Technology

‘Nobody wants a robot to read them a story!’ The creatives and academics rejecting AI – at work and at home
Posted on Tuesday June 03, 2025

Is artificial intelligence coming for everyone’s jobs? Not if this lot have anything to do with itThe novelist Ewan Morrison was alarmed, though amused, to discover he had written a book called Nine Inches Pleases a Lady. Intrigued by the limits of generative artificial intelligence (AI), he had asked ChatGPT to give him the names of the 12 novels he had written. “I’ve only written nine,” he says. “Always eager to please, it decided to invent three.” The “nine inches” from the fake title it hallucinated was stolen from a filthy Robert Burns poem. “I just distrust these systems when it comes to truth,” says Morrison. He is yet to write Nine Inches – “or its sequel, Eighteen Inches”, he laughs. His actual latest book, For Emma, imagining AI brain-implant chips, is about the human costs of technology.Morrison keeps an eye on the machines, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and their capabilities, but he refuses to use them in his own life and work. He is one of a growing number of people who are actively resisting: people who are terrified of the power of generative AI and its potential for harm and don’t want to feed the beast; those who have just decided that it’s a bit rubbish, and more trouble than it’s worth; and those who simply prefer humans to robots. Continue reading...

MPs accuse Apple and Google of profiting from rise in phone thefts
Posted on Tuesday June 03, 2025

Firms defend security features after police tell committee 80,000 phones were stolen in London in 2024MPs have accused Apple and Google of profiting from multimillion-pound phone-snatching operations that police say are masterminded by organised crime gangs in Britain, Algeria and China.In 2024, 80,000 phone devices of all kinds were stolen in London alone, up a quarter from 64,000 in 2023. The devices had a street value of about £20m, and iPhones made up the majority. Continue reading...

Will AI wipe out the first rung of the career ladder?
Posted on Tuesday June 03, 2025

Generative AI is reshaping the job market, and it’s starting with entry-level rolesHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, I’m wondering what my first jobs in journalism would have been like had generative AI been around. In other news: Elon Musk leaves a trail of chaos, and influencers are selling the text they fed to AI to make art.New AI test can predict which men will benefit from prostate cancer drug‘One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT’: the workers who lost their jobs to AIUS lawyer sanctioned after being caught using ChatGPT for court brief Continue reading...

‘Humanity deserves better’: iPhone designer on new partnership with OpenAI
Posted on Monday June 02, 2025

Sir Jony Ive indicates unease over impact of modern technology amid tie-up with ChatGPT developerThe designer of the iPhone has promised his next artificial intelligence-enabled device will be driven by a sense that “humanity deserves better”, after admitting feeling “responsibility” for some of the negative consequences of modern technology.Sir Jony Ive said his new partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, would renew his optimism about technology, amid widespread concerns about the impact of smartphones and social media. Continue reading...

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to enable AI ad creation by end of next year
Posted on Monday June 02, 2025

Move sends shock waves through traditional media industry by posing threat to advertising agenciesBusiness live – latest updatesThe owner of Facebook and Instagram is to help advertisers to fully create and target campaigns using artificial intelligence tools by the end of next year, in a move that sent shock waves through the traditional marketing industry.Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which also owns WhatsApp, aims to directly target brands’ marketing budgets, posing a threat to the advertising and media agencies that handle client campaigns and budgets. Continue reading...

More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation, study finds
Posted on Saturday May 31, 2025

Guardian investigation reveals promotion of dubious advice, questionable supplements and quick-fix healing methodsWhat is the most common mental health misinformation on TikTok?More than half of all the top trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation, a Guardian investigation has found.People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation, including misused therapeutic language, “quick fix” solutions and false claims. Continue reading...

US lawyer sanctioned after being caught using ChatGPT for court brief
Posted on Saturday May 31, 2025

Richard Bednar apologized after Utah appeals court discovered false citations, including one nonexistent caseThe Utah court of appeals has sanctioned a lawyer after he was discovered to have used ChatGPT for a filing he made in which he referenced a nonexistent court case.Earlier this week, the Utah court of appeals made the decision to sanction Richard Bednar over claims that he filed a brief that included false citations. Continue reading...

Fraudsters use fake artists to juice royalties from streaming services – but real musicians are getting blamed. Might they be better off without Spotify et al?There is a battle gripping the music business today around the manipulation of streaming services – and innocent indie artists are the collateral damage.Fraudsters are flooding Spotify, Apple Music and the rest with AI-generated tracks, to try and hoover up the royalties generated by people listening to them. These tracks are cheap, quick and easy to make, with Deezer estimating in April that over 20,000 fully AI-created tracks – that’s 18% of new tracks – were being ingested into its platform daily, almost double the number in January. The fraudsters often then use bots, AI or humans to endlessly listen to these fake songs and generate revenue, while others are exploiting upload services to get fake songs put on real artists’ pages and siphon off royalties that way. Continue reading...