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.

The Oura Ring 5 is the smallest, most discreet and best smart ring available. The Oura Ring 5 is the smallest, most discreet and best smart ring available. Tue 30 Jun 2026 02.00 EDTLast modified on Tue 30 Jun 2026 02.02 EDT The Guardianâ s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Ouraâ s new Ring 5 is a massive upgrade for smart rings, dramatically shrinking in size and weight to bring them right into line with standard wedding bands and other jewellery.

'There's this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?': the philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate - and think through - the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference? In 2017, a 33-year-old political philosopher named Iason Gabriel was told by a friend that he ought to apply for a job at DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Google where much of its AI research was concentrated. The suggestion was not an obvious one. Gabriel was a cheerful but intense junior academic with a passion for Vipassana meditation and what his brother calls "enthusiastic" rock climbing. At the University of Oxford, where he was a fellow at St John's College, Gabriel taught courses on political theory and wrote papers on the moral contortions of "yuppie ethics" and the ethical blind spots of effective altruism. When he wasn't there, he did crisis work for the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan and Lebanon. DeepMind, meanwhile, was the world's leading AI research lab. In part, this was because it had the financial and computational backing of Google, which had bought the company in 2014 for $650m. In part, it was because DeepMind had recently shown it could put those resources to stunning use. In Seoul, in 2016, a DeepMind system called AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol, a South Korean Go champion, in a five-game match. The victory was significant not least because of Go's legendary complexity; the game has more possible configurations than there are atoms in the universe. Thanks to the fuss around AlphaGo, Gabriel was aware of DeepMind.

The Starship Technologies six-wheelers have been roaming the streets of the city for more than eight years. The Starship Technologies six-wheelers have been roaming the streets of the city for more than eight years. D riving down an endless string of identical roundabouts in the dead heat with hardly a human in sight, you see robots roving around on grassy pavements, whizzing past obstacles to hurriedly reach their final destination. The robots aren't a new arrival to the Buckinghamshire city, the UK's largest new town and a longtime marvel for city planning enthusiasts fascinated by its American-influenced layout and postwar history. They've roamed its streets since 2018 - and could soon be coming to a town or city near you.