The Guardian

The security chief of SolarWinds reflects on the Russian hack that exposed US government agencies – and the heart attack he suffered in the aftermath Tim Brown will remember 12 December 2020 for ever. It was the day the software company SolarWinds was notified it had been hacked by Russia. Continue reading...

An upside-down mindset is emerging around the world. We have to rethink our relationship with the environment and the technology that’s caused it harm Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World describes a society in thrall to the values of science and technology. It is set in the futuristic World State, whose citizens are scientifically engineere…

The private Alpha School says its students can learn faster and better – but experts warn not all may benefit from an AI boom in schools In the world’s tech innovation epicenter, an “AI-powered” private school has made headlines for unabashedly embracing the technology. Alpha School San Francisco, which opened its doors to K-8 students this fall, is the newest outpost of a network of 14 nationwid…

From 007 to Elsa, Vermillio claims it can trace percentage of AI-generated image drawn from pre-existing material Ask Google’s AI video tool to create a film of a time-travelling doctor who flies around in a blue British phone booth and the result, unsurprisingly, resembles Doctor Who. And if you ask OpenAI’s technology to do the same, a similar thing happens. What’s wrong with that, you may thin…

Measures come amid concern generative AI characters are having inappropriate conversations with under-18s Parents will be able to block their children’s interactions with Meta’s AI character chatbots, as the tech company addresses concerns over inappropriate conversations. The social media company is adding new safeguards to its “ teen accounts ”, which are a default setting for under-18 users, b…

From brain-rotting videos to AI creep, every technological advance seems to make it harder to work, remember, think and function independently … Step into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab in Cambridge, US, and the future feels a little closer. Glass cabinets display prototypes of weird and wonderful creations, from tiny desktop robots to a surrealist sculpture created by …

Forty years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the US – and a generation of kids were sucked into video games for life The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States on 18 October 1985: about a year after I was born, and 40 years ago today. It’s as if the company sensed that a sucker who’d spend thousands of dollars on plastic toys and electronic gam…

Dune star says performers are regularly pressed to have bodies scanned on set with few rights over how data is used ‘Have we done ourselves out of a job?’: concerns in film and TV industry over on-set body scanning Actors should have as much control over the data harvested from scans of their body as they do over nudity scenes, the actor Olivia Williams has said, amid heightened concern over arti…

Science and technology select committee says complacency over social media content puts public at risk Failures to properly tackle online misinformation mean it is “only a matter of time” before viral content triggers a repeat of the 2024 summer riots, MPs have warned. Chi Onwurah, the chair of the Commons science and technology select committee, said ministers seemed complacent about the threat …

Waymo plans London robotaxis as early as 2026, but the history shows hype, hesitation and a few missed turns The age-old question from the back of the car feels just as pertinent as a new era of autonomy threatens to dawn: are we nearly there yet? For Britons, long-promised fully driverless cars, the answer is as ever – yes, nearly. But not quite. A landmark moment on the journey to autonomous dr…

Actors unclear on rights over their data and what it will be used for, as cast and crew alike fear for future of their roles Olivia Williams says actors need ‘nudity rider’-type controls for AI body scans For performers on TV or movie sets, it is not unusual to receive a request to enter a booth filled with scores of cameras ready to capture their likeness from every possible angle. Yet with the …

This whimsical action-adventure game sees you stomping through nature as a life-giving lighthouse – and it only gets weirder from there The world of Keeper looms from the screen like a dream coloured by psilocybin. Here is a gnarled landmass of bubblegum blues, powder pinks and strange, luminous beasts, where evolution seems to occur at light speed. This world’s considerable beauty is amplified b…

The video app can produce realistic deepfakes of Marx shopping and MLK Jr trolling. Some say using ‘historical figures’ is the company’s way of testing the legal waters Last night I was flicking through a dating app. One guy stood out: “Henry VIII, 34, King of England, nonmonogamy”. Next thing I know, I am at a candlelit bar sharing a martini with the biggest serial dater of the 16th century. But…

PC, PS5, Xbox; Konami After an apocalyptic supernatural fog descends, school girl Hinako wakes up in a town populated by psychosexual beasts and gaslighting men in masks There are some horror games you can finish in a couple of days of intense play; they almost invite that sort of frenzied consumption. But there are others that need to be savoured, and sometimes even suffered. Silent Hill f is in…

Xbox’s portable console combines the openness of PC gaming and Microsoft’s desire for you to play its titles anywhere – but it doesn’t come cheap or without hitches The ROG Xbox Ally X, the handheld console collaboration from Asus and Microsoft, is an impressive, yet expensive, piece of gaming tech. The pricier of the two portable gaming devices dropping on 16 October, the all-black ROG Xbox Ally…