone had powerful games machines in their pockets, and it was amazing. Some wonderful developers broke through. Zach Gage kickstarted his career with the artsy Tetris-meets-wordsearch game SpellTower; Adam Saltsman’s Canabalt turned platforming tropes into a desperate post-apocalyptic dash; ingenious gothic puzzler Helsing’s Fire gave us our first glimpse into the mind of Lucas Pope, later the creator of Papers, Please. Continue reading...

Chores such as shopping likely to have most automation, while caring for young or old least likely to be affected, says reportA revolution in artificial intelligence could slash the amount of time people spend on household chores and caring, with robots able to perform about 39% of domestic tasks within a decade, according to experts.Tasks such as shopping for groceries were likely to have the most automation, while caring for the young or old was the least likely to be affected by AI, according to a large survey of 65 artificial intelligence (AI) experts in the UK and Japan, who were asked to predict the impact of robots on household chores. Continue reading...

Algorithm-based sources lead to more polarised and conflicting views in society, as people are exposed to a less diverse diet of current affairs, writes Ollie DaviesYour editorial on disinformation (17 February) highlights a great challenge, but of arguably greater importance are the sources of news young people use. In a 2022 study, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford provided quantitative evidence on the growth of social media as a news source for 18- to 24-year-olds. TikTok as a source had increased fivefold between 2020 and 2022, and YouTube stabilised its share of young readers in Asia, the fastest growing populace in the world.Combined with Facebook and Twitter, these sources supply 66% of young people their main news source, and all rely on algorithms. To increase views, clicks and advertising revenues, they show stories that viewers want to see – and slant viewpoints further. The result? Increasingly polarised and conflicting views in society, as people are exposed to a less diverse diet of actual current affairs. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Though costly, the PSVR2 is the most usable virtual gaming device yet – even for sceptics like me

How an undercover investigation revealed a team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social mediaLast year, coordinated by the French media organisation Forbidden Stories, a group of journalists from around the world, including from the Guardian, embarked on a project: to get inside the murky world of disinformation and expose those who profit from it.Among the reporters were Gur Megiddo, an Israeli investigative journalist for the business newspaper TheMarker. With him was Omer Benjakob, a reporter with the Israeli daily paper Haaretz, and Frédéric Métézeau, a journalist with Radio France. As part of an undercover investigation, they held meetings with a secretive team of Israeli contractors selling “black op” influence campaigns to those with the means to pay for them. Continue reading...

Lawsuits brought by families of terrorist attack victims will consider whether companies are responsible for users’ contentA pair of cases going before the US supreme court this week could drastically upend the rules of the internet, putting a powerful, decades-old statute in the crosshairs.At stake is a question that has been foundational to the rise of big tech: should companies be legally responsible for the content their users post? Thus far they have evaded liability, but some US lawmakers and others want to change that. And new lawsuits are bringing the statute before the supreme court for the first time. Continue reading...

Computer programmer Cassius John-Adams explains how he mashed up Crazy Taxi and The Fifth Element during an obsessive three-year period, single-handedly creating the game he’d always dreamed ofOver lunch one day at work, Cassius John-Adams, a computer programmer for a Canadian TV network, was moaning to his co-workers that things aren’t as good as they used to be. “We got on to how everything, from video games to science-fiction films, was better in the late 90s and early 00s when we were all much younger,” explains the 45-year-old from his house in Toronto. Someone mentioned The Fifth Element, Luc Besson’s wildly inventive 1997 sci-fi film. John-Adams brought up Crazy Taxi, Sega’s cartoonishly energetic driving game. And then, “I was like: ‘Man, I wish there was a mix between the two.’ Everyone around the table went, ‘Yeah, that would be the perfect mix.’”It was the spark for one of the great passion projects in recent video-gaming history. Doing nearly all of the work himself, fitting it around his day job, John-Adams has made that very hybrid, a new game called Mile High Taxi that splices the vibe of Besson’s movie and the hurtling mayhem of Crazy Taxi into a heady compound of millennial nostalgia. Continue reading...

Receiving login codes via text message is much easier to compromise. Using authenticator apps or even a USB are preferred alternativesOn the weekend, Twitter announced that from 20 March, people who haven’t subscribed to Twitter Blue will have two-factor authentication via SMS disabled.Twitter has recommended people use third-party apps or a security key instead, but for the overwhelming majority (74.4%) of the 2.6% of active Twitter users who use SMS as their method of authentication, it will mean they have a month to switch or potentially lose protection. Continue reading...

