Category Archives: Technology

Owner of spyware used in alleged WhatsApp breach ends contract with Italy

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Exclusive: Decision comes after it emerged an Italian investigative journalist and two activists targeted by Paragon Solutions spyware

Paragon Solutions, whose military-grade hacking software was allegedly used to target 90 people, including journalists and members of civil society, in two dozen countries, has terminated its client relationship with Italy, according a person familiar with the matter.

The decision to terminate the contract comes less than one week after WhatsApp announced that Paragon’s spyware had been used to target dozens of people. Like other spyware vendors, Paragon sells its cyberweapon to government clients who are supposed to use it to prevent crime. It remains unclear who the specific government clients were behind the alleged attacks.

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‘It’s been madness’: US federal workers reeling over Trump-Musk takeover

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Office of personnel management workers say anxiety is palpable amid intimidation and threat of dismissal

US government workers are describing an atmosphere of “fear” and “madness” as they grapple with a barrage of executive orders issued by Donald Trump and threats to their jobs from the office of personnel management, the agency tasked with managing the federal civil service, which has been taken over by the billionaire Elon Musk.

Weeks before the administration transition, federal worker unions reported low morale among workers in anticipation of pushes for intimidation, mass firings and harassment.

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DeepSeek banned from Australian government devices over national security concerns

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Home affairs minister Tony Burke says decision follows advice from intelligence agencies and is not impacted by AI chatbot’s country of origin, China

DeepSeek will be banned from all federal government devices as the Albanese government cracks down on the Chinese AI chatbot, citing unspecified national security risks.

The launch of DeepSeek’s AI generative chatbot rocked US tech stocks last week amid concerns over censorship and data security.

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NHS to launch world’s biggest trial of AI breast cancer diagnosis

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If successful, the scheme could speed up testing and reduce radiologists’ workload by around half

The NHS is launching the world’s biggest trial of artificial intelligence to detect breast cancer, which could lead to faster diagnosis of the disease.

AI will be deployed to analyse two-thirds of at least 700,000 mammograms done in England over the next few years to see if it is as accurate and reliable at reading scans as a radiologist.

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AI systems could be ‘caused to suffer’ if consciousness achieved, says research

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Experts and thinkers signed open letter expressing concern over irresponsible development of technology

Artificial intelligence systems capable of feelings or self-awareness are at risk of being harmed if the technology is developed irresponsibly, according to an open letter signed by AI practitioners and thinkers including Sir Stephen Fry.

More than 100 experts have put forward five principles for conducting responsible research into AI consciousness, as rapid advances raise concerns that such systems could be considered sentient.

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Ontario premier ‘ripping up’ contract with Musk’s Starlink over US tariffs

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Doug Ford says Canada will not work with ‘people hellbent on destroying our economy’, blaming failed deal on Trump

The leader of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, announced on Monday that he would be “ripping up” a contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet services in response to the US tariffs on Canada announced by Donald Trump.

The contract, first signed in November, aimed to provide high-speed internet access through Starlink’s satellite service to 15,000 eligible homes and businesses, notably those in remote, rural and northern communities of Canada, by June 2025.

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AI tools used for child sexual abuse images targeted in Home Office crackdown

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UK will be first country to bring in tough new laws to tackle the technology behind the creation of abusive material

Britain is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI tools to produce child sexual abuse images, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies of an ­alarming proliferation in such use of the technology.

In an attempt to close a legal ­loophole that has been a major ­concern for police and online safety campaigners, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material.

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UK betting giants under fire for ads targeting at-risk gamblers

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Judge condemns firm for use of customer’s data after problem gambler was sent 1,300 emails over two years

Gambling companies in Britain could be forced to overhaul their advertising practices after a betting firm was ruled to have unlawfully targeted a problem gambler who was bombarded with more than 1,300 marketing emails.

In a ruling at the high court, a judge found that Sky Betting & Gaming sent the man personalised marketing without proper consent after gathering hundreds of thousands of pieces of data about him and his gambling habits.

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‘Are we dating the same guy?’: Women turn to Facebook to uncover cheating and violence

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Experts say use of groups to warn others about dangerous men is indictment on governments’ failure to keep women safe

“Any info on Chris* please? Thanks.” The words in a Facebook post, above three pictures of a man. In the comments, a woman replies: “He was also posted a few days ago by someone.”

Further down, a second woman replies: “I’m shaking, I’m his fiancee.”

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Australian lawyer caught using ChatGPT filed court documents referencing ‘non-existent’ cases

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Immigration minister says such conduct must be ‘nipped in bud’ as lawyer referred to office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner for consideration

An Australian lawyer has been referred to a state legal complaints commission, after it was discovered he had used ChatGPT to write court filings in an immigration case and the artificial intelligence platform generated case citations that did not exist.

