You can now try Smart Compose in the new Gmail

Smart Compose, the experimental autocomplete feature in the new Gmail on the web that Google announced at its I/O conference last week, is now available for testing.
Smart Compose is an AI tool that promises to automatically finish your sentences for you, using what it has learned about how people typically write. Based on my experience so far, it’s not quite as good as Google’s demo made us believe it was, but it’s still quite useful and will likely save you a f

Survey reveals ‘mismatched AI expectations’ between views of employers and staff over impact on careersMore than a quarter (27%) of UK workers are worried their jobs could disappear in the next five years as a result of AI, according to a survey of thousands of employees.Two-thirds (66%) of UK employers reported having invested in AI in the past 12 months, according to the international recruitment company Randstad’s annual review of the world of work, while more than half (56%

A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat the average human on certain creativity tests. Models like GPT-4 showed strong performance on tasks designed to measure original thinking and idea generation, sometimes outperforming typical human responses. But there’s a clear ceiling. The most creative humans — especially the top 10% — still leave AI well behind, particula

Generative AI is being pushed into healthcare – and diagnostic risks may deepen the class divideIn southern California, where rates of homelessness are among the highest in the nation, a private company, Akido Labs, is running clinics for unhoused patients and others with low incomes. The caveat? The patients are seen by medical assistants who use artificial intelligence (AI) to listen to the conversations, then spit out potential diagnoses and treatment plans, which are then reviewed by a

Altman’s campaigning for his company coincides with its use of enormous present resources to serve an imagined futureSam Altman has claimed over the years that the advancement of AI could solve climate change, cure cancer, create a benevolent superintelligence beyond human comprehension, provide a tutor for every student, take over nearly half of the tasks in the economy and create what he calls “universal extreme wealth”.In order to bring about his utopian future, Altman is de

Tech could lose its social acceptance unless it makes people’s lives better – and trade unions want an urgent conversation “Who wouldn’t want a robot to watch over your kids?” Elon Musk asked Davos delegates last week, as he looked forward with enthusiasm to a world with “more robots than people”.Not me, thanks: children need the human connection – the love – that gives life meaning. Continue reading...

The avatar, created to deter young people from extremism, has been subverted and is breaking out of niche online silosIn certain corners of the internet, on niche news feeds and algorithms, an AI-generated British schoolgirl has emerged as something of a phenomenon.Her name is Amelia, a purple-haired “goth girl” who proudly carries a mini union flag and appears to have a penchant for racism. Continue reading...

Amelia, created to deter young people from extremism, has been subverted and is breaking out of niche online silosIn certain corners of the internet, on niche news feeds and algorithms, an AI-generated British schoolgirl has emerged as something of a cultural phenomenon.Her name is Amelia, a purple-haired “goth girl” who proudly carries a mini union flag everywhere she goes and appears to have a penchant for racism. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Experts say AI is likely to create more news deserts, fewer independent voices and threaten the viability of Australian journalismGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralian journalism is largely “invisible” in AI-generated news summaries from Microsoft Copilot, which overwhelmingly favour US or European media, research by the University of Sydney has found.Roughly one-fifth of responses to Copilot news prompts feature links to Australian media so

Experts say tool can give ‘completely wrong’ medical advice which could put users at risk of serious harm• AI Overviews cite YouTube more than any medical site, study suggestsDo I have the flu or Covid? Why do I wake up feeling tired? What is causing the pain in my chest? For more than two decades, typing medical questions into the world’s most popular search engine has served up a list of links to websites with the answers. Google those health queries today and the respon

Exclusive: German research into responses to health queries raises fresh questions about summaries seen by 2bn people a month• How the ‘confident authority’ of AI Overviews is putting public health at riskGoogle’s search feature AI Overviews cites YouTube more than any medical website when answering queries about health conditions, according to research that raises fresh questions about a tool seen by 2 billion people each month.The company has said its AI summaries, which

Guardian found OpenAI’s platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniersThe latest model of ChatGPT has begun to cite Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as a source on a wide range of queries, including on Iranian conglomerates and Holocaust deniers, raising concerns about misinformation on the platform.In tests done by the Guardian, GPT-5.2 cited Grokipedia nine times in response to more than a dozen different questions. These included queries on political structures in

Kristalina Georgieva says research suggests 60% of jobs in advanced economies will be affected, with many entry-level roles wiped outArtificial intelligence will be a “tsunami hitting the labour market”, with young people worst affected, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned the World Economic Forum on Friday.Kristalina Georgieva told delegates in Davos that the IMF’s own research suggested there would be a big transformation of demand for skills, as the technology

