The Guardian

SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI creates business worth $1.25tn but whether premise behind deal will work is questioned The acquisition of xAI by SpaceX is a typical Elon Musk deal: big numbers backed by big ambition. As well as extending “the light of consciousness to the stars”, as Musk described it, the transaction creates a business worth $1.25tn (£920bn) by combining Musk’s rocket company with hi…

Campaigners welcome criminalisation of non-consensual AI-generated explicit images but say law does not go far enough Victims of deepfake image abuse have called for stronger protection against AI-generated explicit images, as the law criminalising the creation of non-consensual intimate images comes into effect. Campaigners from Stop Image-Based Abuse delivered a petition to Downing Street with …

A leaked pitch to reshape Ethereum’s leadership exposed deep divisions over politics, power and ether’s static price US crypto developer Danny Ryan submitted a proposal in November 2024 to Vitalik Buterin, the founder and symbolic leader of Ethereum, a prominent blockchain powering the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency. Ryan, who had worked for seven years at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), Eth…

We want to hear how the fall in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and ether are impacting people Bitcoin sank to its lowest value in more than a year this week, faling to $63,000 on Thursday, about half its all-time peak of $126,000 in October 2025 It’s part of a wider shock to crypto prices. The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, has faced losses of more than 30% this year alone. Continue reading…

Nintendo’s monster-collecting franchise was pilloried as a ‘pestilential Ponzi scheme’ in the 90s. But as its celebrates its 30th birthday, it now stands as a powerful example of video games’ ability to connect people When I was 11, it was my dream to compete in the Pokémon World Championships, held in Sydney in 2000. I’d come across it in a magazine, and then earnestly set about training teams o…

PC; Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel This mischievous roguelike escapade featuring utterly fiendish felines is compelling, and impressively tasteless You know that old saying about cats having nine lives? Well, as far as Mewgenics is concerned, you can forget it – and you can also forget the idea that a game about cats has to be in any way cute. These kitties are red in tooth and claw, prone to s…

At its new Stone Mountain, Georgia, facility, Roomba-like robots shuffle between stacks, another adds shipping labels while another arranges packages in pallets One of the reasons Amazon is spending billions on robots? They don’t need bathroom breaks. Arriving a few minutes early to the public tour of Amazon’s hi-tech Stone Mountain, Georgia, warehouse, my request to visit the restroom was met wi…

Preliminary EU ruling says app shifts brains of users into ‘autopilot mode’, with concerns for children and vulnerable adults Business live – latest updates TikTok could be forced into changes to make the app less addictive to users after the EU indicated the platform had breached the bloc’s digital safety rules . The EU’s executive arm said in a preliminary ruling that the popular app had infrin…

Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies On the veranda of her family’s home, with her laptop balanced on a mud slab built into the wall, Monsumi Murmu works from one of the few places where the mobile signal holds. The familiar sounds of domestic life come from inside the house: clinking utensils, footsteps, voices. On he…

AI content for scams can be targeted at individuals and ‘produced by pretty much anybody’, researchers say Deepfake fraud has gone “industrial”, an analysis published by AI experts has said. Tools to create tailored, even personalised, scams – leveraging, for example, deepfake videos of Swedish journalists or the president of Cyprus – are no longer niche, but inexpensive and easy to deploy at sca…

‘I shouldn’t have to prove I am innocent,’ said man misidentified by Sainsbury’s staff using Facewatch system A man was ordered to leave a supermarket in London after staff misidentified him using controversial new facial recognition technology. Warren Rajah was told to abandon his shopping and leave the local store he has been using for 15 years after an “Orwellian” error in a Sainsbury’s in Ele…

Whether you’re chasing gym quality on a budget or a fancy folding model, accelerate your training with our expert’s pick of the best running machines • The best running shoes, tried and tested by runners • The best running watches Although the treadmill has been around since the early 1800s, when it was once used to punish prisoners (sounds about right), it didn’t become a common feature in the h…

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…

From indestructible wallets to Crocs (yes, Crocs), we rounded up the best guy-approved Valentine’s Day gifts they won’t know how they lived without 26 sentimental and practical US Valentine’s Day gifts for her in 2026 Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things Whether you have been together for years or just made it official, one thing remains certain: …

Perfect Tides perfectly captures the older millennial college experience, and a time when nobody worried about being embarrassing online • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here I’ve noticed an interesting micro-trend emerging in the last few years: millennial nostalgia games. Not just ones that adopt the aesthetic of Y2K gaming – think Crow Country or Fear the Spotlight …