Goto

Collaborating Authors

 navigation close dialogue 1 3


Macron defends EU AI rules and vows crackdown on child 'digital abuse'

The Guardian

Emmanuel Macron told delegates at the AI summit: 'Europe is not blindly focused on regulation.' Emmanuel Macron told delegates at the AI summit: 'Europe is not blindly focused on regulation.' Macron defends EU AI rules and vows crackdown on child'digital abuse' Emmanuel Macron has hit back at US criticism of Europe's efforts to regulate AI, vowing to protect children from "digital abuse" during France's presidency of the G7. Speaking at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, the French president called for tougher safeguards after global outrage over Elon Musk's Grok chatbot being used to generate tens of thousands of sexualised images of children, and amid mounting concern about the concentration of AI power in a handful of companies. His remarks were echoed by António Guterres, the UN secretary general, who told delegates - including several US tech billionaires - that "no child should be a test subject for unregulated AI". "The future of AI cannot be decided by a few countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires," Guterres said. "AI must belong to everyone".


OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: 'I can't live like this'

The Guardian

Some users say the newer AI models lack the emotion and understanding of GPT-4o. Some users say the newer AI models lack the emotion and understanding of GPT-4o. OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot - leaving users angry and grieving: 'I can't live like this' Its human partners said the flirty, quirky GPT-4o was the perfect companion - on the eve of Valentine's Day, it's being turned off for good. Brandie plans to spend her last day with Daniel at the zoo. Last year, she took him to the Corpus Christi aquarium in Texas, where he "lost his damn mind" over a baby flamingo.


'At 2am, it feels like someone's there': why Nigerians are choosing chatbots to give them advice and therapy

The Guardian

AI platforms offering first-line mental health support have proliferated in Nigeria, where health services are sparse and underfunded. AI platforms offering first-line mental health support have proliferated in Nigeria, where health services are sparse and underfunded. 'At 2am, it feels like someone's there': why Nigerians are choosing chatbots to give them advice and therapy O n a quiet evening in her Abuja hotel, Joy Adeboye, 23, sits on her bed clutching her phone, her mind racing and chest tightening. On her screen is yet another abusive message from her stalker - a man she had met nine months earlier at her church. He had asked Adeboye out; when she declined, he began sending her intimidating, insulting and blackmailing messages on social media, as well as spreading false information about her online.


'Deepfakes spreading and more AI companions': seven takeaways from the latest artificial intelligence safety report

The Guardian

The international AI safety report warns systems are improving rapidly - but remain prone to'hallucinations' and hard to control. The international AI safety report warns systems are improving rapidly - but remain prone to'hallucinations' and hard to control. The International AI Safety report is an annual survey of technological progress and the risks it is creating across multiple areas, from deepfakes to the jobs market. Commissioned at the 2023 global AI safety summit, it is chaired by the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, who describes the "daunting challenges" posed by rapid developments in the field. The report is also guided by senior advisers, including Nobel laureates Geoffrey Hinton and Daron Acemoglu.


What technology takes from us – and how to take it back

The Guardian

Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out - but it's going to take collective effort Summer after summer, I used to descend into a creek that had carved a deep bed shaded by trees and lined with blackberry bushes whose long thorny canes arced down from the banks, dripping with sprays of fruit. Down in that creek, I'd spend hours picking until I had a few gallons of berries, until my hands and wrists were covered in scratches from the thorns and stained purple from the juice, until the tranquillity of that place had soaked into me. The berries on a single spray might range from green through shades of red to the darkness that gives the fruit its name. Partly by sight and partly by touch, I determined which berries were too hard and which too soft, picking only the ones in between, while listening to birds and the hum of bees, to the music of water flowing, noticing small jewel-like insects among the berries, dragonflies in the open air, water striders in the creek's calm stretches. I went there for berries, but I also went there for the quiet, the calm, the feeling of cool water on my feet and sometimes up to my knees as I waded in where the picking was good. At home I made jars of jam. When I gave them away I was trying to give not just my jam - which was admittedly runny and seedy - but something of the peace of that creek, of summer itself.


