Technology

Don’t be fooled. The US is regulating AI – just not the way you think

Beneath the free-market rhetoric, Washington actually intervenes to control the building blocks of AI systemsAt first glance, today’s artificial intelligence policy landscape suggests a strategic r...

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I thought I hated working out until I tried this fitness app

Future Fitness bottles the best parts of a personal trainer in the convenience of an app – here’s why it’s worth the $199 a monthThis natural rubber yoga mat lasted me a decade of daily practiceSig...

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Average-but-arresting games used to be the backbone of the industry. What price perfection?

In this week’s newsletter: It used to be OK for games like Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 to be just, well, OK – but today’s boom and bust economy has almost erased an important genreIt sho...

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Joke’s on you, fleshbag! Channel 4’s first AI presenter is dizzyingly grim on so many levels

The AI-generated host of Dispatches raises worrying questions about Channel 4’s environmental impact. She’s also a dead-eyed host who might leave Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Kevin McCloud fearing for ...

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Major internet outage hits websites, apps and Lloyds Bank after issue at Amazon Web Services – business live

Fortnite, Roblox, SnapChat, Lloyds Bank and Ring doorbells among services hit by online outage Heads-up: UBS have upgraded their view on global equities to ‘attractive’, a sign that they think inve...

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Techno-capitalists think innovation can save the planet. But that same thinking is what got us here

An upside-down mindset is emerging around the world. We have to rethink our relationship with the environment and the technology that’s caused it harmGet our breaking news email, free app or daily ...

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Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?

From brain-rotting videos to AI creep, every technological advance seems to make it harder to work, remember, think and function independently …Step into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (...

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Happy birthday to the NES, companion to millions of Nintendo childhoods

Forty years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the US – and a generation of kids were sucked into video games for lifeThe Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the...

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Keeper review – a sparkling ecological fantasia of pure imagination

This whimsical action-adventure game sees you stomping through nature as a life-giving lighthouse – and it only gets weirder from thereThe world of Keeper looms from the screen like a dream coloure...

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Silent Hill f review – fascinating horror game maims the monsters teenage girls face

PC, PS5, Xbox; KonamiAfter an apocalyptic supernatural fog descends, school girl Hinako wakes up in a town populated by psychosexual beasts and gaslighting men in masksThere are some horror games y...

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ROG Xbox Ally X review – like nothing handheld gaming has seen before, for better or worse

Xbox’s portable console combines the openness of PC gaming and Microsoft’s desire for you to play its titles anywhere – but it doesn’t come cheap or without hitchesThe ROG Xbox Ally X, the handheld...

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Space Harrier at 40: how Sega’s surreal classic brought total immersion to arcades in the 80s

As they flew above Yu Suzuki’s innovative, psychedelic 3D landscapes combating space dragons and alien rock monsters, the moving arcade cabinet would fling players around and physically involve the...

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Battlefield 6 review – operatic, ear-shattering all-encompassing warfare

Electronic Arts; PC, PS5, XboxIn contrast to the blast-em-ups this franchise drops players into a vast and vividly realised military offensive and the latest instalment is a brilliant return to for...

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‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder

Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entir...

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It’s Sam Altman: the man who stole the rights from copyright. If he’s the future, can we go backwards? | Marina Hyde

His AI video generator Sora 2 has been reviled for pinching the work of others. One giant leap for Sam: for everyone else, not so muchTake a look at Sam Altman. I mean, actually do it. Go to Google...

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Meet Anamanaguchi, the band behind the last Scott Pilgrim video game’s soundtrack – and the next one

Chiptune alt-rock band Anamanaguchi are having a bumper year, culminating in an opportunity to create the soundtrack they’ve always wanted to make – for a new Scott Pilgrim gameScott Pilgrim, the s...

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The non-profit helping people from all over the world to become successful game developers

The IGDA Foundation broadened its reach by attending the world’s biggest video games event this summer – but faces challenges funding its work helping underrepresented developersGamescom, the annua...

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Governments are spending billions on their own ‘sovereign’ AI technologies – is it a big waste of money?

Many US-built AI systems fall short but competing against tech giants neither easy nor cheapIn Singapore, a government-funded artificial intelligence model can converse in 11 languages, from Bahasa...

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What the Xbox Game Pass price hike says about the rising cost of playing games

In this week’s newsletter: The almost 50% increase in the cost of Microsoft’s game-streaming service is step closer to the model of TV, music and filmIn the music, TV and film industries, streaming...

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Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – a...

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How to live a good life in difficult times: Yuval Noah Harari, Rory Stewart and Maria Ressa in conversation

From superintelligent AI to the climate and democracy, three leading thinkers discuss how to navigate the futureWhat happens when an internationally bestselling historian, a Nobel peace prize-winni...

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