The Guardian

Cuts by Snapchat’s parent company come in response to a declining stock price and pressure from an activist investor Snapchat ’s parent company plans to lay off 16% of its employees, around 1,000 people, citing “rapid advancements in artificial intelligence”, the social media company told staff on Wednesday in an internal memo. The staff reduction is part of a wave of tech industry layoffs in the…

Once you start noticing “it’s not X, it’s Y” as you scroll online, you can’t fail to register it. I’ve become so hypervigilant that it has seeped into my subconscious thoughts If you’ve never seen Jim Carrey’s 2007 psychological thriller The Number 23 , then congratulations. It is a film about a man who sees the number 23 so many times that he ends up going bonkers. I used to think this film was …

Narwhal Labs ad for ‘AI employee’ contains strapline: ‘She outworks everyone. And she’ll never ask for a raise’ A British AI company that recently secured millions of pounds of investment has been accused of running a misogynistic and sexist advertising campaign. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received at least seven complaints about the campaign by Narwhal Labs, which includes an …

‘Unc’ is meant to disparage older players who favour slow-paced shooters and epic narrative games, but the industry should make games for all generations • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here While researching women’s experiences in multiplayer video games recently, I came across this thread on the subreddit about Bungie’s latest live shooter, Marathon . “I’ve played a…

In a post-apocalyptic landscape of cutthroat scavengers, surprisingly peaceful players are opting to team up and open up – a phenomenon that’s intriguing game developers and psychologists alike The video game Arc Raiders is set in a lethal imagining of an apocalyptic future for humanity. Survivors have been forced to live deep underground in colonies while mysterious, murderous AI machines patrol…

Deal, subject to regulatory approval, would give Bezos firm access to Globalstar’s network of two dozen satellites Amazon said on Tuesday it would acquire a satellite company in an $11.57bn deal, bolstering its own fledgling space business as it looks to take on Elon Musk-led bigger rival Starlink. The deal gives Amazon access to Globalstar’s network of two dozen satellites, boosting the tech gia…

Experts say China is backing attempts at global governance, while US has set up race between profit-hungry companies China is now the “good guy” on AI rather than Donald Trump’s US, where the technology is being pursued in a dangerous “wild west” manner, a former UN and UK government adviser has told MPs. Prof Dame Wendy Hall, who was a member of the UN’s AI advisory board and co-wrote a review o…

Suit alleges the billionaire’s AI company is illegally spewing toxic pollutants from its datacenter in the Memphis area A new lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company of illegally spewing toxic pollutants into the Black neighborhoods on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi. The suit, filed on Tuesday in Mississippi federal court, alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act du…

Chip upgrade brings pro-level power, long battery life and plenty of storage, but the Air now faces real competition Apple’s latest MacBook Air is its most powerful yet, comes with double the starting storage and is better than ever for getting work done and as the benchmark for a consumer laptop. But this year the new lower-cost MacBook Neo has muddied the waters. The M5 MacBook Air starts at £1…

Compact and comfortable Pixel Buds have noise cancelling, decent battery life and good everyday sound Google’s latest budget Pixel earbuds are smaller, lighter, more comfortable and have noise cancelling, plus a case that allows you to replace the battery at home. The Pixel Buds 2a uses the design of the excellent Pixel Buds Pro 2 with a few high-end features at a more palatable £109 (€129/$129/A…

Elle Hunt on her month wearing Meta’s smart glasses and the privacy concerns around the technology According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s AI-powered glasses are “personal super intelligence” that “let you stay present in the moment”. Journalist Elle Hunt reports on her time wearing them for a month . Elle tells Nosheen Iqbal about the highs and lows of the experience, the features that could be tra…

A shallow plot and advert-adjacent cameos justify the critics’ condemnation of Nintendo’s latest film. But there’s sincere affection for the universe here, too I was bracing myself for the worst when I headed into the cinema with my children to watch the new Super Mario Galaxy movie over the Easter break. The reviews have been memorably dire. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it worse than AI …

Just when parents thought they could decode teenage text speak, a new list comes along that raises more questions than answers Name: Confusing text abbreviations. Age: As old as texts themselves. Continue reading...

What’s it like to have a diary that talks back to you, offering comments and advice on your hopes, fears and lunch plans? I spent two months finding out Ever since I was a teenager, I have kept some form of diary . These days I favour a paper one for creative brainstorming, and the Journal app on my iPad where I do a speedily typed brain dump every morning. I have always found it a great way to i…

The group named ShinyHunters have accessed a third party server and have given the company a deadline of 14 April to enter ransom negotiations Rockstar Games, the studio behind Grand Theft Auto, has been the target of a cyberattack for the second time in three years. A hacker group called ShinyHunters said it would release data stolen from the company if ransom demands were not met. ShinyHunters …