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Third-party cybersecurity service provider was compromised and some unclassified papers were accessed A Chinese state-sponsored actor broke into the US treasury department earlier this month and stole documents from its workstations, according to a letter to lawmakers that was provided to Reuters on Monday. The actor compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider, BeyondTrust. The hackers …

US treasury’s workstations breached in cyber-attack by China – report Read More »

Retailers already trialling new codes that contain sell-by dates, product instructions, allergens and ingredients It is the zebra-striped tag that has become ubiquitous over the last 50 years, but the barcode’s days could be numbered. The global organisation overseeing their use has said a more powerful alternative will be readable by retailers everywhere within two …

Barcodes could be superseded by a more powerful alternative ‘by the end of 2027’ Read More »

Match Group’s digital assistant will tailor profiles and search for dates – but critics fear genuine connections are at risk Fed up with writing dating profiles? Or sick and tired of swiping? Dating apps not really doing it for you? Let a digital sidekick take the strain. While user fatigue may be setting in – …

Dating apps prepare to launch AI features to help users find love Read More »

UK culture minister says government wants to ‘open a dialogue’, but will intervene if platforms do not comply The UK culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has written to video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube and TikTok, urging them to promote higher quality educational content to children. Recent statistics suggest that although a decade ago children watched an …

Lisa Nandy urges YouTube and TikTok to promote better content for children Read More »

Study predicts an ‘intention economy’ where companies bid for accurate predictions of human behaviour Artificial intelligence (AI) tools could be used to manipulate online audiences into making decisions – ranging from what to buy to who to vote for – according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. The paper highlights an emerging new marketplace …

AI tools may soon manipulate people’s online decision-making, say researchers Read More »

A simpler system | Waspi response | WhatsApp on holiday | Intrusive work emails | Smartphones | Eyes off the Eddies Rather than chase after people who have not claimed what they are owed (Forget ‘benefit cheats’ – £23bn a year is going unclaimed. How do we get that to vulnerable people?, 23 December), the …

Universal benefits of a proper welfare state | Brief letters Read More »

While we certainly don’t encourage people to turn away from the news, we also know it’s important to take breaks Doomscrolling happens to the best of us. Algorithms across social platforms are finely tuned to feed you content and posts that keep you locked in. It can be hard to pull yourself away even when …

‘I deleted news apps’: Guardian readers on how to stop doomscrolling Read More »

Large language models have changed how big corporations function, and the arrival of AI ‘agents’ – essentially automated Moneypennys – could prove irresistible If 2024 was the year of large language models (LLMs), then 2025 looks like the year of AI “agents”. These are quasi-intelligent systems that harness LLMs to go beyond their usual tricks …

How will AI reshape the world? Well, it could be the spreadsheet of the 21st century | John Naughton Read More »

Tech selloffs not only cost tax revenue and jobs, but are turning the UK into a vassal state There is much to admire about the US. The great French social observer Alexis de Tocqueville, nearly 200 years ago, lauded its commitment to civic virtue, individual self-improvement and hard work – legacies of its puritan founders. …

Britain will never be great again until we stop flogging our top companies to the US | Will Hutton Read More »

The new US president will almost certainly bring unpredictability but several themes will dominate the year ahead. Observer writers offer their guide on what lies ahead in politics, film, fashion, sport and more The only thing that can be predicted with absolute certainty about Donald Trump’s second term as US president is that it will …

From climate denial to gothic movies to ‘treat culture’ … what to expect in 2025 Read More »