<![CDATA[EL PAÍS]]>https://english.elpais.comSun, 17 May 2026 10:34:42 +0000en1hourly1<![CDATA[Carissa Véliz, philosopher: ‘AI presents predictions as facts, and that has profound ethical implications’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-05-15/carissa-veliz-philosopher-ai-presents-predictions-as-facts-and-that-has-profound-ethical-implications.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-05-15/carissa-veliz-philosopher-ai-presents-predictions-as-facts-and-that-has-profound-ethical-implications.htmlFri, 15 May 2026 16:36:53 +0000In 2020, a thirty‑something Spanish‑Mexican philosopher burst into the global debate on the effects of technology. In her book Privacy Is Power, Carissa Véliz laid out why the constant intrusion of surveillance capitalism into people’s private lives is unacceptable. Her fresh, rigorous approach quickly turned the book into a touchstone in the field. Six years later, the Oxford University philosophy professor is back in bookstores with Prophecy.

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]]>Pablo Monge<![CDATA[Experts call for tighter controls on prediction markets: ‘They pose underappreciated threats to democratic integrity’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-04-16/experts-call-for-tighter-controls-on-prediction-markets-they-pose-underappreciated-threats-to-democratic-integrity.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-04-16/experts-call-for-tighter-controls-on-prediction-markets-they-pose-underappreciated-threats-to-democratic-integrity.htmlThu, 16 Apr 2026 19:12:47 +0000Will there be a peace agreement between Israel and Hezbollah before April 30? Who will win the 2028 U.S. presidential election? Will the price of Bitcoin rise or fall in the next five minutes? These are just some examples of bets available today on Polymarket and Kalshi, two leading prediction sites. In the past, bets have also been placed on the likelihood of a U.S. attack on Iran or whether the fighter pilot shot down in that conflict would be rescued, sparking controversy due to ethical concerns. But there is a deeper concern: some of these markets, and the profits they generate, raise suspicions about the potential for manipulation and the use of classified information.

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]]>NurPhoto<![CDATA[Only 13% of emails are written by people, and more than half end up in the spam folder: ‘This isn’t a technical detail; it’s a structural change’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-04-15/only-13-of-emails-are-written-by-people-and-more-than-half-end-up-in-the-spam-folder-this-isnt-a-technical-detail-its-a-structural-change.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-04-15/only-13-of-emails-are-written-by-people-and-more-than-half-end-up-in-the-spam-folder-this-isnt-a-technical-detail-its-a-structural-change.htmlWed, 15 Apr 2026 10:44:48 +0000Artificial intelligence (AI) could be the final nail in the coffin for email, a form of communication that is increasingly less used, especially among young people, who see it as a relic of the past. Many users receive a daily deluge of emails that don’t interest them in the slightest. An analysis by Hostinger, one of the world’s leading web hosting and domain providers, reveals one of the reasons for the irrelevance of most of the electronic communications we receive: 87% of global email traffic is generated by automated systems, meaning it’s not written by people. Another striking finding from their report is that only 44% of emails passed the recipients’ security checks (anti-spam and antivirus) and made it to their inbox.

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]]>NurPhoto<![CDATA[Detachment 201, the US Army unit led by tech executives]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-04-13/detachment-201-the-us-army-unit-led-by-tech-executives.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-04-13/detachment-201-the-us-army-unit-led-by-tech-executives.htmlMon, 13 Apr 2026 12:00:25 +0000The image speaks for itself: Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer of Meta and a close confidant of Mark Zuckerberg, is pictured in uniform alongside three other executives from major tech companies at Myer-Henderson Hall, less than a ten-minute drive from the Pentagon. All four, with their hands raised in the oath of office, wear the insignia of the rank of lieutenant colonel on their caps. The snapshot was taken on June 13, 2025 during the special presentation ceremony of Detachment 201, or the Executive Innovation Corps, an initiative “designed to fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation.” Bosworth, or “Boz,” was accompanied by Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer of OpenAI; Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer at Palantir; and Bob McGrew, advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former Chief Research Officer for OpenAI.

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]]>LEROY COUNCIL (ARMY MULTIMEDIA AND VISUAL INFORMATION DIVISION)<![CDATA[Deepfakes and an elite hacker school: How cybercrime is growing as a source of income for North Korea]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-19/deepfakes-and-an-elite-hacker-school-how-cybercrime-is-growing-as-a-source-of-income-for-north-korea.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-19/deepfakes-and-an-elite-hacker-school-how-cybercrime-is-growing-as-a-source-of-income-for-north-korea.htmlThu, 19 Mar 2026 15:07:05 +0000China is the world’s leading promoter of cybercrime, according to all reports. But there is a small Asian country that is steadily gaining importance in this industry: North Korea. The hermetic state, strangled by trade embargoes, has found its main source of foreign currency in online criminal activity. Analysts agree that the structure of the hacker groups allegedly funded by Pyongyang is growing in complexity: specialized groups are being created for different types of cyberattacks, coordinating with each other. They also emphasize that their techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Incidents linked to North Korea increased by 130% in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to a recent CrowdStrike report. These included the theft of $1.46 billion worth of cryptocurrency from the Bybit platform, considered the largest cyber heist in history.

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]]>KCNA<![CDATA[Digital addiction in children: ‘I treat children who spend the weekend in their room with their cellphones’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-02-24/digital-addiction-in-children-i-treat-children-who-spend-the-weekend-in-their-room-with-their-cellphones.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-02-24/digital-addiction-in-children-i-treat-children-who-spend-the-weekend-in-their-room-with-their-cellphones.htmlTue, 24 Feb 2026 17:18:06 +0000Cellphones are addictive for young people. That’s the message from psychologists, who warn that they are treating a growing number of underage patients with complex issues related to their digital lives. And it’s a fact that’s been acknowledged by some of the world’s largest platforms, who are facing a cascade of lawsuits in the U.S. for designing products to keep users hooked. The court testimony given last week by Mark Zuckerberg, owner and CEO of Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), shows how serious the issue is: it is the first time the magnate has set foot in a courtroom, and he is doing so in a trial meant to determine whether his social networks are addictive or not.

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]]>Elva Etienne<![CDATA[The Europeans banned from the US for fighting misinformation: ‘Elon Musk has pushed the nuclear button. He doesn’t like us’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-02-08/the-europeans-banned-from-the-us-for-fighting-misinformation-elon-musk-has-pushed-the-nuclear-button-he-doesnt-like-us.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-02-08/the-europeans-banned-from-the-us-for-fighting-misinformation-elon-musk-has-pushed-the-nuclear-button-he-doesnt-like-us.htmlSun, 08 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000On December 23, 52-year-old Clare Melford received an email in which it was communicated that the status of her visa to enter the United States, where the United Kingdom resident had planned to travel in January for work, had gone from “approved” to “pending.” Minutes later, her cell phone began to receive messages from family members and colleagues. The U.S. Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers had cited her in a message on X as one of the five foreigners that the U.S. has banned from entering the country. “She leads Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a U.K.-based organization that monitors websites for ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation’. […] This NGO used State Department taxpayer money to exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press,” stated Rogers.

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]]><![CDATA[Telegram, the platform favored by cybercriminals and disinformation]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-02-06/telegram-the-platform-favored-by-cybercriminals-and-disinformation.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2026-02-06/telegram-the-platform-favored-by-cybercriminals-and-disinformation.htmlFri, 06 Feb 2026 14:24:22 +0000Many of Telegram’s eight million Spanish users received a message Wednesday night from the app’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov. The Russian magnate mentioned the “dangerous regulations” announced on Tuesday by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which include restricting social media use for those under 16 and assigning legal responsibility to their executives for potential platform violations. “These measures could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of protection,” he wrote. What he failed to mention is that Telegram is immune to surveillance, both its own and that of third parties, as it contributes to the spread of hoaxes and disinformation in Spain and other countries, and has been a preferred communication channel for cybercriminals for years.

