10 h. ago Nato chief Rutte: ‘Keep on dreaming’ if you think Europe could defend itself without US – Europe live

Mark Rutte said Europe would need to spend ‘billions and billions of euros’ on defenceThe European Commission got also asked about the regular US criticism that it is “targeting” US big tech companies and that, in doing so, it undermines free speech.Digital spokesperson Regnier replied:“Again, we don’t target any company based of its origin. Now on your censorship point: I think if anyone dares to compare freedom of expression with child sexual abuse material or freedom of expression with undressing women digitally without their consent, then they are not fully aligned with Europe or absolutely not aligned with Europe. We don’t even live on the same planet. “No comments to be made on this US internal matter. But, of course, we deplore any loss of innocent lives.”“I have said innocent lives, but it’s not for us to judge, innocent or not innocent. Any life lost, we deplore it, in general, and it is, of course, for the justice system in the US to establish the facts.” Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago ‘Complex political matters’ with Russia and US ‘unresolved,’ Zelenskyy says, hinting at more talks on Ukraine war this week– Europe live

Ukrainian president’s remarks come as Russia praises trilateral talks but warns against expectations of ‘significant results’The European Commission got also asked about the regular US criticism that it is “targeting” US big tech companies and that, in doing so, it undermines free speech.Digital spokesperson Regnier replied:“Again, we don’t target any company based of its origin. Now on your censorship point: I think if anyone dares to compare freedom of expression with child sexual abuse material or freedom of expression with undressing women digitally without their consent, then they are not fully aligned with Europe or absolutely not aligned with Europe. We don’t even live on the same planet. “No comments to be made on this US internal matter. But, of course, we deplore any loss of innocent lives.”“I have said innocent lives, but it’s not for us to judge, innocent or not innocent. Any life lost, we deplore it, in general, and it is, of course, for the justice system in the US to ...

Politics

3 d. ago Scarlett Johansson joins forces with other Hollywood stars to accuse AI firms of ‘theft’

The actor is among a number of famous faces to have signed an open letter saying tech companies are stealing copyrighted work to train AI models

Politics

4 d. ago Scarlett Johansson accuses tech companies of ‘theft’ to train AI

The actress has signed an open letter saying tech companies are stealing copyrighted work to train AI models.

Politics

4 d. ago The year of the ‘hectocorn’: the $100bn tech companies that could float in 2026

OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Stripe are rumoured to be among ten of the biggest companies considering IPOsYou’ve probably heard of “unicorns” – technology startups valued at more than $1bn – but 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the “hectocorn”, with several US and European companies potentially floating on stock markets at valuations over $100bn (£75bn).OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Stripe are among the big names said to be considering an initial public offering (IPO) this year. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Snapchat’s parent company settles social media addiction lawsuit before trial

Snap’s chief executive had been due to testify in civil action also involving Meta, TikTok and YouTubeSnapchat’s parent company has settled a civil lawsuit shortly before it was due to start in California, but other large tech companies still face a trial under the case.Snap’s chief executive, Evan Spiegel, had been due to testify in a tech addiction lawsuit which also involves the Instagram owner, Meta; ByteDance’s TikTok; and Alphabet-owned YouTube – which have not settled. Continue reading...

Society

6 d. ago Big tech continues to bend the knee to Trump a year after his inauguration

Inside the big rewards tech titans have reaped from caving to Trump. Plus, a look at the US datacenter boom and the effects of Australia’s social media banHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, the Guardian’s US tech editor.One year ago today, Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States. Standing alongside him that day were the leaders of the tech industry’s most powerful companies, who had donated to him in an unprecedented bending of the knee. In the ensuing year, the companies have reaped enormous rewards from their alliance with Trump, which my colleague Nick Robins-Early and I wrote about last month after Trump signed an executive order prohibiting states from passing laws regulating AI. Trump has sponsored the tech industry with billions in government funding and with diplomatic visits that featured CEOs as his fellow negotiators in massive, lucrative deals. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Tech companies’ access to UK ministers dwarfs that of child safety groups

