'The best time to unionize was always yesterday,' union member Simone Robuti said. 'The second best time is today.' 'The best time to unionize was always yesterday,' union member Simone Robuti said. 'The second best time is today.' Tech workers are increasingly unionizing, trading Silicon Valley's myth of exceptionalism for collective bargaining to contest the corporate deployment of artificial intelligence F or decades, the technology industry was a fortress that labor unions couldn't breach.

A polling station in Budapest during Hungary's elections in April, on which the research was based. A polling station in Budapest during Hungary's elections in April, on which the research was based. AI chatbots provide inaccurate, inconsistent and unreliable guidance to voters asking which party they should back, a study suggests, often recommending the wrong party, not mentioning the right one, or listing parties not even running. "The results raise serious concerns about the reliability of general-purpose AI systems in electoral contexts," the study, published by the civil liberties group Liberties and based on research during this year's Hungarian parliamentary elections, concluded. "They misclassified profiles, omitted relevant parties and included parties not running in the election," said the report, shared with the Guardian.

Models wearing garments created by Cap_able, which which markets them as making AI recognition more difficult. Models wearing garments created by Cap_able, which which markets them as making AI recognition more difficult. 'Adversarial clothing': are garments designed to confuse facial recognition systems about to go mainstream? As facial recognition technology is rolled out across Britain's public spaces, a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend. Companies have started incorporating "adversarial patterns" in their garments - carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems.

UK fears a'triple whammy': oversized investment in AI stocks, slower adoption of AI than predicted and the breakneck pace of AI's development The UK wants a piece of the mammoth global investment in AI but fears it as well. In the coming weeks, the Bank of England is planning to ease capital rules to help encourage more lending. But the central bank simultaneously expressed concerns that there are too many loans going to investors like hedge funds, who are using that money to buy up AI stocks. The central bank's moves reflect the country's global position: hoping to catch up to the US and China in the AI race, struggling to mobilize its resources to do so, and too wary of the risks to go full bore. UK banking regulators have recently been under enormous pressure to do more to stimulate growth, my colleague Kalyeena Makortoff this week reports.

Josh Fawaz' YouTube channel, HIs cover of Like A Prayer has topped the Australian commercial radio charts and the global iTunes electronic music charts. Josh Fawaz' YouTube channel, HIs cover of Like A Prayer has topped the Australian commercial radio charts and the global iTunes electronic music charts. Is the most popular song played on Australian radio stations the product of generative AI? Josh Fawaz's song, a cover of Like a Prayer, has raised questions over how generative AI is being used in music and whether it should be declared An Australian producer has gone from a little-known artist to a viral sensation in a matter of months, with his hit song catapulting onto global charts and receiving thousands of radio spins. There's just one problem: music experts and other musicians are questioning whether he produced it. They claim Josh Fawaz's most popular song, a cover of Madonna's Like a Prayer which reached the #1 spot on the National Radio Airplay chart, could have been made using AI.

Christopher Nolan says young people in particular are pushing back on AI and'they coined this term AI slop'. Christopher Nolan says young people in particular are pushing back on AI and'they coined this term AI slop'. Christopher Nolan says people'disdain' AI and the idea it will replace humans is'nonsense' Odyssey director addresses industry fears over artificial intelligence and says rightwing criticism of Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy is'irrelevant' The Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan believes the kind of movies he makes - big-budget action films shot mostly on location - would survive the spread of artificial intelligence, a technology he says many people "disdain". The Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight director is promoting his latest blockbuster, an adaptation of the Greek epic The Odyssey, which will be released in cinemas this week. "The interesting thing with AI is I've never seen a technology that's been so successfully adopted by Wall Street and by investors and by tech companies that the public has so thoroughly rejected," he told AFP in Paris.

A large number of datacentre projects around the world are being challenged or cancelled. A large number of datacentre projects around the world are being challenged or cancelled. 'These are some of the most complex structures ever created': how tech reporting moved into the physical world The Guardian's global tech reporting team are investigating the impact of the vast datacentres being built to power the AI revolution. Sun 12 Jul 2026 10.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 12 Jul 2026 10.01 EDT Journalists often use the term "shoe-leather reporting" to refer to the on-the-ground legwork that goes into covering certain stories. As the tech industry's focus has shifted from screen-based realities to the physical world of colossal AI datacentres and social media harms, comfortable footwear has become more essential to a tech reporter's job. Earlier this week, we published the Guardian's latest investigation into the datacentres and energy infrastructures that underpin AI - revealing that an £8.2bn AI complex in rural Scotland has misrepresented its plans to be powered entirely by on-site renewables.

George Dover poses for a portrait at his home in Beaverton, Oregon. Dover was laid off in 2024. George Dover poses for a portrait at his home in Beaverton, Oregon. Dover was laid off in 2024. Every weekday, Matt, a software engineer, looks forward to his four-hour train commute to Pawling, New York.

Senator Ed Markey says: 'We need to make sure these datacenters don't turn into pollution bombs.' Senator Ed Markey says: 'We need to make sure these datacenters don't turn into pollution bombs.' 'AI accountability agenda': US senator unveils package of bills to curb tech's harms US senator Ed Markey is worried about the perils of unregulated artificial intelligence. All of it: the costs associated with thirsty, energy-guzzling datacenters, intrusive workplace surveillance, bias in discriminatory algorithms, AI overriding workers' judgments, and deepening economic inequality - as those who profit most from AI rake in extraordinary windfalls. The Massachusetts Democrat's interest in convincing Congress to rein in the harmful effects of AI has only grown, as the technology embeds itself deeper across industries. Markey has already authored close to a dozen bills aimed at tackling these problems.

Can AI equalize political campaign ads - or will it remain a tool for spreading lies? F rom the comfort of his bed, Jonathan Rinaldi, a political candidate for a city council seat in Queens, New York, tinkered away on his iPhone, prompting an artificial intelligence chatbot to mock up fake news hits and endorsements he had never received. During the campaign last October, Rinaldi shared one of those stories, made to appear real with a CNN logo, on his Facebook and Instagram. It stated that Lynn Schulman, his opponent and an incumbent Democrat, had been "forced to drop out of the race due to a series of critical mistakes". But Schulman had not quit her campaign, and in November, won by a landslide.