Creators and influencers on Meta’s platforms are an obvious market for verified users’ monthly feesMark Zuckerberg’s social media empire is built on billions of users – and the advertisers who pay vast sums to grab their attention.But that business model is under pressure on several fronts. It is against this backdrop that Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, said on Sunday it is trialling subscriptions for both social media platforms. Continue reading...

Amid boarded up shops in Wearside, The Gaming Hideaway is thriving – and shows how tired retail districts can be reimaginedOn Bishop Auckland’s increasingly desolate high street, shops have steadily closed over the years as a retail park has lured local people away. Dozens of shopfronts lie empty, and the businesses that cling on are mostly discount retailers, the odd vape shop and a few charity shops. Even Poundland has gone. But a few doors down from where Boots used to be, next to the HSBC branch that closed last August, you can now find yourself at the starting grid of a Formula One race, then hurled down a towering rollercoaster.On average, 47 shops shut down every day last year across the UK – up nearly 50% on 2021 – as retailers faced ever-increasing competition from online stores along with rising costs and damage from the pandemic. The future for these streets is not retail but entertainment, and The Gaming Hideaway in Bishop Auckland, a virtual reality arcade, is a prime example. Continue reading...

AI-generated clues are often bizarre and sometimes flat-out wrong – but, setters agree, that may not be a bad thing. Plus: a podcast returnsThis week, some Things of Interest to Puzzlers That You Might Otherwise Miss.Did your school mention crossword compiling in career discussions?

Updated chips give already great 14in model a boost but the hefty price hike stingsApple’s M2 Pro chip upgrade for the MacBook Pro boosts performance and battery life in an already extremely capable machine – but it comes with a sizable price increase, making it particularly expensive outside the US.The starting price is £2,149 ($1,999/A$3,199), which is £250 (A$200) more than its predecessor despite being the same price in the US, which is partly down to weak currency rates. It is not as if the 2021 model was cheap, but pushing beyond the £2,000 mark for the new version significantly raises the barrier to entry.Screen: 14.2in mini LED (3024x1964; 254 ppi) ProMotion (120Hz)Processor: Apple M2 Pro or M2 MaxRAM: 16, 32, 64 or 96GBStorage: 512GB, 1, 2, 4 or 8TB SSDOperating system: macOS 13.2 VenturaCamera: 1080p FaceTime HD cameraConnectivity: wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 3x USB 4/Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, SD card, headphonesDimensions: 221.2 x 312.6 x 15.5mmWeight: 1.6kg Continue reading...

The UK’s would-be ‘Amazon of banking’ run by Nikolay Storonsky has raised alarm over delayed accounts, EU regulatory fines, its co-founder’s Russian ties and issues with staffMinutes after Jeremy Hunt had finished speaking, Nikolay Storonsky collared the chancellor backstage. The 38-year-old co-founder of British financial technology company Revolut, wearing a tech bro’s uniform of jeans and a sweater, had been listening to Hunt set out his vision of the UK as “the world’s next Silicon Valley”, in a speech last month at the media group Bloomberg’s London headquarters.The chancellor had praised Revolut as a “shining” success, saying the government was willing to back innovative companies “to the hilt”. After a quick introduction, the pair posed for a photo – which was swiftly posted by Storonsky’s team to one of Revolut’s Twitter accounts. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg follows Elon Musk’s lead in introducing fee for blue ticks, while Twitter to restrict 2FA via SMS to paid users

Delivery of rental cars using remote driving could be outlawed after Law Commission recommendationsThe remote driving of vehicles from overseas, such as for the delivery of rental cars, could be banned following a government-commissioned review.The review was carried out by the Law Commission of England and Wales, which recommended ministers regulate the technology. Continue reading...

When lockdown hit, walking her dog gave the photographer some welcome respite. But on this occasion, she left him behind …Lobo the Norfolk terrier is the perfect walking companion, but not around sheep. Mariko Klug, who lives in Bavaria, Germany, left him at home to take this photo. “He barks to protect us from the ‘evil sheep’,” Klug laughs.She’s grateful for him, though, as dog owners were allowed to leave the house at any time of day during Covid lockdowns. “I work part-time for an airline at Munich airport, but back then I was at home so much more. It was an unreal time, but we made the most of it by being outside as much as possible.” Continue reading...