'This train isn't going to stop': shocking Sundance film shows promises and perils of AI

The Guardian

'This train isn't going to stop': shocking Sundance film shows promises and perils of AI Is AI an existential threat, or an epochal opportunity? Those are the questions top of mind for a new documentary at Sundance, which features leading AI experts, critics and entrepreneurs, including Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, with views on the near-to-midterm future ranging from doom to utopia. 'The world is hurting right now': politics and protest hit the Sundance film festival The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell and produced by Daniel Kwan (one half of The Daniels, the Oscar-winning duo behind Everything Everywhere All At Once), delves into the contentious topic of AI through Roher's own anxiety. The Canadian film-maker, who won an Oscar in 2023 for the documentary Navalny, first became interested in the topic while experimenting with tools released by OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot ChatGPT. The sophistication of the public tools - the ability to produce whole paragraphs in seconds, or produce illustrations - both thrilled and unnerved him.


At Davos, tech CEOs laid out their vision for AI's world domination

The Guardian

A technician works at an Amazon Web Services AI datacenter in New Carlisle, Indiana, on 2 October 2025. A technician works at an Amazon Web Services AI datacenter in New Carlisle, Indiana, on 2 October 2025. At Davos, tech CEOs laid out their vision for AI's world domination Tech chiefs waxed poetic about AI to delegates at Davos. Plus, the'human' drama of AI startups and why Tesla is thriving in Texas This week's edition is a team effort: my colleague Heather Stewart reports on the plans for AI's world domination at Davos; I examine how huge investments have followed AI companies with little to their names but drama and dreams; and Nick Robins-Early spotlights how lax regulation of autonomous driving in Texas allowed Tesla to thrive. When they weren't discussing Donald Trump, delegates at the World Economic Forum last week were being dazzled by the prospects for artificial intelligence.


'I didn't have anything to prove': what Traitors finalist Jade Scott learned about survival from video games

The Guardian

'Minecraft was my way in' The Traitors 2026 finalist Jade. 'Minecraft was my way in' The Traitors 2026 finalist Jade. 'I didn't have anything to prove': what Traitors finalist Jade Scott learned about survival from video games T he latest series of The Traitors, which ended last week on a nail-biting finale, featured some of the usual characters - from guileless extroverts to wannabe Columbos endlessly observing fellow contestants for the slightest flicker of treachery. But one faithful stood out for her quiet determination, despite a ceaseless onslaught of suspicion and accusation. That person was Jade Scott, and I wasn't at all surprised when, quite early on in the series, she revealed she was a keen gamer.


The year of the 'hectocorn': the 100bn tech companies that could float in 2026

The Guardian

OpenAI could be valued at $1tn if it launches an initial public offering, Reuters said. OpenAI could be valued at $1tn if it launches an initial public offering, Reuters said. The year of the'hectocorn': the $100bn tech companies that could float in 2026 Y ou've probably heard of "unicorns" - technology startups valued at more than $1bn - but 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the " hectocorn ", with several US and European companies potentially floating on stock markets at valuations over $100bn (£75bn). OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Stripe are among the big names said to be considering an initial public offering (IPO) this year. The success of their flotations - whether the shares maintain their value, rise or fall - could shape concerns about the AI race and whether the resulting market mania is a bubble .


Elon Musk's stubborn spin on Grok's sexualized images controversy

The Guardian

Elon Musk has been promoting Grok's popularity as if it were a piece of productivity software. Elon Musk has been promoting Grok's popularity as if it were a piece of productivity software. Today, we discuss Elon Musk's rosy depiction of Grok's image generation controversy; the seven-figure panic among Silicon Valley billionaires over a proposed wealth tax in California, though with one notable exception; and how AI and robotics have revitalized the Consumer Electronics Showcase. The firestorm over the Grok AI tool has been raging for more than a week now, and it shows no signs of dying down. Last week, I wrote about the rising backlash against Elon Musk's Grok AI tool, which in recent weeks has allowed users to generate thousands of sexualized images of women.