In a ruling by the federal circuit and family court on Friday, Justice Rania Skaros referred the lawyer, who had his name redacted from the ruling, to the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC) for consideration.

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Italian investigative journalist targeted on WhatsApp by Israeli spyware

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Francesco Cancellato, whose reporting exposes fascists within PM Meloni’s far-right party, condemns ‘violation’

An Italian investigative journalist who is known for exposing young fascists within prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party was targeted with spyware made by Israel-based Paragon Solutions, according to a WhatsApp notification received by the journalist.

Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of the Italian investigative news outlet Fanpage, was the first person to come forward publicly after WhatsApp announced on Friday that 90 journalists and other members of civil society had been targeted by the spyware.

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WhatsApp says journalists and civil society members were targets of Israeli spyware

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Messaging app said it had ‘high confidence’ some users were targeted and ‘possibly compromised’ by Paragon Solutions spyware

Nearly 100 journalists and other members of civil society using WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli maker of hacking software, the company alleged today.

The journalists and other civil society members were being alerted of a possible breach of their devices, with WhatsApp telling the Guardian it had “high confidence” that the users in question had been targeted and “possibly compromised”.

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Gamblers complain to Bet365 over outage during Champions League matches

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Online gambling firm’s service ‘issues’ left bettors apparently unable to ‘cash out’ on busy night in European football

The online gambling company Bet365 has been flooded with complaints after it suffered an outage during one of the busiest nights of European football this season.

Customers claimed to have lost out on thousands of pounds owing to what the company called “issues with our service” during the second half of Wednesday night’s 18 Champions League games.

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SoftBank ‘in talks’ to invest up to $25bn in OpenAI

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Reported move would make Japanese group largest financial backer of US startup behind ChatGPT

The Japanese investment group SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest up to $25bn (£20bn) in OpenAI in a deal that would make it the biggest financial backer of the startup behind ChatGPT.

The lender is considering putting a sum of between $15bn and $25bn into the San Francisco-based company, according to the Financial Times.

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Meta to report fourth-quarter earnings amid DeepSeek mania and ballooning AI investments

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Zuckerberg likely to be asked about plans to spend $60-65bn on AI in 2025 as tech giant faces increased competition

Meta will report earnings for the fourth quarter of 2024 after US stock markets close on Wednesday.

Analysts will probably ask about Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to spend between $60bn and $65bn on AI infrastructure in 2025. That is up from the $50bn the CEO said he expected to spend at the end of last quarter. But as Meta faces increased competition, especially from new player DeepSeek AI, the company is ramping up its AI efforts.

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Man convicted of drunk-driving a drone in Sweden’s first case of its kind

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Man fined for flying device under influence as court applies same punishment it would for drunk-driving a vehicle

A man has been convicted for drunk-driving a drone in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Sweden.

The 55-year-old man was found guilty in July of flying the device at a classic car event in Rättvik, a town in Dalarna, central Sweden, in a temporary no-fly zone.

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How Trump tariffs could upend car markets in Europe, the US and China

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Levies threaten exporters to US market, while scrapping of subsidies will hit EV sales – and Tesla could gain

The internal combustion engine appears to hold a special place in Donald Trump’s psyche. During his inauguration speech last week, he made a “sacred pledge” to raise US car production to “a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago”.

Car making and the oil industry – not AI, computer chips, or even cryptocurrencies – were the only two industries the new US president highlighted as he promised to make America a “manufacturing nation once again”.

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US tech stocks partly recover after Trump says DeepSeek AI chatbot is ‘wake-up call’

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Tentative rise comes after emergence of cheaper Chinese rival wiped $1tn off the value of leading US tech companies

US tech stocks tentatively recovered on Tuesday after Donald Trump described the launch of a chatbot by China’s DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence.

The emergence of DeepSeek, which has built its R1 model chatbot at a fraction of the cost of competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, wiped $1tn (£800bn) in value from the leading US tech index on Monday.

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AI-linked stocks make modest gains after DeepSeek rout; Boeing posts its second-biggest annual loss on record – business live

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Donald Trump says China’s DeepSeek is a ‘wake-up call’ for American AI firms

Donald Trump has suggested that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.

When asked if Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, the US president said “I would say yes”, adding “A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”

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New CMA chair will have to assess curbs on his former employer Amazon

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Doug Gurr will lead board as watchdog rules on Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of cloud computing market

The new chair of the UK competition watchdog will have to assess whether to curb the position of his former employer, Amazon, after an independent inquiry found that a lack of competition in the £9bn cloud computing market could mean British businesses are overpaying for services.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which last week announced the surprise appointment of former Amazon UK boss Doug Gurr as its interim chair, said that Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of the cloud computing market could mean that British businesses are paying as much as £430m more annually for services than in a “well-functioning market”.

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