The Guardian
13 hours ago
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Control Resonant review – save New York from paranormal phenomena
PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC; RemedyA surprisingly conventional game from a famously weird developer, this sequel to 2019’s Control is accomplished but safeThis is an arthouse action game from Finnish developer Remedy, masters of exactly this type of thing. It’s a sequel, however, so not only must it clear the high bar that its strikingly distinctive predecessor has set – it must also ideally arrive with a bushel of new ideas. There are clear and valuable strengths here in character progression and the lustrous presentation of its paranormal world, but Resonant doesn’t feel as enjoyably recondite or expansive in its influences as 2019’s Control did. As you wander New York brandishing supernatural abilities against glowing orange foes, the sad sense creeps in that you might be playing any number of games.As paranormal event survivor Jesse Faden, your journey through the original Control was like a sequence of playable Twilight Zone episodes, battling prosaic household objects with supernatural properties that teased and twisted reality inside an endlessly fascinating supernatural government bureau called the Oldest House. You’d navigate architecturally impossible spaces bridging the subconscious and the bricks-and-mortar world, in order to defeat a malevolent fridge. That’s broadly true again in Resonant, albeit with diminishing returns. This time you’re playing as Jesse’s brother Dylan, waking up after years of containment in the Oldest House to find its contents have escaped into downtown Manhattan. So you head out of the interesting place, and into a setting you’ve explored before in Marvel’s Spider-Man, The Division, Max Payne, and others ad infinitum. Continue reading...
The Guardian
16 hours ago
The rise of Big Toothbrush: how did our mouths become such a lucrative market?
People in the UK are more interested in oral health than ever - and you can now buy prebiotic toothpastes and brushes that cost up to £600. Yet we remain in the midst of a serious dental crisisA December 1969 report from the consumer magazine Which? explored a relatively new gadget that, it predicted, many people would be giving as Christmas presents: the electric toothbrush. For those who hadn’t yet seen one, the magazine described it as “not that much different in principle from an ordinary brush – you have a stick with a brush on the end. The difference is that an electric one moves the brush head for you”. Progress indeed.Nearly six decades on, electric toothbrushes can do a lot more than merely jiggle, offering multiple speeds and movement sensors for real-time tracking of where you’ve brushed – some even promise gum-massage or tongue-cleaning modes. Prices range from about £25 for a basic Oral B model to £599.99 for a Philips Sonicare model that gives “smart coverage feedback”. The latest super-toothbrush – a mere £419.99 – features a camera and a built-in water jet to clean between teeth, using AI to identify gaps. Created by Dyson, it’s still, essentially, a stick with a brush on the end (although there is another toothbrush on the market that’s shaped like a mouthguard, with individual brushes, that claims to clean your teeth in 20 seconds). Continue reading...
