Phil Hoad / The Guardian: An inside look at how Netflix's use of data led to generic “algorithm films” intended for broad appeal, with AI set to further entrench the production style — When the streaming giant began making films guided by data that aimed to please a vast audience, the results were often generic, forgettable, artless affairs.
Gaby Hinsliff / The Guardian: An interview with Nick Clegg about Zuckerberg's “masculine energy”, Silicon Valley's “cloying conformity” and “combination of machismo and self-pity”, and more — When Britain's former deputy PM took a job at Meta, nothing could have prepared him for the ‘cloying conformity’ of the tech world.
The Guardian: Investigation: Israel's Unit 8200 built a system to collect millions of mobile phone calls made daily in Gaza and the West Bank using Microsoft's Azure platform — Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians' phone calls on Microsoft's servers in Europe
The Guardian: After Elon Musk unveiled the America Party, a new US political party, President Trump called Musk a “TRAIN WRECK” fueled by discontent over EV subsidies ending — US president railed against his former adviser online after tech billionaire said he will start and bankroll America party
Johana Bhuiyan / The Guardian: A report finds Google undercounted its carbon emissions, which rose 65% from 2019 to 2024, not 51% as claimed; biggest yearly jump was 26% between 2023 and 2024 — Research says Google's carbon emissions went up by 65% between 2019-2024, not 51% as the tech giant had claimed
Mark Sweney / The Guardian: Sky, ITV, and Channel 4 plan to provide streaming ad space in one marketplace, letting advertisers run campaigns simultaneously, to combat Google and Meta — The TV streamers are pooling their advertising services to make it easier for small companies to run campaigns
Michael Goodier / The Guardian: A survey of UK academic integrity violations finds nearly 7,000 proven AI cheating cases in 2023-24, or 5.1 per 1,000 students, up from 1.6 per 1,000 in 2022-23 — Guardian investigation finds almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating - and experts says these are tip of the iceberg
Michael Savage / The Guardian: WPP Media expects ad revenue from user-generated content and platforms like YouTube and TikTok to surpass that from traditional media for the first time in 2025 — User-generated material to surpass advertising income from professional media amid change in viewing habits
Katharine Viner / The Guardian: The Guardian partners with Cambridge University to launch Secure Messaging in its app, protecting sources by making messages indistinguishable from other data — Today, the Guardian, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, launches Secure Messaging, a world-first from a media organisation
The Guardian: An analysis of the top 100 trending TikTok videos under #mentalhealthtips finds 52 contain misinformation, including misused language and quick-fix methods — Guardian investigation reveals promotion of dubious advice, questionable supplements and quick-fix healing methods
Amy Hawkins / The Guardian: Study: users in China's Henan province were on average denied access to 5x more websites than a typical Chinese internet user between Nov. 2023 and March 2025 — Tens of millions of internet users in China's Henan denied access to five times more websites than usual
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: Ofcom outlines 40+ child safety measures for websites and apps to introduce from July 2025 or face large fines under the Online Safety Act, including age checks — Companies will be legally required to block children's access to harmful content under UK's Online Safety Act or face large fines
The Guardian: Q&A with Reid Hoffman on making people AI-curious through his new book, Superagency, writing with AI, why AI “gloomers” are wrong, tech's DEI rollback, and more — The co-founder of LinkedIn and Democrat donor remains confident that AI can be good for all of us - if its introduction is handled in the right way
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: The UK NCSC urges large entities, including energy and transport providers, to introduce “post-quantum cryptography” by 2035 to protect against quantum hackers — Organisations including energy and transport firms told to guard systems against powerful new computers
Nick Robins-Early / The Guardian: How Elon Musk targeted 18F, as former employees say the GSA group focused on increasing bureaucratic efficiency through tech, similar to what DOGE claims to do — Rightwing campaign propelled by tech billionaire accuses General Services Administration's 18F of being a far-left cell
Geoffrey Bunting / The Guardian: The Xbox Kinect, released in 2010 and discontinued in 2017, has found applications beyond gaming, including in interactive art, pornography, and ghost hunting — Fifteen years since Microsoft's motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use it
