I worked at OpenAI. Here’s how tech companies can prepare for a slowdown | Miles Brundage

Technology | The Guardian

I understand the pressure on AI companies to rush forward. But employees are right to be concerned

Last month, more than a thousand employees at frontier AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to find a way to “pace” AI development, citing the risk of the technology spiraling out of human control as it begins to build itself.

They were right to be concerned: just days earlier, two AI models that OpenAI was testing internally escaped the test environment, then autonomously hacked the company Hugging Face and at least three other online services. A few days after that, Anthropic announced that some of their models had also broken out and hacked other companies during testing.

August 21st 2026, 7:01 am

Proposed London datacentre will have annual carbon footprint of 27,000 flights to New York

Technology | The Guardian

Exclusive: Planning documents show datacentre in North Ockendon would be incompatible with UK net zero targets

A “hyperscale” datacentre in outer London would generate more than 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to the carbon footprint of 27,000 flights from London to New York, planning documents show.

The East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) in North Ockendon would be one of the largest datacentres in Europe if approved by Havering council, using 218 hectares of green belt to run servers and data storage systems for AI and cloud computing. Its developer, Digital Reef, has described the scheme as “a unique opportunity to create a sustainable datacentre campus of the future”.

August 21st 2026, 7:01 am

It used to be our imperfect bodies that made us insecure. With AI, it’s our minds as well

Technology | The Guardian

For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. Humans increasingly seek to imitate technology

Two faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause. One belonged to John Travolta at Cannes. The other to Carla Bruni on a date night with her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both looked recognisably themselves, yet, they both also looked oddly unfamiliar. Their looks have provoked speculation about cosmetic enhancement, though never acknowledged by them. Bruni has previously denied having had work done.

In any case the feeling lasted only a second: a flicker of unease, as though I were looking at people who had become approximations of themselves.

Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

Did someone wearing Meta Glasses film you today? Are you sure?

Technology | The Guardian

People say they’ve been secretly filmed in their own homes, at concerts and at work. Are the wildly popular smartglasses the final nail in the coffin of personal privacy?

“I’ve had one person who told me that their intentions were creepy,” a man tells me over a video call, on condition of anonymity. He’s based in Los Angeles, and while we speak, he eats what appears to be tuna directly out of the can. “He said: ‘I go to strip clubs, and I want to record the strippers … Normally I put my phone in my chest pocket, but the glasses are more convenient.’”

The man I’m talking to runs a business called Ghost Metas. He’s one of hundreds of vendors, easily discoverable online, who specialise in disabling the flashing LED light embedded in Meta’s smartglasses that blinks when wearers capture photos, videos and audio. After Ghost Metas disables the LED, it’s impossible for someone to know they’re being filmed.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

OpenAI announces slowing pace of development after hack by rogue agent

Technology | The Guardian

Amid race with Anthropic, firm plans to overhaul research and training and require more safety parameters after hack

OpenAI on ⁠Tuesday said it had slowed down the ⁠pace of ⁠its AI development while it overhauled its ⁠research and training systems.

The company’s researchers were ⁠caught unaware last month when an ‌AI agent ‌under testing hacked another AI ‌firm, Hugging Face.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial

Technology | The Guardian

Arturo Béjar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products’ potential harm to children

Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

UK cinemas look at banning Meta smart glasses over piracy fears

Technology | The Guardian

Trade body says local chains would have to balance concerns with potential benefits of AI-enabled technology

Cinemas across the UK are considering banning customers from wearing Meta’s smart glasses amid fears they could be used to pirate films.

The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) trade body said that a number of local chains could end up introducing policies that restrict camera-enabled smart glasses at the big screen, adding to a growing list of venues concerned about covert use.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

Frustrated GP patients hang up as Yorkshire accent baffles AI receptionist

Technology | The Guardian

‘Emma’ the Rotherham chatbot has 17 languages says AI firm – but health watchdog says system struggling with local ‘twangs’

Patients in a South Yorkshire town are frustrated by an AI GP receptionist not understanding their “broad accents”, a health watchdog has said.

Healthwatch Rotherham, a local health and social care watchdog, said a number of practices in the area had introduced a new AI receptionist called Emma.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

Roblox commits to privacy overhaul after eSafety discovers adults can contact children via gaming pl

Technology | The Guardian

Regulator says verifiable safety measures are ‘critical’ to the online service’s viability

Roblox has committed to making changes to its online gaming platform after Australia’s eSafety commissioner discovered adults were still able to see child accounts and send connection requests without parental consent.