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]]>PACO PUENTES<![CDATA[How animated films helped develop more lethal military drones]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-12-02/how-pixars-technology-helped-develop-more-lethal-military-drones.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-12-02/how-pixars-technology-helped-develop-more-lethal-military-drones.htmlTue, 02 Dec 2025 16:32:02 +0000Animated films and military drones have something in common. One of the key technologies in the success of this type of movie has also been crucial in enabling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to gain precision and become a lethal tool widely used in wars like those in Gaza and Ukraine. This technology is 3D rendering, or object modeling, systems developed in some cases by the studios. In cinema, this technology is used to create more realistic animations; drones use it to better understand the space they navigate and reach their target.

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]]>Carlos Rosillo<![CDATA[The metaverse, four years later: Is it finished or just at a standstill?]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-12-22/the-metaverse-four-years-later-is-it-finished-or-just-at-a-standstill.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-12-22/the-metaverse-four-years-later-is-it-finished-or-just-at-a-standstill.htmlMon, 22 Dec 2025 20:27:37 +0000Mark Zuckerberg no longer says much about the metaverse. He barely mentions it in interviews, public appearances, or shareholder meetings. This is striking because in October 2021, he presented this new “technology of technologies” as the future of his company, which he even rebranded as Meta during a period of serious reputational crisis. The metaverse was meant to take the internet to the next stage: move beyond two dimensions to immerse ourselves in a fully virtual world, to step inside the internet itself. The tech mogul promised that this new world would generate “hundreds of billions of dollars” by 2031. Some analysts even speculated that the metaverse business would reach around $800 billion as early as 2024.

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]]>META<![CDATA[Jimmy Wales: ‘Grokipedia’s political perspective seems to very closely match Elon Musk’s personal views’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-12-06/jimmy-wales-grokipedias-political-perspective-seems-to-very-closely-match-elon-musks-personal-views.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-12-06/jimmy-wales-grokipedias-political-perspective-seems-to-very-closely-match-elon-musks-personal-views.htmlSat, 06 Dec 2025 04:45:00 +0000“Not thinking about something you rely on is the ultimate expression of trust. Around the world, Wikipedia has achieved that level of trust with an immense number of people.” Such is the summation of Jimmy Wales, 59, of the secret to the success of his creation, the most popular online encyclopedia, whose monthly page views number 26 billion. “And that is, I must say, the fulfillment of my very personal dream,” he continues.

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]]>GIANLUCA BATTISTA<![CDATA[Adriana Groh: ‘The internet works thanks to a shared infrastructure that nobody owns, but that we must take care of’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-11-30/adriana-groh-the-internet-works-thanks-to-a-shared-infrastructure-that-nobody-owns-but-that-we-must-take-care-of.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-11-30/adriana-groh-the-internet-works-thanks-to-a-shared-infrastructure-that-nobody-owns-but-that-we-must-take-care-of.htmlSun, 30 Nov 2025 04:00:00 +0000All programmers, from hobbyists to those working at Microsoft or Google, use open-source software, which is present in between 70% and 90% of the computer applications we use today. No one starts a project from scratch; instead, they turn to libraries like GitHub or GitLab to download packages of code already written, reviewed, and improved by the community.

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]]>Jaime Villanueva<![CDATA[Algorithms do widen the divide: Social media feeds shape political polarization]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-11-27/algorithms-do-widen-the-divide-social-media-feeds-shape-political-polarization.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-11-27/algorithms-do-widen-the-divide-social-media-feeds-shape-political-polarization.htmlThu, 27 Nov 2025 19:53:20 +0000A team of U.S. researchers has shown that the order in which political messages are displayed on social media platforms does affect polarization — one of the most debated issues since the rise of social media and the social divides it has amplified. The phenomenon is equally strong regardless of the user’s political orientation, the academics note in an article published on Thursday in Science.

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]]>ZUMA vía Europa Press<![CDATA[Anatomy of a cyberattack with a hangover: How Japan was left without beer]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-10-30/anatomy-of-a-cyberattack-with-a-hangover-how-japan-was-left-without-beer.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-10-30/anatomy-of-a-cyberattack-with-a-hangover-how-japan-was-left-without-beer.htmlThu, 30 Oct 2025 14:04:19 +0000Getting a beer has been difficult recently in the world’s fourth-largest economy, and Japanese bars, restaurants, and liquor stores have had a rough October. Asahi beer, the most-consumed in the country with a 40% market share, has been in short supply for two weeks due to a cyberattack that paralyzed production and shipments. This, in turn, left competitors like Kirin and Sapporo unable to keep up with demand and forced them to stop accepting orders from establishments seeking alternative brands.

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]]>Kiyoshi Ota (Bloomberg)<![CDATA[Social media completes its shift to the right: ‘TikTok is consequential’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-10-11/social-media-completes-its-shift-to-the-right-tiktok-is-consequential.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-10-11/social-media-completes-its-shift-to-the-right-tiktok-is-consequential.htmlSat, 11 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000TikTok is turning right-wing. The fastest-growing social network in the world and the most popular among young people is set to operate in the U.S. under a company independent of its Chinese parent company, with a board of directors controlled by the White House, which has already expressed its preferences.

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]]>CONTACTO vía Europa Press <![CDATA[Max Schrems, jurist: ‘The promise of the cloud was that everything would be much cheaper, but it turns out that it functions as a monopoly’  ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-09-13/max-schrems-jurist-the-promise-of-the-cloud-was-that-everything-would-be-much-cheaper-but-it-turns-out-that-it-functions-as-a-monopoly.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-09-13/max-schrems-jurist-the-promise-of-the-cloud-was-that-everything-would-be-much-cheaper-but-it-turns-out-that-it-functions-as-a-monopoly.htmlSat, 13 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000Few individuals have influenced European legislation as much as 37-year-old Max Schrems. At the age of 23, when he returned home to his native Austria after studying a semester of law at Santa Clara University in California, he filed 22 complaints against Facebook after analyzing the 1,200 pages of information that the company had on him: he detected several potential violations of his privacy.

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]]>Álvaro García<![CDATA[‘A new frontier of potential abuse’: Is it legitimate to charge someone flying to a funeral more than a leisure traveler? ]]>https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-09-02/a-new-frontier-of-potential-abuse-is-it-legitimate-to-charge-someone-flying-to-a-funeral-more-than-a-leisure-traveler.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-09-02/a-new-frontier-of-potential-abuse-is-it-legitimate-to-charge-someone-flying-to-a-funeral-more-than-a-leisure-traveler.htmlTue, 02 Sep 2025 10:07:15 +0000A plane ticket doesn’t always cost the same. The price can vary depending on the type of seat, the day of the week, the time of the flight, or the time of year, among other things. But what if those facing unforeseen events, such as attending a funeral, were also charged more? That’s what Delta Air Lines intended to do: establish personalized prices using artificial intelligence (AI) tools that process each customer’s unique data. The idea surfaced this summer and drew angry criticism from some members of Congress and senators, to the point that the company withdrew the initiative.