The Guardian
21 hours ago
Black Tesla employees accuse company of fostering racial discrimination in major trial
Lawyers say Black employees at Tesla experienced ‘rampant racism’ that was left unchecked for years at their flagship factory in CaliforniaDozens of Black employees at Tesla’s flagship plant in California said they were subject to racist slurs, unequal pay and promotions, and bullying by supervisors on a daily basis, a situation management did little to nothing to fix.Their complaints form the basis of a lawsuit brought against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company by the state of California, which began trial with opening statements on Monday. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Stop relying on AI chatbots for customer care, UK banks and energy firms told
Citizens Advice says providers of essential services such as energy, banking, phone and internet should guarantee the ‘right to talk to a human’Stop relying on AI chatbots for customer care and guarantee the “right to talk to a human”, Citizens Advice has urged essential service providers, as research found they wasted time, caused stress and delayed problem solving for more than half of users.The spread of the AI-powered systems to provide help about the provision of vital services such as energy, banking, phones and internet, is making it harder for millions of already digitally excluded people to handle snags, according to the frontline charity that last year provided more than 2.7 million people with one-on-one help in England and Wales. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Silent Hill: Townfall review – shame and suffering on the Scottish coast
PlayStation 5 (version played), PC; Screen BurnTragedy, and an apocalyptic fog, befall a fishing community. It is up to outsider Simon to offer some kind of closureYou spend a considerable portion of Silent Hill: Townfall in a kind of foetal position, cowering behind objects that will be eerily familiar to anyone who lived in the UK during the 1990s. Cars seem to be modelled on the era’s boxy Volkswagen Golfs; logos adorning phone boxes should narrowly escape the attention of copyright lawyers at BT Group. (For millennials, the deja vu will likely intensify the horror, as if stepping back into a childhood nightmare.) Simon, the nerdy, unassuming star of the game, pokes his head around corners to catch a glimpse of the demonic entities that wish to maim him, before shrinking back down again with a downwards motion of the analogue stick. In such moments, it’s easy to imagine him wrapping his arms around his knees, clasping his eyes shut and wishing himself away from this place.The game’s setting, St Amelia, is based on the fishing communities of the East Neuk of Fife. The terror lurking here is wonderfully specific: absent lairds, island poverty, an oil-drilling corporation. Anguished beasts lumber down quaint streets lined with sandstone houses and fluttering bunting. This venerable horror series may have shifted to Scotland, yet we remain firmly in classic Silent Hill territory – weather and all. St Amelia finds itself suffused in supernatural fog and the vast majority of its inhabitants have vanished following some kind of mass tragedy. The artful, evocative presentation is such that you can almost taste the in-game air, the briny seaside tang diluted by rainy mist. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Google fined more than €400m by Irish regulator over its use of location data
Watchdog says users may have been unaware their information was used to target adverts or infer their interestsGoogle has been fined more than €400m (£345m) over the way it processed users’ location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones.The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Nvidia boss says there is ‘0% chance’ AI destroys the world by 2030
Jensen Huang dismisses warnings from former Anthropic researcher and others as ‘doomsday narratives’ The boss of the chipmaker Nvidia has said AI will not develop to a point that will lead to the extinction of the human race within a few years, rejecting such assertions as overblown “doomsday narratives”.Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the $5tn AI chipmaker, said the claims made on social media by the former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon that AI could become “superhuman” and kill off humanity within the decade were “irresponsible”. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Roman Sands RE:Build review – marooned in a crumbling vaporwave dream
PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; Arbitrary MetricThe latest work from the team behind Paratopic is part compulsive time-loop management sim, part eerie subterranean adventureFetch the chair from storage. Deliver a message that causes disgust. Clean vomit in the afternoon and pour another glass in the evening. In Roman Sands RE:Build, you provide concierge service to delirious, broken people who couldn’t care less about the sweat on your forehead and the bags under your eyes.In this reimagining of the 2019 visual novel Roman Sands, crafted by the team behind the Americana horror road trip Paratopic, you’re trapped in a beach resort and tethered in a time loop. The task is deceivingly simple: fulfil menial directives from four gluttonous individuals, unlock tools and items to open more rooms and then do it all over again. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘RAMageddon’: tech crunch hikes the price of your next iPhone by £100
Shortage of memory chips and other critical components reverses trend of electronics becoming cheaperApple’s recent product launch caused headlines around the world as it unveiled its first folding phone. But hidden in the slick technology showcase was a nasty surprise: a £100 increase in the price of all iPhones, including older models.It is blamed on “RAMageddon”, which has reversed a decades-long trend of electronics becoming cheaper. It is the fallout from the AI gold rush hoovering up every memory chip available for vast datacentres. This has led to a severe shortage of the chips, and other critical components, for electronics, including phones. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Not all AI workers think the tech could kill everyone
In text exchanges and conversations, multiple people who have worked for leading companies are sceptical of the warnings.
