Month: March 2025

Tightly choreographed Two Sessions opens in Beijing as the world order roils

With Trump’s tariffs and DeepSeek’s AI tech in the news, China waits to see how the Communist party plans to revitalise a stagnating economy As thousands of delegates from across China arrive in Beijing this week to participate in the annual parliamentary session, there is a barely perceptible shift in the mood in the capital. …

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The LA Times published an op-ed warning of AI’s dangers. It also published its AI tool’s reply

‘Insight’ labeled the argument ‘center-left’ and created a reply insisting AI will make storytelling more democratic Beneath a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece about the dangers of artificial intelligence, there is now an AI-generated response about how AI will make storytelling more democratic. “Some in the film world have met the arrival of generative …

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Ghost hunting, pornography and interactive art: the weird afterlife of Xbox Kinect

Fifteen years since Microsoft’s motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use it Released in 2010 and bundled with the Xbox 360, the Kinect looked like the future – for a brief moment, at least. A camera that could detect your gestures and …

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UK unions call for action to protect creative industry workers as AI develops

TUC says proposals on copyright and AI framework must go further to stop exploitation by ‘rapacious tech bosses’ Action is needed to protect workers in creative industries amid huge changes in technology and artificial intelligence, unions have urged. The TUC said there was an urgent need to put in place “proper guardrails” for workers ranging …

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UK watchdog to investigate TikTok and Reddit over use of children’s data

Information Commissioner’s Office says it aims to learn about wider market by looking into two sites plus Imgur TikTok is to be investigated by the UK’s data protection watchdog, which is looking into whether social media algorithms are serving up inappropriate or harmful content to children. Growing concerns over how social media platforms are using …

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Mental health crisis ‘means youth is no longer one of happiest times of life’

UN-commissioned study in UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand finds satisfaction rises with age For more than half a century, the midlife crisis has been a feature of western society. Fast cars, impulsive decisions, and peak misery between the age of 40 and 50. But all that is changing, according to experts. In …

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Read the signs of Trump’s federal firings: AI is coming for private sector jobs too

Dismissing 6,700 IRS workers during tax season is a recipe for chaos but AI’s disruption will be much more widespread The Trump administration recently announced that it would be laying off approximately 6,700 workers at the Internal Revenue Service, about 8% of the people employed by the agency. Tens of thousands of federal employees at …

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‘I’m selling the Nazi mobile’: Tesla owners offload cars after Musk’s fascist-style salutes

Tesla once appeared the future of vehicles. Then Musk’s salutes and support at Trump’s inauguration left owners feeling ‘saddled with a symbol of hate’ Don’t let a billionaire’s algorithm control what you read. Download our free app to get trusted reporting. When Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s “truck of the future” in 2019, Filipos could barely …

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If the best defence against AI is more AI, this could be tech’s Oppenheimer moment

An unsettling new book advocates a closer relationship between Silicon Valley and the US government to harness artificial intelligence in the name of national security Oscar Wilde’s quip, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life”, needs updating: replace “art” with “AI”. The Amazon page for Alexander C Karp and Nicholas W Zapiska’s new …

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