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Technology | The Guardian
What International AI Safety report says on jobs, climate, cyberwar and more

Wide-ranging investigation says impact on work likely to be profound, but opinion on risk of human extinction varies

The International AI Safety report is a wide-ranging document that acknowledges an array of challenges posed by a technology that is advancing at dizzying speed.

The document, commissioned after the 2023 global AI safety summit, covers numerous threats from deepfakes to aiding cyberattacks and the use of biological weapons, as well as the impact on jobs and the environment.
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Technology | The Guardian
Chinese firms ‘distilling’ US AI models to create rival products, warns OpenAI

ChatGPT maker cites IP protection concerns amid reports DeepSeek used its model to create rival chatbot

* Business live – latest updates

OpenAI has warned that Chinese startups are “constantly” using its technology to develop competing products, amid reports that DeepSeek used the ChatGPT maker’s AI models to create a rival chatbot.

OpenAI and its partner Microsoft – which has invested $13bn in the San Francisco-based AI developer – have been investigating whether proprietary technology had been obtained in an unauthorised manner through a technique known as “distillation”.
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Technology | The Guardian
DeepSeek advances could heighten safety risk, says ‘godfather’ of AI

Yoshua Bengio says competition in field could mean danger, as international panel points to AI’s malicious potential

* Key points of the International AI Safety report says

The potential for artificial intelligence systems to be used for malicious acts is increasing, according to a landmark report by AI experts, with the study’s lead author warning that DeepSeek and other disruptors could heighten the safety risk.

Yoshua Bengio, regarded as one of the godfathers of modern AI, said advances by the Chinese startup DeepSeek could be a worrying development in a field that has been dominated by the US in recent years.
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Technology | The Guardian
Rise and shine with the seven best sunrise alarm clocks, tried and tested

Our reviewer sheds some light on adding brightness to your mornings with the best dawn simulation alarms, from Lumie and Philips to Hatch

• The best sleep aids recommended by experts: from blue light-blockers to apps to help you nap

To wake each day in darkness is a plight you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, yet that’s what many of us do routinely throughout winter. Getting up in the dark decouples our life from our circadian rhythm (our body clock), with bodily processes such as cognition and metabolism put to work before they’re fully prepped.

Thank heavens, then, for sunrise alarm clocks. These “dawn simulation” devices glow with gradually intensifying brightness as your wake-up time approaches, kickstarting your circadian rhythm before you get out of bed. For many users, this results in a happier, healthier start to the day.

Best overall sunrise alarm clock:
Lumie Bodyclock Spark 100
£76.23 at John Lewis

Best sunrise alarm clock for late-night reading:
Philips SmartSleep
£157.99 at Philips

Best sunrise alarm clock for a gentle awakening:
Lumie Sunrise Alarm
£36.80 at Amazon

Best sunrise alarm clock for couples:
Beurer Wake-Up Light WL50
£79.99 at Amazon

Best value sunrise alarm clock:
Momcozy Sunrise Echo
£54.99 at Boots
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Technology | The Guardian
‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley

The industry’s liberal reputation is misleading. Its reactionary tendencies – celebrating wealth, power and traditional masculinity – have been clear since the dotcom mania of the 1990s

An influential Silicon Valley publication runs a cover story lamenting the “pussification” of tech. A major tech CEO lambasts a Black civil rights leader’s calls for diversifying the tech workforce. Technologists rage against the “PC police”.

No, this isn’t Silicon Valley in the age of Maga. It’s the tech industry of the 1990s, when observers first raised concerns about the rightwing bend of Silicon Valley and the potential for “technofascism”. Despite the industry’s (often undeserved) reputation for liberalism, its reactionary foundations were baked in almost from the beginning. As Silicon Valley enters a second Trump administration, the gendered roots of its original reactionary movement offer insight into today’s rightward turn.
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Technology | The Guardian
Threat of cyber-attacks on Whitehall ‘is severe and advancing quickly’, NAO says

Audit watchdog finds 58 critical IT systems assessed in 2024 had ‘significant gaps in cyber-resilience’

The threat of potentially devastating cyber-attacks against UK government departments is “severe and advancing quickly”, with dozens of critical IT systems vulnerable to an expected regular pattern of significant strikes, ministers have been warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that 58 critical government IT systems independently assessed in 2024 had “significant gaps in cyber-resilience”, and the government did not know how vulnerable at least 228 ageing and outdated “legacy” IT systems were to cyber-attack. The NAO did not name the systems for fear of helping attackers choose targets.
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Technology | The Guardian
All in the mind? The surprising truth about brain rot

Is screen use really sapping our ability to focus and lowering our IQs? The scientists who have actually analysed the data give their verdict

Andrew Przybylski, a professor of human behaviour and technology at Oxford University, is a busy man. It’s only midday and already he has attended meetings on “Skype, Teams, in person and now FaceTime audio”. He appears to be switching seamlessly between these platforms, showing no signs of mental impairment. “The erosion of my brain is a function of time and small children,” he says. “I do not believe there’s a force in technology that is more deleterious than the beauty of life.”