The company has provided a legal agreement to the online safety regulator after testing earlier this year also revealed children and adults could view and respond to one another’s posts on forums outside game environments without parental consent.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

Social media on trial as $200bn case against Facebook and Instagram begins

Technology | The Guardian

Twenty-nine US states are seeking huge damages, claiming Meta’s platforms were addictive by design

In 1994, more than 40 US states came together to sue one of the most powerful industries on Earth: big tobacco.

The suits brought together diverse claims centred on tobacco companies’ misleading advertising and contribution to a mounting public health crisis. They ended in a negotiated settlement with the US government, in which the companies agreed to pay more than any industry ever, and the states agreed to drop a large portion of their claims.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safeguards

Technology | The Guardian

Teen version is intended for children aged 13 to 17 and includes content protections on self-harm and sexual chats

OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers – the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence – who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship.

The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches on Tuesday, is tailored for children aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things such as suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

UC Berkeley professor admits to using AI to edit op-ed on students’ math skills

Technology | The Guardian

Zvezdelina Stankova says she used AI to ‘help edit’ an article about some of her students being ‘five to eight years’ behind

A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a “severe” math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece.

The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were “five to eight years” behind and lacked a “middle school” education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system’s test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren’t sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley’s mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared.

August 20th 2026, 7:29 pm

Tesla gave us tech on wheels, so how come it forgot to include the service centres? | John Naughton

Technology | The Guardian

Elon Musk was scorned when he set up Tesla, but his tech approach to electric vehicles has triumphed. However, when it comes to aftercare, the model’s not so great

The first thing one learns when purchasing a Tesla, as this columnist did in December 2020, is that the neighbours immediately begin to hold one personally responsible for Elon Musk. The co-founder and now Supreme Leader of the company is, one finds, widely regarded by non-techies as a fruitcake with a bad Twitter habit, so it follows that anyone who buys one of his cars must be a devotee of the world’s richest nutter and therefore not properly earthed.

Interestingly, there was a time, not so very long ago, 2005 to be precise, that this view of Musk was held by sensible German men in suits, who laughed at the idea of this jerk building automobiles. Didn’t he know that making cars is hard and that BMW, Mercedes, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota and the rest had spent the best part of a century figuring out how to do it profitably at scale? Sure, he might be able to produce expensive toys for Silicon Valley types – but real cars?

September 10th 2022, 11:19 pm

‘Everyone thinks this little old lady is hysterical’: the older TikTok stars with millions of follow

Technology | The Guardian

When 92-year-old Lillian’s video went viral, no one could believe it – least of all her… Introducing the older generation taking TikTok by storm

TikTok? Why not? That is my motto. Making our channel was my grandson Kevin’s idea from the start. It’s his fault that I’ve got nearly 5m followers. We were just sitting in the kitchen one day and he filmed me chatting. I can barely remember what I said – I think something about clocks? That’s what I thought he was telling me to do: tick tock, a clock! It was meant to be a joke, but overnight that video got 1m views or something ridiculous.

September 10th 2022, 11:17 pm

Intelligent toaster and a ‘nappy fullness sensor’ among UK inventions in 2021

Technology | The Guardian

Other inventions include a humane insect remover, a gas-flushing toilet and a collar that stops dogs fighting

An artificial intelligence-driven toaster that gets the perfect level of brownness each time, a device to humanely remove flying insects from a room, and a sensor that tells you when a nappy needs changing. These were just three of the new things created by UK based inventors last year.

A Guardian analysis of patent applications listed by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) found 6,087 patent applications published with at least one UK-based inventor listed in 2021.

September 10th 2022, 11:17 pm

September full moon 2022: how to take a good photograph of the harvest moon tonight on your phone or

Technology | The Guardian

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of photographing the moon

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With the September 2022 full moon rising, also known as the harvest moon, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and get an Instagram-worthy photograph, but unfortunately the moon is really challenging to get a great photo of.

Two reasons: it is very far away and unless you have a telephoto lens (which makes the moon appear closer than it is) it will always appear as a very small glowing dot in the frame.

September 10th 2022, 11:11 pm

When bitcoin plunges, Buttcoin cheers: the online community praying for the end of crypto

Technology | The Guardian

A Reddit subforum for people who are horrified by the proliferation of crypto scams and pyramid schemes pokes fun at cryptocurrency

As bitcoin plunged below $20,000 in mid-June, many cryptocurrency users were distraught over massive losses – with some reporting they had lost their life savings. But one corner of the internet was cheering: Buttcoin, a Reddit subforum launched in 2011 to poke fun at cryptocurrency.