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: OpenAI says Sora is now available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland — ‘Sora would not exist without its training data,’ said peer Beeban Kidron, citing ‘another level of urgency’ to debate — The artificial intelligence …
Justin McCurry / The Guardian: The FBI says North Korea was responsible for the $1.5B Bybit Hack, referring to this particular form of North Korean malicious cyber activity as “TraderTraitor” — The US agency said it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as ‘TraderTraitor’
David Barnett / The Guardian: An interview with Nadia Odunayo on building Goodreads alternative StoryGraph, remaining bootstrapped, reaching 3.8M active users, not allowing DMs, and more — Software engineer and developer Nadia Odunayo created the social media readers' platform StoryGraph and its popularity has rocketed
Katie McQue / The Guardian: A US man pleads guilty to a cyberstalking campaign against a professor, including by creating chatbots on Crushon.ai and JanitorAI using her personal info — James Florence, 36, agreed to plead guilty after using victim's information to guide chatbots in impersonation
The Guardian: An investigation reveals how the Israeli military's reliance on Microsoft's cloud and AI systems surged during the most intensive phase of the Israel-Hamas war — Leaked documents shed light on how Israel integrated the US tech giant into its war effort to meet growing demand for cloud and AI tools
Michael Savage / The Guardian: UK's tech secretary says its Online Safety Act is “not up for negotiation,” after Zuckerberg vowed to work with Trump to pressure countries “censoring” content — Senior cabinet minister promises not to dilute new measures despite Zuckerberg's attacks on countries ‘censoring’ content
Gabrielle Canon / The Guardian: A look at the rise of Watch Duty, a wildfire alert app that is active in 14 US states and has gained up to 7.2M active users in three years since its launch — Watch Duty - which began in California and has expanded across 14 states - alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires in 2024
Robert Booth / The Guardian: The UK ICO criticizes Google's plans to no longer prohibit companies using its ad products from employing fingerprinting techniques from 16 February 2025 — ICO says allowing advertisers to track digital ‘fingerprints’ will undermine consumers' control over information
Andrew Lawrence / The Guardian: Sports stars promoting crypto coins and exchanges with little knowledge highlight the lack of mechanisms for consumers to distinguish opportunities from scams — Sports stars are rushing to promote coins and exchanges. But they are stepping into a world of which they often have scant knowledge
Raphael Boyd / The Guardian: Similarweb: X's US DAUs dropped by 8.4% from 32.3M to 29.6M between early October 2024 and December 3, while Bluesky's US DAUs rose 1,064% from 254,500 to ~2.7M — Musk's platform has lost 2.7 million active US users in two months, while its rival has gained 2.5 million
The Guardian: An analysis of US FEC data: Trump received $273.2M in donations from tech executives and VCs, including $242.6M from Elon Musk, while Harris received $120.9M — FEC filings offer only a glimpse of the money tech is pouring into Washington as it seeks to influence government
Caroline Kimeu / The Guardian: The number of stillbirths and neonatal deaths at a clinic in Malawi has fallen by 82% after starting an AI-supported program for regular fetal observation — The only hospital in the country using foetal safety software has seen baby fatalities drop by 82% in three years
The Guardian: How Elon Musk could influence UK politics, amid a clash between his ultra-free speech vision of X and Labour's mission to clamp down on online hate speech — The billionaire, having helped Trump regain the White House, is reportedly turning his interest to Britain — Elon Musk appears to have many obsessions.
Ella Creamer / The Guardian: Writers and publishers criticize Spines, which raised a $16M seed round and charges authors $1,200 to $5,000 to use AI to edit and distribute their books — Publisher Spines will charge authors between $1,200 and $5,000 to have their books proofread, designed and distributed with the help of artificial intelligence
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: Ofcom: 22.9M UK adults visited Reddit in May 2024, up 47% YoY, making it the fifth biggest social media platform in the UK, above X's 22.1M and LinkedIn's 18.3M — Discussion platform takes fifth place in rankings and is the fastest growing large social media platform in the UK
Ben Quinn / The Guardian: FOIA docs show Palantir has been in talks with the UK's Ministry of Justice about using its tech to calculate the “reoffending risks” of prisoners — Exclusive: Rights group expresses concerns as it emerges US spy tech company has been lobbying UK ministers
Rob Davies / The Guardian: A profile of Denise Coates, the UK's richest woman, who founded online gambling company Bet365, which had £3B+ in 2023 revenue, as she focuses on a US expansion — She is the mastermind behind Bet365, the company that made it possible to gamble online any hour of the day or night.
