10 h. ago Will the AI bubble burst in 2026? Experts reveal the red flags

Concerns of a bubble come as big technology firms continue to have sky high valuations and are becoming an increasingly large part of the global market.

Science

36 h. ago When the AI bubble bursts, humans will finally have their chance to take back control | Rafael Behr

The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. The inevitable correction must prompt a global conversation about intelligent machines, regulation and riskIf AI did not change your life in 2025, next year it will. That is one of few forecasts that can be made with confidence in unpredictable times. This is not an invitation to believe the hype about what the technology can do today, or may one day achieve. The hype doesn’t need your credence. It is puffed up enough on Silicon Valley finance to distort the global economy and fuel geopolitical rivalries, shaping your world regardless of whether the most fanciful claims about AI capability are ever realised.ChatGPT was launched just over three years ago and became the fastest-growing consumer app in history. Now it has about 800m weekly users. Its parent company, OpenAI, is valued at about $500bn. Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, has negotiated an intricate and, to some eyes, suspiciously opaque network of deals with other players in the sector...

Politics

4 d. ago Pat Cummins primed to pop the corks after bursting England’s fragile bubble | Geoff Lemon

Australia’s captain marvel, the ultimate flat-wicket operator, stormed into this third Ashes Test like he had never been awayOn a redundancy scale, attending the Adelaide Test and noting that Pat Cummins was good is in the realm of noting that the Torrens was wet or the cathedral was spiky. Still, on day four, any one of those obvious things might justifiably have caught an observer’s eye. Perhaps it’s more notable just how natural, how inevitable, it felt that Cummins was indeed bowling at his best in his first match back after a nascent stress fracture cost him the first two Tests of this Ashes series and any match preparation before that.England observers will spend four years until their team’s next visit pondering explanations for this year’s poor showing, inevitably including much examination of the lack of chances for their bowlers to adjust to Australian conditions. Cummins spent five months in the gym and the nets without once seeing the middle of a ground, latterly powerin...

Politics

7 d. ago Amber Davies breaks down in tears over ‘saying goodbye’ to Strictly

‘The Strictly bubble is bursting,’ said Davies

Politics

7 d. ago Amber Davies breaks down in tears as she admits Strictly ‘bubble has burst’

Amber Davies became emotional as she admitted that the “Strictly bubble has burst” as she reflected on her time on the show.

Politics

7 d. ago Putin thinks democracy is the west’s weakness. We have to prove him wrong | Rafael Behr

The Russian strategy of exporting chaos to provoke extremism only works if liberals succumb to cynicism and despair I once spent an exasperating week showing a Russian friend around London. He insisted on seeing everything and admiring nothing. Museums, monuments, shops – all compared unfavourably with St Petersburg and Moscow. This got tiresome after a few days, so I asked my friend if there was anything at all about Britain that impressed him. “The stability,” he said without hesitation. “You can feel the stability.”That was a different world; the late 1990s. I don’t remember the year, but I remember knowing what my friend was talking about because I had felt the same culture shock in reverse when first visiting Russia.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago This is Europe's secret weapon against Trump: it could burst his AI bubble | Johnny Ryan

Growth in the US economy – and the president’s political survival – rest on AI. The EU must use its leverage and stand up to him The unthinkable has happened. The US is Europe’s adversary. The stark, profound betrayal contained in the Trump administration’s national security strategy should stop any further denial and dithering in Europe’s capitals. Cultivating “resistance Europe’s current trajectory in European nations” is now Washington’s stated policy.But contained within this calamity is the gift of clarity. Europe will fight or it will perish. The good news is that Europe holds strong cards.Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Amber Davies breaks down in tears and says 'the Strictly bubble has burst' in emotional admission

Strictly Come Dancing star Amber Davies broke down in tears and said she doesn't 'want it to be over' in a final admission.

Events

7 d. ago Amber Davies breaks down in tears as she admits ‘the Strictly bubble has burst’ after sick trolling

AMBER Davies broke down in tears as she revealed her sadness about Strictly Come Dancing coming to an end. The last-minute recruit replaced injured Dani Dyer when she was forced to withdraw hours before the live show. Her professional dance partner Nikita Kuzmin held out tissues to 29-year-old Amber who said she "can't stop crying"...

Politics

2 w. ago All of the suspected drug boat killings are murders | Kenneth Roth

There is no rule of law if the president can deem anyone an enemy combatant and order them summarily shotThe largely supine Republicans in Congress had no apparent trouble as Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of suspected drug runners off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. But suddenly they are up in arms because the Washington Post reported on 28 November about one incident, a double-tap strike, in which the US military finished off two survivors of an attack.Tempted as I am to accept whatever it takes to spark some minimal scrutiny of these summary executions, I hope this unexpected opening prompts broader investigation of this entire series of murders, which have now claimed 87 victims in 22 attacks. As Democrats join in, there are some indications that this expanded scrutiny may be finally beginning.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and Internatio...

