Industry
UK actors vote to refuse to be digitally scanned in pushback against AI
Thu 18 Dec 2025 09.44 ESTFirst published on Thu 18 Dec 2025 09.15 EST Actors have voted to refuse digital scanning to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against AI in the arts. Members of the performing arts union Equity were asked if they would refuse to be scanned while on set, a common practice in which actorsรข likeness is captured for future use รข with 99% voting in favour of the move. The general secretary, Paul Fleming, said: รข Artificial intelligence is a generation-defining challenge. And for the first time in a generation, Equityรข s film and TV members have shown that they are willing to take industrial action. Over three-quarters of artists working on them are union members.
During WWII, a dress-wearing squirrel sold war bonds alongside FDR
US bomber crews even carried photos of Tommy Tucker on missions. Tommy Tucker did radio spots, had a fan club, and even posed for LIFE magazine. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II, a little girl was walking to school in northwest Washington, D.C. when she found a baby squirrel that had apparently fallen out of a hickory tree. She took the tiny rodent home, fed him warm milk, and made him a cozy bed in a red woolen hat.
Opposed to Data Centers? The Working Families Party Wants You to Run for Office
The influential progressive third party announced Thursday that it was putting out a recruitment call for candidates specifically opposed to data centers. The Working Families Party said Thursday that it is putting out a specific recruitment call for people who are organizing against data centers in their communities to run for office. The announcement comes amid a period of heightened political turmoil around data centers, as some high-profile Democrats wade into the fight. Earlier this week, three Democrats in the Senate sent letters seeking information from Big Tech companies about how data centers impact electricity bills, while senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, became the first national politician to call for a moratorium on data center construction. "We see our role as responding to what working families and working people are concerned about, what issues are keeping them up at night," says Ravi Mangla, the national press secretary for the Working Families Party. "We would be ignoring the needs of our constituents if we were not responding to the issue of data centers and their impacts on communities."
2025 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Consortium interviews compilation
Authors pictured in order of their interview publication date (left to right, top to bottom). Each year, a small group of PhD students are chosen to participate in the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium . This initiative provides an opportunity for the students to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives in an interdisciplinary workshop together with a panel of established researchers. During 2025, we met with some of the students to find out more about their research and the doctoral consortium experience. Kunpeng Xu completed his PhD at the Universitรฉ de Sherbrooke and is now a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University.
George Osborne has a new job in tech, and it doesn't bode well for Britain Chris Stokel-Walker
George Osborne has a new job in tech, and it doesn't bode well for Britain OpenAI is the latest to make a political hire as big tech spreads its tentacles around the world. Since leaving frontline politics, the former chancellor has served as the chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, edited (not entirely successfully) the Evening Standard, advised asset manager BlackRock, joined boutique advisory firm Robey Warshaw, been appointed as the chair of the British Museum and taken on roles including advising crypto firm Coinbase . But Osborne's latest job is the most eye-opening - and is an alarming augur of what is to come. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has become the latest organisation to employ Osborne . He will run OpenAI for Countries, a unit tasked with working directly with governments while expanding the company's Stargate datacentre programme beyond the US.
OpenAI just launched an app store inside ChatGPT
Warner Bros. rejects Paramount's hostile bid Some help you pull-in locally-stored data and another lets you organize Apple Music songs. OpenAI has introduced an app directory that's now available right inside ChatGPT, the company announced. Apps extend ChatGPT conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take action like order groceries, turn an outline into a slide deck or search for an apartment, the company wrote in a blog post . OpenAI also noted in a help document that connector apps like Google Drive are now simply called apps. The new apps section (on iOS, Android and web) is divided into Feature, Lifestyle and Productivity categories, letting you connect to commonly used apps and sites like Booking.com,
The Download: the worst technology of 2025, and Sam Altman's AI hype
Welcome to our annual list of the worst, least successful, and simply dumbest technologies of the year. We like to think there's a lesson in every technological misadventure. But when technology becomes dependent on power, sometimes the takeaway is simpler: it would have been better to stay away. Here are some of the more notable ones . Each time you've heard a borderline outlandish idea of what AI will be capable of, it often turns out that Sam Altman was, if not the first to articulate it, at least the most persuasive and influential voice behind it. For more than a decade he has been known in Silicon Valley as a world-class fundraiser and persuader.
The major UK city that will get driverless trains in 2026
Inside the former US embassy that's now one of the world's top luxury hotels - with 8 bars and restaurants and suites to book for ยฃ26,100 The world's most expensive cities for days out revealed, with London in the top 15 Going beyond the guidebook: Here are 10 must-try cultural and wildlife experiences in Australia's'Garden State' Fairy-tale villages, castle tours and dinner at Austria's oldest winery: These enchanting river cruises will take you to the heart of each picturesque port of call you visit Revealed: The world's best new luxury hotel is in the UK - and it has a huge pool and rooftop bar Travel expert reveals the'science-backed tool' to help overcome fear of flying Eurostar's'snow train' set to return this week for winter Could YOU pass France's new'civic examination' needed to live in the country? Try these sample questions and find out... Airline finds'lost' Boeing 737 a decade after it vanished'If you don't enjoy Benidorm, you've only got yourself to blame': Meet the British couple who have been to the Spanish hotspot more than 100 TIMES The'dangerous' destinations that are actually not scary - and why you should holiday there next Brit who moved to the world's most desirable place to live reveals the soaring unexpected costs of relocating A major UK city is set to get driverless trains next year as part of its rail modernisation project. In 2023, new trains were launched in Glasgow as part of the full-scale upgrade to improve the city's subway after more than 30 years. The renovations have continued and now, the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) has announced Unattended Train Operation will be introduced to Glasgow. The modernisation project is in its'final stages,' Time Out reports, and the driverless subway trains are expected to be brought in next year.
A Filmmaker Made a Sam Altman Deepfake--and Got Unexpectedly Attached
The director of created a "Sam Bot" when he couldn't get an interview with the OpenAI CEO. Watch an exclusive trailer for the documentary, which comes out in January. Director Adam Bhala Lough didn't set out to make a documentary about a digital simulacrum of Sam Altman . But after about 100 days of texting and emailing the OpenAI CEO for an interview--with no response, he claims, and with financiers hounding him to make good on his original pitch--Lough was at his wit's end. He'd exhausted just about every angle.
The 8 worst technology flops of 2025
The Cybertruck, sycophantic AI, and humanoid robots all made this year's list of the biggest technology failures. Welcome to our annual list of the worst, least successful, and simply dumbest technologies of the year. This year, politics was a recurring theme. Donald Trump swept back into office and used his executive pen to reshape the fortunes of entire sectors, from renewables to cryptocurrency. The wrecking-ball act began even before his inauguration, when the president-elect marketed his own memecoin, $TRUMP, in a shameless act of merchandising that, of course, we honor on this year's worst tech list. We like to think there's a lesson in every technological misadventure.