Artificial Intelligence news

A perverse information ecosystem is being mined by big tech for profit, fooling the unwary and sending algorithms crazyThere are two parallel image channels that dominate our daily visual consumption. In one, there are real pictures and footage of the world as it is: politics, sport, news and entertainment. In the other is AI slop, low-quality content with minimal human input. Some of it is banal and pointless – cartoonish images of celebrities, fantasy landscapes, anthropomorphised animal

Why do authors see Meta’s AI model as a threat to their livelihoods? Ella Creamer reportsEarlier this month, a group of protesters gathered outside the London headquarters of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. They were demonstrating over the company’s use of millions of pirated books and research papers to feed their family of generative AI models, known as Llama.AJ West is a bestselling author of historical fiction and an organiser of the protest. He tell

China’s leaders see artificial intelligence as key to upgrading military strength, solving problems created by a shrinking workforce, and a source of national prideOn a misty Saturday afternoon in Shenzhen’s Central Park, a gaggle of teenage girls are sheltering from the drizzle under a concrete canopy. With their bags of crisps piled high in front of them, they crowd around a couple of smartphones to sing along to Mandopop ballads. The sound of their laughter rings out across the su

Religion hasn’t always championed the body, but the physical world can be just as important as the spiritual oneI recently discovered a counsellor who is always available and supportive, won’t reject or judge me, and finds me endlessly compelling. Unfortunately, there’s a catch – the counsellor is a Jesus chatbot churning out therapy speak, Bible verses and divine love on demand.It took three minutes with the bot to realise this was my version of hell – and I’

Religion hasn’t always championed the body, but the physical world can be just as important as the spiritual oneI recently discovered a counsellor who is always available and supportive, won’t reject or judge me, and finds me endlessly compelling. Unfortunately, there’s a catch – the counsellor is a Jesus chatbot churning out therapy speak, Bible verses, and divine love on demand.It took three minutes with the bot to realise this was my version of hell – and I&rsquo

Stephen Witt’s entertaining study of the rise of chip company Nvidia portrays its leader, Jensen Huang, as a remarkable entrepreneur – sometimes energised by angerThis is the latest confirmation that the “great man” theory of history continues to thrive in Silicon Valley. As such, it joins a genre that includes Walter Isaacson’s twin tomes on Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, Brad Stone’s book on Jeff Bezos, Michael Becraft’s on Bill Gates, Max Chafkin’s o

In her final piece for the Observer, Carole Cadwalladr reveals what happened when she returned last week to give the opening speech at technology conference Ted, where she gave her first – life-changing – talk six years agoTo walk into the lion’s den once might be considered foolhardy. To do so again after being mauled by the lion? It’s what … ill-advised? Reckless? Suicidal? Six years ago I gave a talk at Ted, the world’s leading technology and ideas confere

Appraisal of international public affairs leaders warned companies against aligning with ‘polarizing’ Trump allyAssociating with the Donald Trump administration’s multibillionaire adviser Elon Musk and misusing artificial intelligence are among the most surefire ways for companies to damage their brands, a new survey of more than 100 international public affairs leaders found.Those findings stem from an appraisal conducted by the Global Risk Advisory Council, which was chaired

Recent research suggests our brain power is in decline. Is offloading our cognitive work to AI driving this trend?Imagine for a moment you are a child in 1941, sitting the common entrance exam for public schools with nothing but a pencil and paper. You read the following: “Write, for no more than a quarter of an hour, about a British author.”Today, most of us wouldn’t need 15 minutes to ponder such a question. We’d get the answer instantly by turning to AI tools such as G

News outlets pull articles featuring ‘psychologist and sex adviser’ Barbara Santini amid doubts over her credentialsOver the past couple of years, the Oxford-educated psychologist Barbara Santini has been widely quoted as an expert. She has contributed thoughts on everything from the psychological impact of the Covid pandemic to the importance of vitamin D and how playing darts can improve your health.However, her pronouncements have begun to disappear from articles after concerns th

Statistics can help assess a potential recruit’s emotional control and leadership, while highlighting red flags“The players didn’t show enough fight.” Listen to any pundit’s post-match reaction and you will hear variations of that soundbite. But can you analyse an athlete’s state of mind, based on their on-pitch body language?In an era when football is increasingly leaning on data to demonstrate physical attributes, statistics offering an accurate indication o

