Could this be a Deep Blue moment for the cryptic crossword? A computer program has finally outdone humans at solving cryptic crosswords. Don't get Cluesletter, our weekly puzzles newsletter, delivered to your inbox? W hen the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, it was an early victory for artificial intelligence over the human mind, and the culmination of decades of attempts. Almost 30 years later, a computer program has finally outdone humans at solving cryptic crosswords.

We earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Hollywood AI-listers: is the technology ready to rival flesh-and-blood film stars? Director Coerte Voorhees knows exactly what he is doing - this is an AI-created version of the late actor, approved by his family but bringing with it a heap of controversy about whether such technology could make flesh-and-blood thespians redundant. Not just yet, judging by the extended glimpse of the film released earlier this year: it looks like a thirtysomething Kilmer, if a robot version had been sent back to the 1920s American wilderness by Skynet and, as well as being strangely rigid, had forgotten to download his voice, let alone his signature air of spacey shrewdness. Kilmer's estate signed off on it, citing his enthusiasm for new technology that expands storytelling, but surely he would have been dismayed by this freaky doppelganger. Many reacted with revulsion to last year's unveiling of AI "starlet" Tilly Norwood .

Anthropic was valued at $965bn in May when it raised $65bn in a funding round. Anthropic was valued at $965bn in May when it raised $65bn in a funding round. AI firm Anthropic to commit 5% of shares to fund for'public good' Anthropic has said it will commit 5% of its shares to a fund for the "public good", as the AI developer behind the Claude chatbot seeks to bolster its appeal before its stock market listing. The company announced it would commit the shares, worth around $48bn (£36bn) at its latest valuation in May, subject to shareholder approval. It will add a further 2% of its stock to the fund for every 50% increase in its value above an undisclosed baseline.

Governments around the world have moved to ban these AI platforms from app stores. Governments around the world have moved to ban these AI platforms from app stores. US teens can access'nudify' apps despite Apple and Google's parental controls, report finds In December 2025, Morgan Dorfman received distressing news: a student at her daughter's Pennsylvania high school was making AI-generated pornographic material using the daughter's image. He was using an artificial intelligence image-editing app called Movely to create sexual videos from pictures of her daughter and five other girls. What Dorfman's daughter experienced is not an anomaly: students in high schools across the US are reporting similar cases.

The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies. The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country's largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year. Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on'phantom investments' Doubts had already emerged about the scheme after the Guardian revealed in March that the location was still an operational scaffolding yard . Now there are further concerns after Microsoft, one of its largest planned customers and expected to have been the anchor tenant, informed the company that it was pulling the plug on its agreement. It comes a month after it emerged that power supply problems meant the project would face a lengthy wait before coming online.

Lena Schilling is one of 50 MEPs, 46 of them women, who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes. Lena Schilling is one of 50 MEPs, 46 of them women, who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes. 'I felt disgusted': MEP speaks out over nude deepfakes and urges EU action Lena Schilling of Austrian Greens says images are'digital violence against women' and a threat to democracy An Austrian MEP has spoken out about her experience of being "stripped naked" online without her consent and has urged the EU to take action, as a report found that one in six female MEPs had been targeted by sexualised AI-generated content. Lena Schilling of the Green party said she had learned last month about nude deepfakes of herself circulating online. When she opened the links, she found herself staring at images from one of her first ever press conferences - but the images had been digitally altered to remove her clothing.

Simbarashe Kundizeza says the story is entirely his own work. Simbarashe Kundizeza says the story is entirely his own work. The Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short story after an article in the Atlantic said software had flagged it as almost completely AI-generated. Kundizeza's story The Blue Fighter was announced as the winner of the prestigious Caine prize for African writers on 6 October. Five days later, The Atlantic published an article by the author and journalist Vauhini Vara titled: "Yet Another Literary prize winner Seems to Be AI." Vara said that she had run the story through the AI-detection software Pangram, which itself uses AI, and it had deemed the story to be almost completely artificially generated.

A previously unreported cache of law enforcement and intelligence agency documents show that law enforcement agencies have, since 2021, considered AI both a tool and a target of would-be terrorists. A previously unreported cache of law enforcement and intelligence agency documents show that law enforcement agencies have, since 2021, considered AI both a tool and a target of would-be terrorists. For many, it was a wake up call about the threats to reproductive care facilities. For the FBI, though, it was also a sign of what the agency had feared for years: bad actors were using generative AI to plan and execute terror plots. The suspect used an unnamed generative AI tool that failed to detect his request for bomb-making instructions, law enforcement officers wrote in a previously unreported document reviewed by the Guardian.

The biggest threat from AI is the sense that we have no say in it. The tech bros and their highly paid sock puppets are banking on us giving in to their'inevitability doctrine'. O f all the drivers of the populist wave, one of the most powerful is the sense of inevitability that surrounds what we are told is the march of progress. While the US clings on to its status as the oldest constitutional democracy, the unholy alliance between the tech overlords and the White House is creating its own AI reality untethered to the will of the people . On the velocity and trajectory of the technology, Trump and the tech overlords have determined we must hit the accelerator and dispense with guardrails to "win" an ill-defined race to build a god in a box. This reckless exercise of power from a waning empire has created its own reality for all of us.

'The greatest threat to connection may not be technology itself.' 'The greatest threat to connection may not be technology itself.' Amid worries about children's relationship to tech, the solution is often spending more time talking openly with each other We have become obsessed with the idea that screens are destroying human connection. The evidence seems to be everywhere. Each week headlines warn of teenagers addicted to phones, a loneliness epidemic and the dangers of AI . The release of The Social Reckoning has leads us to ask, "How bad those guys at Meta?" and then ultimately wonder, " if I still use Instagram?"