Behind the scenes of a corporate acquisition that changed social media for ever

There was a time, just three or four years ago, when you could follow the news closely and not hear about Elon Musk for days – or even weeks. He was well on his way to becoming the world’s richest man, and was already a polarising figure, but he was a missable one. Those days are long gone.

Musk is now locked in a fierce public battle with the government and judicial system of Brazil, in the name of free speech, after he refused a court order to block several accounts that were accused of spreading hate speech and disinformation. He is a key figure in the US election race, having been lined up for a job finding savings in government spending should Donald Trump – who he has endorsed – win the presidency. Thanks to his Starlink satellites, he is a critical figure in the balance of power between Russia and Ukraine.

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The Microsoft founder’s look at the challenges of AI might lack depth, but he does discover some chilling truths – including very odd conspiracy theories about himself

“In 2022 AI woke up.”

“We are building something – wisely or not – way smarter than us”.

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Artist and musician Neil Harbisson claims to be the world’s first cyborg in this engaging, amusing and sometimes preposterous documentary

The subject of Carey Born’s film is amusing, engaging and more than a little preposterous. It is about the talented artist and musician Neil Harbisson , who has colour blindness and has had an antenna fitted into the back of his skull – invented by cyborg tech specialist Adam Montandon – which loops over his head and bobs about in front of his face roughly at eye level, converting colour into sounds so that he can “hear” these colours inside his head.

Born’s film takes with absolute seriousness his claim that he is a “cyborg” at the forefront of a new transhuman age, although most of the people shown interviewing him end up having the same facial expression: intrigued, amused, politely sceptical. The one person who is actually shown putting him to any sort of test is Richard Madeley, in a 2004 episode of the Richard and Judy Show ; Madeley presents him with an apple painted blue and asks him to divine what colour it is, by putting his microphone close to the object, and listening to the resulting note. Harbisson passes with flying colours, although a more interesting and rigorous test would surely require him to do it blindfolded, to show that he’s not just a person with ordinary colour vision pranking us?

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Doctors are using the technology for activities such as suggesting diagnoses and writing letters, according to BMA

A fifth of GPs are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT to help with tasks such as writing letters for their patients after appointments, according to a survey.

The survey , published in the journal BMJ Health and Care Informatics, spoke to 1,006 GPs. They were asked whether they had ever used any form of AI chatbot in their clinical practice, such as ChatGPT, Bing AI or Google’s Gemini, and were then asked what they used these tools for.

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Ex-president announces World Liberty Financial and publicly addresses second apparent assassination attempt

Donald Trump launched his family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, on a livestreamed interview on the social media platform X on Monday. The Republican presidential nominee gave few details about the venture but did offer his first public comments on the apparent assassination attempt against him a day earlier.

Trump did not discuss specifics about World Liberty Financial on Monday or how it would work, pivoting from questions about cryptocurrency to talking about artificial intelligence and other topics. Instead, he recounted his experience on Sunday, saying he and a friend playing golf “heard shots being fired in the air, and I guess probably four or five.

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Nordic country, paradoxically a major oil producer, has set target for all new cars sold to be zero emission

Electric cars now outnumber petrol cars in Norway for the first time, an industry organisation has said.

Of the 2.8m private cars registered in the Nordic country, 754,303 are all-electric, against 753,905 that run on petrol, the Norwegian road federation (OFV) said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Meta says teen accounts will apply to new users under 16 and restrictions will eventually be extended to existing accounts used by teenagers

Meta is putting Instagram users under the age of 18 into new “teen accounts” to allow parents greater control over their activities, including the ability to block children from viewing the app at night.

In an announcement made a week after the Australian government proposed restricting children from accessing such platforms, Meta says it is launching teen accounts for Instagram that will apply to new users. The setting will then be extended to existing accounts held by teenagers over time.

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Service for alternate sexualities says it has resolved concerns over personal data security that tech firm claims to have uncovered

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Users of Feeld, a dating app aimed at alternative relationships, could have had sensitive data including messages, private photos and details of their sexuality accessed or even edited, it has emerged, after cybersecurity experts exposed a string of security “vulnerabilities”.

Feeld, registered in the UK, reported soaring revenues and profits this month , thanks to millions of downloads from non-monogamous, queer and kinky users across the world.

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The AI company says its ‘o1’ model is capable of reason, a key blocker in the way of truly gamechanging artificial intelligence. But is it that simple?

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We are fast approaching two years of the generative AI revolution, sparked by the November 2022 release of ChatGPT by OpenAI. So far it’s been a mixed bag.

OpenAI recently announced it had crossed 200 million weekly active users – nothing to be sniffed at, but it got its first 100 million within two months of release. A recent YouGov study found that the inclusion of AI in a product is as likely to turn off a potential purchaser as much as it is to get them to hand over their cash.

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