How do you solve a problem like DeepSeek?

The US was widely considered the leader in AI, but a Chinese startup has called that dominance into questionHello, and welcome back to TechScape. There was a lot of news last week. To run it down in an expedient fashion:• Donald Trump, Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison announced a $500bn initiative to expand infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence dubbed Stargate. On its heels came a press release from Meta vowing to expand its capital expenditure to $65bn in the coming

Science secretary says the deepfake content being produced on the platform is ‘unacceptable in decent society’In her Today programme interview this morning Kemi Badenoch tried to outflank Nigel Farage on net zero scepticism by claiming (wrongly) that she started talking out this before he did.Asked by the presenter, Nick Robinson, to give an example of a single policy that the Conservatives would implement to boost economic growth, Badenoch said that they would allow more drilling fo

We should take AI risks seriously, but doing so requires conceptual clarity, says Prof Virginia Dignum. Plus letters from John Robinson and Eric SkidmoreThe concern expressed by Yoshua Bengio that advanced AI systems might one day resist being shut down deserves careful consideration (AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer, 30 December). But treating such behaviour as evidence of consciousness is dangerous: it encourages anthropomorphism and d

Liz Kendall calls on X to ‘deal with this urgently’ while expert criticises ‘worryingly slow’ government responseThe UK technology secretary has called a wave of images of women and children with their clothes digitally removed generated by Elon Musk’s Grok AI “appalling and unacceptable in decent society”.After thousands of intimate deepfakes circulated online, Liz Kendall said X, Musk’s social media platform, needed to “deal with this urgen

Science secretary says the deepfake content being produced on the platform is ‘unacceptable in decent society’In her Today programme interview this morning Kemi Badenoch tried to outflank Nigel Farage on net zero scepticism by claiming (wrongly) that she started talking out this before he did.Asked by the presenter, Nick Robinson, to give an example of a single policy that the Conservatives would implement to boost economic growth, Badenoch said that they would allow more drilling fo

The owner of X has grown used to acting with impunity – but this may be a red line for those with ‘conservative values’ who fund his adventures in free speechIt’s a sickening law of the internet that the first thing people will try to do with a new tool is strip women. Grok, X’s AI chatbot, has been used repeatedly by users in recent days to undress images of women and minors. The news outlet Reuters identified 102 requests in a 10-minute period last Friday from use

Grok still being used to digitally undress women and children, while US takes TikTok approach to dronesHello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy new year! I hope your 2026 is off to a great start. Today in tech, we are examining the output of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, and the US’s ban on foreign drones.What happened after Tesla opened a diner in Los Angeles?China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s biggest electric car sellerGoogle AI Overviews put people at risk of harm wi

Princess of Asturias Foundation says fraudsters are using fake profiles and videos purporting to show heir to Spanish throneA foundation representing Princess Leonor, the 20-year-old heir to the Spanish throne, has warned that scammers are using AI-generated videos of the princess posted by fake profile pages to cheat social media users out of money.In the posts on TikTok “Leonor” promises users payments running to thousands of dollars in return for an upfront “fee” of a

Researchers have created microscopic robots so small they’re barely visible, yet smart enough to sense, decide, and move completely on their own. Powered by light and equipped with tiny computers, the robots swim by manipulating electric fields rather than using moving parts. They can detect temperature changes, follow programmed paths, and even work together in groups. The breakthrough marks the first truly autonomous robots at this microscopic scale.

Jensen Huang also announces at CES new, more powerful Vera Rubin chips that will arrive later this yearThe billionaire boss of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has unveiled new AI technology that he says will help self-driving cars think like humans to navigate more complex situations.The world’s most valuable company is to roll out the new technology, Alpamayo, which is designed to help self-driving cars handle tricky situations such as sudden roadworks or unusual driver behaviour on t

Former OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlo says progress to AGI is ‘somewhat slower’ than first predictedA leading artificial intelligence expert has rolled back his timeline for AI doom, saying it will take longer than he initially predicted for AI systems to be able to code autonomously and thus speed their own development toward superintelligence.Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee of OpenAI, sparked an energetic debate in April by releasing AI 2027, a scenario that envisions uncheck

Next generation of chips in ‘full production’ and will arrive later this year, Jensen Huang says at CES in Las VegasNvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Monday that the company’s next generation of chips is in “full production” saying they can deliver five times the artificial-intelligence computing of the company’s previous chips when serving up chatbots and other AI apps.In a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the leader of the world’s mo

