Skydio Stops Selling Consumer Drones

Skydio, maker of the most autonomous consumer drone there ever was, has announced that it is getting out of the consumer drone space completely, as of this past week. The company will be focusing on “over 1,500 enterprise and public sector customers” that are, to be fair, doing many useful and important things with Skydio drones rather than just shooting videos of themselves like the rest of us. Sigh.By a lot of metrics, the Skydio 2 is (was?) the most capable drone that it was possi

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.In past missions to Mars, like with the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers, the robots mostly relied on human instructions from millions of miles away in order to safely navigate the Martian landscape. The Perseverance rover, on the other hand, has zipped across the alien, boulder-ridden land almost completely autonomously, smashing previous records for autonomous driving on Mars. Whereas the Curiosity

Exclusive: Alvi Choudhury claiming damages against Thames Valley police after biased technology confused him with man looking ‘10 years younger’Police arrested a man for a burglary in a city he had never visited after face scanning software deployed across the UK confused him with another person of south Asian heritage.Alvi Choudhury, 26, a software engineer, was working at the home he shares with his parents in Southampton in January when police knocked on his door, handcuffed him a

With ​i​ts longtime figureheads stepping aside, Microsoft’s gaming division faces a pivotal moment​, raising questions about whether ​i​t can still balance creative ambition with corporate strategy​ in the age of AI• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAnd so it’s all change at Xbox. Last Friday it was announced that the CEO of Microsoft’s gaming division, Phil Spencer, is to retire, while its president S

Officers say flood of low-quality reports is draining resources and slowing cases amid New Mexico lawsuitMeta’s use of artificial intelligence software to moderate its social media platforms is generating large volumes of useless reports about cases of child sexual abuse, which are draining resources and hindering investigations, said officers from the US Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce.“We get a lot of tips from Meta that are just kind of junk,” Benjamin Zwie

Toby Walsh says he despairs at Australian government’s lack of regulation of artificial intelligenceFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA leading AI expert has warned some Australians are showing signs of psychosis or mania in their interactions with chatbots, arguing Silicon Valley is being “careless” with the technology amid a pursuit of profit.During an address at the National Press Club on Wednesda

Anthropic presents itself as most safety-forward AI firm and Pentagon has threatened penalties if it does not yieldUS military leaders including Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, met with executives from the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic on Tuesday to hash out a dispute over what the government will be able to do with the company’s powerful AI model. Hegseth gave Dario Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, until the end of the day on Friday to agree to the department’s terms or face

Anthropic presents itself as most safety-forward AI firm and Pentagon has threatened penalties if it does not yieldUS military leaders including Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, met with executives from the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic on Tuesday to hash out a dispute over what the government will be able to do with the company’s powerful AI model. Hegseth gave Dario Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, until the end of the day Friday to agree to the department’s terms or face pe

Shares in Uber, Mastercard and American Express fall on back of apocalypse scenario posted on SubstackUS stock markets have been hit by a further wave of AI jitters, this time from yet another viral – and completely speculative – warning about the impact of the technology on the world’s largest economy.The latest foreboding is from Citrini Research, a little-known US firm that provides insights on “transformative ‘megatrends’”. Its post on Substack, whic

New constructions delayed or cancelled, raising questions about US’s ability to expand infrastructure to support boomCancellations and delays of new US datacenters have increased as the artificial intelligence boom runs up against a slate of issues, including supply chain snags, energy shortages and tariff-induced restraints.Grassroots opposition from local communities has also derailed some plans, and some investors have grown wary of datacenters amid fears of an AI bubble. Continue readi

We report from California’s Silicon Valley, where billionaires pour money into midterms, and the AI Impact summit, where India pushes back on ‘AI monopoly’ held by US and ChinaHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, we’re examining the tech industry’s push for influence in two places separated by a time difference of 13 hours and 30 minutes. The first is where tech sees its next big market, the second its home turf. My colleague Robert Booth reports from last we

AI is already coming for our dignity – tricking us with amusing little online scenarios. How long before it comes for everything else?
Moan all you like about technology, there’s no denying it’s made friendship easier. In an ideal world you would spend quality time together, have deep meaningful chats on the phone and swap well thought out, insightful texts. But when you’re busy, tired, or just not in the mood, what a relief that you can send a meme, or a quick video, and

Facebook owner’s investment described by semiconductor company as ‘big bet’ on artificial intelligenceBusiness live – latest updatesThe owner of Facebook has agreed to buy $60bn (£44.5bn) of artificial intelligence chips from the US semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices despite fears over the vast sums being spent on the AI industry.Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has clinched the five-year deal in which it will also buy 10% of the chip company.