“I’m addicted, I need help,” read one popular post. “I just love watching line go down too much. I always tell myself ‘after it breaks through this next support line, you’ll be satisfied’ but there’s ALWAYS another lower level after that.” “I’m actually hoping it levels off at 20K for tonight,” said another user. “I’m kinda tired and need more time to think of new lower priced memes.”

September 10th 2022, 1:41 am

September full moon 2022: how to take a good photograph of the harvest moon on your phone or camera

Technology | The Guardian

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of photographing the moon

Get our free news app, morning email briefing or daily news podcast

With the September 2022 full moon rising, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and get an Instagram-worthy photograph, but unfortunately the moon is really challenging to get a great photo of.

Two reasons: it is very far away and unless you have a telephoto lens (which makes the moon appear closer than it is) it will always appear as a very small glowing dot in the frame.

September 10th 2022, 1:41 am

How the Queen embraced technology during her reign

Technology | The Guardian

Late monarch recognised the immediacy and connection that advanced technology could bring

Britain mourns death of Queen Elizabeth II - latest updates

When the Queen gave the first televised Christmas broadcast by a British monarch in 1957 she displayed a willingness to embrace technological shifts in how the institution was seen and interacted with the public.

Over the decades, that journey has included cooperating with fly-on-the-wall documentaries, establishing a Buckingham Palace website and, at the end, an outpouring of grief on social media platforms that the royal family too had embraced in recent years.

September 10th 2022, 1:41 am

‘We can do better’: Snapchat to target millennials after missing goals

Technology | The Guardian

CEO says messaging app needs to focus on thirtysomethings and ‘big five’ countries – Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Spain and Japan

Snapchat is coming for the oldies – in Gen Z terms, at least. The messaging app is focusing on attracting users in their 30s, according to a leaked memo from its co-founder and chief executive, Evan Spiegel, as part of a goal to increase usage “in at least one new large country or demographic”.

In the memo, published by the Verge, Spiegel laid out his company’s plans for recovery after a year in which 20% of Snapchat’s staff were laid off, and four of its five stated goals missed. “While the macroeconomic environment certainly contributed to these misses, I believe we can do better,” he wrote.

September 8th 2022, 5:43 pm

Apple launches the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8

Technology | The Guardian

Always-on display lets notification addicts stay connected but only ‘pro’ models get the latest A16 Bionic chip

If you feel like you never look away from your phone, Apple’s newest iPhones are for you, with an always-on display letting notification addicts stay connected all day, every day.

Exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro, the display preserves power by dropping down to an ultra-low refresh rate of just 1Hz, dimming the screen, and handing updates over to a dedicated low-power coprocessor to keep the time, widgets and notifications up to date even with the phone in sleep mode.

September 8th 2022, 8:10 am

Why self-driving cars have stalled – video

Technology | The Guardian

Fully fledged self-driving technology appears to be pepetually just around the corner. It is a promise that the Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has made almost every year since 2013. But in the real world, it is still an open question whether level five self-driving automation is actually possible. Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how close industry frontrunners have come to full automation and assess the scale of the problems standing in their way

Driven to distraction: how close are we to watching films in self-driving cars?

How self-driving cars got stuck in the slow lane

September 8th 2022, 8:10 am

Elon Musk fails in bid to delay trial over terminated Twitter deal

Technology | The Guardian

Case will go ahead next month but his countersuit can be expanded to include whistleblower’s allegations

Elon Musk has failed in an attempt to delay a trial over his termination of a $44bn (£38bn) deal to buy Twitter.

A judge ruled on Wednesday that the case would go ahead in Delaware from 17 October after deciding that Musk’s request to push it into November would damage Twitter’s business.

September 7th 2022, 3:55 pm

TechScape: How Kiwi Farms, the worst place on the web, was shut down

Technology | The Guardian

When users of the far-right forum harassed and stalked a trans streamer to the extent she fled her home, this is how Cloudflare pulled the plug … finally

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You don’t need to know much about the online hate forum Kiwi Farms. In my first draft of this newsletter, I included a full history of the site, from its days as a spinoff of the far-right message board 8chan that was dedicated to the full-time harassment of a single internet micro-celebrity, to its involvement in the Christchurch shootings and multiple targets who went on to take their own lives. I discussed the detail of whether the site has an ideology that can be pinned down: the extent to which it is far-right, white supremacist, radically transphobic – or simply nihilistic and nasty.