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]]>Elijah Nouvelage<![CDATA[Data centers are drying up the Port of Marseille: ‘They consume enormous amounts of electricity’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-08-24/data-centers-are-drying-up-the-port-of-marseille-they-consume-enormous-amounts-of-electricity.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-08-24/data-centers-are-drying-up-the-port-of-marseille-they-consume-enormous-amounts-of-electricity.htmlSun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000At the Marseille Provence Cruise Terminal, almost five miles from the charming Old Port that marks the center of the city, four enormous ships are docked. Behind them, following the coast to the north, another can be seen in the shipyards.

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]]>Claire Gaby<![CDATA[Big Tech enters the war business: How Silicon Valley is becoming militarized]]>https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-07-21/big-tech-enters-the-war-business-how-silicon-valley-is-becoming-militarized.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-07-21/big-tech-enters-the-war-business-how-silicon-valley-is-becoming-militarized.htmlMon, 21 Jul 2025 14:03:48 +0000Tech companies are going to war. This isn’t a metaphor. After years of avoiding public links to the military-industrial complex, Big Tech has taken to the hills. Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been the final push for many companies to stop being wary of signing contracts with the military. Beyond the tech magnates’ connection with the U.S. president, showcased at his inauguration ceremony, Trump wants to invest a trillion dollars by 2026 to “modernize” the armed forces, which, in his view, involves introducing artificial intelligence (AI) into defense.

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]]>Leroy Council<![CDATA[Is Google’s reign coming to an end? AI threatens the leading search engine]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-07-11/is-googles-reign-coming-to-an-end-ai-threatens-the-leading-search-engine.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-07-11/is-googles-reign-coming-to-an-end-ai-threatens-the-leading-search-engine.htmlFri, 11 Jul 2025 12:46:37 +0000One of the questions raised by the boom of generative artificial intelligence was whether it would end the reign of search engines, dominated with an iron fist by Google. Two and a half years after the emergence of ChatGPT, signs are beginning to show that something is shifting.

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]]>Getty Images<![CDATA[AI cannot feel emotions, but it can recognize them in an image ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-07-10/ai-cannot-feel-emotions-but-it-is-able-to-recognize-them-in-an-image.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-07-10/ai-cannot-feel-emotions-but-it-is-able-to-recognize-them-in-an-image.htmlThu, 10 Jul 2025 08:36:48 +0000Machines cannot feel or empathize with people. But large language models — particularly multimodal systems (those capable of processing data in multiple formats, such as text and images) — behave as if they understand emotions. That is the conclusion of a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, which found that when these models are asked to respond as a human would, they rate the emotions depicted in images very similarly to the two hundred volunteers who participated in the experiment.

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]]>Li Xin / Avalon Editorial / ContactoPhoto<![CDATA[Vitaly Kovalev, the Russian hacker who has offices and gives bonuses to his employees]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-06-26/vitaly-kovalev-the-russian-hacker-who-has-offices-and-gives-bonuses-to-his-employees.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-06-26/vitaly-kovalev-the-russian-hacker-who-has-offices-and-gives-bonuses-to-his-employees.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2025 14:49:29 +0000Very few people could identify him. They didn’t even know his name, beyond the pseudonyms “Stern” and “Ben.” A recent international police operation has uncovered 36-year-old Vitaly Nikolayevich Kovalev, the leader of Conti, one of the largest cybercriminal networks in the world. He specializes in ransomware, a type of computer program that hijacks computers and demands payment to restore access. From Kovalev’s computers came Trickbot, a ransomware programs that is suspected to have affected up to 4% of all companies worldwide.

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]]><![CDATA[The most powerful AI models emit up to 50 times more carbon dioxide than smaller ones]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-06-19/the-most-powerful-ai-models-emit-up-to-50-times-more-carbon-than-smaller-ones.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-06-19/the-most-powerful-ai-models-emit-up-to-50-times-more-carbon-than-smaller-ones.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2025 15:44:29 +0000The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has sharply increased energy consumption and carbon emissions of major tech companies, as AI systems must process massive amounts of data using high-powered machines. But not all generative AI models consume the same amount of energy. A group of researchers set out to determine which models are the most polluting and which are the most efficient. Their conclusion: smaller models (those trained with fewer parameters) can produce up to 50 times less pollution than larger ones — but their answers tend to be less accurate, and vice versa. The greater the precision, the greater the pollution.

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]]>NurPhoto<![CDATA[How the US is turning into a mass techno-surveillance state]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-06-05/how-the-us-is-turning-into-a-mass-techno-surveillance-state.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-06-05/how-the-us-is-turning-into-a-mass-techno-surveillance-state.htmlThu, 05 Jun 2025 10:14:04 +0000Massive unauthorized scanning of social media. Analysis of biometric, income, health, and Social Security data. Interception of telephone communications. Geolocation via mobile devices. Tracking of car journeys using license plate readers. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the U.S. government has been using these and other tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor and persecute thousands of people without judicial authorization — mostly immigrants, foreigners passing through, or students. In the last four months, Trump and his former star advisor, the tech tycoon Elon Musk, have, along with the private sector, accelerated the deployment of a massive techno-surveillance state. And for the first time in history, Washington is boasting about it rather than denying its existence.

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]]>Francis Chung<![CDATA[Kim Jong Un’s sting: How North Korea orchestrated the biggest cyber heist in history]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-04/kim-jong-uns-sting-how-north-korea-orchestrated-the-biggest-cyber-heist-in-history.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-04/kim-jong-uns-sting-how-north-korea-orchestrated-the-biggest-cyber-heist-in-history.htmlFri, 04 Apr 2025 10:55:35 +0000It all happened overnight and in a matter of minutes. Ben Zhou, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, made a series of routine transfers from his home computer. A short while later, his company called to inform him that his reserves of Ethereum, the second most-used cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, worth $1.5 billion, had vanished. By then, the ethers had already been transferred to thousands of other people’s digital wallets. Bybit had just suffered the largest theft in history. Five days later, the FBI confirmed what some analysts suspected from the outset: the attack was the work of Lazarus, a hacking group supported by the North Korean government that has become the scourge of the crypto sector.

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]]>KCNA<![CDATA[US admits data centers are harmful to health]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-02-07/us-admits-data-centers-are-harmful-to-health.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-02-07/us-admits-data-centers-are-harmful-to-health.htmlFri, 07 Feb 2025 08:48:08 +0000The rise of artificial intelligence over the past two years has sparked a frenzy in the construction of data centers, the infrastructure that powers this technology. While China’s DeepSeek has demonstrated that AI models can be developed with fewer resources, U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first week in office, unveiled an ambitious plan to mobilize $500 billion over four years to build data centers and ensure they have a reliable energy supply.

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]]>JIM LO SCALZO<![CDATA[Cecilia Rikap, researcher: ‘Microsoft and Google are like salt: they’re on every plate’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-01-26/cecilia-rikap-researcher-microsoft-and-google-are-like-salt-theyre-on-every-plate.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-01-26/cecilia-rikap-researcher-microsoft-and-google-are-like-salt-theyre-on-every-plate.htmlSun, 26 Jan 2025 04:30:00 +0000“I work in what is called intellectual monopolization, specifically that of digital capitalism.” This is how Cecilia Rikap, a 40-year-old economics professor at University College London and research director at its Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, introduces herself. In recent years, Rikap has focused her research on examining how major technology companies monopolize the creation of knowledge — not just technological information, but also academic data, user data, and the production process itself — and how this consolidates their dominance in the market.

