Merry Christmas! We have made it \u2013 almost \u2013 through another year without being churned into paste by a super-intelligent AI, conscripted into a Martian work camp by an insane billionaire or forced offline by a Carrington event<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even in the absence of civilisation-altering events it\u2019s been a busy year. But the advantage of a slow week (I hope that isn\u2019t tempting fate) is that you can reflect on the past 12 months and realise that, sometimes, there\u2019s only a few stories that really<\/em> matter.<\/p>\n The Guardian has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack in December and that the personal data of UK staff members has been accessed in the incident.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe believe this was a criminal ransomware attack, and not the specific targeting of the Guardian as a media organisation,\u201d said Guardian Media Group\u2019s chief executive, <\/em>Anna Bateson<\/em> and the Guardian\u2019s editor-in-chief, <\/em>Katharine Viner<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n The UK government is at high risk of a \u201ccatastrophic ransomware attack\u201d that could \u201cbring the country to a standstill\u201d because of poor planning and a lack of investment, a parliamentary committee has warned.<\/em><\/p>\n Future ransomware attacks could pose \u201ca threat to physical security or safety of human life\u201d, the report said, if cyber-attackers manage to sabotage CNI operations. The report also warned that \u201ccyber-physical systems\u201d could be intercepted, including hackers taking control of the steering and throttle of a shipping vessel \u2013 lab experiments have shown this to be achievable.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou need to imagine something more intelligent than us by the same difference that we\u2019re more intelligent than a frog. And it\u2019s going to learn from the web, it\u2019s going to have read every single book that\u2019s ever been written on how to manipulate people, and also seen it in practice.\u201d \u2026 My confidence that this wasn\u2019t coming for quite a while has been shaken by the realisation that biological intelligence and digital intelligence are very different, and digital intelligence is probably much better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Intelligence has nothing to do with a desire to dominate. It\u2019s not even true for humans. If it were true that the smartest humans wanted to dominate others, then Albert Einstein and other scientists would have been both rich and powerful, and they were neither.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWith Vision Pro, you\u2019re no longer limited by a display. Your surroundings become an infinite canvas,\u201d the Apple chief executive, <\/em>Tim Cook<\/em>, said. \u201cVision Pro blends digital content into the space around us. It will introduce us to <\/em>spatial <\/em>computing.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cApple Vision Pro will change the way we communicate, collaborate, work and enjoy entertainment,\u201d Cook added. The company compared the device to a new TV, surround sound system, powerful laptop, and games console all in one \u2013 before revealing its price, an eye-watering $3,499, $500 more than the already high pricetag rumoured in the run-up to the event. The device will ship \u201cearly next year\u201d in the US, Apple said. No dates or prices were given for other regions.<\/em><\/p>\n
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Crypto\u2019s crown slipped, an AI godfather spoke out and Apple entered the stuttering VR market \u2013 the stories that really mattered this year