Lack of verified information and rapidly advanced AI tools make it difficult to separate fact from fiction on US attackMinutes after Donald Trump announced a “large-scale strike” against Venezuela early on Saturday morning, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. There were fake photos of Nicolás Maduro being escorted off a plane by US law enforcement agents, images of jubilant Venezuelans pouring into the streets of Caracas and videos of missiles

Degrading pictures being posted on Elon Musk’s site despite the platform pledging to suspend people who generate themDegrading images of children and women with their clothes digitally removed by Grok AI continue to be shared on Elon Musk’s X, despite the platform’s commitment to suspend users who generate them.After days of concern over use of the chatbot to alter photographs to create sexualised pictures of real women and children stripped to their underwear without their con

The degrading pictures are being posted to X despite the platform pledging to suspend people who generate themDegrading images of children and women with their clothes digitally removed by Grok AI continue to be shared on Elon Musk’s X, despite the platform’s commitment to suspend users who generate them.After days of concern over use of the chatbot to alter photographs to create sexualised pictures of real women and children stripped to their underwear without their consent, the UK&

Exclusive: Ashley St Clair says supporters of X owner are using his AI tool to create a form of revenge pornThe mother of one of Elon Musk’s sons has said she felt “horrified and violated” after fans of the billionaire used his AI tool, Grok, to create fake sexualised images of her by manipulating real pictures.The writer and political strategist Ashley St Clair, who became estranged from Musk after the birth of their child in 2024, told the Guardian that supporters of the X ow

Children are growing up as AI natives and experts say computing skills should be on par with reading and writingIn a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings of smiles.“AI gets lots of things wrong,” he said, as it mistakenly identified a fruit as a face. He set about retraining it and, in a flash, he had it back on track – instinctively understanding the inner nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning

Calls to a clinic in Uganda are helping create a therapy algorithm that works in local languages, as specialists look to technology to address the global mental health crisisWhen patients telephone Butabika hospital in Kampala, Uganda, seeking help with mental health problems, they are themselves assisting future patients by helping to create a therapy chatbot.Calls to the clinic helpline are being used to train an AI algorithm that researchers hope will eventually power a chatbot offering thera

These inventions trigger rage, but also optimism. Maybe they will make people think more critically about debate and democracyIt was my blue shirt, a present from my sister-in-law, that gave it all away. It made me think of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, the lowly bureaucrat in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella The Double, a disconcerting study of the fragmented self within a vast, impersonal feudal system.It all started with a message from an esteemed colleague congratulating me on a video talk on

Protest over climate crisis and AI has cut power to tens of thousands of homes which may take days to fully restoreGerman leftwing militants protesting over the climate crisis and AI have claimed responsibility for an arson attack that cut power to tens of thousands of households in Berlin.The fire that broke out on a bridge across the Teltow canal in the south-west of the capital early on Saturday could deprive up to 35,000 homes and 1,900 businesses of electricity – and in many cases hea

AI safety expert David Dalrymple said rapid advances could outpace efforts to control powerful systemsThe world “may not have time” to prepare for the safety risks posed by cutting-edge AI systems, according to a leading figure at the UK government’s scientific research agency.David Dalrymple, a programme director and AI safety expert at the Aria agency, told the Guardian people should be concerned about the growing capability of the technology. Continue reading...

Revenues may be rising rapidly, but not by nearly enough to cover the wild levels of investment under wayThe US dictionary Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was “slop”, which it defines as “digital content of low quality that is produced, usually in quantity, by means of artificial intelligence”. The choice underlined the fact that while AI is being widely embraced, not least by corporate bosses keen to cut payroll costs, its downsides are also becoming ob

Revenues may be rising rapidly, but not by nearly enough to cover the wild levels of investment under wayThe US dictionary Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was “slop”, which it defines as “digital content of low quality that is produced, usually in quantity, by means of artificial intelligence”. The choice underlined the fact that while AI is being widely embraced, not least by corporate bosses keen to cut payroll costs, its downsides are also becoming ob

Revenues may be rising rapidly, but not by nearly enough to cover the wild levels of investment under wayThe US dictionary Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was “slop”, which it defines as “digital content of low quality that is produced, usually in quantity, by means of artificial intelligence”. The choice underlined the fact that while AI is being widely embraced, not least by corporate bosses keen to cut payroll costs, its downsides are also becoming ob

Analysts and investors voice caution about tech valuations and Trump’s influence on the US central bankInvestors expect global stock markets to keep rising in 2026, despite fears that the AI bubble could burst, and anxiety about chaos engulfing the US central bank.Wall Street strategists broadly expect the S&P 500 share index of US-listed companies to continue to rise over the next 12 months, but said it could be a volatile year if geopolitical tensions increase and inflation fails to