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17 articles in computing

AI-generated news should carry ‘nutrition’ labels, thinktank says

AI-generated news should carry ‘nutrition’ labels, thinktank says

The Institute for Public Policy Research also argues that tech companies must pay publishers for content they use AI-generated news should carry “nutrition” labels and tech companies must pay publishers for the content they use, according to a left-of-centre thinktank, amid rising use of the technology as a source for current affairs . The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said AI firms were rapidly emerging as the new “gatekeepers” of the internet and intervention was needed to create a healthy AI news environment. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 30
AI (artificial intelligence)TechnologyNewspapers
‘Wake up to the risks of AI, they are almost here,’ Anthropic boss warns

‘Wake up to the risks of AI, they are almost here,’ Anthropic boss warns

Dario Amodei questions if human systems are ready to handle the ‘almost unimaginable power’ that is ‘potentially imminent’ Quarter of Britons fear losing jobs to AI in next five years Humanity is entering a phase of artificial intelligence development that will “test who we are as a species”, the boss of the AI startup Anthropic has said, arguing that the world needs to “wake up” to the risks. Dario Amodei, a co-founder and the chief executive of the company behind the hit chatbot Claude , voiced his fears in a 19,000-word essay titled “The adolescence of technology”. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 27
AI (artificial intelligence)ComputingTechnology startups
Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter’s death – and why a social media ban won’t work

Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter’s death – and why a social media ban won’t work

Molly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life in 2017, and an inquest later found negative online content was a significant factor. With many people now pushing for teenagers to be kept off tech platforms, her father explains why he backs a different approach Ian Russell describes his life as being split into two parts: before and after 20 November 2017, the day his youngest daughter, Molly, took her own life as a result of depression and negative social media content. “Our life before Molly’s death was very ordinary. Unremarkable,” he says. He was a television producer and director, married with three daughters. “We lived in an ordinary London suburb, in an ordinary semi-detached house, the children went to ordinary schools.” The weekend before Molly’s death, they had a celebration for all three girls’ birthdays, which are in November. One was turning 21, another 18 and Molly was soon to be 15. “And I remember being in the kitchen of a house full of friends and family and thinking, ‘This is so good. I’ve never been so happy,’” he says. “That was on a Saturday night and the following Tuesday morning, everything was different.” The second part of Russell’s life has been not only grief and trauma, but also a commitment to discovering and exposing the truth about the online content that contributed to Molly’s death, and campaigning to prevent others falling prey to the same harms. Both elements lasted far longer than he anticipated. It took nearly five years to get enough information out of social media companies for an inquest to conclude that Molly died “from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”. As for the campaigning, the Molly Rose Foundation provides support, conducts research and raises awareness of online harms, and Russell has been an omnipresent spokesperson on these issues. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 26
Online abuseGrok AIX
Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: ‘AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings’

Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: ‘AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings’

His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was If some time in an entirely possible future they come to make a movie about “how the AI bubble burst”, Ed Zitron will doubtless be a main character. He’s the perfect outsider figure: the eccentric loner who saw all this coming and screamed from the sidelines that the sky was falling, but nobody would listen. Just as Christian Bale portrayed Michael Burry , the investor who predicted the 2008 financial crash, in The Big Short , you can well imagine Robert Pattinson fighting Paul Mescal, say, to portray Zitron, the animated, colourfully obnoxious but doggedly detail-oriented Brit, who’s become one of big tech’s noisiest critics. This is not to say the AI bubble will burst, necessarily, but against a tidal wave of AI boosterism, Zitron’s blunt, brash scepticism has made him something of a cult figure. His tech newsletter, Where’s Your Ed At , now has more than 80,000 subscribers; his weekly podcast, Better Offline , is well within the Top 20 on the tech charts; he’s a regular dissenting voice in the media; and his subreddit has become a safe space for AI sceptics, including those within the tech industry itself – one user describes him as “a lighthouse in a storm of insane hypercapitalist bullshit”. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 19
AI (artificial intelligence)ComputingTechnology
‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward

‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward

Progress of artificial general intelligence could stall, which may lead to a financial crash, says Yoshua Bengio, one of the ‘godfathers’ of modern AI Will the race to artificial general intelligence (AGI) lead us to a land of financial plenty – or will it end in a 2008-style bust? Trillions of dollars rest on the answer. The figures are staggering: an estimated $2.9tn (£2.2tn) being spent on datacentres , the central nervous systems of AI tools; the more than $4tn stock market capitalisation of Nvidia, the company that makes the chips powering cutting-edge AI systems; and the $100m signing-on bonuses offered by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to top engineers at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 17
AI (artificial intelligence)ComputingTechnology
UK threatens action against X over sexualised AI images of women and children

UK threatens action against X over sexualised AI images of women and children

Government signals support for possible Ofcom intervention on Grok as scrutiny of X’s AI tool intensifies Business live – latest updates Elon Musk’s X “is not doing enough to keep its customers safe online”, a minister has said, as the UK government prepares to outline possible action against the platform over the mass production of sexualised images of woman and children. Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said the government would fully support any action taken by Ofcom, the media regulator, against X – including the possibility that the platform could be blocked in the UK. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 12
Internet safetyGrok AIAI (artificial intelligence)
‘Dangerous and alarming’: Google removes some of its AI summaries after users’ health put at risk

‘Dangerous and alarming’: Google removes some of its AI summaries after users’ health put at risk