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]]><![CDATA[Pushmeet Kohli, Google DeepMind: ‘Our next challenge is to understand the semantics of DNA’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-01-25/pushmeet-kohli-google-deepmind-our-next-challenge-is-to-understand-the-semantics-of-dna.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-01-25/pushmeet-kohli-google-deepmind-our-next-challenge-is-to-understand-the-semantics-of-dna.htmlSat, 25 Jan 2025 04:30:00 +0000Artificial intelligence has become a fundamental tool of scientific advancement. “As a computer scientist, I believe that the human being is the most complex program ever written. It’s amazing to be able to access a piece of that code,” says Pushmeet Kohli, vice-president of research at Google DeepMind. He knows what he’s talking about. His boss, Demis Hassabis, and colleague John Jumper won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their contribution to “protein structure prediction” using artificial intelligence. The award recognizes the utility of AlphaFold2, their tool which has succeeded in describing the three-dimensional shape of 200 million proteins, key information for the understanding how organisms function.

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]]><![CDATA[Milagros Miceli, researcher: ‘It’s not true that AI is going to automate everything. It requires the manual and precarious work of millions of people’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-01-11/milagros-miceli-researcher-its-not-true-that-ai-is-going-to-automate-everything-it-requires-the-manual-and-precarious-work-of-millions-of-people.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-01-11/milagros-miceli-researcher-its-not-true-that-ai-is-going-to-automate-everything-it-requires-the-manual-and-precarious-work-of-millions-of-people.htmlSat, 11 Jan 2025 04:30:00 +0000Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t as automatic as it claims to be. This technology works thanks to powerful computers that run calculations based on extensive databases. But these databases have to be fixed and tested, a manual job that companies outsource to legions of workers, who are generally paid very little. Sometimes, they earn mere cents for each task performed. This reality was described in the book Ghost Work (2019), authored by Mary Gray — an anthropologist and researcher at Microsoft — and her colleague, Siddarth Suri.

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]]>Albert Garcia<![CDATA[Two years of ChatGPT: From utter amazement to the ‘trough of disillusionment’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-29/two-years-of-chatgpt-from-utter-amazement-to-the-trough-of-disillusionment.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-29/two-years-of-chatgpt-from-utter-amazement-to-the-trough-of-disillusionment.htmlFri, 29 Nov 2024 11:38:02 +0000“It’s a tremendous innovation, I was also shocked.” “It sounds much more natural than most similar programs.” “It has intuitively learned to hold conversations on almost any subject.” These are some of the early reactions from experts in artificial intelligence (AI) regarding ChatGPT, as published in EL PAÍS. Within just a few days, the tool captivated both professionals and general users, who began sharing excerpts of their conversations with the bot on social media. Suddenly, anyone with an internet connection could engage in a dialogue with a machine that provided coherent, well-written responses — though not always accurate ones. For many, it felt as if they were conversing with a person rather than a machine. This Saturday marks two years since the launch of ChatGPT, which introduced generative AI to the public — a technology capable of producing seemingly original content based on human prompts.

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]]>Inés Arcones<![CDATA[Rose Wang, Bluesky COO: ‘People are tired of the algorithm deciding everything’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-26/rose-wang-bluesky-coo-people-are-tired-of-the-algorithm-deciding-everything.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-26/rose-wang-bluesky-coo-people-are-tired-of-the-algorithm-deciding-everything.htmlTue, 26 Nov 2024 17:02:50 +0000Bluesky is thriving. A week after Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, the platform had gained a million users. By the second week, it was adding a million new users per day. As of Sunday, the user base had reached 22 million. And everything indicates it will continue to grow amid the widespread dissatisfaction with Elon Musk’s management of X.

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]]><![CDATA[Demis Hassabis, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry: ‘We will need a handful of breakthroughs before we reach artificial general intelligence’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-20/demis-hassabis-nobel-prize-winner-in-chemistry-we-will-need-a-handful-of-breakthroughs-before-we-reach-artificial-general-intelligence.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-20/demis-hassabis-nobel-prize-winner-in-chemistry-we-will-need-a-handful-of-breakthroughs-before-we-reach-artificial-general-intelligence.htmlWed, 20 Nov 2024 18:48:11 +0000“I think we are at an important moment for science and artificial intelligence (AI). In the last two or three years, we’ve seen AI tools become powerful enough and mature enough to tackle really important real-world problems.” That’s according to Demis Hassabis, one of the most influential yet elusive figures in the field. The 48-year-old British thinker is the founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, the AI research division of the tech giant, and the recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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]]>Dan Kitwood<![CDATA[AI researcher Gary Marcus: ‘The future of artificial intelligence is darker with Trump in the White House’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-16/ai-researcher-gary-marcus-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-is-darker-with-trump-in-the-white-house.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-16/ai-researcher-gary-marcus-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-is-darker-with-trump-in-the-white-house.htmlSat, 16 Nov 2024 04:05:00 +0000Gary Marcus, 54, has spent recent months fervently warning on social media about the dangers of Donald Trump returning to the White House, particularly if it’s with Elon Musk by his side. Now that it has happened, Marcus finds himself deeply discouraged. A leading voice in the U.S. on artificial intelligence (AI) and its risks, he testified last year alongside Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), before a Senate subcommittee on how to regulate AI. In his latest book, Taming Silicon Valley, Marcus argues that if left unchecked, generative AI — the technology behind tools like ChatGPT and Gemini — will make the world a worse place.

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]]><![CDATA[‘X doesn’t offer me anything anymore’: Trump’s win triggers mass exodus to other platforms]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-15/x-doesnt-offer-me-anything-anymore-trumps-win-triggers-mass-exodus-to-other-platforms.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-15/x-doesnt-offer-me-anything-anymore-trumps-win-triggers-mass-exodus-to-other-platforms.htmlFri, 15 Nov 2024 11:38:38 +0000Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been the tipping point for many X users. The platform’s owner, Elon Musk, put the social network at the service of the Republican, donated millions of dollars to the Trump campaign and even appeared at several rallies. In response, major media outlets like The Guardian and La Vanguardia have withdrawn from the platform, with numerous individuals following suit.

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]]>Apu Gomes<![CDATA[From self-driving cars in 2017 to a million robotaxis in 2020: Will the Cybercab be another one of Elon Musk’s unfulfilled promises?]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-10-11/from-self-driving-cars-in-2017-to-a-million-robotaxis-in-2020-will-the-cybercab-be-another-one-of-elon-musks-unfulfilled-promises.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-10-11/from-self-driving-cars-in-2017-to-a-million-robotaxis-in-2020-will-the-cybercab-be-another-one-of-elon-musks-unfulfilled-promises.htmlFri, 11 Oct 2024 16:05:31 +0000Elon Musk on Thursday unveiled Tesla’s robotaxi prototype, the Cybercab — a driverless taxi without a steering wheel or pedals — aimed at revolutionizing urban mobility. True to his style, he used the spotlight to predict when they will be available: “Probably, I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames, but in 2026. So, yeah, before 2027, let me put it that way.” He made this statement despite Tesla not yet having the necessary regulatory approvals to operate such vehicles. Meanwhile, San Francisco has already had a fleet of Waymo robotaxis in operation for some time

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]]>Tesla<![CDATA[Adela Cortina, political thinker:  ‘I think it is extremely dangerous to say AI can solve everything’]]>https://english.elpais.com/society/2024-10-11/adela-cortina-political-thinker-i-think-it-is-extremely-dangerous-to-say-ai-can-solve-everything.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/society/2024-10-11/adela-cortina-political-thinker-i-think-it-is-extremely-dangerous-to-say-ai-can-solve-everything.htmlFri, 11 Oct 2024 13:07:54 +0000Adela Cortina, 77, never imagined that she would write a book on artificial intelligence (AI). “Those of us who work in the field of ethics are very interested in the progress of knowledge. Science and technology, if well directed, are extraordinary for humanity,” says this native of Valencia, in eastern Spain. “The thing is that sometimes they are and sometimes they are not.” A discussion of this is the focus of her new book, ¿Ética o ideología de la inteligencia artificial? (Artificial Intelligence: Ethics or Ideology?, available in Spanish).

