Latest Technology news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice
Anthropic says it will change way chatbot makes small, random choices, to comply with EU regulation The world is familiar by now with the usual tropes of machine-generated text: overuse of the word “delve”, an excess of em dashes, and the chirpy, relentless construction of “it’s not X but Y” . But is it about to get even worse? Continue reading...
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Frogwares Frogwares’ Lovecraftian action-horror is full of grim tenacity and pulp paperback charm, despite a few frayed edges I’m standing in the prosthetics lab of a campy horror hospital, hunting for a preacher’s flayed face to wear so I can trick the world’s grisliest smart doorbell. Pinned to a board in the corner of the room are a dozen X-rays: shattered…
Supermarket chain says ‘human error’, not its Facewatch technology, to blame for ejecting a customer Sainsbury’s has paused the use of AI face scanning in one of its stores after a customer was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and ejected from the shop. “I was embarrassed, mortified even, and felt quite humiliated and powerless,” Matt Arnold, 46, said of his ordeal. Continue reading...
The latest game from ‘reality-inspired’ studio the Pixel Hunt sees you transporting precious human cargo – and deciding what to do with it Ithaca has one hell of an opening: Penelope, a disillusioned environmental lawyer, stops her car at a petrol station. But upon returning, she discovers something shocking: the unconscious body of an oil company CEO in her boot, his hands hog-tied together,…
Temperatures could drop by more than 15C compared with last Thursday as cold front moves in Relief from the unrelenting heat is finally arriving this week across western Europe, with more unsettled conditions bringing the chance of rain. Temperatures are expected to fall back towards the seasonal norm, with some parts of the UK even falling about 3C below normal by Thursday. After such a scorching…
Guardian investigation finds apparent discrepancy between what tech company has said about its AI capacity – and the number of advanced chips it has in operation The chips are quite small and some can be held in the palm of a hand. They are fundamental to the development of artificial intelligence models – and the world’s biggest technology companies need vast numbers of them to keep ahead.…
Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds one section of report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AI Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The authors of a report testing the technology underpinning Australia’s social media ban have conceded ChatGPT was used…
Pokémon outlived the moral panic of its early days in Australia and its staying power has proved that simple joy can cross borders There’s a generation of Australians for whom Cheez TV was a religion. Every morning before school, I’d sit in my little white plastic chair about three feet from our big wooden television and watch 90 minutes of cartoons “curated” by the show’s teenage hosts, Jade and…
Australia’s corporate watchdog says PM is the figure most commonly used in deepfakes to promote phoney investment opportunities Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast There has been a steep rise in scammers luring victims into phoney investment opportunities using deepfakes of celebrities and politicians, Australia’s…
Amid fears for jobs, some film-makers say AI could enable them to bypass studio giants and take more creative risks Near the collonaded entrance to Sony Pictures’ historic Culver City film studio, a tech-powered rival has sprung up this summer. The artists at Promise, a new studio feeding off the potential of AI, can glimpse the lots where Singin’ in the Rain and Men in Black were shot, but no…
Wynd Kaufmyn, 69, chained and locked the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters last year with members of StopAI An activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk”. Wynd Kaufmyn, 69, surrendered herself on Friday to…
Jared Cooney Horvath argues that educational technology undermines how children learn and develop Jared Cooney Horvath is on a mission. In the wake of global campaigns for smartphone bans in schools and social media restrictions for under-16s, the neuroscientist wants to raise the alarm about educational technology in classrooms. A former teacher, Horvath believes the use of screens and digital…
Student unrest sweeps India, Portugal and Mexico as grievances and pressure for good grades in tough job market collide Families with teenagers in education know the private, hidden pain of exam season. But this year, what might have been a summer of quiet family anxiety has erupted in several countries into public unrest. Exam-related turmoil has led to mass student protests in Mexico after…
Fraudsters use pictures posted on Instagram or Facebook to create emails seeking bank account details You are on a short break in Porto and post some pictures of your family on Instagram or Facebook. With a small section of the Douro river in the background, you think it could have been taken anywhere. A few days later, you get a text saying that your card was compromised. “We detected unusual…
Converts describe a demanding form of capturing nature very close up that has grown in popularity in last few years Vote here for your favourite invertebrate of the year “I always just pray ‘please don’t fly away’,” says Dara Ojo. As a wildlife photographer, he can handle spending minutes, hours and sometimes days waiting for the shot, but insects are not always very cooperative. Ojo is one of an…
Social media and Shazam-like birdsong apps drawing young people to hobby as they seek a gentler connection to the outside world Sorry Elon, but they’re not your kind of tweets. Social media users are flocking to TikTok to join a burgeoning trend for birding videos as the hobby attracts a younger demographic. With the internet ever more cluttered with polarising, shouty and AI content, evidence is…
The Guardian’s deputy editor of social platforms on the demand from high-profile people and brands for help in harnessing the power of TikTok I didn’t want to work in social media. If you’d asked 15-year-old me my dream job, I might have said foreign correspondent, or maybe travel writer. So you can imagine my surprise to now find myself giving these very colleagues advice on how to get the best…
Creative Assembly could strike gold again with this follow-up to their fan-favourite, film-inspired game … if you’re brave enough to venture outdoors A lien: Isolation redefined Alien games on its release in 2014, bringing the original taut, haunted house theme of the first movie to fans who had mostly been fed action-packed shooters. Cowering under desks and inside lockers wasn’t a new thing;…
