Month: May 2025

Online safety regulator seeks heavy penalty for Anthony Rotondo, saying it reflects harm caused and will deter others from making explicit deepfakes Australia news live: latest politics updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The online safety regulator wants a $450,000 maximum penalty imposed on a man who posted deepfake …

Man who posted deepfake images of prominent Australian women could face $450,000 penalty Read More »

The president’s billionaire backer was ever-present at the start of Trump’s term but is now pulling back from politics – and Republicans want to keep it that way The Oval Office was crowded, with reporters cautioned not to collide with the Resolute Desk. Standing beside them, dressed in black, was Elon Musk, billionaire ally of …

Whatever happened to Elon Musk? Tech boss drifts to margins of Trump world Read More »

Online bullying, violence and paedophilia have made young people sceptical of unfettered access to technology In 2019, when Sophie* was 12, her classmates sent her “extreme and traumatising” videos that included an al-Qaida beheading, pornography and bestiality. She recalls an adult player in an online game persuading her to meet in person. Although her dad …

‘My parents didn’t have a clue’: why many digital natives would not give their kids smartphones Read More »

When a rare weaving device was destined for the skip, a collective of artists, teachers and students united to rescue it. They bemoan how university course changes are replacing deep skills with competency checklists “Rachel, bad news,” the text message read. “They’re disconnecting the loom tomorrow.” Rachel Halton still doesn’t know who made the decision, …

A new room for a doomed loom – and the battle to save Australia’s slowly dying crafts Read More »

Exclusive: The Guardian and Liberty Investigates find police in England and Wales believe expansion is likely after 4.7m faces scanned in 2024 Valuable tool or cause for alarm? Facial ID quietly becoming part of police’s arsenal Police believe live facial recognition cameras may become “commonplace” in England and Wales, according to internal documents, with the …

Live facial recognition cameras may become ‘commonplace’ as police use soars Read More »

Critics envision a dystopian future of live facial recognition cameras in England and Wales, but advocates point to the outcomes Live facial recognition may become ‘commonplace’ in England and Wales, say police The future is coming at Croydon fast. It might not look like Britain’s cutting edge but North End, a pedestrianised high street lined …

Valuable tool or cause for alarm? Facial ID quietly becoming part of police’s arsenal Read More »

Butler Snow faces sanctions after lawyer cites false case law defending against inmate who says he was stabbed 20 times In less than a year-and-a-half, Frankie Johnson, a man incarcerated at the William E Donaldson prison outside Birmingham, Alabama, says he was stabbed around 20 times. In December of 2019, Johnson says, he was stabbed …

Alabama paid a law firm millions to defend its prisons. It used AI and turned in fake citations Read More »

For years, Alexa has been our on-call vet, DJ, teacher, parent, therapist and whipping boy. What secrets would the data reveal? She is always listening. She is unfailingly polite. She is often obtuse. She is sometimes helpful. She frequently frustrates. She isn’t great with bashment artists. Or grime. Or drum’n’bass. She needs to be spoken to …

‘Alexa, what do you know about us?’ What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything my family’s smart speaker had heard Read More »

The government has doubled down on a plans that would allow mass cultural theft, but we are fighting it at every stage Beeban Kidron is a film director and crossbench peer in the House of Lords For months now, legends of music, literature, product design, the visual arts and more have been sounding the alarm …

We have a chance to prevent AI decimating Britain’s creative industries – but it’s slipping away | Beeban Kidron Read More »

Top US marketing professor Scott Galloway says on Pivot podcast Tesla owner ‘has alienated his core demographic’ The prominent US marketing professor Scott Galloway says Elon Musk’s decision to implement brutal job and spending cuts within the federal government on behalf of the Trump administration was “one of the greatest brand destructions” ever. Speaking on …

Expert calls Musk’s ‘Doge’ involvement ‘one of the greatest brand destructions’ Read More »