Przybylski should know: he studies technology’s effects on cognition and wellbeing. And yet a steady stream of books, podcasts, articles and studies would have you think that digital life is lobotomising us all to the extent that, in December, Oxford University Press announced that its word of the year was “brain rot” (technically two words, but we won’t quibble) – a metaphor for trivial or unchallenging online material and the effect of scrolling through it. All this has sown widespread fears that the online world that we – and our children – have little choice but to inhabit is altering the structures of our brains, sapping our ability to focus or remember things, and lowering our IQs. Which is a disaster because another thing that can significantly impair cognitive function is worry.
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Technology | The Guardian
Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek censors itself in realtime, users report

Depending on version downloaded, app approaches its answers with preamble of reasoning that it then erases

* We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan

Users experimenting with DeepSeek have seen the Chinese AI chatbot reply and then censor itself in real time, providing an arresting insight into its control of information and opinion.

Users might expect censorship to happen behind closed doors, before any information is shared. But that does not seem to be the case in the tool that sent US technology stocks tumbling on Monday. DeepSeek, or the automated guardrails that appear to police its own freedom of “thought” and “speech”, brazenly deletes uncomfortable points.
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Technology | The Guardian
The best window vacs for clearing condensation: seven expert picks for streak-free shine

Ditch the squeegee and upgrade to crystal-clear results with our tried-and-tested cordless window vacuums, from Kärcher to Tower

• The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust free

They may sound similar but window vacuums aren’t like regular vacuum cleaners – you can’t wave one across your windows and watch the dirt leap in. That’s because window vacs don’t combat dust, but instead suck up water.

These handy gadgets lift excess moisture off windows and collect it in their water tanks. This makes them particularly useful in places prone to condensation and to help combat damp problems, such as black mould and rotting woodwork. They can also suck up the water after you’ve washed your windows or remove moisture from the shower and mirrors in a busy family bathroom.

Best overall window vacuum:
Kärcher WV2
£54.99 at Amazon

Best budget window vacuum:
Tower TWV10
£31.49 at Amazon

Best window vacuum for smaller living spaces:
Kärcher WV1
£39.99 at Kärcher
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Technology | The Guardian
Experts urge caution over use of Chinese AI DeepSeek

Oxford professor advises against putting private data on platform in case it could be shared with Chinese state

Experts have urged caution over rapidly embracing the Chinese artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek, citing concerns about it spreading misinformation and how the Chinese state might exploit users’ data.

The new low-cost AI wiped $1tn off the leading US tech stock index this week and it rapidly became the most downloaded free app in the UK and the US. Donald Trump called it a “wake-up call” for tech firms.
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Technology | The Guardian
How do you solve a problem like DeepSeek?

The US was widely considered the leader in AI, but a Chinese startup has called that dominance into question

Hello, and welcome back to TechScape. There was a lot of news last week. To run it down in an expedient fashion:

• Donald Trump, Sam Altman, Masayoshi Son and Larry Ellison announced a $500bn initiative to expand infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence dubbed Stargate. On its heels came a press release from Meta vowing to expand its capital expenditure to $65bn in the coming year to expand its data centers.
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Technology | The Guardian
Scans for the memories: why old games magazines are a vital source of cultural history – and nostalgia

As the Video Game History Foundation opens a new digitised archive, what can titles like Crash, Mega, Edge and GamesMaster tell us about the early days of gaming?

Before the internet, if you were an avid gamer then you were very likely to be an avid reader of games magazines. From the early 1980s, the likes of Crash, Mega, PC Gamer and the Official PlayStation Magazine were your connection with the industry, providing news, reviews and interviews as well as lively letters pages that fostered a sense of community. Very rarely, however, did anyone keep hold of their magazine collections. Lacking the cultural gravitas of music or movie publications, they were mostly thrown away. While working at Future Publishing as a games journalist in the 1990s, I watched many times as hundreds of old issues of SuperPlay, Edge and GamesMaster were tipped into skips for pulping. I feel queasy just thinking about it.

