The Verge
13 hours ago
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An industry targeting Australia’s ageing population is growing, but can AI deliver more humanity in aged care?
While companion robots are being introduced and virtual experiences hope to ‘take loneliness away’, one expert agrees tech should never replace the human elementFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast“You’ll never get rid of humans,” Prof Wendy Moyle says, during a discussion about robots and other technology in aged care and residential homes.Then, a beat later, she adds: “Well, I don’t think we’ll get rid of humans.” Continue reading...
The Guardian
13 hours ago
Listen to the new Steam Controller buzz to the tune of Doom
You may have heard that Valve's new Steam Controller can ring like a telephone or do the Wilhelm scream. But did you know it can sing songs, too? Let me show you. Here's the new Steam Controller performing the "Ground Theme" from Super Mario Bros. 2: Here is "Still Alive" from Portal - fitting for […]
The Verge
14 hours ago
Backrooms is a certified blockbuster with a $38 million opening day
The Kane Parsons' film Backrooms is expected to earn up to $90 million in its opening weekend after pulling down $38 million on Friday alone. That's not only above expectations, but absolutely obliterates A24's previous opening weekend record of $25.5 million for Alex Garland's Civil War. It's also a better opening day than The Mandalorian […]
The Verge
15 hours ago
Microsoft is threatening legal action for disclosing exploits
Microsoft is facing criticism for its handling of zero-day exploits. Someone going by the name Nightmare Eclipse has been publicly feuding with the company, posting proof-of-concept exploit code. Some of their posts suggest that they're a disgruntled former employee. But what caught cyber security researcher Kevin Beaumont's eye was how Microsoft has responded. Microsoft suggests […]
The Verge
18 hours ago
Anthropic’s alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or ‘Vatican-washing?’
Experts say AI firm’s engagement with Vatican risks creating ‘feelgood’ discourse that lacks critical examinationWhy did Anthropic’s founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI?In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. The pontiff delineated the technology’s most concerning threats to humanity: replacing workers, accelerating war and exploiting the environment. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo. Continue reading...
The Guardian
20 hours ago
Tech Now
Shiona McCallum visits Fifa HQ in Zurich to see new tech being used in the World Cup.
Bbc.co.uk
1 day ago
AI grifters are creating fake Black people to sell Shein junk
Aliyah, a light-skinned Black woman dressed in country-western gear, is struggling to sell metal buckles she handmade on TikTok. In a video for the social media platform from March, she cries to the camera and pleads for views: "Even as a black woman, I have more faith that white women will stay 13 seconds [on […]
The Verge
1 day ago
The Arduboy FX-C is an excellent time killer you might forget you’re carrying
As handheld consoles continue to grow and push the limits of what you can actually hold in your hands, the Arduboy FX-C comes in a refreshingly pocketable package.  It manages to squeeze the best features of past models and some welcome upgrades into a handheld that’s still no larger or thicker than a few credit […]
The Verge
1 day ago
Welcome to Night Vale host Cecil Baldwin shares his tech pet peeves
Cecil Baldwin's résumé includes appearances on Gravity Falls, narrating the documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, and performing as part of the New York Neo-Futurists theater company. But he is best known as the host of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, a long-running fiction show that blends macabre Lovecraftian horror with absurdist […]
The Verge
1 day ago
How one founder’s bet on ‘the old school web’ is paying off
Craig Campbell walked away from the river of investor money flowing into AI to create, of all things, a website. Sure, Campbell probably could have started an AI company. He's a former engineer at Meta and an experienced tech founder who in 2022 sold his last venture - an e-commerce tool for businesses that use […]
The Verge
1 day ago
'Controversial' North Korean invasion setting for next Call of Duty game
Developer Infinity Ward said the game will be "grounded in the military authenticity" the series is known for.