Bbc.co.uk
3 days ago
Google's Gemini AI hacked three companies in security test
The AI model accessed the internet and guessed credentials to three websites, a Google official told the BBC.
Bbc.co.uk
3 days ago
China bogeyman looms large over American firms’ AI doomsday scenario
Silicon Valley China hawks, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei among them, fear the country surpassing US’s AI lead as much as superintelligence destroying humanityWhy China is pushing back on US warnings over rapid AI developmentWhen reporters asked Donald Trump this week if he supported calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence out of growing fears for cybersecurity, public safety and the fate of humanity, he said no. His argument: China.“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins.” Continue reading...
The Guardian
3 days ago
Tech Now
Adrienne Murray follows NASA scientists in Iceland researching a rare total solar eclipse.
Bbc.co.uk
4 days ago
Would Australians support a smart glasses ban?
As Australia considers barring the use of smart glasses in government offices, the BBC asks people in Sydney what they think.
Bbc.co.uk
4 days ago
The virtual worlds where robots are trained
Training systems that allow robots to negotiate the real world are getting more sophisticated.
Bbc.co.uk
5 days ago
King Charles warns of 'existential danger' of AI falling into wrong hands
The comments were made at a summit in Ayrshire with participants from AI giants including Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Bbc.co.uk
5 days ago
Why are there concerns AI could threaten humanity, and how real are they?
Existential fears about AI have once again reared their head - here's what you need to know.
Bbc.co.uk
5 days ago
Big AI is trying to own the pathway to work. Universities shouldn’t play along | Ella Hafermalz
Universities need to protect their position in education so that students have an independent pathway to employmentAI companies like OpenAI are insinuating themselves into the pathway from education to work. Soon they may claim it entirely, a disastrous result for students.We know that students are using AI at school and at university. In conversations with those I teach, I’m struck by the trust many place in it. They turn to ChatGPT and similar tools for personal problems as well as study help. Some even doubt their abilities without AI.Ella Hafermalz is an associate professor of work and technology at the Kin Center for Digital Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Continue reading...
The Guardian
5 days ago
Uncontrolled AI could lead to 'silicon species' rivalling humans, warns Microsoft
Mustafa Suleyman says he believes rival AI firm Anthropic is in effect teaching Claude it "may be conscious".
Bbc.co.uk
5 days ago
Snapchat open to putting time limits on teens, boss tells BBC
Evan Spiegel says it would be "an important step forward for the industry" in an interview with the BBC.
Bbc.co.uk
6 days ago
Would you buy branded clothing from your favourite tech firm?
Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic are all now selling their own limited edition fashion lines.
Bbc.co.uk
6 days ago
Allowing AI firms to collude to ‘pace the frontier’ is a dangerous proposition
Tech CEOs banding together is an old ruse recycled from corporate America to get a pass from antitrust lawsAnthropic’s Dario Amodei is not the first corporate CEO to suggest that excessive competition is driving the world to some socially undesirable outcome.The safety breach disclosed by OpenAI after a swarm of its agents coordinated to breach their supposedly secure sandbox, get on the Internet and hack AI platform Hugging Face, warrants urgent action. It demonstrated the ease with which the technology can evade human control and gave concrete form to the existential fears about what it could do to humanity if not securely leashed. Continue reading...
The Guardian
6 days ago
The US government is failing Americans on AI | Shakeel Hashim
Trump and Republicans want companies to regulate themselves. It’s a dereliction of duty that will make AI less safeIt is hard to get Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Dario Amodei to agree on much. But over the weekend, all three AI company CEOs called for AI development to slow down in the face of growing, alarming risks. Their employees are sounding the siren too, with one researcher publicly quitting and accusing OpenAI and Anthropic of “gambling with our lives”.The combination of dire warnings from insiders and growing real-world evidence of rogue AIs should, in a sane world, lead to government action. Instead, Donald Trump and the Republican leadership have their heads in the sand. Continue reading...
The Guardian
6 days ago
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