From Wall-E to Google’s LaMDA, ‘sentient’ AI seems to shoulder the weight of the world. Maybe we humans want it that way Starting last fall, Blake Lemoine began asking a computer about its feelings. An engineer for Google’s Responsible AI group, Lemoine was tasked with testing one of the company’s AI systems, the Language Model …
Rise of the woebots: why are robots always so sad? Read More »
Home secretary says new powers could require tech firms to remove encrypted abuse material would bring privacy and security Heavily encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp could be required to adopt cutting-edge technology to spot child sexual abuse material or face the threat of significant fines, under new changes to UK digital safety legislation. The …
UK could force messaging apps to scan for child sexual abuse images Read More »
Trial will take treatments from Portsmouth to St Mary’s hospital and health service plans similar drops elsewhere in England The NHS plans to use drones to fly chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients in England to avoid the need for long journeys to collect them. The devices will transport doses from Portsmouth to the Isle of …
NHS to test using drones to fly chemotherapy drugs to Isle of Wight Read More »
Changes to online safety bill require tech firms to minimise people’s exposure to ‘hostile online warfare’ Tech firms will be required to shield internet users from state-sponsored disinformation posing a threat to UK society and democracy, under changes to a landmark online safety bill. The legislation will require social media platforms, video streaming services and …
Legislation aims to shield UK internet users from state-backed disinformation Read More »
The move follows changes across the EU that made it simpler for users to quit the subscription service Quitting an Amazon Prime membership is a confusing business that can often feel like it takes longer than the next-day delivery the service promises. By the end of next month, however, UK subscribers will be able to …
UK subscribers will soon be able to leave Amazon Prime in two clicks Read More »
Google’s former chief technology officer wants to use social networks to create states. What doesn’t fit into his vision are things like poverty, illness and ageing In The Network State, a buzzy new book by Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase poses a devious question: how do you Larp a country into …
Could new countries be founded – on the internet? | Sam Venis Read More »
From cyberspace to AI, Steven Lisberger’s 1982 sci-fi classic was way ahead of its time. The team behind it explain how they made a game-changer Back in 1982, computers meant one of two things in the popular imagination. Either they were room-sized machines used by the military-industrial complex to crunch data on stuff like nuclear …
‘Frankly it blew my mind’: how Tron changed cinema – and predicted the future of tech Read More »
A reader writes that their 79-year-old relative can’t access her tablet or iCloud account My 79-year-old mother has found herself locked out of her Apple iCloud account and denied access to many years’ worth of family photos saved on her original iPad. She has had long periods in hospital and her iPad is very precious. …
My mum is locked out of her Apple iPad and can’t get her photos Read More »
Personal information allegedly leaked from Shanghai police database would be one of biggest data breaches in history A hacker has claimed to have procured a trove of personal information from the Shanghai police on one billion Chinese citizens, which tech experts say, if true, would be one of the biggest data breaches in history. The …
Hacker claims to have obtained data on one billion Chinese citizens Read More »
AI sentience probably won’t happen in our lifetime. But it’s not too early to start thinking about it … There’s a children’s toy, called the See ’n Say, which haunts the memories of many people born since 1965. It’s a bulky plastic disc with a central arrow that rotates around pictures of barnyard creatures, like …
The big idea: should we care about sentient machines? Read More »