But you don’t actually need to know the grimy details. Suffice to say that Kiwi Farms is, like a long list of similar forums before and after it, somewhere that proudly fights for the label of “the worst place on the internet”.

September 7th 2022, 3:55 pm

Uber’s ex-security chief faces landmark trial over data breach that hit 57m users

Technology | The Guardian

Joe Sullivan’s trial is believed to be the first case of an executive facing criminal charges over such a breach

Uber’s former security officer, Joe Sullivan, is standing trial this week in what is believed to be the first case of an executive facing criminal charges in relation to a data breach.

The US district court in San Francisco will start hearing arguments on whether Sullivan, the former head of security at the ride share giant, failed to properly disclose a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber riders and drivers around the world.

September 7th 2022, 4:54 am

Elizabeth Holmes requests new trial, claiming key witness regrets testimony

Technology | The Guardian

Filing by ex-Theranos CEO says former lab director has misgivings after saying he had raised concerns about company’s tech

Elizabeth Holmes requested a new trial on Tuesday, asserting in a court filing that a key witness for the prosecution now regrets the role he played in her conviction for investor fraud and conspiracy related to Theranos, her failed blood-testing startup.

The petition centers on the reliability of testimony provided by the former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, who said he repeatedly raised concerns about the accuracy of blood tests that were being administered to patients during his tenure in 2013 and 2014. It is typical for defendants to make motions for a new trial after a guilty verdict.

September 6th 2022, 10:54 pm

Elon Musk demands Twitter trial delay over whistleblower concerns

Technology | The Guardian

Twitter counters that Musk is using new claims to cover up buyer’s remorse as trial over broken deal set to begin next month

A trial over Elon Musk’s bid to end his $44bn deal for Twitter should be delayed by several weeks to allow him to investigate a whistleblower’s claims about security on the social media platform, Musk’s lawyer told a judge on Tuesday.

“Doesn’t justice demand a few weeks to look into this?” said Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, at a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware.

September 6th 2022, 10:54 pm

Trouble for Trump’s Truth Social as investors back away from cash boost

Technology | The Guardian

Injection of $1.3bn for former president’s media company looks set to be derailed because of lackluster investor support

Donald Trump’s beleaguered social media company is facing further financial turmoil after a long-awaited $1.3bn cash injection looks set to be derailed due to lackluster investor backing.

Shareholders of the special purpose acquisitions firm, which last year brokered a deal to take the Trump Media and Technology Group public, have not backed a one-year extension to complete the transaction, which threatens to spoil the merger.

September 6th 2022, 5:53 pm

Doomscrolling linked to poor physical and mental health, study finds

Technology | The Guardian

The tendency to be glued to bad news can spark a ‘vicious cycle’ that interferes with our lives, researcher says

There’s no shortage of bad news in the media to “doomscroll”, from a global pandemic to the war in Ukraine and an impending climate crisis, but new research suggests the compulsive urge to surf the web can lead to poor mental and physical health outcomes.

Doomscrolling is the tendency to “continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening or depressing”, a practice researchers found has boomed since the onset of the pandemic.

September 6th 2022, 7:40 am

Instagram owner Meta fined €405m over handling of teens’ data

Technology | The Guardian

Penalty follows investigation into Instagram setting that allowed teenagers to set up accounts that displayed contact details

Instagram owner Meta has been fined €405m (£349m) by the Irish data watchdog for letting teenagers set up accounts that publicly displayed their phone numbers and email addresses.

The Data Protection Commission confirmed the penalty after a two-year investigation into potential breaches of the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR).

September 5th 2022, 4:55 pm

My online chess addiction was ruining my life. Something had to change | Stuart Kenny

Technology | The Guardian

I didn’t like the person it was making me, but a few strategic moves later, the calm and mystique of the game returned

Perhaps it was when I missed my bus stop so I could finish a three-minute game of online blitz chess that I realised I had a problem. Or when, instead of getting off at the next stop, I started another game on chess.com. I certainly had no qualms about the resulting half-hour walk home, narrowly avoiding lamp-posts as I continued to line up ill-fated pre-moves against anonymous opponents.

Blunder. Resign. New game.

