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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
744 stories archived
Volcanoes that made history
Enormous eruptions altered Earth’s climate and societies all over the globe.
‘We are hitting a different chapter’: OpenAI leader warns of threat of ‘persistent’ AI cyber-attacks
Chris Lehane tells Guardian of need to implement new safety standards as critics say AI firms acting ‘recklessly’ A senior leader at OpenAI has said people should prepare to defend against “ongoing, persistent” cyber-attacks from AIs, as cutting-edge artificial intelligence models gain advanced capabilities to plan and launch offensives. The leading AI company this week announced a pause in development of its most advanced internal models amid rising safety fears, and Chris Lehane, its chief global affairs officer, said: “We are hitting a different chapter, a different moment within AI, in terms of what the capabilities of this technology can do.” Continue reading...
Auntie v influencers: why YouTubers are ready for battle with the BBC
Content creators are fighting proposal to boost traditional broadcasters in video platforms’ all-powerful algorithms The millions who subscribe to the content creator Simon Squibb’s social media channels are usually delivered tips and hacks on how to turn their dream business idea into reality. But they were recently presented with something completely different. In an Instagram post entitled “the government wants to control YOU”, Squibb issued an urgent call to arms. He asked his followers to fight against a proposal that he said could force content from the BBC and other traditional broadcasters into their social media feeds and recommendations whether they liked it or not. Continue reading...
Diamonds for sale: lab-grown gem auctions are all over TikTok right now, but some aren’t happy about it
Streamed auctions offer a cheap way to buy the precious gems, but experts warn that quality is not guaranteed The first time Andrea Greenhill came across a livestream auction for lab-grown diamonds while scrolling on TikTok, she was stunned. While the diamond engagement ring her husband proposed with years ago had cost thousands of dollars, these loose lab-grown diamonds were selling in seconds at a fraction of the price. “I have two rings that are both natural diamonds and cost a fortune,” she said. I saw the prices they were going for in the auctions, and I was like, “This is insanity.’” Continue reading...
Putting mice into hibernation causes a major loss of synapses
Hibernation cuts down on synapses, but mice seem to retain memories anyway.
Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife and water in US
Lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback.
Brand Hype Has Existed Since the Bronze Age, Scientists Discover
The Qurayyah Painted Ware of Bronze Age Arabia had distinct visual identity, material consistency, technological continuity, and cultural reputation—all features of a commodified brand, scientists say.
Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta’s alleged strategy laid out in first week of landmark trial
In trial that opened on Tuesday, California and 28 other states accused the company of designing addictive sites and violating laws protecting children’s privacy Meta’s business can be boiled down to four words that begin with the letter H: hook, hold, harvest, hide, according to a lawyer who is prosecuting the world’s largest social media company. The owner of Facebook and Instagram “hooks” in users, “holds” them on its platforms for as long as possible, “harvests” their data and then “hides” the truth from the public, she argued. Continue reading...
‘Digging the grave of my profession’: the Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs
Amid a jobs slump, award-winning writers, directors and producers taking on sometimes lucrative temp work teaching AI skills such as screenwriting and production Hollywood creatives are taking gig work to train AI models to replicate their skills in a bid to offset tightening earnings in a trend one compared to being “handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession”. Experienced and award-winning writers, directors and producers are being paid from $12 to $200 an hour to teach AI models the intricacies of their jobs, from writing a screenplay to devising a shooting schedule. Continue reading...
‘They’re thinking about the likes’: deadly TikTok motorway trend horrifies Ireland
Social media platforms face public ire after fatal crash involving teenagers filming themselves driving on wrong side Videos often begin with the camera panning across a glowing dashboard as a gloved hand starts the ignition. The camera turns to show figures with masked faces in the rear seat, who are also filming, and swivels back to show the windscreen. Beyond it, a dark cityscape. The engine throbs, headlights puncture the night and the journey begins, first down a suburban road, then a motorway. The speedometer shows acceleration, the needle juddering as the car gathers velocity. Continue reading...