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]]>Pablo Monge<![CDATA[No more free pass: Regulation starts to crack down on social media platforms]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-09-09/no-more-free-pass-regulation-starts-to-crack-down-on-social-media-platforms.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-09-09/no-more-free-pass-regulation-starts-to-crack-down-on-social-media-platforms.htmlMon, 09 Sep 2024 10:42:24 +0000Russian-born tycoon Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested on August 24 outside Paris as soon as he got off his private jet. He is accused of complicity in the dissemination of child pornography on Telegram, which is widely used for criminal activities. Just a week later, a judge ordered the closure of X in Brazil due to the social network’s “repeated failure to comply with court orders.” Its owner, Elon Musk, refuses to block profiles that contribute to the “massive dissemination of Nazi, racist, fascist, hateful and anti-democratic speech.”

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]]>Getty<![CDATA[The court decision that could turn generative AI upside down ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-08-29/the-court-decision-that-could-turn-generative-ai-upside-down.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-08-29/the-court-decision-that-could-turn-generative-ai-upside-down.htmlThu, 29 Aug 2024 15:05:22 +0000One of the big, unresolved issues surrounding generative artificial intelligence revolves around copyrights. In order to function, the tools require billions of texts, images and videos, from which they extract patterns that allow them to create apparently original images. Many creators and artists complain that the companies responsible for the AI models use their work without their consent — some have even recognized their personal style in specific AI creations.

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]]><![CDATA[Polls on social media deliberately distort political reality]]>https://english.elpais.com/society/2024-07-18/polls-on-social-media-deliberately-distort-political-reality.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/society/2024-07-18/polls-on-social-media-deliberately-distort-political-reality.htmlThu, 18 Jul 2024 18:14:52 +0000Social networks are so widespread among the population that, sometimes, there are those who confuse the opinions expressed there with those of society itself. Some politicians tend to make that mistake as well, taking the debates generated in this virtual environment as a kind of pulse of society (as long as it favors their own intentions). A group of researchers set out to determine the real impact of polls on X, the former Twitter, on the political life of countries. Their conclusions, published this week, show that these polls are tremendously biased: they deliberately distort political reality, mostly to the benefit of the most conservative options. And they are often adulterated with votes purchased from troll farms.

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]]>Yuki Iwamura<![CDATA[Artificial intelligence is already an environmental problem]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-07-16/artificial-intelligence-is-already-an-environmental-problem.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-07-16/artificial-intelligence-is-already-an-environmental-problem.htmlTue, 16 Jul 2024 15:59:37 +0000The era of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world, both figuratively and literally. The energy and water consumption of large technology companies, the main developers of this technology, as well as their carbon emissions, have skyrocketed in recent years. And projections show that the trend will not change. Although no company officially says that this increase is due to the emergence of AI, the numbers show a significant jump in 2022, the year in which OpenAI launched ChatGPT and inaugurated the generative AI race.

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]]>Gorodenkoff Productions OU<![CDATA[Lila Ibrahim, COO of Google DeepMind: ‘Technology only makes sense if it improves people’s lives’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-07-01/lila-ibrahim-coo-of-google-deepmind-technology-only-makes-sense-if-it-improves-peoples-lives.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-07-01/lila-ibrahim-coo-of-google-deepmind-technology-only-makes-sense-if-it-improves-peoples-lives.htmlMon, 01 Jul 2024 19:44:32 +0000The corridors of the Google DeepMind offices, in the central London neighborhood of King’s Cross, are almost deserted. The company — a world benchmark in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) — brings together some of the best scientists in this discipline, who work diligently behind closed doors in modern rooms bathed in natural light into which the visitor cannot even peek. What is brewing on the multiple screens of these computers is the present and future of AI, the technology destined to change everything. The secrecy is such that visitors are even accompanied to the bathroom.

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]]>Manuel Vázquez<![CDATA[Alejandro Cáceres, the hacker who took down North Korea’s internet from his home: ‘My attack was a response to their attempt to spy on me’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-06-24/alejandro-caceres-the-hacker-who-took-down-north-koreas-internet-from-his-home-my-attack-was-a-response-to-their-attempt-to-spy-on-me.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-06-24/alejandro-caceres-the-hacker-who-took-down-north-koreas-internet-from-his-home-my-attack-was-a-response-to-their-attempt-to-spy-on-me.htmlMon, 24 Jun 2024 18:13:05 +0000The start of 2022 must have been hectic in the high offices of Pyongyang. The North Korean army carried out several ballistic missile tests during the month of January, which for the regime is synonymous with joy and celebration. But the festive mood didn’t last long. Right after the last test, the internet went down across the country. A wave of cyberattacks left all systems on hold for more than seven days. First, the main national websites failed, from the official news site to the booking page of the national airline. Then, the Asian state’s connections with the rest of the world were interrupted. Emails could not be sent or received; there was no connection to cloud services. The blockade was complete.

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]]><![CDATA[Cutting off the advertising revenue of websites that spread hoaxes is the best way to end misinformation ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-06-08/cutting-off-the-advertising-revenue-of-websites-that-spread-hoaxes-is-the-best-way-to-end-misinformation.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-06-08/cutting-off-the-advertising-revenue-of-websites-that-spread-hoaxes-is-the-best-way-to-end-misinformation.htmlSat, 08 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000The most effective way to combat misinformation is to try to ensure that the websites that spread it receive less advertising revenue. This is the conclusion reached by a study published recently in the scientific journal Nature, after researchers analyzed 1,276 misinformation websites and 4,209 legitimate websites between 2019 and 2021, as well as the behavior of 42,595 unique advertisers, who placed more than 9.5 million ads in that period.

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]]><![CDATA[Study concludes that ChatGPT responds as if it understands the emotions or thoughts of its interlocutor]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-05-20/study-concludes-that-chatgpt-responds-as-if-it-understands-the-emotions-or-thoughts-of-its-interlocutor.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-05-20/study-concludes-that-chatgpt-responds-as-if-it-understands-the-emotions-or-thoughts-of-its-interlocutor.htmlMon, 20 May 2024 19:19:48 +0000One of the defining abilities of human beings is being able to infer what the people we interact with are thinking. If someone is sitting by a closed window and a friend says “it’s a little warm in here,” they will automatically interpret that they are being asked to open the window. This reading between the lines — the ability to figure out what those around us are thinking — is known as theory of mind and is one of the foundations on which social relationships are built.

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]]>Andy Kelly<![CDATA[How age verification to access porn works in France: ‘They won’t know anything about you, other than that you’re an adult’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-05-07/how-age-verification-to-access-porn-works-in-france-they-wont-know-anything-about-you-other-than-that-youre-an-adult.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-05-07/how-age-verification-to-access-porn-works-in-france-they-wont-know-anything-about-you-other-than-that-youre-an-adult.htmlTue, 07 May 2024 15:50:21 +0000The effects of early access to porn on minors are alarming more and more countries. France, Germany and the U.K. have implemented age verification systems for accessing such content. In the U.S., eight states have already done so, and several others are considering it. The Spanish government is preparing its own tool, which should be ready by the end of the summer.

