14 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

59 h. ago Patricia Clarkson: ‘When women make equal pay, everybody wins’

The Oscar-nominated actor talks about her new role playing equal pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter and why the Trump administration should be carefulPatricia Clarkson, who portrays late equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter in a biopic released this week, has a wish.The Oscar-nominated actor hopes her fellow American women collectively withhold sex from their partners – especially men in power – if the second Trump administration’s assault on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives ever takes aim at the gains won by the subject of her new film. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Male bias in medical trials risks women’s lives. But at least the data gap is finally being addressed | Caroline Criado Perez

We know some medications work differently in men and women. Why is it taking so long for studies to reflect this?The first step, they say, is admitting you have a problem, and on that front the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has made some much-needed progress. The agency, which is responsible for approving all clinical trials in the UK, has identified a “notable imbalance” in trials conducted between 2019 and 2023: there were nearly twice as many all-male trials as all-female trials.This imbalance is hardly surprising: as I documented in Invisible Women, my book on the female data gap, the failure to adequately represent women in clinical trials is a longstanding and global problem. The MHRA’s figures are also in line with a recent US analysis that found male-prevalent diseases receive nearly twice as much funding as female-prevalent diseases, both absolutely and relative to disease burden. So far, so disappointingly standard.Caroline Criado Perez is...

Events

3 d. ago Champion League ambush: Donald Trump called Sir Keir Starmer late at night to discuss sorting a trade deal... while PM's beloved Arsenal was playing

In Downing Street on Wednesday night, not for the first time, Keir Starmer had Europe on his mind.

Sport

4 d. ago ‘Cruel and heartless:’ Parents of murder victim slam Kristi Noem after DHS secretary cites their daughter in speech

Grieving Illinois couple tell Trump administration official her use of their late daughter for political ends ‘not just deeply painful to us – it is an insult to her memory’

Events

4 d. ago Ellen DeGeneres shows off her new look and shares a glimpse into farm life as she gardens and feeds chickens after moving to the English countryside

The former talk show host, 67, moved to the UK with her wife Portia de Rossi following Donald Trump's presidential win late last year in November.

Politics

6 d. ago Jon Stewart on Trump ignoring the constitution: ‘It’s not optional’

Late-night hosts discuss the president’s unusual take on his oath of office and blaming Biden for economy’s ‘bad parts’ Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to defending the constitution and blaming Joe Biden for his hits on the economy. Continue reading...

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 World's biggest hedge fund boss warns it's 'too late' to fix Trump's tariff damage

A hedge fund manager, who previously joined a chorus of analysts correctly warning about the 2008 great recession, is speaking out again.

Events

1 week ago Jimmy Kimmel on grade for Trump’s first 100 days: ‘Somewhere between F and U’

Late-night hosts discuss Trump’s chaotic first 100 days in office, his low approval ratings and Canada’s election resultsLate-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump reaching 100 days in office and the results of the Canadian election. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago BBC Breakfast's Carol Kirkwood admits 'I shouldn't really say this' live on air

BBC Breakfast weather presenter Carol Kirkwood made an unexpected admission on the show on Wednesday morning leaving her co-stars in shock

Society

1 week ago Canada’s Liberal party secures election victory after reversal of fortune for Mark Carney

Party written off months ago secures fourth term in stunning comeback after Donald Trump’s threats boosted campaignResults trackerJoy for Liberals: follow the election results liveCanada’s Liberal party has won a fourth term, capping a miraculous political resurrection for the party – and marking a landmark victory for former central banker and political novice Mark Carney as he prepares to face off against US president Donald Trump.Late on Monday, the Liberals had won or were leading in enough seats to prevent any other party from forming government, according to the national broadcaster CBC. As results from Canada’s Atlantic provinces and vote-rich Quebec and Ontario came in late on Monday, supporters at the Liberals’ election night party erupted in cheers. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Canada’s liberal party, led by Mark Carney, secures election victory after dramatic reversal of fortune

Party written off months ago secures fourth term in stunning comeback after Donald Trump’s threats boosted campaignResults trackerJoy for Liberals: follow the election results liveCanada’s Liberal party has won a fourth term, capping a miraculous political resurrection for the party – and marking a landmark victory for former central banker and political novice Mark Carney as he prepares to face off against US president Donald Trump.Late on Monday, the Liberals had won or were leading in enough seats to prevent any other party from forming government, according to the national broadcaster CBC. As results from Canada’s Atlantic provinces and vote-rich Quebec and Ontario came in late on Monday, supporters at the Liberals’ election night party erupted in cheers. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Trump's astonishing late night phone call to political reporters as they prepped 100 day post

Trump was being courted by two political reporters at The Atlantic around the same time his senior appointees unintentionally added the magazine's editor-in-chief to a high-stakes Signal chat.

Politics

2 w. 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 Did ‘Vatican diplomacy’ change Trump’s mind on Ukraine? I’m sceptical for three reasons | Orysia Lutsevych

Zelenskyy, Starmer, Macron they all had his ear at Pope Francis’s funeral. But he is just as easily swayed by the elevator doormanThe most recent diplomatic effort to find a way to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took place at the most unlikely of events: the funeral of Pope Francis. The image of Presidents Zelenskyy and Trump leaning toward each other, under Carlo Maratta’s late-17th-century painting, The Baptism of Christ, rekindled hopes that the US might, at last, hear Kyiv out. Would this unexpected setting make Trump’s compassion, so frequently expressed for the loss of human life, real? And could it lead to a better strategy for ending this criminal and brutal war?The goal of Kyiv and the coalition of the willing – a group of 31 nations that back Ukraine in its fight against Russia – is to distance Trump from what has become a dangerous rapprochement between the Washington and Moscow. But this will be an uphill battle – Europe and Kyiv are trying to fight their way to Trump...

Politics

2 w. ago Pope Francis' 'final miracle' is hailed as Trump and Zelensky meet in the Vatican and US president turns AGAINST Putin for 'stringing him along' over peace plan

Zelensky and Trump had a short talk ahead of the late Catholic leader's funeral, marking their first encounter since their disastrous White House clash. The outcome has been hailed a 'miracle'

Politics

2 w. ago Donald Trump and Melania pay respects to Pope Francis at late Pontiff’s funeral

Donald Trump and his wife Melania paid their respects to Pope Francis at the late Pontiff’s funeral on Saturday (26 April).

Politics

2 w. ago Kimmel on Trump’s White House flagpoles: ‘The kind of decision you make when you can’t get an erection’

Late-night hosts discuss Donald Trump’s plans to install two 100-ft flagpoles at the White House, and Elon Musk stepping back from Doge to focus on TeslaWith many late-night hosts still on holiday, Jimmy Kimmel looks at Donald Trump’s new White House flagpole obsession and Elon Musk’s Tesla woes. Continue reading...

Politics