PC, Playstation 5; Luminous Productions

Strategist says he noticed ‘increased activity’, after revelations about activities of a disinformation unitA senior strategist with close links to Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has publicly acknowledged that his Telegram account was infiltrated in the lead-up to last year’s election.Dennis Itumbi told the Star newspaper that he had noticed “increased activity” on his Telegram last year but called it “inconsequential”. Continue reading...

Nissan’s ServCity project shows how far autonomous vehicles have come and difficulties they still faceThe journey in a self-driving Nissan across Woolwich in south-east London begins smoothly enough: fitted with cameras and sensors, the electric car confidently handles pedestrian crossings, vans cutting into its lane without warning and even scurrying jaywalkers.Then comes an unexpected obstacle: a football-sized rock, fallen from the back of a lorry on to the middle of the road. The specially trained safety driver hastily grabs the steering wheel, taking back control to avoid a nasty crunch. Continue reading...

One of Google’s earliest employees, she rented out her garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they founded the companyThe CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, will be stepping down after nine years at the helm of the world’s largest online video platform, she said in a blog post on Thursday.YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, will be the new head of YouTube, she said. Wojcicki, 54, was previously a senior vice-president for ad products at Google and became CEO of YouTube in 2014. Before Google, Wojcicki worked at Intel and Bain & Company. Continue reading...

Playstation 5, Xbox Series, PC; EA/Omega Force

Leaked messages show failed plan to discredit Muhammadu Buhari and get Goodluck Jonathan re-elected in 2015Four weeks before a pivotal presidential election in Nigeria, an Israeli private operative specialising in political “black ops” was preparing his trip to the country. On 17 January 2015 the man, who used the alias “Jorge”, emailed Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy he was coordinating with on a covert plan to manipulate Africa’s largest democracy.“Friends, hi, I will be on the ground tomorrow for couple days … Who is best to meet there[?]” he asked. “Low profile as we came in on a special visa and we are watched closely (which is part of our plan :) anyway we need better understanding of the current status, improve communication and coordinate plans, we want to run by you a couple things that we might execute if the stars align. so plz, in very limited circulation, who is best to meet, and whats his/her position, and contact info.” Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Meet six people who claim to have made contact with extraterrestrials – or even be one themselves – in Alien Kidnap Club. Plus: five podcasts to listen to with your kids

A tweet from Joe Biden got triple the impressions than Musk’s game time post, sending engineers scrambling to boost their bossTwitter chief executive Elon Musk rallied a team of roughly 80 engineers to reconfigure the platform’s algorithm so his tweets would be more widely viewed, tech news site Platformer has reported.A disgruntled Musk called for an emergency effort after a tweet he sent during Sunday’s Super Bowl game failed to achieve as much engagement as a tweet from Joe Biden, interviews and internal documents reviewed by Platformer have revealed. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: From Street Fighter parties with friends to Minecraft with my kids, there’s something special about playing together that’s hard to recreate online

Social media content creators are increasingly advising followers against expensive purchasesMore and more content creators on social media are rejecting traditional influencer culture and becoming “deinfluencers” instead, according to social media experts.Influencers have historically sold something to users. Whether that is the newest trending lipgloss or the viral “it” dress, the products – often available at a discount using influencers’ special codes – are perceived to provide a certain lifestyle, one that is aesthetically pleasing and on trend. Continue reading...

Online retailer has been aggressively expanding into driverless technology and bought the startup ZooxAmazon is testing a fleet of robotaxis on public roads in California, using employees as passengers, as the tech behemoth moves closer to a commercial service for the general public.The online retailer has been aggressively expanding into self-driving technology and bought the self-driving startup Zoox for $1.3bn in 2020. A test conducted on 11 February saw the robotaxis successfully drive between two Zoox buildings a mile apart at its headquarters in Foster City, California. It was part of the launch of a no-cost employee shuttle service that will also help the company refine its technology. Continue reading...

An update will begin to replace its 27-year-old predecessor from TuesdayInternet Explorer, for years the principal way of accessing any website for a generation of computer users, is to go the way of the dancing baby screensaver and the floppy disk.Microsoft is killing off the outdated browser’s desktop app after nearly 30 years with the release of an update to its newer Edge browser on Tuesday. Users will be redirected to Edge and further updates due in the summer will scrub away signs of the dead browser from start menus and taskbars. Continue reading...

