The Guardian

Big tech stocks falter as investors question whether billions being poured into AI can generate returns quickly enough A sell-off of tech stocks that began earlier this month and gained steam with disappointing earnings from leading tech companies drove US markets down by hundreds of billions of dollars Friday. In total, the decline has knocked nearly $1tn in value off the tech-heavy Nasdaq excha…

Almost 40% of British singles have used AI for romantic advice, from writing messages to assessing potential partners After Sam’s ex joked that her sister found him ugly, he turned to AI. Google Gemini had a look at the photo and politely disagreed. AI has been his wingman ever since, aiding his dating life by giving pep talks and vetting his messages. The 27-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent is not t…

Anthropic, the creator of Claude, filed to go public on the US stock market on 26 October. The company's filing statement contains a 92-page risk factor document in which it acknowledges the dangers that AI poses to society and human beings, and factors that could negatively affect Anthropic's business. Johana Bhuiyan, senior tech reporter for the Guardian, breaks down the document and explains w…

It was an ambitious notion – now Californians will vote on a one-time 5% billionaire tax, and state’s super rich have pulled out all the stops in opposition One year ago, the idea of a billionaire tax in California was still in its infancy. It wasn’t yet one of the most contentious ballot measure fights in state history – pitting Democrats against Democrats, drawing national attention from politi…

Scraping copyrighted material from internet could ‘potentially’ amount to acquisition of property by government, Anne Twomey says Get our daily political email , free app or daily news podcast Altering copyright law to allow AI companies to scrape music, books and journalism could trigger a constitutional breach, Coalition senators and the recording industry have warned, as they raise new fears i…

Ghost hunting has changed in recent years due to AI chatbots, and paranormal enthusiasts are concerned Ghost hunting is a tech-heavy pursuit. When Amy Waine and Jarrad Cutting investigate haunted locations, they’re loaded up with software of their own design, such as an app that assigns signals from a phone’s sensors to different words in a database. In the age of ChatGPT, the ghost-hunting pair …

UK government guidance says we should be ready for the unexpected, but what’s actually helpful to have at home? We ask the specialists • The best power banks – tested How prepared are you for an emergency? Do you have a few extra tins of beans in the cupboard, or a full-on preppers’ kit in the cellar? While no one likes to think about worst-case scenarios, you can’t have failed to notice the grow…

Research finds 55% of lawyers are using AI in legal practices, up from 37% last year, though efficiency gains aren’t as high as expected Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast More than half of Victoria’s lawyers have reported using AI in their work, according to a new study, but just over a quarter say they have reduced fees as a result of efficiency gains. They also say cl…

Voicing the main character in Black Tides Draga’s Wake led to me making the kinds of noises I haven’t made since my honeymoon but also one of my favourite moments as a father “I listen to you on the radio and I keep hearing your voice in my head!” Not a typical opening to a creative partnership, but that is how Greg Strangis introduced himself to me 16 months ago, when he asked me to come to his …

Cryptocurrency exchange scrambles to freeze affected, with about $3bn located so far The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by an industry-record $6.3bn hack, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit. Binance has scrambled to freeze the affected assets, with about $3bn located so far. The company gave no update on the other $3.3bn as Binance’s co-founder Yi He …

As thousands of datacentres are constructed across Europe, the Guardian and Investigate Europe have uncovered disturbing evidence that some workers building them are exposed to dangerous conditions and living in fear of speaking out Sandu* checked his watch. He was winding down the last 15 minutes of his shift at a vast Google datacentre site in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium, in March, when the call ca…

Court documents reveal staff considered ways to ‘get academic community to disavow’ influential US author Meta staff discussed deploying a “whisper strategy” to undermine the influential US academic whose work has inspired a global social media crackdown , according to court documents. Employees at the parent group of Facebook and Instagram sought to discredit Jonathan Haidt, the social psycholog…

E-commerce company posts high cloud computing sales but gives a cautious sales forecast for the fourth quarter Amazon offered a mixed picture of its financial health on Thursday in its quarterly earnings report. The e-commerce company gave a cautious sales forecast for the current fourth quarter, which encompasses the critical holiday shopping period, after delivering fiscal third-quarter results…

Wet weather dampening your plans? From screen-free stories and craft kits to waterproof gear, here’s how to keep little ones – and grownups – entertained • The best gifts for kids by age Before becoming a mum, I never appreciated quite how complicated getting out the front door would be with kids in tow. But in my four and a half years of parenting two small people, I can confidently say it’s not…

Liquid Static Studio; PC You take on the role of flight attendant in this clever and absorbing retro-style game that veers from daft horror spoof to genuinely disturbing There was always something creepy about the job-simulator genre. All those mindless automatons queueing up to use your bus, bar or bed store, or whatever workplace you are trapped in for the duration of the game. The endless repe…