Goto

Collaborating Authors

 guardian


'We don't tell the car what it should do': my ride in a self-driving taxi

The Guardian

Steve Rose goes for a spin. Steve Rose goes for a spin. 'We don't tell the car what it should do': my ride in a self-driving taxi Driverless'robotaxis' will be accepting fares in Britain's biggest city by the end of next year. Can they deal with London's medieval roads, hordes of pedestrians and errant ebikers? 'I'm really excited to show you this," says Alex Kendall, the CEO of Wayve, as he gets behind the wheel of one of the company's electric Ford Mustangs. The car pulls up to a junction at a busy road in King's Cross, London, all by itself. "You can see that it's going to control the speed, steering, brake, indicators," he says to me - I'm in the passenger seat. "It's making decisions as it goes.


Why an up-and-coming indie developer is returning Microsoft's money

The Guardian

'Making people feel powerful' All Will Rise. 'Making people feel powerful' All Will Rise. Why an up-and-coming indie developer is returning Microsoft's money Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? V ideo games are in a funding crisis. Investor money flowed freely during the pandemic gaming boom, but now the well has run dry.


UK must learn lessons from AI race and retain its quantum computing talent, says minister

The Guardian

In quantum computers, the information is contained in qubits that can work through vast numbers of different outcomes, which is not possible with classical computers. In quantum computers, the information is contained in qubits that can work through vast numbers of different outcomes, which is not possible with classical computers. The UK will not let quantum computing talent slip through its fingers and must learn lessons from US dominance of the AI race, the technology secretary has said, as the government announced a £1bn quantum funding pledge. Liz Kendall said the government hoped to retain homegrown quantum startups, engineers and researchers rather than lose them to competing countries, with the US stealing a march on its western rivals in AI. "I do look at what's happened on AI," said Kendall. "I do think we need to learn the lessons and make sure we give our brilliant scientists, spinouts and startups the ability to stay here and make it happen. And that requires a government that is bold and ambitious and confident in these technologies of the future."


A photo of Iran's bombed schoolgirl graveyard went around the world. Was it real, or AI?

The Guardian

Graves being prepared for the victims of an airstrike on a school in Minab in southern Iran, 2 March 2026. Graves being prepared for the victims of an airstrike on a school in Minab in southern Iran, 2 March 2026. A photo of Iran's bombed schoolgirl graveyard went around the world. T he graves, freshly dug, lie in neat rows of 20 across. More than 60 have already been carved out of the earth, with a few clusters of people standing gathered around them.


Google scraps AI search feature that crowdsourced amateur medical advice

The Guardian

Google had said'What People Suggest' feature aimed to provide users with information from people with similar lived experiences. Google had said'What People Suggest' feature aimed to provide users with information from people with similar lived experiences. Google has dropped a new artificial intelligence search feature that gave users crowdsourced health advice from amateurs around the world. The company had said its launch of "What People Suggest", which provided tips from strangers, showed "the potential of AI to transform health outcomes across the globe". But Google has since quietly removed the feature, according to three people familiar with the decision.


The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby review – the story of the man who changed the world

The Guardian

I t was March 2016, and at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, the world was gathered to watch the culmination of a battle 2,500 years in the making. On one side was the South Korean Lee Se-dol, the second-highest ranking Go player in the world. On the other was AlphaGo - a computer program developed by London-based artificial intelligence research company DeepMind. "Chess is the greatest game mankind has invented," game designer Alex Randolph once said. "Go is the greatest game mankind has discovered."


Microsoft backs AI firm Anthropic in legal battle against Pentagon

The Guardian

Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic's legal challenge against the US Department of Defense. Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic's legal challenge against the US Department of Defense. Tech company files amicus brief in support of Anthropic's effort to overturn an aggressive Pentagon designation Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic's legal challenge against the Pentagon, filing a court brief in support of the AI company's effort to overturn an aggressive designation that effectively bars it from government work. In an amicus brief submitted to a federal court in San Francisco this week, Microsoft, which integrates Anthropic's AI tools into systems it provides to the US military, argued that a temporary restraining order was necessary to prevent serious disruption to suppliers whose products rely on the AI company's technology. Google, Amazon, Apple and OpenAI have also signed on to a brief in support of Anthropic. In a statement to the Guardian, Microsoft said: "The Department of War needs reliable access to the country's best technology.


Amazon is determined to use AI for everything – even when it slows down work

The Guardian

Corporate employees said Amazon's race to roll out AI is leading to surveillance, slop and'more work for everyone'. When Dina, a software developer based in New York, joined Amazon two years ago, her job was to write code. The internal AI tool she's expected to use, called Kiro, frequently hallucinates and generates flawed code, she says. Then she has to dig through and correct the sloppy code it creates, or just revert all changes and start again. She says it feels like "trying to AI my way out of a problem that AI caused".


'I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff': professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI

The Guardian

'I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff': professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI Lea Pao, a professor of literature at Stanford University, has been experimenting with ways to get her students to learn offline. She has them memorize poems, perform at recitation events, look at art in the real world. It's an effort to reconnect them to the bodily experience of learning, she said, and to keep them from turning to artificial intelligence to do the work for them. "There's no AI-proof anything," Pao said. "Rather than policing it, I hope that their overall experiences in this class will show them that there's a way out."


From press release … to scrap metal site: the Essex 'supercomputer' that's still a scaffolding yard

The Guardian

It generally takes 18 to 36 months to build a hyperscale AI site - such as, presumably, one of the world's most powerful supercomputers. It generally takes 18 to 36 months to build a hyperscale AI site - such as, presumably, one of the world's most powerful supercomputers. From press release to scrap metal site: the Essex'supercomputer' that's still a scaffolding yard Nscale's AI project still in use as depot ahead of pledged completion date - with planning permission filed after Guardian's inquiries Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on'phantom investments' T he press releases announcing a gleaming supercomputer on the outskirts of north London depict a glass and concrete building, rising from a tree-lined street. Accompanied by images of glowing blue robot faces, it looks like the centre of a technological revolution. By the end of this year, that artist's impression is supposed to be a reality.