Events

2 w. ago A braver Tory leader than Badenoch would dare to call out Farage's bogus patriotism | Rafael Behr

Across western democracies, established conservatives are yielding to radical nationalism. There’s no sign that Britain will be the exceptionIn free societies, when you don’t like the government, you support the opposition. In dictatorships, or under military occupation, you join the resistance. The distinction isn’t precise but it matters.All European democracies have radical anti-immigration parties, some on the fringes of opposition, some that have crossed into the mainstream. None qualify as heroic resistance movements, except in the minds of white supremacists who see liberal institutions as part of a conspiracy to ruin Europe by filling it with foreigners. That is also the view taken in the new White House national security strategy, published last week.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Champions League: Koundé double boosts Barcelona, Greenwood lifts Marseille

Bayern beat Sporting to move level with Arsenal at topAtlético come from behind to burst PSV’s bubbleJules Koundé’s two quickfire headers helped Barcelona to fight back and edge past Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 in the Champions League at Camp Nou on Tuesday, marking a much-needed win for the Catalan side.After a draw against Club Brugge and a defeat by Chelsea, Barcelona found their stride to climb to 14th in the standings, level on 10 points with several teams, as they aim for a top-eight finish to secure direct qualification for the last 16. Frankfurt are 30th with four points from six matches. Continue reading...

Sport

2 w. ago Trump has declared civilisational war on Europe. It won’t be easy – but here’s how to fight back | Paul Taylor

With democratic values under attack from populists within and former allies without, there are no simple solutionsThree decades after political philosopher Francis Fukuyama declared the End of History and the “universalisation of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”, the democratic model is under attack in many parts of the world, not least here in Europe. Populists bent on weakening the rule of law, rolling back human rights protections, subjugating the judiciary and cowing independent journalism are amplified by anything-goes social media algorithms that promote anger and polarisation over rational discourse.They have now received a mandate from the Trump administration, which effectively declared civilisational war on the EU and its values in its National Security Strategy.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Fear of facing the future has British politics stuck in the past | Rafael Behr

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves claim to be dealing with the world as it is, but their choices betray yearning for a world that has disappearedHollywood has stopped betting on original ideas. Sequels and remakes dominate the box office. Among this year’s Christmas movie releases are Zootropolis 2 (the first Zootropolis came out in 2016), Avatar: Fire and Ash (third in a series that began in 2009), and Wicked: For Good (part two of the adaptation of a musical that premiered in 2003).New stories are risky. It is safer to retell old ones. British politics feels similarly afflicted by paralysis of the imagination, intimidated by change, stuck in a narrative loop.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Crank Celtic pressure up on Nancy after trampling all over Kilmarnock – my plan to give Hearts title bid a real blast

Record Sport columnist Ryan Stevenson knows the critics reckon the Jambos bubble is burst but knows that could change with two wins

Events

3 w. ago Bank of England set to introduce biggest rule change since 2008 financial crash

Central bank eases capital rules on lenders just as it warns of risk of “sharp correction” in US tech stocks amid fears it could be a bubble that will burst

Events

3 w. ago The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be

Will the bubble ravage the economy when it bursts? What will it leave of value once it pops?The California Gold Rush left an outsized imprint on America. Some 300,000 people flocked there from 1848 to 1955, from as far away as the Ottoman Empire. Prospectors massacred Indigenous people to take the gold from their lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And they boosted the economies of nearby states and faraway countries from whence they bought their supplies.Gold provided the motivation for California – a former Mexican territory then controlled by the US military – to become a state with laws of its own. And yet, few “49ers” as prospectors were known, struck it rich. It was the merchants selling prospectors food and shovels who made the money. One, a Bavarian immigrant named Levi Strauss who sold denim overalls to the gold bugs passing through San Francisco, may be the most remembered figure of his day. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Burst in AI bubble could blow £26bn hole in Rachel Reeve's hopes of balancing the books

It was the first time the Office for Budget Responsibility has outlined how public finances could be affected if the rally in tech stocks sparked by the boom in artificial intelligence crashes.

Economics

4 w. ago Rachel Reeves has many problems. She’s realising that her Brexit bind may be the biggest of all | Rafael Behr

Brutal economic realities are prompting a shift in Labour’s tone on Europe. But will it dare tell the whole truth about Britain’s predicament? Rachel Reeves has approached this week’s budget like a reluctant swimmer inching into freezing water, trying to ease the unpleasantness by incremental exposure. The chancellor started paddling delicately around the problem of insufficient revenue at the end of the summer. First, she refused to stand by former insistence that tax rises in last year’s budget would be the last. “The world has changed,” she said.Then, earlier this month, she took a bigger stride into the icy waves. There was a speech promising to “do what is necessary” to fund public services and keep borrowing costs down. Downing Street did not discourage speculation that this meant reneging on Labour’s 2024 manifesto promise not to raise income tax. Too deep! Within 10 days the Treasury had retracted the hint. The manifesto commitment still stood after all. As any cold-water sw...

Politics