Can autonomous AI-powered killer drones take morality onboard?

While the technology is set to play a growing role in modern warfare, there remains an unresolved ethical challengeShould the AI-powered drones of the future have a licence to kill? The question is becoming ever more pressing as governments and the defence industry acknowledge that drone systems will play an increasingly crucial role in future warfare.With drones being deployed in huge numbers in the Ukraine war and AI being used to assist bombing missions in the Iran conflict, there is an expec

Investors will buy into the market-leading tech and cult of Musk despite a price that is defying gravity“Our mission,” says the opening sentence of SpaceX’s listing document with a straight face, “is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multi-planetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”The last bit has an echo of the laughable WeWork, which was going to “elevate the wo

PM says Britons are ‘reasonable, tolerant people’ and backs MP’s legal action against Grok firm over fake sexualised imagesUK politics live – latest updatesElon Musk is “interfering in our politics” and attempting to create division, Keir Starmer has said, in a significant toughening of government language about the X owner.The prime minister’s comments come after weeks of posts by Musk on his social media platform about the murder of Henry Nowak, many o

Dr Deirdre Hughes says the issue of chronic underinvestment in high-quality, impartial careers guidance across schools, colleges and communities needs to be addressedAlan Milburn’s interim review into young people not in education, employment or training lays bare what those of us working in careers support services have long observed: this is a system failure, not a failure of young people (‘A record of failure’: what’s in the first part of Alan Milburn’s Neet repo

Nothing does more for your ego than realising you can make a better decision than a bot with all of human knowledge at its digital fingertipsI am not, by nature, an early adopter. There comes a point in our lives where change becomes more irritating than exciting and, I suspect, I reached it sooner than most. But when a workplace recently tasked me with exploring practical applications for AI, I spotted an opportunity to cast off my luddite inclinations.It turned out AI was very good at mimickin

IPO could raise up to $75bn, giving SpaceX market value of $1.77tn as it sets up Musk for extraordinary wealthElon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise $75bn (£55bn) from its blockbuster stock market listing next week as the rocket company aims for the largest initial public offering ever.If the stock market launch – primed for 12 June – goes as planned, founder Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, could make history as the first trillionaire. Continue reading...

Some will question its credibility – but the alternative future to the one imagined in the Global Justice Report is far more bleak‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survivalIn our increasingly dystopian world, who wouldn’t want to at least be open to a utopian antidote? The Global Justice Report, published on Thursday, outlines how to build a prosperous, equitable world within safe planetary boundaries. It’s a

Stronger checks likely to be needed in England to safeguard reputation of GCSEs and A-levels, says Ian BauckhamCheating in exams could be magnified by the new generation of wearable hi-tech devices such as smartglasses or invisible earpieces, according to England’s qualifications watchdog.Ian Bauckham, the head of the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), also revealed that GCSEs and A-level courses in England were being scrutinised over potential AI use in student

In 2025, the tech journalist invited artificial intelligence to do nearly everything for her, including editing the book she was writing about the experiment. Some of it was useful, some not – but it was her time with a chatbot companion that really shook herFor a year, Joanna Stern decided to turn herself into a “lab rat” – the object of her own experiment. Throughout 2025, she invited artificial intelligence into “every corner” of her life. She let AI answer

Measure in Amazon and Microsoft’s backyard expected to succeed next week as backlash grows amid AI boomSeattle’s city government is on the verge of passing a year-long ban on the construction of new datacenters, the largest city yet in the US to consider such a moratorium as nationwide backlash grows.Four companies sought to build five large datacenters in areas serviced by Seattle’s public utility; if approved, they would have consumed approximately a third of the city’s

While many US city councils have passed moratoriums, Monterey Park is first where residents have voted on a banSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailResidents in Monterey Park, California, became the first in the US to vote on a permanent ban on datacenters on Tuesday, and early results indicate a resounding victory for the prohibition.While many cities and counties have already passed temporary or indefinite moratoriums via their local governments, Monterey Park would be the first to

Consumer advocates decry Democrat Jared Polis for ‘choosing to side with dominant corporations’ over workersColorado’s governor vetoed a bill on Tuesday that would have banned companies from using surveillance pricing to set workers’ wages and prices for consumer goods.The measure would have been the strongest in the nation against algorithmic pricing. While Maryland became the first state to approve a law banning surveillance pricing in grocery stores in April, Colorado&

Jess Asato was portrayed wearing a bikini in Grok-generated images after she criticised creation of such non-consensual picturesA Labour MP has taken legal action against Elon Musk’s xAI company after saying its Grok tool helped a user produce fake sexualised pictures of her, part of a wave of such images that flooded the social media platform X earlier this year.Jess Asato, the MP for Lowestoft, said in January that seeing herself portrayed by the AI tool as wearing a bikini without her c

Giving news websites the power to block their content from being used in AI summaries will have global ramificationsThe UK’s competition watchdog has ordered Google to change how it uses publishers’ content in its AI-powered search results, in a move that will have global ramifications.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is using powers that allow it to set bespoke rules for major tech firms that it deems to have “strategic market status”. Google, the world’

European Commission proposals aim to reduce ‘risky dependencies’ on foreign suppliers in cloud computing, AI and semiconductorsThe EU executive wants to ensure no foreign government or company has access to a “kill switch” to turn off or disrupt vital tech services across the continent, as part of an effort to cut dependencies on the US and China.Publishing “technological sovereignty” proposals that risk further tensions with Donald Trump, the European Commiss

Readers respond to an article by Nesrine Malik on what we lose when we trust machines over humansNesrine Malik is right to worry about the effect that AI may have on writing (AI is devoid of meaning and humanity. That’s why its vapid voice suits this political moment, 1 June). The examples she cites of fabricated quotations and unreliable research should concern anyone who values truth and public trust.However, I suspect the deeper problem is not AI’s bland prose but its relatio

Christi Hill and male officer misidentified in Vickrum Digwa murder case on AI platforms including GrokA former police officer has been forced to flee to a safe space after she was falsely accused online of being involved in the arrest of Henry Nowak.Christi Hill, who served as a police constable for 12 years, has criticised social media and AI platforms, including Elon Musk’s Grok, for spreading the false claim that she was one of the officers who arrested Nowak as he lay dying after bein

DfE plans to withdraw funding for assistive software, saying it is now rarely needed due to ‘widely available free tools’Disability campaigners have called on the government to halt plans to cut funding for specialist tech support for tens of thousands of disabled students in England.Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition opposing Department for Education (DfE) proposals to withdraw funding for specialist assistive software available as part of the Disabled Students’ Allow

The director defends investment in and use of AI-generated storyboards, saying the immediacy of communicating his vision to cast and crew is ‘creatively freeing’Martin Scorsese’s announcement that he has invested in an AI company and uses the technology to create storyboards has triggered a backlash from fellow members of the film industry.The New York Times reported that Scorsese had been appointed in 2025 as a partner and adviser to Black Forest Labs, a German-based venture t

Software could make ethically superior decisions to humans in high-pressure moments, claims ex-GCHQ head David OmandDrones will need to be programmed with moral guidelines as AI-driven decision making reduces human involvement in autonomous warfare, according to a former UK spy chief.David Omand told the Guardian that he had changed his mind on unmanned weapons systems, more than a decade after concluding that autonomous drones could not comply with international humanitarian law. Continue readi