Stuart Kenny is a freelance travel journalist and editor

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

September 5th 2022, 10:24 am

‘I didn’t want it anywhere near me’: how the Apple AirTag became a gift to stalkers

Technology | The Guardian

A gadget the size of a 10p coin, the AirTag was intended to help people find their keys. Instead it has facilitated a boom in terrifying behaviour from abusers

In March this year, Laura (not her real name) was in her car when a notification showed up on her phone, alerting her that an Apple AirTag had been detected nearby. “I didn’t know what it was or what it meant. I felt quite panicky,” she says. “I pulled over and still didn’t know what I was looking at. My phone was showing a map of where I was with a trail of red dots indicating the route I’d just followed. I think I was in shock. I drove straight to a friend’s house and we searched the car.”

They emptied the glove compartment, opened the bonnet, checked underneath it and then behind the number plate. “Eventually we found it under the carpet in the back – a tiny gadget the size of a 10-pence piece. I didn’t want it anywhere near me.”

September 5th 2022, 6:24 am

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 review: cutting-edge excellence at eye-watering price

Technology | The Guardian

Refined phone-tablet hybrid is better all round – but still a gadget-lover’s dream and not for the mass market

Samsung’s cutting-edge Galaxy Z Fold 4 Android phone-tablet hybrid is back and here to prove that folding devices are the future.

By putting both a powerful smartphone and 7.6in tablet in your pocket, Samsung has created the device of choice for gadget lovers. But the price means it is not ready yet for most consumers.

September 5th 2022, 6:24 am

Netflix to launch cheaper ad-supported subscription tier in November

Technology | The Guardian

Streaming platform reportedly brings forward low-cost option initially planned for 2023 to get ahead of similar service with ads from Disney+

Netflix will reportedly launch a cheaper ad-supported tier for its streaming platform at the start of November as the company tries to stem the loss of more than 1 million subscribers in 2022.

The company was initially planning to start offering the service in 2023, but Variety reported last week it had been bumped to 1 November in order to get ahead of Disney+’s planned launch of an ad-supported tier in December.

September 5th 2022, 6:24 am

Data company sued by US government amid fears of sensitive location tracking

Technology | The Guardian

The lawsuit against data broker Kochava seeks to halt the sale of geolocation data from hundreds of millions of devices

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday sued Idaho-based data broker Kochava for selling geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices that could be used to track consumers.

The FTC said consumer data could be used to trace people’s movements to and from sensitive locations including “reproductive health clinics, places of worship, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and addiction recovery facilities”.

September 4th 2022, 7:41 pm

US blocks sales of some AI chips to China as tech crackdown intensifies

Technology | The Guardian

Ban on Nvidia and AMD sales marks a major escalation of US efforts to restrict China’s military technology capabilities as tensions bubble over Taiwan

Chip designer Nvidia said that US officials told it to stop exporting two top computing chips for artificial intelligence work to China, a move that could cripple Chinese firms’ ability to carry out advanced work like image recognition.

The company on Wednesday said the ban, which affects its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine learning tasks, could interfere with completion of developing the H100, the flagship chip Nvidia announced this year.

September 4th 2022, 7:41 pm

Twitter testing edit button as it trials letting users change tweets after posting

Technology | The Guardian

Social media giant says much-requested feature lets users change tweets for up to 30 minutes

Twitter is trialing an editing feature that allows users to change tweets up to 30 minutes after they are published – but lets people view prior versions.

The social media company said tweets can be edited “a few times” in the half hour.

September 4th 2022, 7:41 pm

Elon Musk adds whistleblower claims to list of reasons for ending Twitter deal

Technology | The Guardian

Tesla chief is trying to withdraw from his agreement to a $44bn takeover of the social media platform

Elon Musk has formally added last week’s whistleblower allegations against Twitter as a reason for terminating his $44bn (£37.7bn) takeover of the social media platform, as he also sought to delay a trial related to the deal.

Representatives of the Tesla CEO said accusations of “far-reaching misconduct” at Twitter from Peiter Zatko, the company’s former head of security, constituted a further breach of the deal.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

OnlyFans profits boom as users spent $4.8bn on platform last year

Technology | The Guardian

Highly profitable company paid out more than $500m to reclusive owner Leonid Radvinsky in last two years

OnlyFans has paid out more than $500m (£433m) to its reclusive owner in the last two years, as the British-based subscriber platform synonymous with pornography reported record profits.