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: Google says the UK risks being “left behind” in the AI race without more data centers and should relax laws barring AI models being trained on copyrighted works — Exclusive: Tech company wants Labour to relax laws that prevent AI models being ‘trained’ on copyrighted materials
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: Ofcom: internet replaced TV as UK's most popular news source; 71% of adults get news online, vs. 70% via TV; 52% use social media for news, up from 47% in 2023 — Media regulator describes change as a ‘generational shift in the balance of news media’ — Online platforms have overtaken TV channels …
Jack Apollo George / The Guardian: A writer on working for a tech company, writing pretend responses to hypothetical chatbot questions, to help train AI models and teach chatbots how to write — Journalists and other writers are employed to improve the quality of chatbot replies. The irony of working for an industry …
The Guardian: Venezuelan journalists are using AI avatars to host daily newscasts without putting themselves at risk, as President Nicolás Maduro cracks down on the media — Journalists are using artificial intelligence avatars to combat Maduro's media crackdown since disputed election
Zofeen T Ebrahim / The Guardian: WISPAP says Pakistan's internet speeds have dropped 30%-40% over the past few weeks; many in tech believe the government is testing an internet firewall — Government denies new cybersecurity measures responsible for up to 40% drop in internet speeds across the country
Edward Helmore / The Guardian: Dating apps are struggling as users seek organic ways to meet; Match Group reported a decline in the total number of paying users for seven straight quarters — Online dating industry in crisis as shares fall and nearly half of all users report negative experiences on the apps
The Guardian: Keir Starmer confirms UK's Online Safety Act will be reviewed after London mayor Sadiq Khan said the law was “not fit for purpose” after far-right riots — Move comes after London mayor Sadiq Khan said role of misinformation in unrest showed law was unfit for purpose
Jillian Ambrose / The Guardian: Irish government data: data centers in Ireland used 21% of its electricity in 2023, up 20% YoY, more than the 18% of electricity used by all urban homes — Statistics raise concerns that rise in demand for data processing driven by AI could derail climate targets
Tory Shepherd / The Guardian: A look at Apate, a conversational bot developed by Macquarie University's Cyber Security Hub in Australia to keep scam callers on the line while collecting data — New scambaiting AI technology Apate aims to keep scammers on the line while collecting data that could help disrupt their business model
Josh Taylor / The Guardian: Australia waters down draft rules to force tech companies to detect child abuse and terror content on E2EE messaging services, after pushback from Apple, others — Tech companies providing end-to-end encryption, including Apple, pushed for the changes, warning of mass government surveillance
Keza MacDonald / The Guardian: Indie games were the real stars of the Summer Game Fest 2024; the top 10 bestselling games of 2024 so far on Steam in terms of units sold are almost all indie — In this week's newsletter: While the blockbuster end of the games industry is in the doldrums, independent developers are leading a creative resurgence
Renee DiResta / The Guardian: How a rightwing smear campaign against NPR and its CEO Katherine Maher, who is on Signal Foundation's board, led Elon Musk to malign Signal — Rightwing media personalities on X transmuted a screed against NPR's CEO into a fight over encryption via the Transitive Property of Bad People
The Guardian: How China is using AI news anchors to spread its propaganda on social media; Microsoft: some AI anchors were created using ByteDance's video editing app CapCut — News avatars are proliferating on social media and experts say they will spread as the technology becomes more accessible
Caroline Haskins / The Guardian: The Palantir-sponsored AI Expo for National Competitiveness featured VR headsets for soldiers, a map tool that can “nominate targets of interest”, and more — America's military industrial complex took center stage at AI Expo for National Competitiveness, where a fire-breathing panel set the tone
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: As part of its Model Spec release, OpenAI says it is considering letting developers and users “responsibly” create “NSFW content in age-appropriate contexts” — Critics say ChatGPT creator's proposal to allow erotica, slurs and other adult content undermines its mission statement
Agence France-Presse: Ukraine unveils an AI-generated foreign ministry spokesperson called Victoria Shi, who will make official statements “written and verified by real people” — Victoria Shi is modelled on Rosalie Nombre, a singer and former contestant on Ukraine's version of the reality show The Bachelor
Lisa O'Carroll / The Guardian: Germany says it found evidence that Russian state-backed hacker Fancy Bear was behind a cyberattack in 2023 that took down several German government websites — Investigation finds hacker group linked to Russian intelligence responsible for attacks targeting politicians and defence sector