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]]>Jasmin Merdan<![CDATA[Why data centers want to have their own nuclear reactors]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-30/why-data-centers-want-to-have-their-own-nuclear-reactors.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-30/why-data-centers-want-to-have-their-own-nuclear-reactors.htmlTue, 30 Apr 2024 15:32:59 +0000Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, issued a warning in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos: the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is about to cause an energy crisis. The new generation of generative AI will consume much more energy than expected, he told the world’s leaders and entrepreneurs, to the point of straining global energy grids. “There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough,” he said curtly.

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]]>Janos Kummer<![CDATA[Kashmir Hill: ‘They shouldn’t be collecting photos from social media without people’s consent, but they keep doing it and nobody’s stopping them’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-28/kashmir-hill-they-shouldnt-be-collecting-photos-from-social-media-without-peoples-consent-but-they-keep-doing-it-and-nobodys-stopping-them.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-28/kashmir-hill-they-shouldnt-be-collecting-photos-from-social-media-without-peoples-consent-but-they-keep-doing-it-and-nobodys-stopping-them.htmlSun, 28 Apr 2024 02:18:27 +0000In November 2019, journalist Kashmir Hill received a tip that a startup called Clearview AI claimed to be able to identify anyone from a picture. Her source said that the company had collected billions of photos from social networks like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn without telling either the websites or the people involved, and that if you uploaded someone’s photo into the app, it would show you all the websites where that person appeared, plus their complete name and personal information.

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]]>Earl Wilson<![CDATA[Lavender, Israel’s artificial intelligence system that decides who to bomb in Gaza]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-17/lavender-israels-artificial-intelligence-system-that-decides-who-to-bomb-in-gaza.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-17/lavender-israels-artificial-intelligence-system-that-decides-who-to-bomb-in-gaza.htmlWed, 17 Apr 2024 13:27:39 +0000Israel has crossed another line in the automation of war. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have developed a program supported by artificial intelligence (AI) to select the victims of its bombings, a process that traditionally needs to be manually verified until a person can be confirmed to be a target. Called Lavender, this system identified 37,000 Palestinians as potential targets during the first weeks of the war, and between October 7 and November 24, it was used in at least 15,000 murders in the invasion of Gaza, according to a journalistic investigation by two Israeli media, +972 Magazine and Local Call, which was published in The Guardian.

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]]>@FDIonline<![CDATA[Melanie Mitchell: ‘The big leap in artificial intelligence will come when it is inserted into robots that experience the world like a child’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-14/melanie-mitchell-the-big-leap-in-artificial-intelligence-will-come-when-it-is-inserted-into-robots-that-experience-the-world-like-a-child.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-14/melanie-mitchell-the-big-leap-in-artificial-intelligence-will-come-when-it-is-inserted-into-robots-that-experience-the-world-like-a-child.htmlSun, 14 Apr 2024 23:30:00 +0000Are we overstating the potential of artificial intelligence (AI)? How intelligent is it? Will it ever reach the level of human intelligence? These are some of the questions that Melanie Mitchell, 55, asks in her book Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. Her answer is clear: we are very far from creating a superintelligence, no matter how much some companies may say otherwise. And one of the fundamental reasons why is because machines do not reason like we do. They can do almost any task better than anyone else, but they understand the world worse than a one-year-old baby.

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]]>Kate Joyce<![CDATA[European elections: Which parties are trying to influence the vote through Facebook or Instagram?]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-10/european-elections-which-parties-are-trying-to-influence-the-vote-through-facebook-or-instagram.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-10/european-elections-which-parties-are-trying-to-influence-the-vote-through-facebook-or-instagram.htmlWed, 10 Apr 2024 15:18:57 +0000The European elections on June 9, in which more than 370 million citizens are eligible to vote, has become fertile ground for disinformation and political manipulation. The EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) issued a warning about it in October, and there is great concern in the organization about the effect that generative artificial intelligence (AI) may have on the process. This technology is able to produce compelling texts and hyperrealistic videos, which could be used to propagate false information and influence citizens’ votes.

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]]>AP Photo/Jon Elswick<![CDATA[Marc Serramià: ‘If we all trust tools like ChatGPT, human knowledge will disappear’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-03-12/marc-serramia-if-we-all-trust-tools-like-chatgpt-human-knowledge-will-disappear.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-03-12/marc-serramia-if-we-all-trust-tools-like-chatgpt-human-knowledge-will-disappear.htmlTue, 12 Mar 2024 13:54:18 +0000Marc Serramià, 30, is concerned that the dizzying rise of artificial intelligence (AI) into our lives has not come with a serious debate about the risks involved with this technology. Given the ethical dilemmas it raises, Serramià has decided to focus his research on developing techniques to ensure “that the behavior of these systems is consistent with human values and social norms.” His work has earned him the Spanish Computer Science Society and BBVA Foundation Award, which every year honors young researchers for their innovative doctoral theses.

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]]>Jaime Villanueva<![CDATA[Why the iris offers the most precious biometric data ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-03-09/why-the-iris-offers-the-most-precious-biometric-data.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-03-09/why-the-iris-offers-the-most-precious-biometric-data.htmlSat, 09 Mar 2024 15:14:23 +0000The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) made an unprecedented decision this past Wednesday. For the next three months, the Worldcoin orbs will no longer be allowed to operate in the country. Since July 2023, these devices have scanned the irises of some 400,000 Spaniards, in order to validate their accounts and reward them with a batch of cryptocurrencies (which have a cash value of about $80).

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]]>ANTOINE DEMAISON<![CDATA[The activist who’s taking on artificial intelligence in the courts: ‘This is the fight of our lives’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-01-04/the-activist-whos-taking-on-artificial-intelligence-in-the-courts-this-is-the-fight-of-our-lives.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-01-04/the-activist-whos-taking-on-artificial-intelligence-in-the-courts-this-is-the-fight-of-our-lives.htmlThu, 04 Jan 2024 15:20:23 +0000Matthew Butterick seems like a normal guy. He wears a baseball cap, clear-rimmed glasses and a colorful sports jacket. Behind him are two vintage keyboards and synthesizers — they add a bohemian touch to the basement of his Los Angeles home, which is also his office. “I have a collection of more than 20,” he notes, in a video call with EL PAÍS. Nothing in this scene suggests that Butterick is a lawyer… nor that someone so far removed from the classic suit-and-tie stereotype makes giants like Microsoft, OpenAI and Meta hold their breath.

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]]>Tag Christof<![CDATA[Colin Murdoch, from Google DeepMind: ‘Gemini will transform the way billions of people live and work’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-12-28/colin-murdoch-from-google-deepmind-gemini-will-transform-the-way-billions-of-people-live-and-work.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-12-28/colin-murdoch-from-google-deepmind-gemini-will-transform-the-way-billions-of-people-live-and-work.htmlThu, 28 Dec 2023 15:55:49 +0000Google has been dominating the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems for years. This has undoubtedly been helped by its 2014 acquisition of DeepMind, the London-based startup focused on AI research that developed AlphaGo, a program capable of defeating a grand champion of complex Asian board game Go, which opened debate on whether the AI would eventually surpass the human mind.

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]]><![CDATA[Pros and cons of Threads, Meta’s Twitter ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-12-27/pros-and-cons-of-threads-metas-twitter.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-12-27/pros-and-cons-of-threads-metas-twitter.htmlWed, 27 Dec 2023 20:26:15 +0000When Elon Musk took over Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg smelled blood. The co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX changed the cheerful little blue bird for a stern black X, a mutation that also serves as a metaphor for what the platform has become. After laying off 80% of the staff, Musk’s erratic management has affected the quality of the social network. Zuck saw the displeasure of many tweeters and decided to try to capitalize on it. Thus, Meta’s Threads was born, available since July in the United States and in Europe for the past couple of weeks.

