In 1979, two M.I.T. computer-science alumni and a Harvard Business School graduate launched a new piece of computer software for the Apple II machine, an early home computer. Called VisiCalc, short for "visible calculator," it was a spreadsheet, with an unassuming interface of monochrome numerals and characters. But it was a dramatic upgrade from the paper-based charts traditionally used to project business revenue or manage a budget. VisiCalc could perform calculations and update figures across columns and rows in real time, based on formulas that the user programmed in. VisiCalc sold more than seven hundred thousand copies in its first six years, and almost single-handedly demonstrated the utility of the Apple II, which retailed for more than a thousand dollars at the time (the equivalent of more than five thousand dollars in 2023).

"The hand mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam mill society with the industrial capitalist," Karl Marx once said. We have seen over and over again throughout history how technological inventions determine the dominant mode of production and with it the type of political authority present in a society. So what will artificial intelligence give us? Who will capitalise on this new technology, which is not only becoming a dominant productive force in our societies (just like the hand mill and the steam mill once were) but, as we keep reading in the news, also appears to be "fast escaping our control"? Could AI take on a life of its own, like so many seem to believe it will, and single-handedly decide the course of our history? Or will it end up as yet another technological invention that serves a particular agenda and benefits a certain subset of humans?

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has warned that artificial intelligence could be used by "bad actors" and make it harder to spot scams and misinformation. Wozniak, who was one of Apple's co-founders with the late Steve Jobs and invented the company's first computer, said AI content should be clearly labelled, and called for regulation for the sector. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur was among more than 1,800 people who signed a letter in March, alongside the Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, to call for a six-month pause in the development of powerful AI systems, arguing that they posed profound risks to humanity. Some signatories to the letter were later revealed to be fake, and others backed out on their support. Wozniak, known in the tech world as Woz, talked about the benefits of AI and the dangers.

Eric Schmidt says the six-month moratorium on AI development supported by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and other tech leaders would "simply benefit China" and called instead for tighter regulation. The former Google CEO told the Australian Financial Review he was worried about the rapid development of AI and that "concerns could be understated." "I think ... things could be worse than people are saying," he said, noting that as large language models get bigger they have "emergent behaviour we don't understand." The use of generative AI has exploded in recent months with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Microsoft's AI-powered Bing, as well as image-generating platforms such as DALL-E and Midjourney. People have been using generative AI in both their personal and professional lives to write essays, think up recipes, summarize emails, publish articles, and craft résumés and cover letters.

Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans? That's the conclusion of a group of prominent computer scientists and other tech industry notables such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who are calling for a 6-month pause to consider the risks. Their petition published Wednesday is a response to San Francisco startup OpenAI's recent release of GPT-4, a more advanced successor to its widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT that helped spark a race among tech giants Microsoft and Google to unveil similar applications. The letter warns that AI systems with "human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity" -- from flooding the internet with disinformation and automating away jobs to more catastrophic future risks out of the realms of science fiction. It says "recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control."

Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans? That's the conclusion of a group of prominent computer scientists and other tech industry notables such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who are calling for a 6-month pause to consider the risks. Their petition published Wednesday is a response to San Francisco startup OpenAI's recent release of GPT-4, a more advanced successor to its widely-used AI chatbot ChatGPT that helped spark a race among tech giants Microsoft and Google to unveil similar applications. The letter warns that AI systems with "human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity" -- from flooding the internet with disinformation and automating away jobs to more catastrophic future risks out of the realms of science fiction. It says "recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control."

A fully-functional Apple 1 computer has gone up for sale – and could be yours if you have a spare $241,000 (£196,000) lying around. The'amazing' machine, which is hand-numbered by Apple founder Steve Jobs, comes with'all components and accessories required for operation'. Bidding currently stands at $241,557 and ends on December 15 – but auctioneers are anticipating a final selling price of $375,000 (£305,000). Launched in 1976, Apple 1, the tech giant's first ever product, was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard or monitor. The original Apple-1 board (pictured) is marked in the hand of Steve Jobs with stock number '01-00002' Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made the Apple-1 computer in 1976 and presented it at a computer club in Palo Alto, although there were few takers. Paul Terrell, owner of retail chain called The Byte Shop, placed an order for 50 Apple-1s and sold them for $666.66 (£420) retail - once Wozniak and Jobs agreed to assemble the circuit boards rather than offer them as kits.

In 2019, prominent IT figures lashed out against Apple receiving 10 times higher credit scores than their partners. In a series of Twitter posts David Heinemeier Hansson rallied against Apple, claiming that the program was sexist. Hanson, who is the creator of Ruby on Rails, filed the same financials as his wife, but apparently the algorithm thinks he deserved a 20-times higher credit limit than his wife. The Tweet sparked a series of replies, including one from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Wozniak explained that the same things had happened to him and his partner, and that is was "Hard to get to a human for a correction though".

'Apple Computer A', the prototype for the tech giant's first ever computer, is up for sale – and could sell for more than half a million dollars at auction. Considered'lost' until recently, the prototype was hand-soldered by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in 1976, the year the company was established. The'rare' and'historic' item is essentially a circuit board covered in chips and wires, embossed with the words'Apple Computer A 76'. It was a prototype for the Apple-1, the firm's first ever product, which was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard or monitor. The prototype is now being sold off by RR Auction, an auction house based in Boston.

A rare Apple 1, the first model computer ever built by Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, has sold for auction for $400,000. Known as the'Chaffey College' Apple 1 because it was first owned by a professor at Southern California's Chaffey College, the first-gen computer is encased in koa wood and comes with the original Apple 1 'NTI' motherboard, power regulators, and a blue Sprague 39D capacitor. With the sizable 25 percent buyer's fee, the unnamed winner ended up shelling out a total of $500,000. The 45-year-old computer had been predicted to fetch as much as $600,000 according to John Moran Auctioneers, the firm handling the sale. As part of the lot, the winner also received a 1986 Panasonic video monitor, a Xerox copy of the Apple-1 Basic manual, the operations guide and a MOS 6502 programming manual.