Technology

ChatGPT developing age-verification system to identify under-18 users after teen death
Posted on Wednesday September 17, 2025

Sam Altman said if there is doubt the system will default to the under-18 experience putting ‘safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens’OpenAI will restrict how ChatGPT responds to a user it suspects is under 18, unless that user passes the company’s age estimation technology or provides ID, after legal action from the family of a 16-year-old who killed himself in April after months of conversations with the chatbot.OpenAI was prioritising “safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens”, chief executive Sam Altman said in a blog post on Tuesday, stating “minors need significant protection”. Continue reading...

Temu’s UK operation doubles revenues and pre-tax profits
Posted on Wednesday September 17, 2025

Super-budget Chinese retailer reports revenues of $63.3m last year, almost double its $32m in 2023The UK operation of the Chinese online marketplace Temu doubled revenues and pre-tax profits last year, as British consumers snapped up products offered by the super-budget retailer.Temu UK reported revenues of $63.3m (£46.4m) last year, almost double the $32m in 2023, while pre-tax profits similarly surged from $2m to $3.9m, accounts show. Continue reading...

How memes, gaming and internet culture all relate to the Charlie Kirk shooting
Posted on Tuesday September 16, 2025

Kirk’s rise to fame was largely bolstered by being extremely online – and it seems the suspect has that in commonHello, and welcome to TechScape. Dara Kerr here, filling in for Blake Montgomery, who promises he’ll come back from vacation. Meanwhile, I’m looking at the memes, gaming and internet culture behind the shooting of Charlie Kirk.The bullet that killed conservative activist was inscribed with a message: “Notices bulge OwO whats this?” The online world quickly recognized the reference. It’s a phrase used in internet culture to troll people in online role-play communities, specifically furries (a subculture that cosplays as anthropomorphic animal characters).How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smartLarry Ellison: Oracle co-founder who overtook Musk as world’s richest personApple debuts thinner, $999 iPhone Air at ‘awe-dropping’ annual product eventHow to Save the Internet by Nick Clegg review – spinning Silicon ValleyThe women in love with AI companions: ‘I vowed to my chatbot that I wouldn’t leave him’ Continue reading...

Trump celebrates TikTok deal as Beijing suggests US app would use China’s algorithm
Posted on Wednesday September 17, 2025

Comments from Chinese official in Madrid have raised questions over who could control the algorithm that powers Tik Tok’s video feedDonald Trump has claimed his administration has reached a deal with China to keep TikTok operating in the US, amid uncertainty over what shape the final agreement will take, with suggestions from the Chinese side that Beijing would retain control of the algorithm that powers the site’s video feed.“We have a deal on TikTok ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said on Tuesday, without providing further details. Continue reading...

Google announces £5bn AI investment in UK before Trump visit
Posted on Tuesday September 16, 2025

Rachel Reeves says move is a ‘vote of confidence’ in British economy as she prepares to open firm’s first UK datacentreBusiness live – latest updatesGoogle has said it will invest £5bn in the UK in the next two years to help meet growing demand for artificial intelligence services, in a boost for the government.The investment, which comes as Google opens its new datacentre in Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, is expected to contribute to the creation of thousands of jobs, the US tech company said. Continue reading...

‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China
Posted on Tuesday September 16, 2025

In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI raceBy the time Song-Chun Zhu was six years old, he had encountered death more times than he could count. Or so it felt. This was the early 1970s, the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, and his father ran a village supply store in rural China. There was little to do beyond till the fields and study Mao Zedong at home, and so the shop became a refuge where people could rest, recharge and share tales. Zhu grew up in that shop, absorbing a lifetime’s worth of tragedies: a family friend lost in a car crash, a relative from an untreated illness, stories of suicide or starvation. “That was really tough,” Zhu recalled recently. “People were so poor.”The young Zhu became obsessed with what people left behind after they died. One day, he came across a book that contained his family genealogy. When he asked the bookkeeper why it included his ancestors’ dates of birth and death but nothing about their lives, the man told him matter of factly that they were peasants, so there was nothing worth recording. The answer terrified Zhu. He resolved that his fate would be different. Continue reading...

AI will make the rich unfathomably richer. Is this really what we want? | Dustin Guastella
Posted on Tuesday September 16, 2025

The ‘knowledge economy’ promised cultural and social growth. Instead, we got worsening inequality and division. Artificial intelligence will supercharge itRecently, Palantir – a tech corporation that boasts no fewer than five billionaire executives – announced its Q2 earnings: over a billion dollars generated in a single quarter. Forty-eight per cent growth in its business compared with the same quarter last year, including 93% growth in its US commercial business. These elephantine numbers are maddening – and, in large part, a result of the company fully embracing artificial intelligence (AI).The AI revolution is here and as its proponents remind us daily, it will remake our world, making every company and government agency more efficient and less error-prone while helping us unlock hitherto unheard of advances in science and technology. Not only this, but if we play our cards right, big tech’s latest explosion could yield unprecedented economic growth.Dustin Guastella is the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, and a research associate at the Center for Working-Class Politics Continue reading...

Will Bartolo and Rae Colquhoun-Fairweather: the 10 funniest things we have ever seen (on the internet)
Posted on Wednesday September 17, 2025

The clown duo share what makes them laugh, including pop divas, unhinged mobile game ads and Kermit unmaskedGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailWe are Rae and Will AKA raeandwill, a clown duo who specialise in mime – so asking us to write about the 10 funniest things we’ve seen on the internet is technically considered a hate crime. But if the endless scroll of other people plugging their clown shows has taught us anything, it’s that we have to maintain our digital facade or risk being unbooked and unblessed. And if there’s one thing the world desperately needs more of, it’s clown shows. (We aren’t joking.) So here we are.Will thinks the internet is a demonic, vacuous hole that is slowly stripping him of his humanity :( And Rae is convinced that the internet has made her stronger, hotter, funnier, and in no way damaged her brain :)Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...