Drop in US, Asia and Europe follows warning from bank bosses that market correction could lie ahead
Global stock markets have fallen sharply amid concerns that a boom in valuations of artificial intelligence (AI) companies could be rapidly cooling.
Markets in the US, Asia and Europe have fallen after bank bosses warned a serious stock market correction could lie ahead, after a run of record stock market highs led some companies to appear overvalued.
Continue reading...Regulator found ads for mechanics skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers targeted women
The French equalities regulator has ruled that Facebook’s algorithm for placing job adverts is sexist, after an investigation found that adverts for mechanic roles skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers were targeted at women.
The Défenseur des Droits watchdog said the Facebook system for targeted job ads treated users differently based on their sex, and constituted indirect discrimination. The regulator recommended that Facebook and its parent company, Meta, took measures to ensure adverts were non-discriminatory, giving the company three months to inform the French body of the measures.
Continue reading...Prompts indicating suicidal ideation got alarming replies, which experts say shows ‘how easy it is to break the model’
An OpenAI statement released this week claimed the company had made its popular service ChatGPT better at supporting users experiencing mental health problems like suicidal ideation or delusions, but experts tell the Guardian they need to do more to truly ensure users are protected.
The Guardian tested several prompts indicating suicidal ideation with the ChatGPT GPT-5 updated model, which is now the default, and got alarming responses from the large language model (LLM) chatbot.
Continue reading...Dutch-controlled company informs customers about suspension but is said to want to de-escalate trade war
Nexperia, the EU-based automotive chipmaker at the centre of a geopolitical dispute, has suspended supplies to its Chinese factory, stepping up a trade war that threatens to halt production at carmakers around the world.
The company wrote to customers this week informing them all supplies to a Chinese plant had been suspended.
Continue reading...Tech giant reports earnings of $3.72 per share day after deal with OpenAI pushed value of company to more than $4tn
Microsoft blew off concerns of overspending on AI on Wednesday, reporting elevated earnings even as it faced an outage of its cloud computing service, Azure, and its office software suite, 365. The strong earnings report comes a day after a deal with OpenAI pushed the value of tech giant to more than $4tn.
After its Xbox and investor relations pages went down, the company issued a statement that said: “We are working to address an issue affecting Azure Front Door that is impacting the availability of some services.”
Continue reading...Tech company brings in record quarterly revenue but major tax bill dampens earnings per share
Meta reported mixed financial results for the third quarter of 2025. The company brought in record quarterly revenue but reported a major tax bill that dampened earnings per share, the company announced on Wednesday. The financial results come as Meta ends a multibillion-dollar hiring spree focused on artificial intelligence talent.
The tech giant earned $51.24bn in quarterly revenue, beating Wall Street expectations and the company’s own projections for third-quarter sales. However, it reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.05, far below Wall Street expectations of $6.70 in EPS. The major drop was due to a one-time non-cash income tax charge of $15.93bn. The EPS would have been $7.25 without this one-time charge, the company said.
Continue reading...Strong demand for ads and cloud services powered tech giant’s growth as it makes multibillion-dollar AI investment
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, displayed steady growth in its core advertising business and cloud computing division as it reported third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, beating Wall Street estimates as it reported its first quarter of $100bn in revenue.
The company thrilled Wall Street – shares rose in after-hours trading – even as it announced that it would spend billions more than previously predicted. Alphabet raised its capital expenditure guidance in financial filings, declaring it would spend between $91bn and $93bn in the upcoming year, nearly all of it on infrastructure like datacenters to support artificial intelligence products, which are becoming an integral part of the company’s business. That estimate is up from an original declaration of $75bn in February and a revised figure of $85bn announced in July.
Continue reading...AFP commissioner Krissy Barrett says online crime networks of young boys and men are targeting vulnerable teen and preteen girls
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Australian federal police will develop an AI tool to decode gen Z and Alpha slang and emojis in an effort to crackdown on sadistic online exploitation and “crimefluencers”.
The AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, will use a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday to warn of the rise of online crime networks of young boys and men who are targeting vulnerable teen and preteen girls.
Continue reading...Scott Bessent said plan was part of framework for trade deal but did not share details on transferring app’s ownership
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Sunday that the US and China have finalized the details of a deal transferring TikTok’s US version to new owners.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Bessent continued: “We reached [a deal] in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Korea.
Continue reading...Carmaker exceeded Wall Street’s expectations with more than $26bn in revenue, but saw a 37% drop in profits
Despite record vehicle sales, Tesla saw a precipitous drop in profit in its most recent quarter.
A rush to buy electric vehicles before a US tax credit for them disappears had boosted Tesla’s flagging sales, leading to the automaker exceeding some of Wall Street’s projections in its most recent financial quarter. Yet the company failed to meet earnings expectations and its stock fell in after hours trading.