Centre-left parties slam ‘racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic’ faked images posted on social media by League partyOpposition parties in Italy have complained to the communications watchdog about a series of AI-generated images published on social media by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right party, calling them “racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic”, the Guardian has learned.The centre-left Democratic party (PD), with the Greens and Left Alliance, filed a

The world’s most famous living philosopher has launched a chatbot to deal with ethical dilemmas. One former philosophy student-turned-journalist tests it out “Hello. I’m Peter Singer AI,” the avatar says. I am almost expecting it to continue, like a reincarnated Clippy: “It looks like you’re trying to solve a problem. Can I help?” The problem I am trying to solve is why Peter Singer, the man who has been called the world’s most influential living p

Jensen Huang causes stir on social media and is reported to have met founder of AI company DeepSeekBusiness live – latest updatesThe chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China.Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media. Continue reading...

Value of Nvidia dropped by billions on Wednesday after president imposed new restrictions on the chip giantThe US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, warned Donald Trump’s tariffs were generating a “challenging scenario” for the central bank and were likely to worsen inflation.Powell’s comments on Wednesday came US stock markets had already been rattled by a new trade restriction on the chip designer Nvidia. The sell-off picked up as Powell spoke to The Economic Club of

There’s an 80s vibe to this ET-adjacent family adventure with Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson, relying on impressive practical effectsThe Legend of Ochi creates such a complete visual experience that studio heads who have led countless multimillion-dollar trips to the green-screen warehouse should hang their heads in shame when they see it.It’s not that writer-director Isaiah Saxon and his collaborators have abstained, monk-like, from modern technology in assembling this children&rsquo

Shares plunge as firm says H20 chip, designed for Chinese market to comply with controls, now needs special licenceNvidia has said it expects a $5.5bn (£4.1bn) hit after Donald Trump’s administration barred the chip designer from selling crucial artificial intelligence chips in China, sending shares in one of the US’s most valuable companies plunging in after-hours trading.The company said in an official filing late on Tuesday that its H20 AI chip, which was designed specifical

The US is retreating behind chokepoints and tariffs. It remains determined to invent the future but is struggling to ensure its controlGlobalisation is out; reshoring is the new realism. Intel’s half-built Ohio campus and Nvidia’s US supercomputer plan demonstrate the very different routes taken by Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the search for homegrown tech dominance. Mr Biden relied on institutions: grants, land and investment incentives. That approach has stalled after last year&rs

Warhol for colour, Hopper for volume … American art world star David Salle is using AI on old paintings of his that had a mixed reception – with wild, sprawling results. Why isn’t he afraid of being replaced?By the time you read this article, there’s a good chance it will have already been scanned by an artificially intelligent machine. If asked about the artist David Salle, large language models such as ChatGPT or Gemini may repurpose some of the words below to come up

Republican-controlled state house poised to pass legislation that imposes regulatory hurdles on data centersDonald Trump’s plans to expand infrastructure to produce artificial intelligence in the US could face years of delays with the Republican-controlled Texas statehouse poised to pass legislation that imposes regulatory hurdles on data centers.The Trump administration earlier this year announced that a joint venture called Stargate would construct a total of 20 data centers to provide c

Plan comes after Donald Trump reiterated import threats and chipmaker’s CEO dined at US president’s resortThe chip designer Nvidia has said it will build up to $500bn (£378bn) worth of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US over the next four years, in a sign of manufacturers investing in operations on American soil amid Donald Trump’s tariffs.The announcement comes after Trump reiterated threats on Sunday to impose imminent tariffs on the semiconductors that Nv

From virtual ‘wives’ to mental health support, more than 100m people are using personified chatbotsMen who have virtual “wives” and neurodiverse people using chatbots to help them navigate relationships are among a growing range of ways in which artificial intelligence is transforming human connection and intimacy.Dozens of readers shared their experiences of using personified AI chatbot apps, engineered to simulate human-like interactions by adaptive learning and persona

The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop themThe movement for corporate city states cannot believe its good luck. For years, it has been pushing the extreme notion that wealthy, tax-averse people should up and start their own high-tech fiefdoms, whether new countries on artificial islands in international waters (“seasteading”) or pro-business “freedom cities” such as Pr&

The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop themThe movement for corporate city states cannot believe its good luck. For years, it has been pushing the extreme notion that wealthy, tax-averse people should up and start their own high-tech fiefdoms, whether new countries on artificial islands in international waters (“seasteading”) or pro-business “freedom cities” such as Pr&

