A Florida man is suing several law enforcement agencies for his arrest and prosecution for allegedly luring a child after he was wrongly identified using faulty AI facial recognition software. According to the Jacksonville Beach police department, an algorithm returned a 93% probability that Robert Dillon was the man caught on security cameras at a McDonald's in the town attempting to persuade an unaccompanied girl, aged younger than 12, to leave with him. Dillon, however, lives in Fort Myers, more than 300 miles and a five-hour drive away, and told detectives he had never been to Jacksonville Beach in his life. The case was dismissed and charges dropped last year over the August 2024 incident. Now the 52-year-old has filed a lawsuit against the police department, the Jacksonville sheriff's office, and Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff of Pinellas county, whose agency maintains and operates the Faces (Face Analysis Comparison and Examination) system and leases it to other law enforcement.

Seattle has passed a year-long moratorium on the construction of new datacenters. The city council voted unanimously in favor of the temporary ban on Tuesday. A major tech hub whose metro area is home to Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle is the largest US city to have passed such a moratorium as the backlash against AI infrastructure grows across the country. Lawmakers have framed the pause as an opportunity to draft regulations specifically targeting the electricity-hungry datacenters being built nationwide to serve the AI sector, and to protect local residents from environmental risks and rising electricity bills. According to Seattle's mayor, Katie Wilson, the moratorium will also let city officials determine whether datacenters are a "good use of urban land", and potentially impose new stipulations on their approval, such as requiring developers to invest in local transit and housing initiatives in exchange for construction permits.

Are robots nearing their ChatGPT moment? Last month at Beijing's half marathon, a robot named Lightning beat the human world record by nearly seven minutes. It's the latest in a string of AI-powered milestones that have got people wondering whether robots are about to enter our everyday lives, just as chatbots have. And the country leading the charge is China, where the government has pledged to invest more than £100bn in robotics over the next 20 years. To find out how robots are already entering the workforce, and what needs to happen to get them cleaning our homes and weeding our gardens, Ian Sample hears from the Guardian's senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins, and from Nathan Lepora, professor of robotics and AI at Bristol University, who researches how robots can achieve human-like dexterity

Trump postpones executive order on AI, citing need to keep'lead' over China The move comes shortly after Trump became the first US president to visit China in nearly a decade.

A former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, was met with students' boos at a university commencement address in Arizona on Sunday when he raised the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and its effects. Schmidt - who led the tech giant for more than a decade, acquiring a multi-billion dollar fortune in the process - was speaking to as many as 10,000 graduating University of Arizona students when he addressed the impact of modern technology on society. The topic struck a nerve of anxiety within the student body when he traced technology's evolution, through the laptop - which he said had "democratized knowledge" and led to prosperity - to the smartphone, the internet and social media. "We thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that humanity had been constructing for centuries, but the world we built turned out to be more complicated than we anticipated," Schmidt said. "The same tools that connect us also isolate us. The same platforms that gave everyone a voice - like you're using now - degraded the public square," he added, referring to the polarization within democracies.

Use of AI is a valuable tool for weather prediction but only when it's trained with ample data, experts say Mon 18 May 2026 08.00 EDTLast modified on Mon 18 May 2026 08.01 EDT As the US prepares for hurricane season and a summer of record-breaking heat, experts fear the Trump administration's cuts to climate and weather data programming could make the federal government's weather forecasts less reliable when they are needed most. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) late last year launched a suite of artificial intelligence-powered global weather forecast models which it said would improve "speed, efficiency, and accuracy". In March, an agency official said those models are being trained with centuries of weather data. Artificial intelligence is a valuable tool for weather prediction, but only when it is well-trained with ample data, said Monica Medina, who served as Noaa's principal deputy undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere from 2009 to 2012. Under Trump, climate and weather data collection has declined, said Medina.

Both Musk and Altman took the stand for hours, facing combative cross-examinations that painted them each as untrustworthy. Both Musk and Altman took the stand for hours, facing combative cross-examinations that painted them each as untrustworthy. Two of the world's richest people faced an airing of their dirty laundry amid their messy, bitter feud over OpenAI A nine-person jury is set to decide whether Elon Musk's allegations of "stealing a charity" against Sam Altman and OpenAI are legitimate, with deliberations to begin in earnest on Monday. Whatever its outcome, the case has been an illuminating, at times exhausting, look behind the scenes at the history of OpenAI and how some of the most powerful figures in the tech industry operate. Attorneys for both sides have introduced reams of private text messages, emails and even diary entries to support their arguments.

Petitioners react as the Box Elder county commission announces approval of a large datacenter on 4 May 2026 in Tremonton, Utah. Petitioners react as the Box Elder county commission announces approval of a large datacenter on 4 May 2026 in Tremonton, Utah. 'Irresponsible': backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan A plan to create one of the world's largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, has provoked a furious public backlash in Utah amid concerns over its vast energy use and impact upon the state's stressed water supplies. The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years.

Cargo documents appear to show Sightline has shipped its technology to Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer that provides drones to the country's military. Cargo documents appear to show Sightline has shipped its technology to Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer that provides drones to the country's military. A nti-war activists in Portland, Oregon, are pushing city authorities to ensure no local resources, tax breaks or investments support a local company that appears to be supplying artificial intelligence software to the Israeli military. The company, Sightline Intelligence, manufactures AI-supported video technology that is used in drones to interpret target movements and make quick decisions based on the perceived threat level. Cargo documents appear to show Sightline has shipped its technology to Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer that provides drones to that country's military and exports to others.

Datacentres could require at least 6GW of capacity by 2030 under government plans to expand AI infrastructure. Datacentres could require at least 6GW of capacity by 2030 under government plans to expand AI infrastructure. Sun 26 Apr 2026 03.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 26 Apr 2026 03.01 EDT One vision of the UKâ s future involves a decarbonised economy powered by clean, renewable energy. Another involves making the UK an AI superpower. The government departments responsible for these two visions do not appear to have agreed on their numbers.