Our dictionary of gaming terms helping you make sense of video game'slopaganda'. Our dictionary of gaming terms helping you make sense of video game'slopaganda'. As phrases like easter eggs and looksmaxxing enter everyday language, what other words from the world of video games might soon be mainstream? T wenty years ago, video games were seen as a niche hobby dominated by hardcore enthusiasts, tucked away in obscure online forums and gaming meet-ups. Back then, the idea that governments would use footage from Call of Duty and gaming terms such as "killstreaks" as war propaganda would have been absurd.

I n a small, crowded room in Taipei, Pan Chien-chin is trying to keep a drone hovering steadily. Imagining himself flying a plane, he gently nudges controller joysticks to guide the insect-like device as it hums through the air. Cheers break out as Pan, who has never flown a drone before, steers it around a rectangular course marked by traffic cones without crashing. Around him are about two dozen fellow trainees, all signed up for the same course: Taiwan's first civil defence drone training programme. "The war in Ukraine has really changed how drones are used," says Pan, 48, a food company worker. "It's like giving myself another skill, something I can use if it's ever needed one day," he adds.

'Musk profits where there are as few regulations as possible and he can dominate.' 'Musk profits where there are as few regulations as possible and he can dominate.' Ten years ago, after complaining that traffic was'driving him nuts', Musk's Boring Company began building underground tunnels to ease congestion on the roads. I t's another blindingly bright day in Las Vegas but I'm 30ft underground and strapped in for a rocket ride to the future. And it's pretty slow - my driver tells me the speed limit down here is 30mph. It's also pretty short: the journey is over in a matter of minutes.

A botanist at Kew's Madagascar research site scans a plant for digitisation. A botanist at Kew's Madagascar research site scans a plant for digitisation. AI could help win'race against extinction' of vital plants, say botanists Tech is helping to identify and save new specimens and could open'genomic goldmine' of fungi data The rise of AI and digitisation could be a turning point in the "race against extinction" faced by botanists trying to identify and save vital plants before they vanish, according to a major report from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. New technology is enabling scientists to track how flowering times have shifted by weeks around the world, rapidly identify new specimens and even get crucial genetic data from 180-year-old fungus specimens, potentially opening a "genomic goldmine". Digitisation and online access to millions of specimens that were until now only accessible in archives is also producing new insights, especially in the global south.

'Have I been influenced, or is this actually me?' How personal taste fell out of fashion Our favourite music, clothes and books used to be markers of individuality - but the algorithm has made us all sheep. What music, films, clothes, art, books - anything, really - do you actually like? Do you find these questions more difficult to answer than you would have done 10 years ago? It has become impossible to ignore: personal taste has been seriously debased - if not completely destroyed - by technological advancement. We know the internet has radically altered the way we form our opinions and beliefs. Now we're waking up to another sobering truth: it has wrecked our capacity to form our own preferences. It used to go something like this. We experienced the outside world - including arts, culture and fashion - via a combination of community, geography, mass and specialist media, and serendipitous accidents.

The issue of AI sovereignty was in focus at London Tech Week. The issue of AI sovereignty was in focus at London Tech Week. UK sets out AI infrastructure push at London Tech Week - how does it stack up? Ownership of the commanding heights of the AI economy is a political talking point around the world, as countries seek to assert some control of a technology dominated by the US and China. London Tech Week, the showcase event for the UK tech industry, focused heavily on that theme this week.

Tim Smith: 'Today's short-form, fast-paced, highly captivating content may affect children's attention, comprehension and emotional response'. Tim Smith: 'Today's short-form, fast-paced, highly captivating content may affect children's attention, comprehension and emotional response'. Pioneering UK Nerve Lab harnesses AI to map effect of children's screen time P arents are constantly being told to limit their children's screen time. A relatively slow-paced programme such as Bluey offers a very different viewing experience to a fast-moving action series such as PAW Patrol, yet both are broadly considered suitable for young children. This challenge is growing as the type of content children are exposed to evolves.

The'painted ladies' in San Francisco on 20 August 2024. The'painted ladies' in San Francisco on 20 August 2024. Home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area's already expensive market are skyrocketing as employees at leading artificial intelligence companies come into gargantuan sums of money thanks to a boom in initial public offerings . With San Francisco's OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as SpaceX, which operates a major facility in the Los Angeles area, eyeing debuts on the stock market, the hot housing market may not abate soon. If their initial public offering (IPO) is well-received, the companies' multibillion-dollar valuations are poised to produce massive wealth for employees and executives holding shares, which experts say could trigger an uptick in demand for the Bay Area's limited housing stock.

Eight trends I've noticed from watching hour of livestreams from Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and more Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? D id spend hours of your weekend watching a relentless series of video game adverts? No? I don't blame you - Summer Game Fest, the collection of livestreams that has arisen in place of the giant annual E3 video game expo in Los Angeles, is extremely overwhelming. There are the bigger, longer shows: the PlayStation and Xbox streams, the main SGF show hosted by Geoff Keighley and Lucy James, Future's duet of the Future Games Show and the PC Gaming Show. Each show is two hours long.

They expect you to die! Interactive takes on MI6's globetrotting spy have been around almost as long as the films, but that doesn't mean all of them were a success. 'The enormity of the idea helped me': how Patrick Gibson became gaming's new James Bond Bond finally arrived in an official video game capacity in 1984, courtesy of Parker Brothers. The game grouped several 007 adventures (Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only) together. Yet despite including elements from each movie, it was essentially the same game throughout: an unsatisfying and tricky mashup of the arcade games Moon Patrol and Scramble, with the player controlling Bond's amphibious Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me. Obscure pub trivia fact: due to the dispute between Bond producers Eon and screenwriter Kevin McClory, the Diamonds Are Forever segment replaced Blofeld with a villain named Seraffino.