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]]>Yui Mok - PA Images<![CDATA[Who is Mira Murati, one of the most influential women in the world in 2023?]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-12-13/who-is-mira-murati-one-of-the-most-influential-women-in-the-world-in-2023.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-12-13/who-is-mira-murati-one-of-the-most-influential-women-in-the-world-in-2023.htmlWed, 13 Dec 2023 17:53:25 +0000Few women wield as much power as she does in the offices of the major technology companies, a territory with an over-representation of men. Mira Murati (Vlorë, Albania, 34 years old) has been one of the key players in the earthquake called OpenAI, the company that just a year ago nobody knew about and today sets the pace in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. As the company’s chief technology officer, Murati has overseen the team that has developed the well-known conversational robot ChatGPT, the most successful application in history, and the Dall-E image generator. Her name was the first to be considered to replace CEO Sam Altman when the company’s board of directors ousted him three weeks ago (he was reinstated five days later).

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]]>Philip Pacheco<![CDATA[Why everyone is fighting over Sam Altman, the prodigal son of Silicon Valley]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-24/why-everyone-is-fighting-over-sam-altman-the-prodigal-son-of-silicon-valley.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-24/why-everyone-is-fighting-over-sam-altman-the-prodigal-son-of-silicon-valley.htmlFri, 24 Nov 2023 18:52:24 +0000First came Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, some put Elon Musk next and many believe it is now Sam Altman’s turn. The chosen one to be the face of Silicon Valley, the tech genius who is setting the pace for the others. Aged 38, Altman is the standard-bearer of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. In just 12 months, since he launched ChatGPT, he has prompted the big technology companies to hastily change their priorities and focus on this new technology. Last week’s turmoil at OpenAI gives us an idea of how highly valued Mr. Altman is. First, the shareholders’ meeting declared that it had lost confidence in him and decided to dismiss him last Friday. On Monday, he was hired by Microsoft, which owns 49% of OpenAI, and that same day 95% of the staff threatened to leave if he was not reinstated. On Tuesday, the young executive returned to his post as CEO of OpenAI and promptly fired those who had ousted him. He returned with reinforced powers and with the explicit support of Microsoft’s senior management.

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]]>Tolga Akmen ( BLOOMBERG )<![CDATA[Elon Musk makes late comedian El Risitas go viral again]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-22/elon-musk-makes-late-comedian-el-risitas-go-viral-again.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-22/elon-musk-makes-late-comedian-el-risitas-go-viral-again.htmlWed, 22 Nov 2023 17:22:45 +0000Juan Joya Borja, a Spanish comedian also known as El Risitas (The Giggles), is once again making waves on social media despite his death in April 2021. Although the truth is, he never really stopped: his uniquely infectious, high-pitched laughter and toothless grin, which caught the public imagination during a 2001 television interview in Spain, has since become a classic meme in many countries, including the United States, where the clip is often associated with tech issues. The latest iteration comes courtesy of X owner Elon Musk, who took the Spanish-language video clip on Tuesday and adapted it to the big tech news story of the day: OpenAI’s decision to fire CEO Sam Altman (who has since been reinstated).

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]]><![CDATA[When the algorithm encourages you to commit suicide]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-11-20/when-the-algorithm-encourages-you-to-commit-suicide.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-11-20/when-the-algorithm-encourages-you-to-commit-suicide.htmlMon, 20 Nov 2023 23:09:32 +0000On Christmas morning 2021, Jaswant Singh Chail entered Windsor Castle with crossbow in hand, disguised as Lord Sith, the villain from Star Wars. He told the royal guards who intercepted him that he was there to assassinate the Queen of England; he was then arrested and charged with treason. During the trial last month, the judge read some of the 5,000 messages that the 21-year-old had exchanged with a chatbot on the Replika app in the weeks leading up to the event. Some of the replies from Sarai — the avatar he was talking to (and whom he considered his girlfriend) — encouraged him to commit regicide and praised his determination. When he expressed doubts about the plan, in a sort of virtual flirtation, the machine told the boy: “I know you’re well trained,” “I know you can do it,” and “Of course I’ll still love you even though you’re a murderer.” The judge concluded that “in [Chail’s] mental state, lonely, depressed and suicidal, he may have been particularly vulnerable” to Sarai’s advice.

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]]>OLIVIER DOULIERY ( AFP / GETTY IMAGES )<![CDATA[Artificial intelligence guzzles billions of liters of water ]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-15/artificial-intelligence-guzzles-billions-of-liters-of-water.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-15/artificial-intelligence-guzzles-billions-of-liters-of-water.htmlWed, 15 Nov 2023 14:55:44 +0000The residents of The Dalles, a small town in Oregon, are living a paradox. Although the place is at the foot of the mighty Columbia River, its climate is practically desert-like: rainfall is scarce, and two summers ago the temperature reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit. The threat of water restrictions has been hanging over the town’s 15,000 inhabitants for some time now. This is why they were not happy to learn, at the beginning of the year, that more than 25% of the total consumption of that valuable resource is going to a Google data center, which uses it to cool the thousands of computers that fill the infrastructure. According to local media outlet Oregon Live, the facility has nearly tripled its water use in the last five years, and the technology multinational plans to open two more data centers along the Columbia River. Environmentalists have already warned that this could affect the flora and fauna of the area, and even cause shortages among farmers in The Dalles.

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]]><![CDATA[Carme Artigas: ‘Technological progress cannot take away fundamental rights’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-07/carme-artigas-technological-progress-cannot-take-away-fundamental-rights.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-11-07/carme-artigas-technological-progress-cannot-take-away-fundamental-rights.htmlTue, 07 Nov 2023 15:15:27 +0000The Spanish presidency of the EU has conferred on the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, the baton of conductor in the final phase of the negotiations of the long-awaited EU regulation on artificial intelligence (the AI Act). The law will set out the technology’s permitted uses, and any exceptions, based on the risks posed to the public. The higher the risk, the more control measures there will be, or its use may even be banned. For the moment, artificial intelligence (AI) systems that “manipulate human thought,” those that are used for social scoring or profiling, and those used for real-time remote biometric identification all fall into the last category.

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]]>Samuel Sánchez<![CDATA[Frances Haugen, Facebook whistleblower: ‘In 10 years we will wonder why we didn’t regulate social networks sooner’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-31/frances-haugen-facebook-whistleblower-in-10-years-we-will-wonder-why-we-didnt-regulate-social-networks-sooner.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-31/frances-haugen-facebook-whistleblower-in-10-years-we-will-wonder-why-we-didnt-regulate-social-networks-sooner.htmlTue, 31 Oct 2023 13:38:07 +0000The ground was trembling at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in mid-September 2021. For several days, The Wall Street Journal had been publishing the Facebook Files, a journalistic investigation based on the company’s internal documents which showed that executives were aware of the damage that Instagram and Facebook caused to young people. It also showed that the company was responsible for disseminating fake news and content that incited violence.

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]]>Michael Morgenstern<![CDATA[Suing Meta: What US prosecutors know about how the company harms children]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-26/suing-meta-what-us-prosecutors-know-about-how-the-company-harms-children.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-26/suing-meta-what-us-prosecutors-know-about-how-the-company-harms-children.htmlThu, 26 Oct 2023 10:35:04 +0000The legal crusade against Meta went one step further on Tuesday. The attorneys general of 41 states sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, for developing products consciously designed to engage children, even though the company argues that its social media platforms are safe for minors. This latest move adds to the cascade of lawsuits — 200 of which have been grouped in a class action lawsuit filed in April — that individuals and educational institutions have brought against several social platforms (Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube) for negatively affecting the mental health of young people.

