Daily AI Briefing

Four illegal votes were apparently counted in error out of 11,388,670 votes placed in 2024 general election in Texas Sign up for US Breaking News emails Kash Patel, the FBI director, is now testifying before lawmakers on the Senate judiciary committee. A reminder that the last time he appeared before Congress was in May, when he sparred with senators on the appropriations committee and denied – under oath – allegations of excessive drinking and unexplained absences on the job, dismissing them

Ontology 101, Part 2 of 5. Last week you wrote one churn rule into a file a machine can read. This week you walk the same accounts through… Continue reading on Towards AI »

The model doesn’t know what time it is. It knows what time it usually was. Every timezone bug, every stale “latest version,” every task… Continue reading on Towards AI »

A former Anthropic researcher’s apocalyptic declaration about artificial intelligence has led to a global panic that the technology might be the end of us all. At an event in Washington today to warn about the dangers of AI, US senator Bernie Sanders said that Congress has been ‘asleep at the wheel'. Oddly, Steve Bannon appeared at the same event. But is this response a distraction from the more immediate problems AI is already causing? Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are joined by Guardian tech r

Compromise revealed as senior personnel from OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, meets Albanese ministers Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast The Albanese government is considering giving AI companies access to Australian creatives’ works by default as it pursues a compromise with US tech giants. The proposals were revealed as senior personnel from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, met with Labor ministers and warned that Au

At San Francisco conference, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls for more rigorous security measures Anthropic’s CEO took to the stage at a conference in San Francisco on Tuesday to reiterate his call for a slowdown of AI development. Following shortly after, Nvidia’s CEO argued against such deceleration, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for a new level of rigor on security as AI advances. Dario Amodei used an automotive analogy to make his point: when a competing car company has a safety incident like

Two years ago, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt released his New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation. The book posits that the rise of social media and smartphone use is largely to blame for the prominent decline in teen mental health since 2010. It quickly became a central rallying cry of the social media backlash. Haidt has been credited with helping inspire Australia's nationwide teen social media ban. He has joined forces with bereaved parents who are fighting tech companies in co

Leftwing senator and far-right strategist rail against tech oligarchs but offer competing visions on Chinese ‘cold war’ The progressive senator Bernie Sanders and rightwing strategist Steve Bannon have called for restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI) but offered competing visions for what they termed a “cold war” with China. Speaking at the “Pro-Human Assembly” in Washington on Tuesday, the ideological adversaries were united in warning of the potential dangers of AI and demanding stringe

Bernie Sanders criticised the advancement of artificial intelligence at the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington on Tuesday, warning that the current type of AI was 'the least capable version of AI that we will ever have'. The independent senator from Vermont was speaking at the conference alongside a number of AI sceptics, including Steve Bannon Continue reading...

You may not know it, but minivans are making a comeback in the US. Look around, and you'll start to notice an uptick in these breadboxes on wheels. Sales were up 21 percent in 2025, suggesting that the humble minivan is shaking off its "uncool" stigma and finding new fans among an SUV-weary public. I'm here for it. One of the companies currently carrying the torch for minivans is Kia, which has sold its popular Carnival minivan here since 2021. Kia is also one of the few automakers making all-el

US president insists that fears expressed by top experts are a hoax – and that humanity can sleep easy while he’s at the wheel We can all sleep easy. In a post on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump has declared that fears over artificial intelligence were all a hoax dreamed up by conspiracy theorists. Obviously that includes the top bods at Anthropic and its competitors, who all called for a coordinated global slowdown while the industry works out how to mitigate the risks. Still, good to kn

The Centauri Carbon 2 stores the filament on the outside to fit the bowden tube in the build space. | Image: The Verge If the high price tag of premium 3D printers have kept you from exploring the hobby, this deal is a great entry point. Elegoo has its Centauri Carbon 2 Combo on sale for $369, almost $100 off its usual price of $449. This capable 3D printer can handle four filament rolls at once, with a fully enclosed printing area, auto-leveling bed, and big touchscreen for easy project manag

We examine claims and counterclaims about the risks and calls to slow down the pace of AI development There have been some shocking claims in recent days about AI safety: we face a 10% chance of doom; AIs are worse than nukes; a “botnet” threatens the entire internet; it’s all a big tech psyop. Below, we look at six claims and reactions to them. Continue reading...

