Momentum seemed to be on their side of US lawmakers this year to stop 150 million Americans from using TikTok. What happened? Banning TikTok in the US seemed almost inevitable at the start of 2023. The previous year saw a trickle of legislative actions against the short-form video app, after dozens of individual states barred …
How 2023 became the year Congress forgot to ban TikTok Read More »
Finding drugs that mimic the benefits of a workout has long been a goal of science. As a new trial begins, the hope is to assist not just the time-poor or the lazy but elderly people and those with disease or disability In a hospital in northern Norway, just south of the Arctic Circle, a …
Could exercise pills help create a healthier society? Read More »
As with the printing press and the dotcom boom, initial frenzy and speculation obscures the lasting legacy of new technologies “Innovation,” wrote the economist William Janeway in his seminal book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, “begins with discovery and culminates in speculation.” That just about sums up 2023. The discovery was AI (as represented …
Will KJ-T strike Olympic gold? Will Sunak go for an early election? How much will Taylor Swift fans bring to the UK economy? From tech to fashion, food to politics, the Observer’s top writers predict who and what will make the headlines by Ellie Bramley Continue reading… Will KJ-T strike Olympic gold? Will Sunak go …
A mass user protest six months ago over technical tweaks had big downstream effects, and now the social media site is changed for ever In June, thousands of Reddit communities plunged into darkness – making their pages inaccessible to the public in a mass protest of corporate policy changes. Users of a social network lambasting …
‘Front page of the internet’: how social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit Read More »
Guardian writers including Marina Hyde, John Crace (and a few other successful types) reveal what they won’t be doing in the coming year • Don’t take yourself too seriously. Some of my biggest regrets in life are things I’ve turned down on principle. Continue reading… Guardian writers including Marina Hyde, John Crace (and a few …
An image of a seven-year-old utterly engrossed in a book is both nostalgic and poignant On a previous visit to her brother’s London flat, Francesca Jones had taken her own reading light. Margot, her almost seven-year-old niece, was quite taken with it, so for her next birthday, Jones gave it to Margot. “Margot had a …
‘I think it’s quite magical’: Francesca Jones’s best phone picture Read More »
Plaintiffs allege their activity was tracked even when they set Chrome to ‘incognito’ and other browsers to ‘private’ mode Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately. US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put …
Google agrees to settle $5bn lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked users Read More »
Berrow’s Worcester Journal is one of several papers owned by the UK’s second biggest regional news publisher to hire ‘AI-assisted’ reporters On 7 October 1779 a letter appeared in Berrow’s Worcester Journal. “To the printer,” wrote a disgruntled reader. “I take the liberty of informing you and the public that the account of a melancholy …
How one of the world’s oldest newspapers is using AI to reinvent journalism Read More »
In this week’s newsletter: Artist and activist Scottee cues you up for a healthier year with Self Help. Plus: five of the best podcasts hosted by families • Don’t get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Scottee: Self HelpWidely available, weekly from New Year’s DayCabaret artist and activist Scottee has tried many …
