Month: March 2021

Recommendations feature also pushed anti-vaccination and antisemitic material, watchdog says Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Instagram’s recommendations were pushing users toward Covid misinformation, anti-vaccination content and antisemitic material during the peak of the pandemic, according to a report from a social media watchdog. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found …

Instagram led users to Covid misinformation amid pandemic – report Read More »

A Banksy just fetched $382,000 despite going up in smoke, while a cat cartoon bagged twice that. And it’s all thanks to NFTs, an offshoot of crypto currency bitcoin. But is this a bubble about to burst? Last week masked men set fire to a Banksy screenprint called Morons (White) at a secret location in …

Flying cats and a burning Banksy: why are digital art prices suddenly rocketing? Read More »

The ‘unusually aggressive’ attack allowed hackers to access email accounts of at least 30,000 organizations in the US The Biden administration is launching an emergency taskforce to address an aggressive cyber-attack that has affected hundreds of thousands of Microsoft customers around the world – the second major hacking campaign to hit the US since the …

Microsoft hack: Biden launches emergency taskforce to address cyber-attack Read More »

OpenAI’s Clip system fails to correctly decipher images when words are pasted on picture As artificial intelligence systems go, it is pretty smart: show Clip a picture of an apple and it can recognise that it is looking at a fruit. It can even tell you which one, and sometimes go as far as differentiating …

‘Typographic attack’: pen and paper fool AI into thinking apple is an iPod Read More »

(Graceful Decay; Annapurna Interactive; PC, PS4/5)This simple girl-meets-boy story plays out in a series of abstract dioramas, each one bigger than the next Maquette opens with a conversation between two strangers in a San Francisco coffee shop, a flirty interaction sparked over a sketchbook. Romance soon follows and the game – the latest from the …

Maquette review – exhilarating worlds within worlds Read More »

Sales of slumber-related products have soared during lockdown There are breathing robots versed in “thousands of years of Buddhist breathing techniques” that claim to soothe you to sleep. Then there are weighted blankets that press around 10% of your body weight down as you snooze. And there are apps, such as supermodel Natalia Vodianova’s Loóna, …

From posh blankets to aural apps: the firms cashing in on the demand for sleep aids Read More »

With the help of botanists, Daan Roosegaarde has created a ‘light recipe’ for a field of leeks to help the plants grow better By day, the field of leeks looks like any other. But, as the sun sets, blue and red light, mixed with invisible ultraviolet (UV) radiation, transforms the scene into a multicoloured landscape. …

Shining through: Dutch artist paints farming in a new light to boost crops Read More »

Measure would allow developers to use own payment systems as tide turns against industry that has been largely unregulated A controversial Arizona bill that addresses the fees technology companies like Apple and Google charge app developers is raising new antitrust challenges for embattled US tech giants. The bill – which passed the Arizona state house …

Apple and Google face new antitrust battle over Arizona app store bill Read More »

Stoking panic about China’s dominance is just another way for western technology giants to avoid scrutiny and gain power This week the American National Security Commission on artificial intelligence released its final report. Cursory inspection of its 756 pages suggests that it’s just another standard product of the military-industrial complex that so worried President Eisenhower …

Fear itself is the real threat to democracy, not tall tales of Chinese AI | John Naughton Read More »

Till-free convenience is all very well until the bill eventually arrives at home I may be a retail misanthrope, but are the till-free Amazon Fresh shops a depersonalised step too far? At first sight, the basic concept (wander in, wander out, get charged later) looks tailor-made for me. I already don’t need much shopping “face …

The ‘soulless corporation’ look – yes, it’s Amazon on the high street | Barbara Ellen Read More »