Justice secretary says only his measures will stop backlog in England and Wales from increasing exponentiallyThe backlog in criminal courts in England and Wales will take a decade to fall to pre-Covid levels despite radical changes including curtailing jury trials, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice.The justice secretary, David Lammy, said the government was determined to press ahead with the jury trial changes despite a potential rebellion from Labour MPs. He took aim at critics,

We explore the strange food-obsessed world of a new game whose tech was once called ‘an insult to life itself’ by Hayao Miyazaki, the film-maker behind Spirited AwayA strange piece of software has recently landed on the PC gaming store Steam. And “software” feels like the cleanest way to describe it. Existing somewhere between a full-blown life sim, a science project and a kind of haunted fish tank, Anlife: Motion-learning Life Evolution probably would have disappeared wi

Exclusive: NCA’s Alex Murray says he hopes new £115m police AI centre can limit unfairness found in tools‘It’s not Robocop’: UK police embrace AI ‘efficiency’ in complex investigationsA police chief has admitted artificial intelligence used to boost crime fighting will contain bias but pledged to combat the risks.Labour wants a dramatic expansion of police use of AI within England and Wales, with police chiefs also believing it could help keep law enforc

Detectives say tools supplied by Palantir were integral to convictions of a criminal gang that stole £800,000It was fraud on a grand scale. The “Fuck the Police” criminal gang based in Luton and Romania stole £800,000 in more than 3,000 withdrawals from cash machines in dozens of locations throughout 2024.The police investigation matched the crime in its complexity. When detectives in Bedfordshire seized the suspects’ two dozen smartphones, they were faced with a mo

Long-awaited news bargaining code with Google, Meta and TikTok at risk of further delay, chief executive saysSign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter hereThe head of Nine Entertainment has called on the prime minister to prioritise a policy to force global platforms to compensate local media as artificial intelligence-fuelled big tech disrupts the revenue models of publishers around the world.Nine’s chief executive officer, Matt Stanton, said while presenting the

Long-awaited news bargaining code with Google, Meta and TikTok at risk of further delay, chief executive saysSign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter hereThe head of Nine Entertainment has called on the prime minister to prioritise a policy to force global platforms to compensate local media as artificial intelligence-fuelled big tech disrupts the revenue models of publishers around the world.Nine’s chief executive officer, Matt Stanton, said while presenting the

When the most profound human emotion becomes an automated transaction in an online shop, the techlords have wonThe Guardian reported on the arrival of “Fate” and, friends, I laughed. Or maybe I cried.It’s apparently the first “agentic AI dating app”. An AI personality named “Fate” interviews users, runs data matches on their hopes and dreams, then suggests five potential matches based on the hard data of observable complementary language patterning, &ldq

Anthropic says three Chinese firms used ‘distillation’ technique to extract information from its Claude chatbotUS artificial intelligence company Anthropic said on Monday it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. OpenAI leveled similar charges last month.Anthropic said DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax used a technique known as “distillati

Ofgem says about 140 proposed projects, driven by AI use, could require more power than current peak demandThe amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in Great Britain would exceed the national current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity – 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand. Continue reading...

This US tech giant should not have been given NHS or Ministry of Defence contracts, writes Stephen Saunders. Plus a letter from Jan SavageFor 100 years, the UK government has led us through existential threats, including two world wars. But instead of resisting the latest threat to democratic accountability, it has welcomed it with open arms: Palantir Technologies (NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials’ concerns revealed, 12 February).This polarising US survei

OpenAI CEO also downplayed concerns about how much water datacenters require at AI summit in IndiaOpenAI boss Sam Altman has tried to ease concerns about how much power is used by artificial intelligence models by comparing it to the amount of energy required by human development.“People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model – but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman told The Indian Express recently while in India for the AI Impact summit.

Ofgem says about 140 proposed projects, driven by AI use, could require more power than current peak demandThe amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in the UK would exceed the country’s current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity – 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand. Continue reading...