Employees announce plan to unionize in challenge to chief executive Elon Musk, who has been vocal union opponentTesla workers in New York said on Tuesday they will launch a campaign to form a union, setting stage for the latest labor challenge for chief executive Elon Musk.In a letter to Tesla management, the employees announced their plan to unionize with the Workers United Upstate New York. Continue reading...

Raids target machines hosted around Leeds believed to be offering to buy or convert traditional currenciesAuthorities have raided several sites around Leeds as part of what is believed to be the UK’s first crackdown on illegally operated crypto ATMs.Evidence was gathered from multiple sites around the city that were suspected to be hosting machines allowing customers to buy or convert traditional currencies into cryptoassets including bitcoin. Continue reading...

PC; Bit Wave/Embracer

In this week’s newsletter: It may not seem like a Google, Apple or Meta but the risk-taking Japanese games giant has long been a tech maverick

Victim Support reports 38% rise in people affected by dating scams and gives advice on avoiding fake profilesPeople looking for love online have been warned to be on high alert for scammers this Valentine’s Day because romance fraud has risen by more than a third, according to data released by Victim Support.The charity, the UK’s biggest provider of services for victims of crime, is circulating a warning to online daters after a 38% rise in the number of romance fraud victims being supported by its services. Its supported 322 victims in 2022, up from 233 in 2021. Continue reading...

More than 310 staff to take part in stoppages after becoming first UK employees of online retailer to strikeAmazon workers at a warehouse in Coventry have announced seven more days of strike action as they continue their push for better pay.More than 310 staff at a giant fulfilment centre in the West Midlands city will strike on 28 February, 2 March and from 13 to 17 March, according to the GMB union. Continue reading...

Mobile operator’s Smarty brand offers unlimited calls, texts and data to help with cost of livingA social tariff aimed at helping mobile users struggling with the cost of living, which offers unlimited calls, texts and data for £12 a month, has been launched by mobile operator Three.The Guardian revealed on Monday that other big telecoms providers were planning steep bill increases from April and May. Continue reading...

In a Texas dive bar, the photographer suddenly happened on a far from ordinary sightJon Tonks was on a US road trip bookended by photography exhibitions: his own in Indiana, and the Houston photography festival. This shot was taken in Austin, Texas, where he’d met a friend from back home in Bath.“We’d just arrived and had done a quick search of recommended bars in our area. This place, C-Boy’s Heart & Soul, was just down the street from our Airbnb. The ground floor was like every American dive bar you can imagine. There were booths down one side, racks of bourbon behind the bar, even a singer who was the spit of Ray Charles. Continue reading...

Labor MP Julian Hill and Liberal MP Aaron Violi both used OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tool to help write speeches for parliament. Could you spot the difference?

Alphabet’s shares plummeted after Bard gave incorrect answer in a demo

In this week’s newsletter: From Belfast to Birmingham, Damian Kerlin investigates the radical history of our under-threat LGBTQ+ clubbing culture and beyond. Plus: five podcasts to help you get fit

Chatbot Bard incorrectly said James Webb Space Telescope was first to take pictures of planet outside Earth’s solar systemGoogle’s riposte to ChatGPT has got off to an embarrassing start after its new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot gave a wrong answer in a promotional video, as investors wiped more than $100bn (£82bn) off the value of the search engine’s parent company, Alphabet.The sell-off on Wednesday came amid investor fears that Microsoft, which is deploying an ChatGPT-powered version of its Bing search engine, will damage Google’s business. Alphabet stock slid by 9% during regular trading in the US but was flat after hours. Continue reading...

US tech publication reports CEO Elon Musk has asked staff to pause all new development to stabilise appTwitter users were unable to post instantly on the website for almost an hour, in the latest outage to hit the social media platform since billionaire Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover.From around 10pm GMT on Wednesday, users attempting to tweet were informed by the platform they had hit their daily limit – despite many of them reporting having not tweeted at all that day. Continue reading...

Company temporarily restricted New York Post article in 2020 about contents of the abandoned computer of Joe Biden’s sonUS lawmakers held a combative hearing on Wednesday with former senior staffers at Twitter over the social media platform’s handling of reporting on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.The proceedings set the stage for the agenda of a newly Republican-controlled House, underscoring its intention to hone in on longstanding and unsubstantiated allegations that big tech platforms have an anti-conservative bias. Continue reading...

Guardian exclusive: AI tools rate photos of women as more sexually suggestive than those of men, especially if nipples, pregnant bellies or exercise is involved