Why does everything feel so joyless? Do you want to have a good time? You know, really enjoy yourself? Click here, and tell us your desires. Maybe it's a new outfit, or some exotic cuisine delivered anonymously and steaming hot to your door. Perhaps you prefer the infinite scroll, the endlessly unfurling ribbon of glossy images and videos starring people you'll never meet doing things you'll never do. Or maybe you favor talking to a chatbot who will assure you that you are the most special of all its users.

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.

Uncrewed systems are the future for armed forces and the Netherlands is leading the way'to keep people out of danger zones' O n each side of the target ship, a black vessel keeps a watchful distance. Defender 1 and Defender 2 are the eyes and ears of the navy - but they have nobody onboard, and their paths are controlled by a computer system. This is the future of the Royal Netherlands Navy, according to Capt Sjoerd Feenstra, head of the expertise centre for unmanned systems. He is leading a five-week mission, off the coast of Den Helder in the north of the country, to test the limits of systems that operate without the human touch. "For the last year and a half we've been working to change our organisation," he says. "In about 10 years there will be crewed platforms surrounded by a ring of uncrewed systems operating as autonomously as possible."

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.

When Anna Funder stood before a pack of journalists at Parliament House this month, she presented herself not just as a writer but also a "victim of crime". The Stasiland author was using the analogy to illustrate how technology companies have flagrantly "hoovered up" her literary works for their own profit. Authors, artists, musicians and media organisations were last year assured those laws wouldn't be watered down when the federal government ruled out granting a legal exemption for artificial intelligence companies to mine content to train their large language models, which include ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. But continual lobbying from tech giants and a whistleblower's tipoff to the independent senator David Pocock have ignited fears that the Albanese government might go back on its word - even as it continues to insist that it won't. The stoush has exposed splits within Labor about how to respond to AI and raised questions about how far the government should bend - if at all - to big tech to capture the supposed riches of the datacentre boom.

Some view solely AI as a threat - but experts say there are jobs that can help offer a more secure future (and even get ahead). Some view solely AI as a threat - but experts say there are jobs that can help offer a more secure future (and even get ahead). Safe from AI: which jobs will help you thrive in the future? Entering the world of work often brings some uncertainty, but now there is another question: how can I AI-proof my career? We asked people from across various industries what they think the impact of AI will be on careers, and which jobs may be less affected.

Children watch as smoke billows in the background near the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza on 19 June. Children watch as smoke billows in the background near the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza on 19 June. Israel identified about 1,000 potential targets a day during the first two years of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with its command and control system, according to a presentation by the country's largest arms supplier, Elbit Systems. A total of 850,000 targets were detected in real time by the Israeli Tzayad digital army programme across all the military's theatres of war between 7 October and the end of 2025, the company said at a military conference in London. It describes the number of people, vehicles and other objects detected in real time for possible follow-up attack from land, sea or air, and illustrates the high intensity of the deadly wars fought by Israel over the last three years.

Race to develop'embodied AI' focuses on creating dextrous hands to transform humanoid robots from gimmicks into useful products Human hands - nimble, nerve-filled appendages that are the most flexible part of the human skeleton - are exceptionally complex. Many tasks that most people can do largely without thinking, from tying a pair of shoelaces to buttoning up a shirt, in fact require a complex set of neurological instructions and precise choreography. In thousands of years of human history, no machine has been able to truly replicate human's greatest tool. But now, as artificial intelligence (AI) races forwards, some companies think they are close to surpassing this final but most difficult hurdle in robotics. Most of them are in China . A new suite of Chinese start-ups are leveraging China's advantages in manufacturing and enthusiasm for what the government calls "embodied AI" to build the fully dextrous robotic hands that are needed to transform humanoid robots from dancing gimmicks into useful products.

Could the next great novel be written by AI (and would you even be able to tell)? Can you tell which, if any, were AI generated? "The hotel is in a great location for everything. Lots of places to eat and drink. The hotel itself is always abuzz. The tavern located on the ground floor is definitely a must. Food, service, prices and atmosphere were great." "A good hotel, though the room had the proportions of a well-appointed lift.

Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Wed 1 Jul 2026 10.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 1 Jul 2026 10.02 EDT It was once a truth universally acknowledged that an ageing console in possession of good revenue must be in line for a price reduction. Those days may be over. In March, Sony announced a price increase of £90 for the PS5, while last month Microsoft informed gamers that it would be charging at least £75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August. All three were first released back in 2020.