Elon Musk has been promoting Grok's popularity as if it were a piece of productivity software. Elon Musk has been promoting Grok's popularity as if it were a piece of productivity software. Today, we discuss Elon Musk's rosy depiction of Grok's image generation controversy; the seven-figure panic among Silicon Valley billionaires over a proposed wealth tax in California, though with one notable exception; and how AI and robotics have revitalized the Consumer Electronics Showcase. The firestorm over the Grok AI tool has been raging for more than a week now, and it shows no signs of dying down. Last week, I wrote about the rising backlash against Elon Musk's Grok AI tool, which in recent weeks has allowed users to generate thousands of sexualized images of women.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she has lost confidence in West Midlands Police's chief constable after Israeli football fans were banned from a match against Aston Villa. Mahmood told MPs a damning review from the policing watchdog over the intelligence that led to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans being banned showed a failure of leadership. The force has apologised saying it did not deliberately distort evidence that was used by Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group for the 6 November game . Chief Constable Craig Guildford remains in post, but faces a meeting on 27 January to be questioned by Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster who has the authority to sack him. Mahmood told the Commons on Wednesday she intended to restore the power for home secretaries to dismiss chief constables who fail their communities.

When a police force is supposed to seek the truth and uphold the law, what happens when the evidence they present to officials and the public is, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood put it, exaggerated or untrue? The police inspectorate has concluded the leaders of West Midlands Police fell foul of confirmation bias. In simple terms, that means senior officers had already reached a decision and were looking for intelligence to justify it. The list of errors and inaccuracies set out in an independent review of the decision-making that led to fans of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv being banned from attending a fixture at Villa Park in November have been described by Mahmood as damning. They include: A report of a football match in an intelligence report produced using AI which never happened; a twice-repeated denial by senior police leaders to MPs that AI had not been relied on to produce the inaccurate report; the claim that local Jewish groups had been consulted on the move when they had not been; inaccurately presenting evidence from Dutch police reports from a previous fixture involving the club.

'Appropriate and unambiguous': White House defends Trump over middle-finger gesture at heckler The White House has defended US President Donald Trump after he aimed an offensive gesture at a heckler during his appearance at a Ford factory in Detroit on Tuesday. Footage of the incident published by TMZ appears to show the president responding to a man who shouted at him from afar. The White House said: A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response. The heckler has been suspended by Ford, the United Auto Workers union told the BBC's US partner, CBS News. A Ford spokesperson told CBS: One of our core values is respect and we don't condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities.

The draw of the impossible Baby Steps. The draw of the impossible Baby Steps. If you've ever refused to knock down a game's difficulty level, or chased a purposefully pointless achievement, you might have this pernicious but pleasurable affliction Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? S tudies on gaming's effect on the brain usually focus on aggression or the cognitive benefits of playing games. The former topic has fallen out of fashion now, after more than a decade's worth of scientific research failed to prove any causative link between video games and real-world violence.

How have you or someone you know been affected by Grok or other AI tools? Please include as much detail as possible. Do you have any concerns?

Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, is being investigated by the UK's media regulator. Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, is being investigated by the UK's media regulator. "Since discovering Grok AI, regular porn doesn't do it for me anymore, it just sounds absurd now," one enthusiast for the Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot wrote on Reddit. Another agreed: "If I want a really specific person, yes." If those who have been horrified by the distribution of sexualised imagery on Grok hoped that last week's belated safeguards could put the genie back in the bottle, there are many such posts on Reddit and elsewhere that tell a different story.

China announced record export numbers for 2025, a year when US President Donald Trump's tariffs and trade policy caused turmoil in the global economy. Beijing on Wednesday reported the world's largest-ever trade surplus - the value of goods and services sold overseas compared to its imports - at $1.19tn (£890bn). It's the first time China's full-year trade surplus has passed $1tn, beating 2024's record figure of $993bn. China's monthly export surpluses passed $100bn seven times last year - a sign that Trump's tariff campaign have barely affected its overall trade with the rest of the world. Trade with the US did weaken, but this was made up for by a rise in Chinese exports elsewhere, especially to South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

You must have heard of Dubai chocolate: the sticky, indulgent confectionary filled with pistachio cream, tahini and shreds of knafeh pastry, which has become a global sensation. Now the decadent bar has inspired South Korea's latest dessert craze. The Dubai chewy cookie has been selling like wildfire - and even restaurants that don't usually offer baked goods are trying to get a nibble of the market. Despite its name, the cookie's texture more closely resembles a rice cake, and is made by stuffing pistachio cream and knafeh shreds into a chocolate marshmallow. Shops are selling hundreds of cookies within minutes and the frenzy has sent prices of key ingredients surging, local media reported.

The chef behind Wales' only two-Michelin-star restaurant has said he is not embarrassed after it was awarded a one-star hygiene rating. Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, near Machynlleth in Ceredigion, which charges nearly £500 per head, received the rating after a visit by food safety officers on 5 November. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), a score of one out of five means major improvement is necessary. But chef patron Gareth Ward, a contestant on MasterChef The Professionals, said the restaurant was working at the highest standard in the world and doing something different with how it approaches raw ingredients and techniques. Ynyshir offers a high-end dining experience starting at £468 per person, including a 30-course tasting menu and an in-house DJ.