Month: February 2024

Local WhatsApp group started by two mothers concerned about online safety attracts more than 4,000 members More than 4,000 parents have joined a group committed to barring young children from having smartphones, as concerns grow about online safety and the impact of social media on mental health. The WhatsApp group Smartphone Free Childhood was created …

‘It went nuts’: Thousands join UK parents calling for smartphone-free childhood Read More »

Company to sell existing shares in ‘tender offer’ led by venture firm Thrive Capital, in similar deal as early last year Microsoft-backed OpenAI has completed a deal that values the artificial intelligence company at $80bn or more, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing multiple people with knowledge of the deal. The company would …

Microsoft-backed OpenAI valued at $80bn after company completes deal Read More »

Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok outline methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world. Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, …

Tech firms sign ‘reasonable precautions’ to stop AI-generated election chaos Read More »

Four games that were previously exclusive to the Xbox console will be made available for the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, as the company focuses on its software products Four of Xbox’s previously exclusive games will be making the jump to PlayStation and Nintendo’s consoles, Microsoft has announced. It was also suggested that the company will …

Microsoft bringing Xbox games to PlayStation and Nintendo, amid major strategy shift Read More »

Bluetooth earbuds fit around side of the ear without blocking it for full awareness with music and calls Bose’s latest earbuds are very different from its previous noise-cancelling champs, designed to let the sound of the outside in, rather than blocking it out and attaching to your ear, more like jewellery than gadgets. They are …

Bose Ultra Open earbuds review: unique open-fit and great sound Read More »

More than 120,000 PlayStation users have paid £3.29 to pet virtual hamsters, dogs and beavers. What’s behind this madness? Game development is an expensive and time-consuming business. Right now, 2,000 people are working on the next instalment in Ubisoft’s blockbuster Assassin’s Creed series, across 18 studios around the globe, and it’s a project that will …

Stroke of genius? How one developer earned over £250k from games made in just 30 minutes Read More »

Glaad’s first survey on the state of inclusion in gaming finds that 17% of US players identify as LGBTQ+, but only 2% of games feature an openly queer character In its first report on the state of LGBTQ+ inclusion in video games, US advocacy organisation Glaad (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has said that …

LGBTQ+ representation in video games lags behind film and TV, report finds Read More »

Model from ChatGPT maker ‘simulates physical world in motion’ up to a minute long based on users’ subject and style instructions OpenAI revealed a tool on Thursday that can generate videos from text prompts. The new model, nicknamed Sora after the Japanese word for “sky”, can produce realistic footage up to a minute long that …

Sora: OpenAI launches tool that instantly creates video from text Read More »

Move comes after Swedish court rules that informing webmasters about delisted content is breach of privacy Google has quietly stopped telling publishers when it has removed websites from its search results under European “right to be forgotten” rules after a ruling in a Swedish court which the search engine is applying globally. Previously, when an …

Google stops notifying publishers of ‘right to be forgotten’ removals from search results Read More »

In rural Norway, a young woman’s boyfriend forgets who she is overnight. In Detroit, a man is arrested for a crime, but he was never there. In a Spanish town, disturbing pictures of young girls have appeared, but no one knows who is behind them. In this new series from the Guardian, we’ll explore what …

Black Box: a new podcast series about AI and us – trailer Read More »