Month: May 2026

The strange surveilled life of Piper Rockelle: why did a former child influencer decide to go on OnlyFans?

She made millions as a tween and teenager by posting clips of herself and her friends on YouTube. Then the business collapsed amid acrimony. What does her success in the adult industry, at 18, say about surveillance, social media and sexualisation? ‘Honestly, the answer is kind of gross,” says Piper Rockelle, in a recent TikTok …

The strange surveilled life of Piper Rockelle: why did a former child influencer decide to go on OnlyFans? Read More »

Backrooms review – Kane Parsons’ icily disturbing horror rewrites the genre rulebook

Debut from 20-year-old director examines memory, reality and fear after Chiwetel Ejiofor accesses an infinite series of hidden rooms that all feel creepily askew All the lonely people … where do they all belong? YouTuber Kane Parsons makes his feature directing debut with this icily brilliant and genuinely disturbing conceptual horror film based on his …

Backrooms review – Kane Parsons’ icily disturbing horror rewrites the genre rulebook Read More »

AI ‘art’ is boring, soulless theft – and when I see it as an artist I see red | Jess Harwood

I draw the old way – with my hand. Doing it with AI would not make me more creative, it would drain the colour out of my existence Last week I went to a gig by myself for the first time. I sat myself down in my single seat, possibly the youngest person in the …

AI ‘art’ is boring, soulless theft – and when I see it as an artist I see red | Jess Harwood Read More »

What We Ask Google by Simon Rogers review – the secrets of our search history

The company’s data editor trawls through billions of queries to deliver a portrait of the world’s preoccupations As anyone who has procreated this century knows, childrearing involves daily rounds of online searching. The most common parenting-related queries feature in What We Ask Google, a valiant attempt by the search giant’s data editor Simon Rogers to …

What We Ask Google by Simon Rogers review – the secrets of our search history Read More »

Samsung memory chip staff in line for £310,000 bonuses after AI profit-sharing deal

Agreement averts strike and shows latest impact of AI boom as two more chipmakers join $1tn club Business live – latest updates Employees at Samsung Electronics’s memory chip division are to receive bonuses averaging about £310,000 each through a landmark profit-sharing agreement, as the AI boom drives up chipmakers’ profits. Fears of a strike at …

Samsung memory chip staff in line for £310,000 bonuses after AI profit-sharing deal Read More »

Nasa selects Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin for first of three uncrewed lunar missions

Three lunar landings are planned for this year in preparation for the construction of a $20bn moon base Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Nasa announced on Tuesday ambitious plans for three uncrewed lunar missions this year to kickstart construction of a $20bn moon base, and said it had chosen the Amazon …

Nasa selects Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin for first of three uncrewed lunar missions Read More »

‘What you see here is a wetland without water’: how the datacentre boom is exacerbating Chile’s mega-drought

The country is positioning itself as Latin America’s next technology hub, but communities are pushing back The Andes mountains frame what was once a wetland – now a stretch of dry, yellowed grass. Rodrigo Vallejos, a final-year law student, noticed the change five years ago while observing the Quilicura wetland, on the northern outskirts of …

‘What you see here is a wetland without water’: how the datacentre boom is exacerbating Chile’s mega-drought Read More »

Spotify says its AI remix tool protects artists from unregulated ‘slop’

Critics of platform’s proposed new feature say it could accelerate the spread of machine-generated music Spotify’s chief executive has defended the company’s move into AI-generated music, claiming it offers users and creators a better alternative to piracy and unregulated AI slop. Last week, the platform announced a new feature in which premium users will be …

Spotify says its AI remix tool protects artists from unregulated ‘slop’ Read More »

007 First Light review – a triumphant James Bond game made by obsessive fans

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5; IO InteractiveThe stealth masters behind Hitman go loud for this game about Bond’s brilliant beginnings Given that we’ve not had a great James Bond video game in decades – or any Bond film at all in five years – there’s a lot of pressure on 007 First Light to reinvigorate a …

007 First Light review – a triumphant James Bond game made by obsessive fans Read More »