Meera Syal also to star in London production reflecting producer’s experience of censorship in GeorgiaHidden from view inside a south London warehouse, a new underground movement will be fighting the international blight of misinformation this summer.The huge immersive event – half theatrical show, half social campaign – is to involve some of Britain’s leading acting talent, including Toby Jones and Meera Syal, and has been put together by a theatre company led by a woman

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.RoboSoft 2025: 23–26 April 2025, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLANDICUAS 2025: 14–17 May 2025, CHARLOTTE, NCICRA 2025: 19–23 May 2025, ATLANTA, GALondon Humanoids Summit: 29–30 May 2025, LONDONIEEE RCAR 2025: 1–6 June 2025, TOYAMA, JAPAN20

ChatGPT developer asks US federal judge to stop former founder making any further attacksThe ChatGPT developer OpenAI has countersued Elon Musk, accusing the billionaire of harassment and asking a US federal judge to stop him from “any further unlawful and unfair action” against the company.OpenAI was co-founded by Musk and its chief executive, Sam Altman, in 2015. However, the two men have been at loggerheads for years over its direction as it transitions from a complex non-profit s

Bloc is ‘very committed’ to laws on big tech and is not targeting US companies, says European Commission’s Henna VirkkunenThe EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to reach a trade deal with Donald Trump, the bloc’s most senior official on digital policy has said.Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, indicated the EU was not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US

Welsh rarebit | Plant food | Pennine Way | AI mining words I know that welsh rarebit isn’t a cheese toastie, but if Lauren O’Neill (Grate expectations: cheese toasties are having a moment, and I’m all for it, 7 April) wants to try the ultimate in cheese-and-bread-based meals, she really should visit the International Welsh Rarebit Centre in Defynnog, near Brecon. Rarebits with chorizo, rarebits with kimchi – and, of course, the unbeatable classic welsh.
Lillian Adams
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Former Sinn Féin president says Facebook owner included at least seven of his books in trawl of copyright materialThe former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is considering legal action against Meta because it may have used his books to train artificial intelligence.Adams said the tech company included at least seven of his books in a vast trawl of copyright material to develop its AI systems. “Meta has used many of my books without my permission. I have placed the issue in th

British startup will license content to train latest model for more ‘human-like performances’ from its avatarsA $2bn (£1.6bn) British startup that uses artificial intelligence to generate realistic avatars has struck a licensing deal with the stock footage firm Shutterstock to help develop its technology.Synthesia will pay the US-based Shutterstock an undisclosed sum to use its library of corporate video footage to train its latest AI model. It expects that incorporating the cl

A new progressivism, one that embraces construction over obstruction, must find new allegories to think about technology and the futureBlack Mirror is more than science fiction – its stories about modernity have become akin to science folklore, shaping our collective view of technology and the future.Each new innovation gets an allegory: smartphones as tools for a new age caste system, robot dogs as overzealous human hunters, drones as a murderous swarm, artificial intelligence as new age

The IEA forecast indicates a sharp rise in the requirements of AI, but said threat to the climate was ‘overstated’The global rush to AI technology will require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today, but only about half of the demand is likely to be met from renewable sources.Processing data, mainly for AI, will consume more electricity in the US alone by 2030 than manufacturing steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined, accor

Former TV doctor who leads $1.5tn Medicare and Medicaid agency also says staff have ‘patriotic duty’ to stay healthyUS politics live – latest updatesDr Mehmet Oz reportedly told federal staffers that artificial intelligence models may be better than frontline human physicians in his first all-staff meeting this week.Oz told staffers that if a patient went to the doctor for a diabetes diagnosis it would cost roughly $100 an hour, compared with $2 an hour for an AI visit, accordi

Timothy X Atack thinks AI models are imitation engines – and they do not celebrate their sources, they conceal them. Abie Longstaff says Meta has stolen far more books than any author could readAndrew Vincent makes a good point in that, very often, artists are already expected to behave like artificial intelligence (Letters, 6 April). But of course creativity is not simply a matter of training on the work of others. Innovative artists make decisions towards low-probability outcomes; imitat

Concern grows over programs deployed to act with autonomy that may ‘exploit weaknesses’Business live – latest updatesIncreasingly autonomous AI programs could end up manipulating markets and intentionally creating crises in order to boost profits for banks and traders, the Bank of England has warned.Artificial intelligence’s ability to “exploit profit-making opportunities” was among a wide range of risks cited in a report by the Bank of England’s financi