AI
Britain needs to get a grip on AI
We remember the empty hysteria induced by warnings over the millennium bug. We have borne the burden of exaggerated predictions…
Portrait of the week: The assisted dying bill falls, the Sussexes quit a school and Trump praises a united Ireland
Home MPs voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill that offered assisted suicide, by 286 to 270;…
Girls, let’s not leave AI to the men
As seen in the Times ‘Sodding sods!’ I exclaim, as I discover that I’m £16,000 overdrawn. Between the tweakments, the…
The fearlessness of Steven McRae
Steven McRae ranked for a decade as the Royal Ballet’s star virtuoso – a fearless technician of dazzling precision, speed,…
Don’t believe everything that AI companies say
Two big stories are driving interest in artificial intelligence this week. The first is the resignation of Jacob Coxon, a…
Throw away your keyboard
The older and more plutocratic among you may remember the unlamented business-class airline seat of the 1980s and 1990s. Every…
Do we really want to live in a world where we’re perpetually spied on?
We are now approaching the point where the Stasi dream is achieved globally. But the more surveillance expands, the more ineffective it becomes
Bots for tots: welcome to the terrifying era of AI toys
In the centre of Durham last week, at the far end of the old indoor market, my son and I…
The fall of AI’s shooting star
Situational Awareness is a hedge fund that has just taken a spectacular dive. Its name was adopted from the title…
Looking for Katrin: Rory MacLean goes in search of his dead wife
In an attempt to find some meaning in his grief, the author explores how different faiths, philosophies or ‘timeless traditions’ embrace the afterlife
Is Tainan the world’s most dangerous city?
In a country full of brilliant food, the Garden Night Market in sultry Tainan, south-west Taiwan, is still a standout:…
The utter utopian unwisdom of AI bros
In my belated quest to develop a faint sense of what AI is doing, I have just read Sebastian Mallaby’s…
The West has become its own worst enemy
America’s post-Cold War decision to share its technological innovations with the rest of the world has spectacularly backfired, says Steve Feldstein
The dangers of policing misinformation
When Steve Reed, the now ex-communities secretary, unveiled his social cohesion ‘action plan’ earlier this year, he promised to publish…
The real Chinese election plot
China’s political interference is in many ways worse than President Trump asserts, but the true nature and scale of Beijing’s…
Britain will need China to survive the AI revolution
Professional players of Texas hold ’em, the most popular variant of poker, go to great lengths to play a balanced,…
Letters: Keep AI out of the Church
I Spy Sir: Overt political allegiance and class snobbery may indeed have thwarted Toby Young’s undergraduate ambition to be ‘tapped…
My new job at the Amazon packing factory
What will you do if it all goes wrong? I have a back-up plan. Working for Amazon. Its Luton warehouse…
Will robots simply bore us to extinction?
In an attempt to relieve the drudgery of warehouse work, technology has now eliminated all need for human decision-making, Sarah O’Connor discovers
How the 18th-century Panopticon inspired today’s giant distribution hubs
The Bentham brothers’ invention is strikingly reflected in the ‘precisely engineered system of surveillance and optimisation’ at Amazon’s ‘exploitative’ fulfilment centres, says Henry Snow
America’s Trump card in China
The Trump administration has released a list of CEOs who will be accompanying the president to his meeting in China…
The ‘airport effect’ that’s ruining modern life
The phrase ‘computer says no’ now has its own Wikipedia page. The first recorded use dates back to a Stasi-era…
Accelerating the ‘kill chain’ – a terrifying glimpse of future warfare
A misfit band of military personnel and Silicon Valley uber-geeks apply AI to target America’s enemies more rapidly and accurately than ever before
No one seems sure about why Olly Robbins had to go
This session of parliament is due to end between 29 April and 6 May. Now the government is desperate for…
Why is a chatbot deciding what books our children read?
A school in Greater Manchester has stripped 193 books from its library because they are ‘inappropriate’, liable to upset pupils…
