Category Archives: Technology

Welsh semiconductor factory ‘left in limbo’ as Westminster fails to approve US takeover

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Labour criticises government ‘dithering’, after Vishay deal last autumn to buy chip maker Newport Wafer Fab stalls, putting jobs at risk

Labour has criticised “dither and delay” from the government over a decision on a proposed takeover of the UK’s largest semiconductor facility by a US company, warning that it could lead to further job cuts at the Welsh factory.

The fate of Newport Wafer Fab in south Wales has been unclear for nearly two years since the UK government first indicated it had concerns over a 2021 takeover by the Chinese-owned Nexperia firm. The national security concerns related to the ownership of semiconductor technology by a company with links to China.

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George Carlin’s estate sues over AI-generated standup comedy special

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Estate says Dudesy podcast outlet had no license to Carlin’s likeness or copyrighted material, which was used to create special

The estate of George Carlin is suing the media company behind a fake, hour-long comedy special whose creators boasted of using artificial intelligence to re-create the late standup comic’s style and material.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday asks that a judge order the podcast outlet Dudesy to immediately take down the audio special, George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, in which a synthesis of Carlin delivers commentary on current events. Carlin died in 2008.

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Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox staff

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The tech giant acquired Activision Blizzard three months ago for $69bn

Microsoft is cutting around 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, per an internal memo from the head of the company’s gaming division.

The cuts represent around 9% of the overall Microsoft Gaming division, which employs roughly 22,000 people, with most of the layoffs set to happen at video game publisher Activision Blizzard. The president of the subsidiary, Mike Ybarra, is also leaving the company. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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Virgin Media is most complained about UK broadband provider

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Ofcom figures show Virgin attracted about 32 complaints per 100,000 customers compared with 18 for Now Broadband

Virgin Media is the UK’s most complained about broadband provider according to the latest figures, compounding woes for the firm, which is already under investigation by the communications regulator.

Figures released by Ofcom on Thursday showed that the number of complaints made about Virgin’s internet services between July and September were nearly double that of the next-most complained about provider, with Virgin attracting about 32 complaints per 100,000 customers compared with 18 for Now Broadband.

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Tesla delivers underwhelming earnings despite Cybertruck launch and high vehicle deliveries

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Electric vehicle manufacturer’s earnings in the fourth quarter of 2023 missed analyst expectations

Despite putting a new vehicle on the market, announcing another for 2025 and beating Wall Street’s expectations for vehicle deliveries, Tesla was not able to shake off its disappointing third quarter.

The electric vehicle manufacturer brought in $25.1bn in revenue and posted $.71 in earnings a share in the fourth quarter of 2023, missing analyst expectations of 25.76bn in revenue and $0.74 earnings a share. The company’s fourth quarter revenue increased 3% year over year from $24.3bn in 2022.

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Disinformation attacks targeted voters, media and LGBTQ+ groups, EU report finds

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Digital ‘warfare’ included manipulating voices and images of celebrities such as Margot Robbie and Nicolas Cage

Disinformation attacks in 2023 targeted European democracy but also media outlets and LGBTQ+ organisations, and involved the malicious manipulation of the images and voices of celebrities such as Margot Robbie and Nicolas Cage, an EU report has concluded.

The research, the EU’s second annual disinformation report, lifts the lid on digital weaponry deployed to undermine Ukraine, but also to spread fake news during elections in Poland and Spain.

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‘The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home

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Couple are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as ‘INDXcoin’, to Christian community in Denver, Colorado

A Colorado pastor who is charged with stealing more than $1m from his Christian community in a cryptocurrency scheme has admitted to the fraud but argued that God instructed him to carry it out.

Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as “INDXcoin”, to Christians based in their home town of Denver, Colorado, allegedly telling would-be investors that the Lord had told him people would become rich if they invested, the state’s division of securities announced in a press release on Thursday.

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Facial recognition used after Sunglass Hut robbery led to man’s wrongful jailing, says suit

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Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr’s lawsuit claims he was misidentified as culprit of armed robbery and put in jail, where he says he was raped

A 61-year-old man is suing Macy’s and the parent company of Sunglass Hut over the stores’ alleged use of a facial recognition system that misidentified him as the culprit behind an armed robbery and led to his wrongful arrest. While in jail, he was beaten and raped, according to his suit.

Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr was accused and arrested on charges of robbing a Houston-area Sunglass Hut of thousands of dollars of merchandise in January 2022, though his attorneys say he was living in California at the time of the robbery. He was arrested on 20 October 2023, according to his lawyers.

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OpenAI bans bot impersonating US presidential candidate Dean Phillips

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Company removes account of developer saying ChatGPT bot violated policies on political campaigning

OpenAI has removed the account of the developer behind an artificial intelligence-powered bot impersonating the US presidential candidate Dean Phillips, saying it violated company policy.

Phillips, who is challenging Joe Biden for the Democratic party candidacy, was impersonated by a ChatGPT-powered bot on the dean.bot site.

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Flanders government looks to force TikTok and YouTube to share revenue

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Belgium already takes a cut from Netflix and Disney and new income will support local TV production

Cute cat videos, fried chicken clips and viral dances could soon help to finance Belgian TV, with the Flanders government on the verge of passing laws to force TikTok and YouTube to share revenues with local television producers.