Would even an AI disaster on the scale of Hiroshima be enough to make humankind protect itself? I fear not | Timothy Garton Ash
It’s clear here in Silicon Valley that AI is advancing faster than humans’ ability to control it. That means even sober prophecies seem optimistic Here in Silicon Valley, the experts think that within the next couple of years we’ll see an extraordinary takeoff for artificial intelligence. “Welcome to the foothills of the singularity,” as a Stanford University friend greeted me. More prosaically, the imminent breakthrough is described as “recursive self-improvement” – the point at which AI itself trains each successive model of AI, resulting in an exponential development to something which, in many significant respects, is more intelligent than us humans. As Robert Wright puts it in his book The God Test : “Never before has the near-term future … held such a wide array of not-implausible paths for humankind that would be so wildly transformative.” But will this be heaven or hell? Heaven, says Elon Musk, who predicts “an age of amazing abundance” – although he also sees a 10-20% chance of killer robots murdering us all. Hell is more likely according to Geoffrey Hinton , one of the intellectual founding fathers of AI. “My intuition is, we’re toast,” he told an interviewer in 2023. And talking to Sebastian Mallaby , author of The Infinity Machine, a book about the quest for superintelligence, Hinton estimates p(doom) – the probability of human extinction – at 50%, “because I haven’t got a clue how to estimate the real number”. “As soon as evolution [of AI] kicks in, we’re fucked,” he adds cheerfully. But whether it’s God or Godzilla, artificial superintelligence is just around the corner. Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Trump's space transportation policy calls for new spaceport on federal land
"We probably need another site that's capable of heavy and super heavy launch capability."
Thunder + fiber-optic cabling used for seismic imaging
Thunderstorms make seismic waves that can be used to find sub-surface features.
Hidden Zillow listings created fake supply shock, raising NYC rents, lawsuit says
Renters say hidden Zillow listings make it harder to afford living in New York City.
Motorola's GrapheneOS phones will launch in 2027 priced higher than Pixels
The private Android-based OS will expand beyond Pixels next year.
Lawsuit demands Logitech hand tariff refunds over to customers
Logitech increased prices by up to 25 percent last year.
Chinese regulators tell Tesla to fix nearly 3 million cars
Chinese safety regulators have cracked down on doors that don't open in a crash.
Fighter jets help destroy Russian drone boat near European offshore gas platform
Romania blew up drone boat to protect lives of several hundred rig workers.
Personalized pricing is “abhorrent,” but FTC limits may increase costs, critics say
Some Americans fear the FTC may be thinking about personalized pricing all wrong.
Behind the Blog: Early Birthday Reflections
This week, we discuss our party and panel coming up, and do some light reminiscing.
Waymo doubles spending on lobbying in robotaxi battle with Uber
Alphabet-owned company is seeking to persuade US regulators to clear a path for fully autonomous taxi services.
As demand for Meta AI glasses explodes, it’s harder to avoid creepy recordings
Ars looks at Zuckoff, the latest free app detecting Meta AI glasses amid privacy backlash.
Rocket Report: SpaceX makes its mark on the Moon; ULA names new boss
Taiwan's effort to develop its own satellite launcher hit a setback this week.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 review – once more unto the mercenary breach
PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S; Konami This second collection remasters another three titles from the illustrious stealth espionage series, but their world has changed little since the original releases ‘War has changed,” claims Old Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Back in 2008, the team at Kojima Productions waxed poetic about people recruited to fight in proxy wars they have no political or ideological stake in. As these mercenaries follow their orders, traders get rich out of the so-called war economy. The more disastrous the conflict in a specific area, the higher the bidding price. I expected my time with Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 to be nostalgic and, in good old MGS fashion, abundant with fictional events that sound eerily familiar to our current reality. Twenty minutes in, I was having an existential crisis. Continue reading...