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Technology

The latest published reporting in this category.

Military

Was Elon Musk the US midterms' biggest loser? – Stateside with Kai and Carter

The tech industry spent big on the midterms, but it turned out to be a poor investment. Elon Musk poured a staggering $446m dollars into Republican-aligned political action committees (Pacs) and groups since last year, but his efforts didn’t pay off. Democrats won every one of the five Senate races where Musk’s America Pac spent the most money backing Republican candidates. Carter Sherman and Kai Wright are joined by the Guardian’s US tech editor, Blake Montgomery, to ask what the ‘blue tsunami’ will mean for Musk and the wider tech industry. Will this spell the end of AI datacenters? And if s

The Guardian
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Military

Apple iPad mini A20 Pro review: the best small tablet but with a big price

All-round upgrades fit a bigger OLED screen in a smaller and lighter body with water resistance for first time The new iPad mini takes Apple’s fan-favourite tiny tablet and upgrades just about everything about it, including giving it a new OLED screen, serious performance, speakers embedded into the display and even water resistance, all with a big new price tag. The eighth-generation iPad mini costs from £699 (€749/$699/A$1,099), which is £200 or equivalent more than the original price of its predecessor as RAMageddon continues to bite. That makes it uncomfortably expensive, costing £270 more

The Guardian
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Military

Datacenters were on the ballot. US voters rejected them

Voters approved nearly every datacenter moratorium that was on the ballot, dozens in total in Tuesday’s elections Track live results from all 50 states Send us your questions about the US midterms results and Democrats’ ‘blue wave’ There were three big losers in Tuesday’s midterm elections in the US: Donald Trump, Elon Musk and datacenters. Datacenters, the facilities full of semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence and a host of other online products, were on the ballot in elections in at least 40 jurisdictions across 10 states. Voters responded with a strong rebuke of the giant

The Guardian
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Military

Scare campaigns: Victoria’s major parties trade blows over AI-generated videos of leaders in election ads

Transparency and advertising experts say trust in politics could be further eroded as a result of ‘lies, deepfakes and AI-generated politicians’ Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast It’s the night of Halloween and Jess Wilson has appeared on social media feeds with a warning about a scary prospect: “Americanised healthcare” under a future Liberal government. “If you had a heart attack, you would have to pay $150,000 for care,” the Victorian Liberal leader says, mid-trick or treat. Continue reading...

The Guardian
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Military

‘Wellness is on the ballot’: why did so many pilates studios tell me to vote in the midterms?

Owners of pilates and yoga studios in the US got political and encouraged their followers to vote on social media Q&A: Ask your questions about Democrats’ win in the midterms Track live results from all 50 states Your local pilates instructors only want you to do two things: breathe through your side-planks and vote. In the days leading up to the US midterm elections, a wave of posts from fitness and wellness accounts blanketed Instagram, eschewing their typical messaging around the importance of strengthening your core in favor of the importance of exercising your civic duty. Owners of pilate

The Guardian
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International

Mike Bigger obituary

Other lives: Entomologist who found ways to deal with insects that attack tropical cash crops such as cocoa and coffee

The Guardian
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Military

Albanese government warned it is ‘sleepwalking into another robodebt scenario’ over use of algorithms and AI

Centre for Public Integrity report calls for audit and public register of all automated decision-making Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The federal government is “sleepwalking its way into another robodebt” scandal amid a lack of transparency and legislation around the use of algorithms and AI in decisions, the chief executive of the independent thinktank the Centre for Public Integrity said. Dr Catherine Williams launched the centre’s “Computer Says No” report on Thursday, which examines the use of automated decision-making (ADM) tools by the government and calls f

The Guardian
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