Because now, of course, I and thousands of other video game veterans have realised these magazines are a vital historical resource as well as a source of nostalgic joy. Surviving copies of classic mags are selling at a vast premium on eBay, and while the Internet Archive does contain patchy collections of scanned magazines, it is vulnerable to legal challenges from copyright holders.
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Technology | The Guardian
Trump says China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot is a ‘wake-up call’

Emergence of cheaper Chinese rival has wiped $1tn off the value of leading US tech companies

* What is DeepSeek and why did US tech stocks fall?
* Business live – latest updates

Donald Trump has said that the launch of a chatbot by China’s DeepSeek is a “wake-up call” for US tech firms 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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Technology | The Guardian
Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, Trump claims

US president says he would like to see a bidding war over app, owned by China’s ByteDance, that has been focus of national security concerns

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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Technology | The Guardian
Meta’s content moderation changes ‘hugely concerning’, says Molly Rose Foundation

Charity set up after 14-year-old’s death concerned as Zuckerberg realigns company with Trump administration

Mark Zuckerberg’s move to change Meta’s content moderation policies risks pushing social media platforms back to the days before the teenager Molly Russell took her own life after viewing thousands of Instagram posts about suicide and self-harm, campaigners have claimed.

The Molly Rose Foundation, set up after the 14-year-old’s death in November 2017, is now calling on the UK regulator, Ofcom, to “urgently strengthen” its approach to the platforms. Earlier this month, Meta announced changes to the way it vets content on platforms used by billions of people as Zuckerberg realigned the company with the Trump administration.
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Technology | The Guardian
How ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek deal with Tiananmen Square and Taiwan questions – video

The new Chinese AI that rivals US big tech at a fraction of the cost has seen its popularity soar. However, despite its appeal to international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government

*
We tried out DeepSeek. It works well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan

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Technology | The Guardian
‘No, I’m not phoning to say I’m dying!’ My gruelling week of calling gen Z friends rather than texting them

Phone calls can be inconvenient, stressful or actively unpleasant – especially if you’re part of my generation. At 27, can I survive seven days without texts or group chats? And will I still have a social life at the end?

In the listless early weeks of January – my resolutions for self-improvement already gone to the dogs – I was asked to conduct an experiment that those in my life who are over 40 deemed “lovely”, and everyone else regarded with unbridled horror: I was asked to spend a week picking up the phone and calling people rather than texting.

What a cakewalk, you say. Not quite, say those aged 18 to 34 – 61% of whom prefer a text to a call, and 23% of whom never bother answering, according to a Uswitch survey last year. Such is the pervasiveness of phone call anxiety that a college in Nottingham recently launched coaching sessions for teenagers with “telephobia”, and a 2024 survey of 2,000 UK office workers found that more than 40% of them had avoided answering a work call in the previous 12 months because of anxiety.
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Technology | The Guardian
Global tech shares fall as China AI chatbot DeepSeek spooks investors

Chinese startup’s $6m product raises doubts about sustainability of western artificial intelligence boom

Investors punished global tech stocks on Monday after the emergence of a Chinese chatbot competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, DeepSeek, raised doubts about the sustainability of the US artificial intelligence boom.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index in New York opened lower after investors digested the implications of the latest AI model developed by the startup DeepSeek.
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Technology | The Guardian
‘TikTok could malfunction’: app’s future in limbo as it remains off US app stores

Apple and Google cautious about Trump order amid rumours Oracle founder Larry Ellison could buy site

* People in the US: share your experience of using TikTok
* Business live – latest updates

TikTok is back in the US – but Apple and Google are not sure if it should be.

The short video app has yet to appear on the tech companies’ app stores, reflecting an unease about the White House executive order that has given TikTok the confidence to resume operations after temporarily shuttering the service on 18 January. Apple and Google do not appear to agree.
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Technology | The Guardian
A wholesome escape from the housing crisis: the Facebook group dedicated to retro Australian homes

I’m obsessed with the fantasy of fixing up a midcentury house – and furious at the people who’ve painted them white

* See more from our column Internet wormhole, where writers share their favourite corner of the internet

There is one thing that unites the members of my favourite Facebook group: a shared hatred for white paint.

In the comments, people moan about mid-century homes being visited by “the white fairy”. Some discuss whether it’s possible to undo the horrors previous owners have wrought. One shares the link to a home for sale, noting the “incredible vandalism” of a whitewash renovation. “I got three photos in and had to stop,” one of 80 incensed replies reads.
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