AI evangelist Peter Kyle wants to scale up businesses, attract overseas investors and look out for UK’s poorer regionsThe UK business secretary, Peter Kyle, has said he is “betting big” and “picking winners” as the government takes direct stakes in growing businesses to boost economic growth.Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have been talking up Britain’s prospects, Kyle said ministers were taking an &ld

Guardian analysis shows images are the same, with Nekima Levy Armstrong looking composed in original but sobbing after alterationThe White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested on Thursday in a case touted by attorney general Pam Bondi, to make it seem as if she was dramatically crying, a Guardian analysis of the image has found.The woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, also appears to have darker skin in the altered image. Armstrong was one of three people arrested on Thurs

Campaigners hail U-turn during legal challenge over proposed centre an ‘embarrassing climbdown’The government has been forced to admit its own planning approval for a major AI datacentre should be quashed after it failed to fully consider the climate impact, in what campaigners described as “an embarrassing climbdown”.Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, had overruled opposition from a local council to grant permission for a hyperscale datacentre on greenbelt

Misinformation technology could be deployed at scale to disrupt 2028 US presidential election, AI researchers sayPolitical leaders could soon launch swarms of human-imitating AI agents to reshape public opinion in a way that threatens to undermine democracy, a high profile group of experts in AI and online misinformation has warned.The Nobel peace prize-winning free-speech activist Maria Ressa, and leading AI and social science researchers from Berkeley, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Yale are a

Growing concerns about the impact of smartphones on the youngest children must be addressedThe first UK government guidance on young children’s use of tablets, smartphones and other screens, expected in April, cannot come soon enough. The laissez-faire approach to the boom in social media, handheld devices and other digital technology was arguably nowhere less suitable than when such machines were placed in front of babies. The Department for Education’s ongoing Children of the 2020s

Dr Madeline G Reinecke says any policy focused on protecting children must broaden its scope beyond traditional social media platforms, while Alexandra Cocksworth says real connections are crucial. Plus a letter from Ali OliverThe government’s consultation surrounding whether to ban social media for under-16s responds to widespread concern about digital harms (UK ministers launch consultation on whether to ban social media for under-16s, 19 January). We in the Neuroscience, Ethics and Soci

Estimate made by Center for Countering Digital Hate after Elon Musk’s AI image generation tool sparked outrageGrok AI generated about 3m sexualised images in less than two weeks, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, according to researchers who said it “became an industrial-scale machine for the production of sexual abuse material”.The estimate has been made by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) after Elon Musk’s AI image generation tool sparked int

Hundreds of writers, musicians and performers urge licensing deals instead of scraping creative workScarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, REM and Jodi Picoult are among hundreds of Hollywood stars, musicians and authors backing a new campaign accusing AI companies of “theft” of their work.The “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” drive launched on Thursday with the support of approximately 800 creative professionals and bands. The campaign includes a statement accusing tech fir

The president wants big tech to pay more for electricity, but he’s curbing renewable projects that could boost supplyDonald Trump is worried about datacenters. Specifically, he is concerned about their effects on an already expensive electricity market in the United States. Will Americans’ resentment of sharply rising energy costs scuttle his party’s November election ambitions?The US president’s anxiety is evident in two actions in recent weeks. On 13 January, Trump and

Singing legend heralds ‘new tools in service of expression’, on compilation that also features an Art Garfunkel song using AI-generated piano backingLiza Minnelli has released her first new music in 13 years, adding vocals to an AI-created dance track.The track, Kids, Wait Til You Hear This – also the title of her upcoming memoir – is an unexpected foray into deep house for the 79-year-old Minnelli, who adds a handful of spoken declarations to the pumping backing. Continu

Sepehr Saryazdi, 24, charged with planning terrorist act after allegedly plotting to throw molotov cocktail at Gold Coast eventA Queensland PhD candidate has been accused of planning to throw a molotov cocktail at an Australia Day crowd, as part of an alleged terrorist plot to overthrow the government and it with a “cybernetics” alternative, a court has heard.Sepehr Saryazdi, 24, allegedly planned an attack for Monday’s celebrations to promote a new phase of civilisation powere

Deployment will serve data centers, governments and businesses, jumping into market dominated by SpaceXJeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin on Wednesday announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network that will serve data centers, governments and businesses, jumping into a satellite constellation market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.Deployment of satellites is planned to begin in the last quarter of 2027, Blue Origin said, adding the network will

Jamie Dimon warns of civil unrest but Nvidia’s Jensen Huang argues tech will create rather than destroy jobsJamie Dimon, the boss of JP Morgan, has said artificial intelligence “may go too fast for society” and cause “civil unrest” unless governments and business support displaced workers.While advances in AI will have huge benefits, from increasing productivity to curing diseases, the technology may need to be phased in to “save society”, he said. Conti