The Guardian

We are paying more for a PlayStation so that idiots can use ChatGPT to mislead people on dating apps – something is rotten in the state of gaming • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here When the PlayStation 5 launched almost five and a half years ago, it was listed at £449 in the UK. If you were to buy one at the recommended retail price today, it would be £569.99, or £7…

Calls for tougher laws as network stretching from Caribbean to Georgia generates riches for offshore tycoons by appearing to prey on the vulnerable Immaculately groomed and beaming from ear to ear, Andres Markou looks every inch the golden boy of the gambling sector. The youthful boss of MyStake, a fast-growing digital casino, has been pictured shaking hands with the Brazilian football legend Ron…

Head of committee says it was appropriate for government to seek guidance on way out of £330m deal with US data company Claims by Palantir that concerns over the US data analytics company’s multimillion-pound NHS contract are “ideologically motivated” have been rejected by the chair of a parliamentary committee. It was also appropriate for the government to seek guidance on activating a break con…

Company chaired by Trump ally Larry Ellison seeks to reassure investors that bet on AI infrastructure will pay off Oracle is cutting thousands of jobs as the US technology company seeks to reassure investors that its bet on AI infrastructure will pay off. The $420bn firm, headquartered in Austin, Texas, started making employees redundant on Tuesday, with thousands of Oracle’s 160,000-strong workf…

From an interactive session of Sex With Friends to improvised Robot Karaoke, the Friday Live celebration of play and performance amid the museum’s venerable halls was a reminder of gaming’s cultural clout In the grand entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum, beneath a looming dome with ancient statues visible through nearby arches, a programmer/DJ is busy live-coding a glitchy electronic music s…

Content creators love the built-in camera; sceptics call them ‘pervert glasses’. Do we really need any more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench? Lately, I’ve been hearing Judi Dench’s voice in my head. She tells me tomorrow’s forecast, when to turn right, that there’s been another message in my group chat. Day or night, Dame Judi is eager to assist. When I a…

Milpitas approves measure to distribute smart doorbells and says residents can upload footage to police database A Silicon Valley city will offer its residents free wireless doorbells equipped with cameras to help police collect video evidence. The city council of Milpitas, a suburb north of San Jose, California, recently approved $60,000 to provide these devices on a one-camera-per-household, fi…

Publisher alleges AI research company’s chatbot violated its copyright over Coconut the Little Dragon series Penguin Random House has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging its chatbot ChatGPT violated copyright by mimicking and reproducing the content of a popular series of German children’s books. The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday with a Munich court against OpenAI’s Ireland-based Europe…

Company said it achieved valuation of $852bn, mentioning in a blogpost it generates $2bn a month in revenue OpenAI announced on Tuesday it had closed a fundraising round of $122bn and achieved a valuation of $852bn. The funding cements the ChatGPT maker as one of the most highly valued private companies in the world. The artificial intelligence firm received multibillion-dollar investments from c…

For many young people entering the workforce, the stigma of hands-on jobs is fading. There a competitive appeal – and they all require human expertise Gib and Michelle Mouser are proud of their son’s career – just not in the way they once imagined. Only 23 years old, Cale Mouser already earns well over six figures, and he’ll end up making substantially more. He is an acknowledged expert in a high…

When Ubokobong Amanam lost his fingers in an accident he teamed up with his brother John, a special effects artist, to design a prosthetic that suited him – now they run a thriving business On a humid morning in Uyo, Nigeria, Ubokobong Amanam shows off the lifelike prosthetic where his fingers once were. The skin bears tiny wrinkles, and the nails are naturally shaped. Seven years ago, he was bad…

As calls for restrictions on under-16s’ online activities gather pace, some are urging curbs on online gaming. The idea is a mess from top to bottom Last week, Meta and YouTube were found liable for creating intentionally addictive products that affected the wellbeing of young social media users. The ruling has supercharged an already growing movement from governments and regulators to restrict o…

Snappy performance, high-quality screen, best-in-class keyboard and trackpad show cheaper can still be great Apple’s brand new entry-level laptop is powered by the chip from an iPhone and offers more than just the essential MacBook experience for a great price, putting the PC industry on notice. The MacBook Neo is the first of its kind from Apple. A 13in laptop that runs on an A18 Pro chip and br…

Tim Sweeney, chief of firm that created Fortnite, received backlash after worker’s wife revealed loss of life insurance The chief of the company that created Fortnite, a popular online game, has issued an apology following backlash after recent mass layoffs cost an employee with terminal brain cancer his job – and his life insurance. On Sunday, Tim Sweeney, the Epic Games chief executive, apologi…

Slumped on the pavement, she wasn’t breathing – and I wouldn’t have realised if I’d been listening to music as usual. Time to stop blotting out the world … For years I walked the streets of London wearing noise-cancelling headphones, absorbed in playlists, politics podcasts or long voice notes from friends, and a million miles away from wherever I was. One damp January evening last year, I was wa…