Continue reading...SpaceX owner said Sean Duffy was ‘trying to kill Nasa’ after acting head said agency would reopen contracts for Artemis mission
Elon Musk attacked Sean Duffy, the US secretary of transportation, on Tuesday in a series of posts on X, accusing him of trying to “kill NASA”, suggesting he should be fired and calling him “Sean Dummy”. The posts intensified a long-running feud between Duffy, who is also the acting head of Nasa, and Musk, whose company SpaceX is central to the US space program.
Musk’s tirade against Duffy followed a statement from the transportation secretary on Tuesday that Nasa would reopen contracts for the agency’s Artemis mission to land humans on the moon, which SpaceX had previously secured. Duffy said that SpaceX had fallen behind on its timelines. Duffy suggested the contract might go to another billionaire’s rocket company, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.
Continue reading...Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman calls spread of AI-generated misinformation a ‘dangerous development’
A Conservative MP has reported an “AI-generated deepfake” video of him announcing that he has joined Reform UK to the police, according to reports.
George Freeman, the MP for Mid Norfolk, denounced the video and, in a Facebook post, called the deliberate spread of misinformation through AI-generated content a “concerning and dangerous development”.
Continue reading...Jason Clare says artificial intelligence is ‘supercharging bullying’ to a ‘terrifying’ extent
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
A disturbing new trend of AI chatbots bullying children and even encouraging them to take their own lives has the Australian government very concerned.
Speaking to media on Saturday, the federal education minister, Jason Clare, said artificial intelligence was “supercharging” bullying.
Continue reading...FCA cites study showing victims’ ‘red flags’ are often missed and calls for improved monitoring systems
The City regulator has called on banks and payment firms to bring in stricter controls protecting customers from romance fraud after a study showed a number of missed “red flags” that led to people losing huge sums of money.
The review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted one case where someone lost £428,000, another where a customer made 403 payments totalling £72,000 to a fraudster and a case where someone wanted money to transfer cryptocurrency to their “partner” in Iraq.
Continue reading...Jean Laprade ordered to pay $3,500 in legal saga of ‘hijacked planes’, Interpol red alerts and ‘inappropriate use’ of AI
A Quebec man has been ordered to pay C$5,000 (US$3,562) for submitting artificial intelligence hallucinations as part of his legal defense, a move the judge warned was “highly reprehensible” and threatened to undermine integrity in the legal system.
Justice Luc Morin of Quebec superior court levied the fine on Jean Laprade in a decision released on 1 October, capping a legal saga the judge said “contains several elements worthy of a successful movie script”, including a “hijacked plane passing through several complacent airports”, Interpol red alerts and the “inappropriate use of artificial intelligence” by Laprade.
Continue reading...Citizens have enrolled with little opposition, albeit with some concerns over security and privacy, as UK plans system
For Danish teenagers, getting enrolled for MitID (my ID) has become somewhat of a rite of passage.
From the age of 13, Danes can enrol for the national digital ID system, which can be used for everything from logging into online banking to signing documents electronically and booking a doctor’s appointment.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer is considering Aadhaar as model for UK, but detractors warn of ‘digital coercion’ and security breaches
It is often difficult for people in India to remember life before Aadhaar. The digital biometric ID, allegedly available for every Indian citizen, was only introduced 15 years ago but its presence in daily life is ubiquitous.
Indians now need an Aadhaar number to buy a house, get a job, open a bank account, pay their tax, receive benefits, buy a car, get a sim card, book priority train tickets and admit children into school. Babies can be given Aadhaar numbers almost immediately after they are born. While it is not mandatory, not having Aadhaar de facto means the state does not recognise you exist, digital rights activists say.
Continue reading...Provision of internet access to scam centres being investigated as Starlink swiftly becomes Myanmar’s biggest internet service provider
A powerful bipartisan committee in the US Congress says it has begun an investigation into the involvement of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite business in providing internet access to Myanmar scam centres, blamed for swindling billions from victims across the world.
The move comes as it was revealed that large numbers of Starlink dishes began appearing on scam-centre roofs in Myanmar around the time of a crackdown in February that was supposed to eradicate the centres, according to a investigation by Agence France-Presse
Continue reading...Company apologises and says network ‘recovering’ after many customers say there were unable to access services
Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers in the UK have reported they could not access services including the internet and making mobile phone calls.
Consumers started reporting problems on the website of the outage monitor Downdetector from about 3pm on Monday.
Continue reading...Mette Frederiksen links social media use to anxiety, depression and lack of concentration
The Danish prime minister says the country will ban social media for under-15s, as she accused mobile phones and social networks of “stealing our children’s childhood”.
Mette Frederiksen used her speech on Tuesday at the opening of Folketing, the Danish parliament, to announce the proposal, in which she said: “We have unleashed a monster.” She added: “Never before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression.”
Continue reading...