Month: January 2024

UK’s national library apologises to researchers, saying full recovery could take until end of the year The British Library is restoring online its main catalogue, containing 36m records of printed and rare books, maps, journals and music scores, 11 weeks after a catastrophic cyber-attack. However, access is limited to a “read-only” format, and full restoration …

British Library begins restoring digital services after cyber-attack Read More »

Once confined to weightlifting, workout hype tracks have become a hugely popular (and profitable) genre online. Jenny Valentish goes in search of the daddy of them all Perhaps my father walked out on me, the speaker hypothesises, his voice thundering over crashing drums (the kind that accompany tense moments on reality TV shows). Absent fathers …

‘Callus your mind’: can motivational speeches pump up my gym performance? Read More »

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Why are cars designed to be capable of going much faster than the speed limit? (Don’t tell me they’re made with the Autobahn in mind.) Andy Crosby, north Wales Post your …

Why are cars designed to be capable of going much faster than the speed limit? Read More »

Image library boss speaks out amid anger over harvesting of material for ‘training data’ for AI companies Rishi Sunak needs to decide whether he wants to back the UK’s creative industries or gamble everything on an artificial intelligence boom, the chief executive of Getty Images has said. Craig Peters, who has led the image library …

Back UK creative sector or gamble on AI, Getty Images boss tells Sunak Read More »

Glasgow University has set up virtual trips showing stories behind the poems and exploring the poet’s life Guests attending Burns Night suppers this month can get unexpected help in appreciating Scotland’s national bard – thanks to virtual reality. The Art of the Burns Supper has been created by Glasgow University researchers and takes participants on …

Egg timer, Coke bottle and a skull cast: VR puts Burns memorabilia in reach Read More »

As the Post Office debacle has amply demonstrated, putting blind faith into a new form of technology can be perilous It doesn’t take much imagination to describe what happens when a large corporation, over 16 long years, is allowed vindictively to prosecute 900 subpostmasters for theft, false accounting and fraud, when shortfalls at their branches …

Horrified by Horizon? Then get ready to be totally appalled by AI Read More »

Study warns that lack of reporting may mask the dangers of still-mostly-illegal scooters on roads and pavements The majority of e-scooter accidents that involve someone needing hospital treatment are not being recorded in official road accident figures, a new study reveals, sparking fears that their dangers have been underplayed. The analysis found that just 9% …

Tiny proportion of e-scooter injuries appear in official UK data Read More »

A 1999 note highlighted concerns of subpostmasters about the Horizon system and heralded decades of ministerial failings In any big scandal with the power to dominate the nation’s attention, there are inevitably key moments when events could have been stopped in their tracks. Yet few early warnings could have been as prescient as a seven-page …

‘A tragedy is not far away’: 25-year-old Post Office memo predicted scandal Read More »

Creators of these chatbots often tout them as a way to combat loneliness, but they can create unhealthy attachments and affect gender roles It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a computer must be in want of an AI girlfriend. Certainly a lot of enterprising individuals seem to think …

AI girlfriends are here – but there’s a dark side to virtual companions | Arwa Mahdawi Read More »

If there’s one area in which artificial intelligence could actually be useful, it’s in the writing of computer code As you have doubtless noticed, we are in the middle of a feeding frenzy about something called generative AI. Legions of hitherto normal people – and economists – are surfing a wave of irrational exuberance about …

The hard truth about AI? It might produce some better software | John Naughton Read More »