6 h. ago For Silicon Valley, AI isn’t just about replacing some jobs. It’s about replacing all of them | Ed Newton

AI will do the thinking, robots will do the doing. What place do humans have in this arrangement – and do tech CEOs care?I recently found myself at a dinner in an upstairs room at a restaurant in San Francisco hosted by a venture capital firm. The after-dinner speaker was a tech veteran who, having sold his AI company for hundreds of millions of dollars, has now turned his hand to investing. He had a simple message for the assembled startup founders: the money you can make in AI isn’t limited to the paltry market sizes of previous technology waves. You can replace the world’s workers – which means you can capture their salaries. All of them.Replacing all human labour with AI sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But it is the explicit aim of a growing number of the tech elite – and these are people who lack neither drive nor resources, who have deep pockets and even deeper determination. If they say they want to automate all labour, we should take them at their word.Ed Newton-Re...

Politics

6 d. ago British takeaway! Deliveroo agrees to £2.9bn deal from US rival DoorDash

The Silicon Valley-based group, the largest food delivery platform in the US, said it would pay 180 pence per share in cash for Deliveroo.

Economics

9 d. ago Tech oligarchs are gambling our future on a fantasy | Adam Becker

Musk and Bezos are the heirs to a quasi-religious belief in tech salvation. The rest of us are stuck in the real worldIt’s tempting to believe that tech billionaires’ embrace of Donald Trump and the far right is a sudden rupture with the usual political ideology of Silicon Valley. Op-eds in the New York Times and elsewhere have made this case. Even Marc Andreessen, one of the billionaires in question, claims that this is what happened – he said that it was a change in the Democratic arty that pushed him and his fellow oligarchs into the arms of the GOP.Yet this is a serious misunderstanding of the situation. There wasn’t a sudden shift in the politics of tech – it was a homecoming. While it’s true that Silicon Valley has long supported Democratic candidates for political office – and that rank-and-file tech workers still vote overwhelmingly for Democrats – the fundamental ideology underpinning the culture of Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists and CEOs has always had a far-right li...

Politics

1 week ago Charlotte Edwards will bring winning mentality to England team – Lauren Bell

Former England captain Edwards was appointed in the top job last month to replace Jon Lewis after the painful 16-0 defeat to Australia in the Ashes.

Events

1 week ago Pep Guardiola's promise to Man City as international giants agree mega contract

Pep Guardiola has long been linked with Brazil as part of his one remaining goal in management - but the Man City boss looks like he'll have to replace Carlo Ancelotti if he wants the job

Politics

1 week ago Maga’s sinister obsession with IQ is leading us towards an inhuman future | Quinn Slobodian

A coalition fixated on intelligence is staking the US economy on AI – which will devalue the very skills the right fetishisesOne thing that Donald Trump and his Silicon Valley partners share is an obsession with IQ. Being a “low-IQ individual” is a standard insult in the president’s repertoire, and being “high-IQ” is an equally standard form of praise for those on the tech right. Yet in the drive for US supremacy in artificial intelligence – signalled by the $500bn (£375bn) Stargate project announcement in the White House and an executive order to integrate AI into public education, beginning in kindergarten – there is a hidden irony. If their vision for our economic future is realised, IQ in the sense that they value will lose its meaning.IQ testing arose at a time when the US and other industrialised nations were worried about the health of their populations. Recruitment campaigns for the Boer war in the UK, and then the first world war elsewhere, showed male populations that were...

Events

2 w. ago People are only just realising Liverpool manager's real name ISN'T Arne Slot

The Dutchman has done a sterling job in his first season at the helm at Anfield since replacing Jurgen Klopp last summer, taking the Reds to the brink of another Premier League title.

Society

2 w. ago Real Madrid told Jurgen Klopp would REJECT job as Carlo Ancelotti replacement identified

Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been identified as a potential successor to Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid but an ex-Reds star is not convinced that he will make the move to Spain

Politics

3 w. ago This Morning bosses' ‘worries’ over Cat Deeley silenced as she makes one ‘clever’ change

Cat Deeley was given the job of replacing Holly Willoughby as the host of This Morning, but the ITV show's bosses were initially worried that she was "too perfect" for the role

Politics

3 w. ago It’s not too late to stop Trump and the Silicon Valley broligarchy from controlling our lives, but we must act now | Carole Cadwalladr

In her final piece for the Observer, Carole Cadwalladr reveals what happened when she returned last week to give the opening speech at technology conference Ted, where she gave her first – life-changing – talk six years agoTo walk into the lion’s den once might be considered foolhardy. To do so again after being mauled by the lion? It’s what ill-advised? Reckless? Suicidal? Six years ago I gave a talk at Ted, the world’s leading technology and ideas conference. It led to a gruelling lawsuit and a series of consequences that reverberate through my life to this day.And last week I returned. To give another talk that would incorporate some of my experience: a Ted Talk about being sued for giving a Ted Talk, and how the lessons I’d learned from surviving all that were a model for surviving “broligarchy” – a concept I first wrote about in the Observer in July last year: the alignment of Silicon Valley and autocracy, and a kind of power the world has never seen before. The key point I wan...

Politics

3 w. ago Google ‘wilfully’ monopolised online advertising market, US judge rules

Decision by federal court heightens the risks that Silicon Valley behemoth will need to sell assets

Events

3 w. ago Ange Postecoglou given 'one game' to save Tottenham job as Jamie Carragher names left field replacement

The former Celtic boss is facing a trophyless season once again if they lost to Eintrach Frankfurt on Thursday

Politics

3 w. ago Nvidia to take $5.5bn hit as US clamps down on China AI chip exports

Trump administration requires Silicon Valley chipmaker to obtain special license to sell H20 product

Events

3 w. ago Hackers insert Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s voices into crosswalk signals

AI-generated prank messages played at various locations across Silicon Valley

Technology