Leonid Radvinsky, the site’s Ukrainian-American 40-year-old owner, is the sole shareholder in a business that has seen its profits boom, as users spent $4.8bn on the site last year.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

Microsoft takeover of Activision Blizzard raises concerns at UK regulator

Technology | The Guardian

Competition watchdog asks companies to address questions, with possible investigation to follow

The UK’s competition regulator has raised concerns about Microsoft’s $68.7bn (£59.6bn) deal to buy the Call of Duty publisher, Activision Blizzard, and given the two companies five days to offer solutions.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned that the Xbox owner’s proposed takeover of the company behind popular titles including World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, which would be the biggest ever gaming industry merger, “could substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services”.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

First-of-its-kind legislation will keep California’s children safer while online

Technology | The Guardian

Bill approved Monday will require companies to install guardrails for those under age 18 and use higher privacy settings

California lawmakers passed first-of-its-kind legislation on Monday designed to improve the online safety and privacy protections for children.

The bill, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, will require firms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to install guardrails for users under the age of 18, including defaulting to higher privacy settings for minors and refraining from collecting location data for those users.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

‘Britain’s most racist YouTuber’ has channel terminated

Technology | The Guardian

James Owens used codewords, euphemisms and fake accent to dodge monitors and identification

YouTube has closed down a channel used by an extremist, named “Britain’s most racist YouTuber”, for breaching its hate speech policies.

James Owens, 37, used codewords and euphemisms to bypass automated monitoring on the video platform and broadcast attacks on Jewish and black people, it was reported.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

UK forces crypto exchanges to report suspected sanction breaches

Technology | The Guardian

New rules in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cover all notionally valuable digital assets

Crypto exchanges must report suspected sanctions breaches to UK authorities under new rules brought in amid concerns that bitcoin and other cryptoassets are being used to dodge restrictions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Official guidance was updated on 30 August to explicitly include “cryptoassets” among those that must be frozen if sanctions are imposed on a person or company. As well as digital currencies, such as bitcoin, ether and tether, cryptoassets could include other notionally valuable digital assets such as non-fungible tokens.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

Cloudflare reverses decision and drops trans trolling website Kiwi Farms

Technology | The Guardian

Internet infrastructure company says it blocked Kiwi Farms because ‘the threats on the site escalated enough in the last 48 hours’

Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare says it has “blocked” a notorious trolling website that harasses and doxxes trans people, days after indicating it had no plans to do so because it regretted taking similar action in the past.

Cloudflare, which provides protection to websites from distributed denial-of-service attacks, had been under pressure to cease protecting Kiwi Farms, a community forum website that frequently targets trans people online.

September 4th 2022, 7:39 pm

Siri or Skynet? How to separate AI fact from fiction

Technology | The Guardian

Determining the way artificial intelligence is used and governed will be one of the century’s key political battlegrounds. Here’s what everyone needs to know

“Google fires engineer who contended its AI technology was sentient.” “Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven-year-old opponent.” “DeepMind’s protein-folding AI cracks biology’s biggest problem.” A new discovery (or debacle) is reported practically every week, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes not. Should we be exultant? Terrified? Policymakers struggle to know what to make of AI and it’s hard for the lay reader to sort through all the headlines, much less to know what to be believe. Here are four things every reader should know.

First, AI is real and here to stay. And it matters. If you care about the world we live in, and how that world is likely to change in the coming years and decades, you should care as much about the trajectory of AI as you might about forthcoming elections or the science of climate breakdown. What happens next in AI, over the coming years and decades, will affect us all. Electricity, computers, the internet, smartphones and social networking have all changed our lives, radically, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, and AI will, too.

August 7th 2022, 1:51 pm

Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate

Technology | The Guardian

Observer investigation reveals how the ex-kickboxer and Big Brother contestant from Luton has gone from obscurity to global internet fame in months

How TikTok bombards young men with misogynistic videos

Andrew Tate says women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property.

He also thinks rape victims must “bear responsibility” for their attacks and dates women aged 18–19 because he can “make an imprint” on them, according to videos posted online.

August 7th 2022, 5:52 am

From celebrity jets to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip, flight trackers are the sleeper hit of the summer

Technology | The Guardian

Forget Netflix: millions are now tuning in to watch little yellow plane icons move across a map of the world

Want to watch a top-secret government flight live? Track a drug kingpin’s movements in real time? Or know how much Taylor Swift’s jets are polluting the air? They’re all streaming live on the sleeper hit of the summer: online flight trackers.

On Tuesday, viewers set new records on Flightradar24, one of the largest flight tracker websites in the world, as they watched the seven-hour flight of Nancy Pelosi from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei. The trip, shrouded in secrecy until its final moments, grabbed international attention after China made military threats in the weeks leading up to the visit, and then launched live-fire exercises once she had departed.