AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots I am a science-fiction writer, which means that my job is to make up futuristic parables about our current techno-social arrangements to interrogate not just what a gadget does, …
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow Read More »
Exclusive: Letter signed by figures on right and left of party says UK should follow Australia’s example by enacting ban More than 60 Labour MPs have written to Keir Starmer urging him to back a social media ban for under-16s, with peers due to vote on the issue this week. The MPs, who include select …
More than 60 Labour MPs urge Starmer to back under-16s social media ban Read More »
His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was If some time in an entirely possible future they come to make a movie about “how the AI bubble burst”, Ed Zitron will doubtless …
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 • This week’s question: How can we learn from unrequited love? What’s the point of having speed limits if camera-warning signs and apps allow drivers to slow down in advance – …
Big tech treats our attention like a resource to be mercilessly extracted. The fightback begins here In the last 15 years, a linked series of unprecedented technologies have changed the experience of personhood across most of the world. It is estimated that nearly 70% of the human population of the Earth currently possesses a smartphone, …
How can we defend ourselves from the new plague of ‘human fracking’? Read More »
Experts warn use of VPNs makes it hard to limit access to technology that can create nonconsensual explicit images Days after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate “grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images”, the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the …
‘Still here!’: X’s Grok AI tool accessible in Malaysia despite ban Read More »
Our reviewer loved this wake-up light more than any other he’s tested – it’s even knocked his previous best sunrise alarm off the top spot • Read the full ranking in our sunrise alarm clock test Since I first tested sunrise alarm clocks last winter, I’ve come to suspect that there’s no such thing as …
Why the Lumie Bodyclock Glow sunrise alarm clock is the best wake-up under the sun Read More »
Progress of artificial general intelligence could stall, which may lead to a financial crash, says Yoshua Bengio, one of the ‘godfathers’ of modern AI Will the race to artificial general intelligence (AGI) lead us to a land of financial plenty – or will it end in a 2008-style bust? Trillions of dollars rest on the …
‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward Read More »
How would you feel if your therapist’s notes – your darkest thoughts and deepest feelings – were exposed to the world? For 33,000 Finnish people, that became a terrifying reality, with deadly consequences Tiina Parikka was half-naked when she read the email. It was a Saturday in late October 2020, and Parikka had spent the …
Portland Communications, founded by Keir Starmer’s communications chief, linked to so-called ‘black hat’ edits A high-profile PR company founded by Keir Starmer’s communications chief has been accused of commissioning changes to Wikipedia pages to make them more favourable towards clients. Portland Communications, founded by Tim Allan, has been linked to the so-called black hat edits, …
Prominent PR firm accused of commissioning favourable changes to Wikipedia pages Read More »
