Month: October 2023

A leading researcher, who will attend this week’s AI safety summit in London, warns of ‘real threat to the public conversation’ Focusing on doomsday scenarios in artificial intelligence is a distraction that plays down immediate risks such as the large-scale generation of misinformation, according to a senior industry figure attending this week’s AI safety summit. …

AI doomsday warnings a distraction from the danger it already poses, warns expert Read More »

By digitising scents as we have images and sounds, researchers hope they can transform everything from food and agriculture to disease prevention “Did you ever try to measure a smell?” Alexander Graham Bell once asked an audience of graduands at a high school in Washington DC. He then quizzed the probably confused class of 1914 …

‘Giving computers a sense of smell’: the quest to scientifically map odours Read More »

Silicon Valley overshadows its transatlantic rivals. But as artificial intelligence grows – and with a global summit on it this week – some think it could offer a Euro startup the chance to become a new Google Arthur Mensch is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs hoping to solve a longstanding problem with the …

‘It’s just a matter of time’: why AI could help Europe create its own Apple or Google Read More »

Today’s poem-writing AI has ancestry in punch-card machines, trundling robots and godlike gaming engines In the winter of 1958, a 30-year-old psychologist named Frank Rosenblatt was en route from Cornell University to the Office of Naval Research in Washington DC when he stopped for coffee with a journalist. Rosenblatt had unveiled a remarkable invention that, …

Race to AI: the origins of artificial intelligence, from Turing to ChatGPT Read More »

I hadn’t ever had cause to think about how manipulated online content could impact my life. Then, one winter morning, someone knocked at my door … • Helen Mort’s experiences form the subject of a new Guardian documentary, My Blonde GF. Watch it here There was an insistent knock at the door. This in itself …

I felt numb – not sure what to do. How did deepfake images of me end up on a porn site? Read More »

The French photographer on an inspired, instinctive moment on a street in Portugal ‘That fraction of a second in which everything happens at once? That’s what this photo is all about,” Stéphane Arnaud says. The global photo editor-in-chief for Agence France-Presse was in the Portuguese city of Coimbra for work, walking up a whitewashed street, …

‘Just as I reached the car, the woman appeared in her red coat’: Stéphane Arnaud’s best phone picture Read More »

We’ve watched in horrified fascination as the town square that was once the world’s collective pulse has gone up in flames Over the last year, we’ve watched with horrified fascination as Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, rained deathblow after deathblow upon a social network that once served as the global town square for the …

Twitter takeover: how a year of Elon Musk rendered the platform useless Read More »

Bankman-Fried says his biggest mistake was not implementing a dedicated risk management team for crypto trading platform FTX Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to making management mistakes while at the helm of FTX, his former multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire, during Friday testimony in his defense at trial. His testimony comes a day later than anticipated, after the judge …

Sam Bankman-Fried admits to ‘large mistakes’ in crypto fraud trial testimony Read More »

Questions remain about gathering unlikely to help PM fulfil aspiration of UK shaping global approach No one is yet quite sure who will attend, or what, if anything will be decided, but Rishi Sunak’s government is adamant that next week’s AI safety summit is a vital first step towards getting to grips with a subject …

No 10 plays down worries about Sunak’s AI safety summit having few top leaders Read More »

PC (version tested), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S; Free Range Games/North Beach GamesPicking up after the defeat of Sauron, in Tolkien-world terms, this survival game traps you in the dwarven mines, fighting green-skins and crafting weapons as you go – but it’s a bit one-dimensional The elves have exited on ships bound for the west, …

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria review – mining a shallow vein Read More »