Month: December 2022

Light infrastructure has expanded alongside population growth but it’s not only star gazing in jeopardy – cultures, wildlife, science and human health are all threatened On a clear dark Queensland night in 1997, Brendan Downs was staring up into the cosmos alongside a band of other amateur astronomers. He trained his telescope on a galaxy …

Blinded by the light: how skyglow pollution is separating us from the stars Read More »

Experts question economic case and point to environmental costs such as packaging, risks to birds and the noise factor Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast In 2013, Jeff Bezos announced Amazon was developing a drone delivery service. He estimated at the time that air-dropped packages were “four, five …

After years of fanfare the future of drone delivery in Australia remains up in the air Read More »

As ITVX launches and the BBC gets ready to stream not beam, will event viewing become a thing of the past? Hard to miss the huge television events of the last fortnight. There was Matt Hancock emoting away in the jungle on ITV, England scoring actual goals in the World Cup, and then the former …

Is this the end of TV? Broadcasters prepare for online-only switch Read More »

The impressive and wildly popular ChatGPT is the latest instalment in a long-running debate about whether we’re creating machines to help us or replace us Those who, like this columnist, spend too much time online will have noticed a kind of feeding frenzy over the past two weeks. The cause has been the release of …

I wrote this column myself, but how long before a chatbot could do it for me? | John Naughton Read More »

Former boss of collapsed crypto-exchange says he has ‘duty to do right by them’ and is seeking way to recoup lost investments Sam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of the failed crypto-exchange FTX, has said he hopes to start a new business to help pay back the victims of his old firm’s collapse. Speaking to the …

Bankman-Fried ‘would give anything’ to start new business to help FTX users Read More »

The Scottish photographer was looking for puffins when he spotted ‘a strange ritual by the sea’ In 2015, Kieran Dodds was visiting Fair Isle, the small island between Shetland and Orkney, for a work assignment. The photographer, who has a background in zoology, was there to document the relationship between nature and human industry. The …

Two fluffy lambs playing Twister: Kieran Dodds’ best phone picture Read More »

Wider economic uncertainty is behind cuts at companies including CNN, BuzzFeed and Gannett, executives say A wave of layoffs have hit the beleaguered American media industry as several major companies, including CNN, BuzzFeed and Gannett, have laid off hundreds of workers in recent weeks citing economic volatility and uncertainty. The job losses are the first …

Concern as US media hit with wave of layoffs amid rise of disinformation Read More »

Supermodels, an extraordinary immersive show in London, uses animatronics and meticulous construction to create beauty no AI could achieve When the eerily accurate AI image generator Dall-E 2 was released for public experimentation by OpenAI this summer, most people immediately used it to create whimsical scenes such as “samurai dolphin painted in the style of …

Small wonders: stunning exhibition celebrates artistry of model buildings Read More »

Founder and former CEO says he could talk about what he thinks led to crash and ‘my own failings’ Sam Bankman-Fried has said he is willing to testify to Congress next week about the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that he led until its demise last month. The company’s founder and former chief executive, …

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried ‘willing to testify’ to Congress next week Read More »

Founder’s net worth down about $70bn after fall in electric car maker’s share price since he bid for Twitter Tesla has lost nearly half its market value since its founder, Elon Musk, bid for Twitter in April, reducing his net worth by about $70bn and putting his title as world’s richest person at risk. Shares …

Elon Musk could lose world’s richest person title as Tesla value almost halves Read More »