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood tests Google has removed some of its artificial intelligence health summaries after a Guardian investigation found people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading information. The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are “ helpful ” and “ reliable ”. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 11
GoogleAI (artificial intelligence)Technology
Elon Musk’s X threatened with UK ban over wave of indecent AI images

Elon Musk’s X threatened with UK ban over wave of indecent AI images

Platform has restricted image creation on the Grok AI tool to paying subscribers, but victims and experts say this does not go far enough Elon Musk’s X has been ordered by the UK government to tackle a wave of indecent AI images or face a de facto ban, as an expert said the platform was no longer a “safe space” for women. The media watchdog, Ofcom, confirmed it would accelerate an investigation into X as a backlash grew against the site, which has hosted a deluge of images depicting partially stripped women and children. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 9
Grok AIXElon Musk
No 10 condemns ‘insulting’ move by X to restrict Grok AI image tool

No 10 condemns ‘insulting’ move by X to restrict Grok AI image tool

Spokesperson says limiting access to paying subscribers just makes ability to generate unlawful images a premium service UK politics live – latest updates Downing Street has condemned the move by X to restrict its AI image creation tool to paying subscribers as insulting, saying it simply made the ability to generate explicit and unlawful images a premium service. There has been widespread anger after the image tool for Grok, the AI element of X, was used to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children to remove their clothing or put them in sexual positions. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Jan 9
Grok AIXSocial media
World ‘may not have time’ to prepare for AI safety risks, says leading researcher

World ‘may not have time’ to prepare for AI safety risks, says leading researcher

AI safety expert David Dalrymple said rapid advances could outpace efforts to control powerful systems The 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...

theguardian.com
Jan 4
AI (artificial intelligence)TechnologyComputing
AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer

AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer

Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio warns against granting legal rights to cutting-edge technology A pioneer of AI has criticised calls to grant the technology rights , warning that it was showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be prepared to pull the plug if needed. Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to giving citizenship to hostile extraterrestrials, amid fears that advances in the technology were far outpacing the ability to constrain them. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 30, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)MetaComputer science and IT
From shrimp Jesus to erotic tractors: how viral AI slop took over the internet

From shrimp Jesus to erotic tractors: how viral AI slop took over the internet

Flood of unreality is an endpoint of algorithm-driven internet and product of an economy dependent on a few top tech firms In the algorithm-driven economy of 2025, one man’s shrimp Jesus is another man’s side hustle. AI slop – the low-quality, surreal content flooding social media platforms, designed to farm views – is a phenomenon, some would say the phenomenon of the 2024 and 2025 internet. Merriam-Webster’s word of the year this year is “slop”, referring exclusively to the internet variety. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 27, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)ComputingTechnology
Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify

Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify

Platform with 700m users says it is investigating after Anna’s Archive claims to have scraped tracks and metadata An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online. Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 22, 2025
SpotifyArtificial intelligence (AI)Computing
Elon Musk teams with El Salvador to bring Grok chatbot to public schools

Elon Musk teams with El Salvador to bring Grok chatbot to public schools

President Nayib Bukele entrusting chatbot known for calling itself ‘MechaHitler’ to create ‘AI-powered’ curricula Elon Musk is partnering with the government of El Salvador to bring his artificial intelligence company’s chatbot, Grok, to more than 1 million students across the country, according to a Thursday announcement by xAI. Over the next two years, the plan is to “deploy” the chatbot to more than 5,000 public schools in an “AI-powered education program”. xAI’s Grok is more known for referring to itself as “MechaHitler” and espousing far-right conspiracy theories than it is for public education. Over the past year, the chatbot has spewed various antisemitic content , decried “white genocide” and claimed Donald Trump won the 2020 election . Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 11, 2025
TechnologyElon MuskArtificial intelligence (AI)
Disney to invest $1bn in OpenAI, allowing characters in Sora video tool

Disney to invest $1bn in OpenAI, allowing characters in Sora video tool

Agreement comes amid anxiety in Hollywood over impact of AI on the industry, expression and rights of creators Walt Disney has announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, enabling the AI startup’s Sora video generation tool to use its characters. Users of Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that draw on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters as part of a three-year licensing agreement between OpenAI and the entertainment giant. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 11, 2025
BusinessOpenAIWalt Disney Company
Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’

Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’

AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’ A single person claims to have authored 113 academic papers on artificial intelligence this year, 89 of which will be presented this week at one of the world’s leading conference on AI and machine learning, which has raised questions among computer scientists about the state of AI research. The author, Kevin Zhu, recently finished a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and now runs Algoverse, an AI research and mentoring company for high schoolers – many of whom are his co-authors on the papers. Zhu himself graduated from high school in 2018. Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Dec 6, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)TechnologyAcademics
UK firms can win a significant chunk of the AI chip market | John Browne

UK firms can win a significant chunk of the AI chip market | John Browne

Britain’s legacy in chip design is world-class, and we could supply up to 5% of global demand if we get our act together The UK is in a uniquely promising position, far too little understood, to play a lucrative role in the coming era of artificial intelligence – but only if it also grabs the opportunity to start making millions of computer chips. AI requires vast numbers of chips and we could supply up to 5% of world demand if we get our national act together. Lord Browne is the co-chair of the Council for Science and Technology . He is the chair of BeyondNetZero and was the chief executive of BP from 1995 to 2007 Continue reading...

theguardian.com
Nov 13, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)Technology sectorComputing