“Politically speaking, it is important in audiovisual and media services that there are obligations on companies to invest in local TV content,” the media minister for the Flemish government, Benjamin Dalle, told the Guardian.

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Big tech boom or bust? Experts see signs of strength after wave of layoffs

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Even as more job cuts await, some analysts see the beginnings of a bull market in the coming season of earnings reports

Will 2024 be a boom or a bust for big tech? By one estimate, there have been more than 7,500 layoffs in the sector since the start of the year – a dispersal of pink slips that many hoped would have ceased after the deep job cuts of 2023.

However, as the US’s big tech earnings season gets under way this week, some analysts are predicting strong numbers. This batch of quarterly financial results may show that the industry has cleared out its pandemic-era overhiring and reorganised itself around cloud computing and AI - necessitating cuts in sectors with less rosy prospects. Analysts keen on AI say we are at the start of a tech bull market.

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Sheryl Sandberg to leave board of Facebook parent Meta

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Former chief operating officer was lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model

Sheryl Sandberg is to step down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, nearly two years after quitting her executive role at the business.

Sandberg was the lead architect of Facebook’s digital advertising-driven business model as Meta’s chief operating officer.

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Australia may ask tech companies to label content generated by AI platforms such as ChatGPT

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New report reveals low public trust of growing technology as government pledges stricter regulation for ‘high risk’ products

Tech companies could be asked to watermark or label content generated by artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT as the federal government grapples with “high risk” AI products evolving faster than legislation.

The industry and science minister, Ed Husic, will on Wednesday release the government’s response to a consultation process on Safe and responsible AI in Australia, which cites McKinsey research to suggest adopting AI and automation could grow Australia’s GDP by up to $600bn a year.

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Geopolitical tensions and AI dominate start of World Economic Forum

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Ukraine, Middle East and Taiwan overshadow annual meeting at Davos, with artificial intelligence also high on agenda

Growing concern that heightened geopolitical tension could damage an already shaky global economy has dominated the start of the annual gathering of the world’s business and political elite in Davos, Switzerland.

Three potential flash points – Ukraine, the Middle East and Taiwan – threatened to overshadow the meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) aimed at rebuilding trust after the series of setbacks suffered in the past four years, including war, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis.

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British Library begins restoring digital services after cyber-attack

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UK’s national library apologises to researchers, saying full recovery could take until end of the year

The British Library is restoring online its main catalogue, containing 36m records of printed and rare books, maps, journals and music scores, 11 weeks after a catastrophic cyber-attack.

However, access is limited to a “read-only” format, and full restoration of services provided by the UK’s national library could take until the end of the year.

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AI will affect 40% of jobs and probably worsen inequality, says IMF head

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‘Crucial’ that countries build social safety nets to mitigate impact on workers, says Kristalina Georgieva

Artificial intelligence will affect 40% of jobs around the world and it is “crucial” that countries build social safety nets to mitigate the impact on vulnerable workers, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund.

AI, the term for computer systems that can perform tasks usually associated with human levels of intelligence, is poised to profoundly change the global economy with advanced economies at greater risk of disruption.

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Tiny proportion of e-scooter injuries appear in official UK data

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Study warns that lack of reporting may mask the dangers of still-mostly-illegal scooters on roads and pavements

The majority of e-scooter accidents that involve someone needing hospital treatment are not being recorded in official road accident figures, a new study reveals, sparking fears that their dangers have been underplayed.

The analysis found that just 9% of injuries involving e-scooters and recorded by 20 emergency departments over a two-month period were found in official figures. And just over a quarter of the most serious injuries were recorded in road casualty data.

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Leading tech journalist quits Substack over platform’s Nazi newsletters

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Reporter Casey Newton takes more than 170,000 subscribers elsewhere over company’s failure to police extremist content

Platformer, a prominent tech newsletter founded by the veteran reporter Casey Newton, is leaving Substack over the company’s failure to police extremist content.

In a post explaining the decision, Newton said his team had identified seven Substack publications “that conveyed explicit support for 1930s German Nazis and called for violence against Jews, among other groups”. He said after weeks of back-and-forth discussions with company leaders about their “laissez-faire approach to content moderation”, he decided to part ways with the platform.

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Tesla pauses German production after Red Sea shipping attacks

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Delays in delivery of parts result in suspension of manufacturing at factory near Berlin for two weeks

The electric car manufacturer Tesla is to halt most production at its factory near Berlin for two weeks because of delays in deliveries of parts because of attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Shipping delays in the Red Sea, caused by attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants, has caused Tesla to suspend most production at its German factory from 29 January to 11 February.

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Update law on computer evidence to avoid Horizon repeat, ministers urged

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Critics say assumption in English and Welsh law that computers are ‘reliable’ reverses usual burden of proof in criminal cases

Ministers need to “immediately” update the law to acknowledge that computers are fallible or risk a repeat of the Horizon scandal, legal experts say.

In English and Welsh law, computers are assumed to be “reliable” unless proven otherwise. But critics of this approach say this reverses the burden of proof normally applied in criminal cases.

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