Month: June 2024

A disturbing documentary explores tech’s questionable ability to bring digital ‘comfort’ to the bereaved Death is a booming business. For one thing, it’s inevitable. For another, it brings a uniquely vulnerable and receptive market for any product that promises to numb the grief. Enter artificial intelligence. This thought-provoking and bang-up-to-the-minute documentary explores a morally questionable …

Eternal You review – thought-provoking look at new AI product for the grieving Read More »

Most UK children have their own phone by the age of 11. But what if we didn’t give them one? A group of parents wants their kids to enjoy a phone-free childhood – and their numbers are growing Last year, Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough, longtime friends who have eight- and nine-year-old daughters, began having …

‘We wanted to change the norm on smartphone use’: grassroots campaigners on a phone-free childhood Read More »

An academic psychologist’s insightful and compassionate study of adolescence is expertly presented, plotting out harmful as well as helpful transitions into adulthood I had just emerged from my own teenage years when I first read Joan Didion’s essay On Keeping a Notebook. Two sentences earned a mark in pen: “I think we are well advised …

Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us by Lucy Foulkes review – deep dive into the teenage mind Read More »

The photographer updates her 80s teen series, capturing young people in their bedrooms In the late 80s and early 90s, Denise Marcotte had a project photographing teens in their bedrooms. Decades later, with a teenage son of her own, the Massachusetts-based photographer decided to revisit the subject. Back then she used a Fujica 6×9 film camera …

‘It’s the quagmire of teenage existence – vulnerability with confidence’: Denise Marcotte’s best phone picture Read More »

Tech firm’s bid to remove more CO2 than it produces is being tested as AI spawns new energy-hungry datacentres Bill Gates: AI will help rather than hinder climate targets If you want evidence of Microsoft’s progress towards its environmental “moonshot” goal, then look closer to earth: at a building site on a west London industrial …

AI drive brings Microsoft’s ‘green moonshot’ down to earth in west London Read More »

Exclusive: Verily says it is refocusing on core products and cutting costs three years after opening research centers in Haifa and Tel Aviv Google’s health and data company, Verily, is closing its operations in Israel three years after opening a research and development center in the country. Verily staff in Israel are expected to leave …

Google’s biotech company pulls out of Israel but says Gaza war not the reason Read More »

My dreams of reliving the good old days of NHL 94 on the Sega Mega Drive were thwarted by the unexpected difficulty of getting online play to work I am very grateful for my dual nationality right now. The horror of Scotland’s dour Euro 2024 performance has been tempered by a swashbuckling Canada in their …

The hardest thing about modern sports games? Navigating EA’s customer support Read More »

Company says in court filing Musk is entitled to vast payout because shareholders voted in his favor earlier this month Tesla is claiming Elon Musk won his legal battle over his $56bn pay package because shareholders voted for the compensation, despite a judge rescinding it earlier this year, according to court filing made public on …

Elon Musk has won $56bn pay package despite judge ruling it void, Tesla argues Read More »

The stars of YouTube D&D series Natural Six Harry McEntire, Doug Cockle and Ben Starr reveal the challenges and joys of creating characters for roles than can stretch to 40 hours of invisible screen time As an actor, Doug Cockle is no stranger to unsettling workplaces. From battling Nazis in Spielberg’s Band of Brothers to …

‘Suddenly I can play anybody’: what it’s like to act in a video game Read More »

Microsoft co-founder says efficiencies for technology and electricity grids will outweigh energy use by data centres Bill Gates has claimed that artificial intelligence will be more of a help than a hindrance in achieving climate goals, despite growing concern that a surge in new datacentres could drain green energy supplies. The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder …

AI will be help rather than hindrance in hitting climate targets, Bill Gates says Read More »