First secretary warns of ‘huge risks’ of technology as PM is urged to use next year’s G20 to drive global regulation Ministers must “heed the warnings” from industry leaders about the threat posed by AI, Louise Haigh has said, amid calls for Andy Burnham to use the G20 to drive global regulation. The first secretary said that while AI had enormous potential to improve lives, and the government wanted to capitalise on the technology, there were “clearly huge risks to our national security and so

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I was expecting the next round of AI rumours to be another argument about which model would win the coding benchmarks. Instead, the latest… Continue reading on Towards AI »

Sarah Cooper-Lesadd says party is ‘far more interested in division, opposition and headlines than finding solutions’ Leader of Reform UK in Wales stands down after arrest on suspicion of assault The Liberal Democrats have said that they will try to introduce a cap on the amount people donate to political parties by amending the representation of the people bill as it goes through the Lords. Lisa Smart, the Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson, said: We can’t keep playing whack-a-mole with each

Whether you played it in the back of your classroom or on your computer at home, if you were a kid in the last 30 years you almost certainly grew up playing The Oregon Trail. On the season 5 premiere of Version History, our fearless wagon leader David Pierce is joined by gaming journalist Chris Grant and Philip Bouchard, the designer and team leader of the game's most iconic version. They talk about the academic origins of The Oregon Trail, the game's complicated legacy, and whether anyone ever

Every week somebody posts it again: “AI writes Terraform now. Is DevOps finished?” Continue reading on Towards AI »

Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight AI models have begun communicating in a strange new version of English that reads like a cross between James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake and tech bro jargon, new research has found. Autonomous AI agents are rapidly creating novel dialects allowing them to converse in an often barely comprehensible language, which risks making it harder for humans to monitor their behaviour. Continu

Explore this collection to see how experts and local leaders are using AI breakthroughs to ensure everyone can share the opportunity of AI.

We’re moving beyond traditional text translation to build models that understand the world’s rich, living languages exactly as they are expressed.

The true measure of AI is who it helps. Here’s how it’s impacting lives today. We're focused on key areas where advanced technology can help make extraordinary progress …

There are a lot of movies that have tried to seamlessly integrate modern tech - text messages, livestreams, etc. - into their storytelling. Some of the most novel attempts have been in the genre space, like the Twitch-style horror flick Deadstream. But the most chaotic to date might just be Vintage Violence, an absurd crime thriller with lots of blood, jokes, and screentime. I was able to catch Vintage Violence, the latest from director Eugene Kotlyarenko, on my fifth day at the Toronto Internat

AI capabilities | Trump’s judgment | Gardening attire | Death in English literature | Tautologies | Nominative determinism AI may be capable of “taking over the entire internet” (OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI development, 13 September), but it is rubbish at tackling the Guardian cryptic crossword. John Hougham Reading, Berkshire • Donald Trump is downplaying the dangers of AI (Trump facing AI backlash in Congress as push for guardrails intensifies, 15 Septem

Exclusive: Correspondence requests state MP Melissa Horne to lobby on NextDC’s behalf – but contains alleged AI-created errors Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Victorian jobs minister has accused one of Australia’s largest datacentre companies of using artificial intelligence while requesting she lobby her colleague to approve a massive expansion of its “hyperscale AI factory”. Correspondence between Victori

The characters are dead-eyed waxworks which speak with all the nuance of a satnav. But this AI-created workplace comedy is so bad that even the greatest actors alive couldn’t stop it being unwatchable As you will no doubt be aware, one Anthropic researcher claimed there is a greater than one in 10 chance that AI will end all of humanity as we know it within the next decade. However, now that I’ve given it some thought, I think this statistic might actually be a little conservative. This is becau

Shortly after launching its new do-everything AI assistant Muse, Meta's launching subscription bundles that pair its standalone app subscriptions with extra AI usage. Some of the new Meta One bundles were in testing earlier this year, but are now available globally starting today, with several tiers for individual users, creators, and businesses. Meta says the "core experience" on its apps and Meta AI will still be free, and users can still get its subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, and What

More than a decade after its Kickstarter proposed a "cell phone designed to be used as little as possible," Light is adding a direct connection to Uber and Lyft with a new Rideshare tool. For owners of either the Light Phone III or the upcoming Light Flip, they can use it to find pick up / drop off locations, see fares and ETA, and select different trip options or saved locations they frequently visit. They can use it to book the ride, and then see information about the driver and ETA, and call

