Month: January 2026

AI’s reckoning with reality represents a growing economic risk for 2026

Revenues may be rising rapidly, but not by nearly enough to cover the wild levels of investment under way The US dictionary Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was “slop”, which it defines as “digital content of low quality that is produced, usually in quantity, by means of artificial intelligence”. The choice underlined the …

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Digital wallet fraud: how your bank card can be stolen without it leaving your wallet

Fraudsters use phishing to steal card details, which fund a spending spree using Apple Pay or Google Pay You get a call from your bank and the informed voice asks to you to confirm the personal details they have on file, which you do. You are then asked whether you bought something at an electrical …

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Elon Musk’s Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’

Lapses in safeguards led to wave of sexualized images this week as xAI says it is working to improve systems Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok posted on Friday that lapses in safeguards had led it to generate “images depicting minors in minimal clothing” on social media platform X. The chatbot, a product of Musk’s company xAI, …

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Reddit overtakes TikTok in UK thanks to search algorithms and gen Z

Platform is now Britain’s fourth most visited social media site as users seek out human-generated content Reddit, the online discussion platform, has overtaken TikTok as Britain’s fourth most visited social media service, as search algorithms and gen Z have dramatically transformed its prominence. The platform has undergone huge growth over the last two years, with …

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‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate?

Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worried During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired …

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Uber rewrites contracts with drivers to avoid paying UK’s new ‘taxi tax’

Hailing app will now act as agent rather than supplier outside London, avoiding VAT requirement, although change is not permitted in London Uber has swerved paying millions of pounds to the UK exchequer under Rachel Reeves’s new “taxi tax” after the ride-hailing app rewrote contracts with its drivers. The move came as rules announced in …

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Apple reportedly cuts production of Vision Pro headset after poor sales

Company had hoped the virtual reality device would herald a new era in ‘spatial computing’ Poor sales have reportedly forced Apple to cut production of the Vision Pro headset that it had hoped would herald a new era in “spatial computing”. The tech company also reduced marketing for Vision Pro by more than 95% last …

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‘They sowed chaos to no avail’: the lasting legacy of Elon Musk’s Doge

The billionaire – who had no government experience – left various federal agencies in disarray while overseeing an ‘efficiency’ drive across Washington As Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, splurged more than $250m on Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, the US president commissioned his new ally to oversee a sweeping “efficiency” drive across the federal …

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