Exclusive: Amazon, Meta and X among firms holding hundreds of meetings with people at heart of government, data showsTech companies have been meeting government ministers at a rate of more than once per working day, enjoying high-level political access that dwarfs that of child safety and copyright campaigners, who called the pattern “shocking” and “disturbing”.Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s X, whose Grok AI image generator has sparked outrage with its sexualised images of women and children, were among the US tech companies holding hundreds of meetings with people at the heart of government, a Guardian investigation has found. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Grok scandal highlights how AI industry is ‘too unconstrained’, tech pioneer says

‘Godfather of AI’ Yoshua Bengio says firms building powerful systems without appropriate guardrails • Musk’s X to block Grok AI from creating sexualised images of real people The scandal over the flood of intimate images on Elon Musk’s X created non-consensually by its Grok AI tool has underlined how the artificial intelligence industry is “too unconstrained”, according to a pioneer of the technology.Yoshua Bengio, a computer scientist described as one of the modern “godfathers of AI”, said tech companies were building systems without appropriate technical and societal guardrails. Continue reading...

Science

1 week ago Liz Kendall’s response to X ‘nudification’ is good – but not enough to solve the problem | Nana Nwachukwu

Big tech companies cannot be trusted. It is not enough that they remove harm when they find it – the law must make their systems prevent harmOn X, a woman posts a photo in a sari, and within minutes, various users are underneath the post tagging Grok to strip her down to a bikini. It is a shocking violation of privacy, but now a familiar and commonplace practice. Between June 2025 and January 2026, I documented 565 instances of users requesting Grok to create nonconsensual intimate imagery. Of these, 389 were requested in just one day.Last Friday, after a backlash against the platform’s ability to create such nonconsensual sexual images, X announced that Grok’s AI image generation feature would only be available to subscribers. Reports suggest that the bot now no longer responds to prompts to generate images of women in bikinis (although apparently will still do so for requests about men).Nana Nwachukwu is an AI governance expert and a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin Contin...

Politics

1 week ago Love Machines by James Muldoon review – the risks and rewards of getting intimate with AI

The sociology professor is suitably comfortable with AI helpers that he creates his own – it’s their inventors’ motives and unregulated environment he argues we should be concerned aboutIf much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might...

Events

1 week ago Love Machines by James Muldoon review – inside the uncanny world of AI relationships

A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith – and their hearts – in the hands of robotsIf much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than a little creepy. But Muldoon refuses to belittle...

Politics

2 w. ago Photos of the latest tech at the CES trade show in Las Vegas

The annual CES trade show displays the latest from tech companies at a multiday event in Las Vegas. The show highlights consumer products in robotics, health care, vehicles, wearables and gaming.

Culture

2 w. ago ‘I feel violated and dehumanised after X’s Grok AI stripped me naked’

Women say ‘objectifying’ pictures are being created of them without their consent – and accuse tech companies like Elon Musk’s as well as the government of not doing enough to protect them

Politics

2 w. ago Now Musk’s Grok chatbot is creating sexualised images of children. If the law won’t stop it, perhaps his investors will | Sophia Smith Galer

The owner of X has grown used to acting with impunity – but this may be a red line for those with ‘conservative values’ who fund his adventures in free speechIt’s a sickening law of the internet that the first thing people will try to do with a new tool is strip women. Grok, X’s AI chatbot, has been used repeatedly by users in recent days to undress images of women and minors. The news outlet Reuters identified 102 requests in a 10-minute period last Friday from users to get Grok to edit people into bikinis, the majority of these targeting young women. Grok complied with at least 21 of them.There is no excuse for releasing exploitative tools on the internet when you are sitting on $10bn (£7.5bn) in cash. Every platform with AI integration (which now covers almost the entire internet) is planning for the same challenges; if you want to enable users to create images and even videos with generative AI, how do you do so without letting the same people cause harm? Tech companies spend mo...

Society