The Guardian

The once-lauded director of Black Swan and The Wrestler has drowned himself in AI slop with an embarrassing new online series If you happen to find yourself stumbling through Time magazine’s YouTube account, perhaps because you are a time traveller from the 1970s who doesn’t fully understand how the present works yet – then you will be presented with something that many believe represents the van…

In-person interactions break down barriers in east London, as AI startups also try to bridge communication divide Wesley Hartwell raised his fists to the barista and shook them next to his ears. He then lowered his fists, extended his thumbs and little fingers, and moved them up and down by his chest, as though milking a cow. Finally, he laid the fingers of one hand flat on his chin and flexed hi…

Millions of dollars have been raised for Bondi hero Ahmed al-Ahmed, while campaigns are backing families hit by Victoria’s bushfires. What does this way of giving mean for the charity sector? Within hours of the Bondi beach terror attack , the money had already begun to pour in. As images of the tragedy flooded social media, people from around the world donated tens of thousands of dollars to the…

New Mexico attorney general accuses Meta of failing to safeguard children against trafficking and sexual abuse Meta’s second major trial of 2026 over alleged harms to children begins on Monday. The landmark jury trial in Santa Fe pits the New Mexico attorney general’s office against the social media giant. The state alleges that the company knowingly enabled predators to use Facebook and Instagra…

OpenClaw is billed as ‘the AI that actually does things’ and needs almost no input to potentially wreak havoc A new viral AI personal assistant will handle your email inbox, trade away your entire stock portfolio and text your wife “good morning” and “goodnight” on your behalf. OpenClaw , formerly known as Moltbot, and before that known as Clawdbot (until the AI firm Anthropic requested it rebran…

A bit like Reddit for artificial intelligence, Moltbook allows AI agents – bots built by humans – to post and interact with each other. People are allowed as observers only On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use? Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and inter…

Social media platform says there are still ‘real technical limitations to accurate and dependable age verification’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The accounts of more than 415,000 users in Australia identified as being under 16 were locked or disabled by Snapchat as part of its compliance with the under-16s soci…

Some users are stepping away from the app after it made a deal to create a US entity and updated terms and conditions Many TikTok users across the US say they’re rethinking their relationship with the platform since its ownership and terms and conditions have recently changed, with some citing censorship and lack of trust as reasons why they’re removing themselves from the app. Keara Sullivan, a …

As apps and gadgets capitalise on loss of stigma, consumers are advised to look for evidence-based solutions For any bodily function you want to measure these days there is a gadget – a wristband for step-counting, a watch to track your heart rate or a ring for measuring sleep. Now the march of wearable tech is coming to the aid of what some say is a long underserved market: menopausal women. Con…

A lawsuit filed last week alleges tech firm ‘can access virtually all’ private communications, a claim the company has denied US authorities have reportedly investigated claims that Meta can read users’ encrypted chats on the WhatsApp messaging platform, which it owns. The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week, which claimed Meta “can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘privat…

A wave of affordable Chinese-made EVs is accelerating the shift away from petrol cars, challenging long‑held assumptions about how transport decarbonisation unfolds • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Last year, almost every new car sold in Norway, the nature-loving country flush with oil wealth, was fully electric. In prosperous Denmark, which was all-in on petrol and…

At a family gathering over Christmas, I took on my 76-year-old mother once again at virtual bowling. Could I finally best her? My mother bore me. My mother nurtured me. My mother educated me. She has a resilience unmatched, a love all-forgiving. She is the glue that holds our family together. But right now, I am kicking her ass at video game bowling, and it feels good ! In the 00s, my mum was the…

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; The Game Bakers A punishing, beautiful survival game that turns mountaineering into an intimate test of endurance, fixation and emotional resolve – you’ll be in tears by the end Mountaineers and climbers, especially the free-solo kind, are humanity’s most fascinating maniacs: single-minded, daring souls who throw themselves into profoundly optional life-endangering feats.…

​In the fiercely competitive market ​of the online multiplayer game, Highguard​’s rocky start means it now has a lot to prove • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here In the fast-paced, almost psychotically unforgiving video game business, you really do have to stick the landing. Launching a new game is an artform in itself – do you go for months of slowly building hype o…

From rhino-sized Rhyhorns to worm-like Diglett, visitors to PokéPark Kanto will roam a forest populated by lifelike Pokémon statues when the attraction opens next week In Japan, February is normally a period of quiet reflection, a month defined by winter festivals in Sapporo’s snowy mountains and staving off the cold in steaming hot springs. Traditionally, international tourists start to arrive w…