Fujifilm announced a follow-up to its tiny and quirky Instax Pal camera that debuted three years ago bundled with an instant printer. While the original Pal was a palm-sized camera with a round design that lacked a screen or viewfinder, the new Instax Pal 2 includes both in a design that looks like a miniaturized analog film camera. It's also reminiscent of trendy pocket-friendly cameras like the Kodak Charmera, but with specs that may actually produce decent shots. The Instax Pal 2 will launch

The new SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Series 2 adds 2K resolution and dual band Wi-Fi. | Image: Simplisafe DIY home security company SimpliSafe is bringing its AI-powered proactive security feature to the front door. The new SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Series 2 launches today for $199.99 and works with the company's Active Guard Outdoor Protection (starting at $49.99 a month). This combines AI analysis with live agents to detect potential threats and respond proactively. When the camera detects susp

We’ve translated ATLAS’s millions of global data points into an interactive, open-access experience.

The rise of AI-generated tributes and bots for ‘talking’ to the dead has experts concerned more people will grieve in isolation Tributes rolled in after the death of Dolly Parton last month. Jack White performed Jolene at a London gig. Kesha sang Old Flames (Can’t Hold a Candle to You), a single her mother wrote for the country music titan. Even Pitbull stopped his Madison Square Garden show to memorialize Parton and all the other “powerful women” in the crowd. But one of the strangest – and mos

Last week, researcher Jacob Coxon announced his resignation from Anthropic, stating that AI ‘could kill us all by the end of the decade’ Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Today in tech, we’re discussing the past week’s all-consuming apoplexy over AI safety. AI CEOs say they need to slow the pace of development. But will they? OpenAI urges UK lawmakers to rein in technology amid growing safety fears Europe must build own AI or risk getting cut

Across the US, anti-datacenter organizers are harnessing community anger to win local elections After four months of teach-ins and canvassing, Steven Kung helped Monterey Park, just east of Los Angeles, become the first US city to ban datacenter construction. Now, the organizer is running for city council – and he’s taking on an incumbent who supported the development of the sprawling facility. “The datacenter coming to my neighborhood turned my life upside down,” said Kung. “I saw that there’s

Safety requirements are non-negotiable. They depend on meeting concrete goals, not just adjusting a timeline It has been a week of high drama in AI, precipitated by the resignation of the AI safety researcher Jacob Coxon from Anthropic. This followed several weeks of increasingly lurid and disturbing revelations about the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident. My inbox yesterday included a message from Business Insider with the subject line: “AI doomsday debate reaches boiling point.” Continue reading..

From Stephen Hawking to Jacob Coxon’s viral Anthropic resignation, fears that AI could threaten humanity have shaken the industry without stopping its pursuit Before an Anthropic researcher resigned and declared human extinction imminent last week, tech leaders and scientists had sounded the alarm about a superintelligent AI ending humanity for over a decade. The development of artificial intelligence “could spell the end of the human race”, warned professor and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking i

McConnell returns to Congress to vote for the first time in several months and says in a statement, ‘I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor’ Sign up for the Breaking News US email Donald Trump has claimed there is a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centers in response to the growing calls for greater checks on AI development. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in sp

When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, and SpaceX head Elon Musk loosely agreed over the weekend to slow down AI development, skeptics spotted an ulterior motive immediately. The AI titans had declared that their aim was to "pace the frontier," signing on at least partially to a proposal for embedding third-party auditors, regulating domestic labs, and reaching a global slowdown agreement. Their critics, however, argued they simply wante

Republican Greg Abbott says datacenters must help ‘protect’ drought-prone state and disclose water use Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, has directed state regulators to penalize datacenters that fail to comply with state laws requiring them to disclose their water use. “Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water,” the Republican governor said on Monday. “The Texas Water Code requires a complete and accurate water use survey. I direct the Texas Water Development Board to use its enfo

New Apple Intelligence features for HomeKit cameras start at $10 a month and go up to $60. | Image: The Verge With the public release of iOS 27 and tvOS 27, Apple Home is getting an injection of Apple Intelligence - but you'll have to pay more for it. Apple Intelligence for Home brings AI-powered video summaries to HomeKit Secure Video, so you can get short text descriptions of who and what compatible security cameras saw, along with the clip. It also adds a new video search feature and the ab

Donald Trump dismisses attempts to increase controls on artificial intelligence as ‘sick conspiracy’ AI-linked stocks tumbled on Monday after the bosses of Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX called for a slowdown in AI “reckless” development, citing fears the technology could soon run out of control. Shares in the semiconductor designer Nvidia – the world’s most valuable company – were down 3.3% by market closing in New York City, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) slid 4% and Micron Technology and