Pilot scheme will provide three weeks of training as part of UK government’s latest attempt to address Neets crisis Young people out of work or at risk of unemployment in the UK are to join “AI boot camps” where they harness the technology to get a foothold in the workplace. The government’s latest attempt to address the crisis in Neets – young people not in work or education – involves turning to…
Gil Durán is right, writes Catherine Austin Fitts – we must reject the limited vision of Silicon Valley with a revolution in consciousness Thank you for your interview with Gil Durán, the author of The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy ( ‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley, 5 August ) . Durán is…
PC; Replicant D6 This GoldenEye 007-styled retro shooter is an agreeable set of straightahead shooting missions that hark back to a simpler time, with simpler controls With 007 First Light , 2026 has already given us the best James Bond game in more than three decades, since the release of Rare’s N64 classic GoldenEye 007. But what about those players whose loyalties lie not with the super-spy…
Whether you want to improve your home’s security or simply know who’s at the door, the latest generation of smart doorbells will help put your mind at ease • The best robot vacuums, tested Doorbells have evolved. Today, they watch us as we approach, let the people inside the home know we’re coming sooner than our finger can hit the button, and give them a good look at our faces before they open…
With great software and battery for two days, the pricey svelte folder strikes best balance between phone and tablet Samsung’s top folding phone for 2026 is its first to carry the “Ultra” moniker in its name, packing a much bigger battery and better cameras into the thin and light body of a book-style foldable. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra continues from where the exquisite Z Fold 7 left off last…
New owner is said to be involved in AI industry, as new class of multimillionaires is entering the real estate race A luxury Lake Como-inspired estate in the San Francisco Bay Area has sold to a buyer “in the AI world” for a record $70m, in the latest sign of a new tech wealth boom that’s pushing home prices to extraordinary heights in the region The property south of San Francisco not only…
The AI jobs apocalypse never showed up. Still, jobs are changing and economists expect more to come The prediction was stark: artificial intelligence advancements would wipe out jobs en masse. “Half” of all entry-level white collar jobs would vanish, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in May 2025. A month later, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman , went further, foreseeing the end of “certain job…
Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery life Samsung’s latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a…
Using ‘spy glasses’ made by Facebook owner leads to floods of negative comments, say content creators It was hardly an offensive video. Amid the buzz of the Tour de France finale, Oliver Hooson filmed himself whipping up a delicious-looking flat white for a fellow cycling enthusiast. But after posting the footage on social media, the comments that soon rolled in were a real shock. “PERV,” read…
The backlash to what some dub ‘pervert glasses’ is growing – but people living with disabilities point out the new tech can also be life-changing Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast One summer day earlier this year, Rhys left a cafe in Melbourne where he had been working remotely, when his phone pinged with a message on the dating app Grindr. The message was a photo of him…
A Trump administration framework on AI testing leaves a lack of transparency – and plenty of open questions After months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for how it will test new artificial intelligence models for safety and cybersecurity risks. So far, the White House is keeping details of the framework private, in a blow to…
What might a modern day equivalent of Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics look like? Guided by the author, I propose the three laws of AI Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk predicted in July that legions of AI-powered robots would dominate the physical world and that AI might not take orders from people any more. He also offered an alternative vision in which there would be agreement for a collective…
While some users say the wearables have changed their lives, critics voice fears over safety and privacy With more than 7m pairs reportedly sold in 2025, Meta’s Ray-Ban smartglasses are fast becoming one of the world’s most popular gadgets. While supporters say they are transforming photography and accessibility, critics have raised concerns about nonconsensual filming, privacy and data…
'Most people don’t want pervert glasses that can film us without our consent,' said a spokesperson from activist group Everyone Hates Elon. The group has launched a series of guerilla adverts deriding non-consensual filming by the glasses as well as an email campaign encouraging people to legally object to being filmed by Meta glasses under general data protection regulations, which over 20,000…
As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them In April, Gil Durán was permanently banned from Elon Musk’s X for posting just two words. Durán was responding to a post from the tech company Palantir outlining its 22‑point “technological manifesto” , which…
They’re perfect for time-poor cooks, but which deserves your counter space? From combi models to smart designs, here’s what our expert recommends • The best air fryers If you’re at a restaurant and hear a ping a couple of minutes before your meal arrives at your table, it’s unlikely to be a good sign. But microwave ovens are a brilliant tool in the home kitchen. They’re fearsomely fast at heating…
Investors scramble to make sense of a shock Chinese challenge to the dominance of western chipmakers Even for the rollercoaster world of AI, last week was particularly volatile as investors scrambled to keep up with developments that threatened the dominance of the largest western chipmakers. It began with a double whammy. On Monday, the Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT floated on the Shanghai stock…
New AI models, advanced robots and specialty computer chips are unsettling markets and the US tech industry Over the past month, a series of advancements in China’s artificial intelligence, chip manufacturing and robotics technologies have rattled financial markets, caused divisions among US tech moguls and left the Trump administration scrambling to respond. Silicon Valley has long pointed to…