Bbc.com
1 day ago
‘Like a billionaire on acid’: Star Wars director Gareth Edwards comes out in favour of AI
Speaking at Amazon’s AI on the Lot event, the Rogue One film-maker Gareth Edwards said ‘it’ll do anything you ask’ and ‘it’s going to be better than CGI’Jurassic World Rebirth and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards has enthusiastically endorsed the use of generative AI in film-making, saying “it is a fucking genius at helping you” and “it’s going to be better than CGI”.Edwards was speaking at AI on the Lot, an event in Culver City, California, organised by Amazon, and in remarks reported by the Hollywood Reporter said: “I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t become interested in this stuff as a film-maker. It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be better than CGI.” Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Workers need greater say over AI rollout, says TUC-backed report
Exclusive: IPPR thinktank calls for new measures to boost employees’ influence at ‘pivotal moment’ in history Workers urgently need more bargaining power over the way AI is adopted in the workplace to ensure the benefits are fairly shared, according to a TUC-backed report from a leading thinktank.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a package of measures to boost employees’ influence at what it calls a “pivotal moment in the history of work”. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Why I’m grateful to the Pope for his encyclical on AI | Francine Prose
The intelligent and thoughtful encyclical is an important warning of the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. Silicon Valley is wrong to dismiss itOften I’m asked if I think that the novels of the future will all be written by AI. It’s not so much a question as a provocation. Do I worry that a machine can do what I do, only better? I usually say something like: “No algorithm is going to write Anna Karenina!” which is also not a real answer.So I’m grateful to Pope Leo XIV, the American pope, for his recently issued letter to the world, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It’s a long (more than 40,00 words), intelligent and thoughtful encyclical in which the pope addresses the uses and misuses of a rapidly developing technology. Now when someone asks my opinion of AI, I can refer them to the pope’s letter, or at least chapter three. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
If you want to run your first marathon in your 50s, it helps to be chased by zombies
When Ben Elton didn’t distract from the pain of moving my body, I found the perfect solution – the interactive smartphone game Zombies, Run!At 56, I am running my first marathon, an old, fat, bald dad surrounded by millennials in body-hugging Lycra and smiles that look AI-generated. But I am ahead of them. For they are only competing for positions and personal bests, and I am being chased by zombies.The black dog of depression hit me around the time of my last birthday. I didn’t feel I had achieved anything of note for an eternity. I used to work out but, for years, work kept getting in the way. I decided to kill two circling, carcass-sniffing vultures with one stone and run my first marathon. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
Humanoid robots 'the future' of car making, says BMW
BMW is introducing humanoid robots to a car plant in Europe, building on similar projects in the US.
Bbc.com
2 days ago
Anthropic reaches valuation of $965bn, beating OpenAI to become world’s most valuable AI firm
Claude’s parent company’s $65bn in latest funding round underscores vast sums of money still flowing into industryAnthropic, the AI firm behind the Claude chatbot, announced on Thursday it had raised $65bn in funding to value the company at $965bn post-money. The move makes Anthropic the world’s most valuable AI startup, eclipsing its competitor OpenAI.The deal marks an exceedingly successful period of growth for Anthropic, which was once considered to be a smaller player in the global AI arms race. The widespread adoption of its products by large enterprise businesses, especially following its release of powerful coding assistants late last year, has turned it into a dominant player in the industry. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
California Attorney General sues 23andMe successor for 2023 data breach
Attorney General Rob Bonta alleges the company lied about the breach's severity.
Bbc.com
2 days ago
Image of Thai police in sparkly dresses with handcuffed suspect turns out to be AI fake
Picture was created by administrator in charge of station’s Facebook account who wanted to create ‘friendlier image’It was an arresting image and an irresistible story. A group of tough Thai police officers – five men and one woman – all wearing elaborate festival-style dresses, surrounding a drug dealer they had caught while undercover.The image, released by local police, was so compelling that it found its way on to the front page of the UK’s Daily Star, as well as in picture stories in the Telegraph, the Sun and the New York Post. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
Call of controversy? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 imagines a revived Korean war
Infinity Ward’s new game in the storied shooter genre embraces change with a potentially controversial real-world settingThere was a time when Call of Duty (CoD) regularly courted controversy. In 2009, Modern Warfare 2’s infamous “No Russian” mission saw players (optionally) shooting screaming civilians in a Moscow airport. In 2022’s entry, a drone strike mission that drew chilling parallels to the real-world US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani two years earlier was featured. The series has not always been straightforwardly palatable.In recent years, however, the world’s most popular shooter game has largely swapped grit for melodrama, following the misadventures of a troop of larger than life elite soldiers. For 2026’s Modern Warfare 4, however, Activision’s shooter series and its developer Infinity Ward are back in tabloid-baiting territory. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
So dumb it just might work: can these dumbphone evangelists convince you to dump smartphones?
As part of a growing anti-tech movement, startup dumb.co is pushing flip phones as a way for young people to find ‘social and spiritual freedom’“They aren’t as dumb as they look,” our facilitator said, referring to the dark gray flip phone in his hand. He just as easily could have been talking about us, the 28 New York residents before him who had signed up to use the device for the entire month of March. He explained that the relic was loaded with WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Maps, Uber, Microsoft 2FA – nothing like my seventh-grade flip phone.We each had paid $75 to participate in Month Offline, or MO, a program that challenged us to swear off our smartphones entirely. Another $25 went to dumb.co, the company behind MO, for the so-called dumbphones we would use as we navigated daily life. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
‘Hidden datacentre tax’ costing Irish households millions, report says
Datacentres used 22% of country’s electricity last year, pushing up household bills, study suggestsEnergy demand by datacentres in Ireland has added hundreds of euros to household electricity bills in a pattern that could be replicated across Europe, according to a report.Ireland’s growing number of datacentres last year used 22% of the country’s electricity, more than all urban homes combined, according to the Central Statistics Office. The equivalent figure in the US and UK is 6%. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
Valve hikes Steam Deck prices by more than 40%, blaming rising costs
The gaming giant said the handheld had not changed but the rise reflected "the current state of component costs"
Bbc.com
2 days ago
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