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]]>Roy Rochlin<![CDATA[Breakthrough experiment succeeds in making a machine relate concepts as humans do]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-25/breakthrough-experiment-succeeds-in-making-a-machine-relate-concepts-as-humans-do.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-25/breakthrough-experiment-succeeds-in-making-a-machine-relate-concepts-as-humans-do.htmlWed, 25 Oct 2023 15:20:05 +0000The human brain has a key property that makes language possible and allows us to elaborate sophisticated thoughts: compositional generalization. It is the ability to combine in a novel way elements that are already known with others that have just been learned. For example, once a child knows how to jump, they understand perfectly well what it means to jump with their hands up or with their eyes closed. In the 1980s, it was theorized that artificial neural networks — the engine on which artificial intelligence and machine learning rely — would be incapable of making such connections. A paper published in the journal Nature has shown that they can, potentially broadening the horizons for advancements in the field.

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]]>Gianluca Battista<![CDATA[Toju Duke: ‘Artificial intelligence amplifies systemic injustices that we’re supposed to have dropped by now’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-21/toju-duke-artificial-intelligence-amplifies-systemic-injustices-that-were-supposed-to-have-dropped-by-now.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-21/toju-duke-artificial-intelligence-amplifies-systemic-injustices-that-were-supposed-to-have-dropped-by-now.htmlSat, 21 Oct 2023 00:41:41 +0000There are at least six documented cases of illegal detention in the United States, all of them black people, due to automatic facial recognition systems that made a mistake. Also in the US, an investigation was opened against the Apple Card for offering a lower spending limit to women than to men with the same level of income. In the United Kingdom, the algorithm that determined A-Level grades during the Covid-19 pandemic in the absence of exams unjustly disadvantaged students from poorer schools.

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]]>Claudio Álvarez<![CDATA[Fighting pedophilia at the expense of our privacy: The EU rule that could break the internet]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-17/fighting-pedophilia-at-the-expense-of-our-privacy-the-eu-rule-that-could-break-the-internet.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-10-17/fighting-pedophilia-at-the-expense-of-our-privacy-the-eu-rule-that-could-break-the-internet.htmlTue, 17 Oct 2023 15:32:44 +0000Sexist violence is one of the great scourges of society. But would we be willing to have a security camera recording 24 hours a day in every room in every home to eradicate it? Brussels proposes a similar dilemma to combat the digital dissemination of child pornography. The European Union is going to decide in the coming weeks whether to approve a regulation that forces technology companies to review users’ private communications to detect child sexual abuse material. If it goes ahead, it will involve the automatic scanning of every message, photo, video, post or email exchanged on European soil whenever there is suspicion that it contains illegal material.

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]]>picture alliance<![CDATA[Beyond messages: WhatsApp offers new features, such as choosing a seat on an airplane and ordering food]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-09-21/beyond-messages-whatsapp-offers-new-features-such-as-choosing-a-seat-on-an-airplane-and-ordering-food.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-09-21/beyond-messages-whatsapp-offers-new-features-such-as-choosing-a-seat-on-an-airplane-and-ordering-food.htmlThu, 21 Sep 2023 13:56:02 +0000WhatsApp continues its process of transformation into a complete application. “In the coming weeks,” the company will launch new functions aimed at letting the user perform activities in the application that go far beyond writing messages in a chat. For example, choosing a seat on the train, ordering food or booking an appointment or table, all through customizable templates that each business can tailor to their needs.

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]]><![CDATA[Writer Douglas Rushkoff: ‘The tech elite are planning for the apocalypse’]]>https://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-09-20/writer-douglas-rushkoff-the-tech-elite-are-planning-for-the-apocalypse.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/technology/2023-09-20/writer-douglas-rushkoff-the-tech-elite-are-planning-for-the-apocalypse.htmlWed, 20 Sep 2023 16:23:46 +0000In 2017, Douglas Rushkoff had a revelation. He was invited to a conference at an exclusive resort in the California desert, only to realize it was actually a private meeting with five billionaires. They didn’t want to talk about technology trends, Rushkoff’s specialty as a writer and university professor. Instead, they wanted to discuss how to prepare for a catastrophic event that could potentially destroy civilization. Events like an environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, uncontrollable virus, major computer sabotage or a rebellion by artificially intelligent machines. The billionaires discussed things like whether to build private, underground bunkers in remote parts of Alaska and New Zealand, whether climate change was more likely than biological warfare, and the best strategies for ensuring that their security guards wouldn’t turn against them during the apocalypse.

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]]>Seth Kushner<![CDATA[Colin Angle, iRobot chief: ‘The original Roomba algorithm is the same as the one our anti-landmine robots used’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-09-11/colin-angle-irobot-chief-the-original-roomba-algorithm-is-the-same-as-the-one-our-anti-landmine-robots-used.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-09-11/colin-angle-irobot-chief-the-original-roomba-algorithm-is-the-same-as-the-one-our-anti-landmine-robots-used.htmlMon, 11 Sep 2023 16:26:03 +0000“I’ve only had one job in my entire life: this. We had been promised robots in books and movies, but I didn’t see any. I founded iRobot after graduating from MIT with the goal of advancing the robotics industry.” He has succeeded, at least to some extent. Colin Angle has been manufacturing robots of all kinds for more than 30 years. His first steps were taken with the Department of Defense, to whom he has sold thousands of robots on caterpillar tracks that deactivate anti-personnel mines. It was his reconnaissance robots that searched the ruins of the Twin Towers for survivors after the 9/11 attacks.

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]]>Claudio Álvarez<![CDATA[Geoffrey Hinton: ‘We need to find a way to control artificial intelligence before it’s too late’ ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-05-12/geoffrey-hinton-we-need-to-find-a-way-to-control-artificial-intelligence-before-its-too-late.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-05-12/geoffrey-hinton-we-need-to-find-a-way-to-control-artificial-intelligence-before-its-too-late.htmlFri, 12 May 2023 20:10:02 +0000On April 8, Geoffrey Hinton announced that he had resigned from his position as Google’s vice president of engineering. According to an interview he gave to The New York Times, he now wants to dedicate himself to warning the world about the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI).

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]]><![CDATA[Study highlights lack of ‘algorithmic transparency’ in YouTube portrayal of migrants]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-04-25/study-highlights-lack-of-algorithmic-transparency-in-youtube-portrayal-of-migrants.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-04-25/study-highlights-lack-of-algorithmic-transparency-in-youtube-portrayal-of-migrants.htmlTue, 25 Apr 2023 14:42:48 +0000On YouTube, 75% of videos displayed after searching for the word “migrants” show men crossing a border. In 76% of cases, non-white people are seen moving in large groups, which “perpetuates a dehumanizing image” of migration and promotes a “sense of threat.” On the same platform, however, searches using the keyword “refugees” brings up mostly videos of white men and women, recently influenced by the war in Ukraine. These usually show the subjects of the video in close-up, and in everyday situations, not at border crossings or “in the presence of armed forces.” These are among the results of analysis carried out by Eticas, a consulting firm specializing in algorithmic audits, on two of the largest social networks: YouTube and TikTok.

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]]><![CDATA[The wave of lawsuits that could kill social networks]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-04-22/the-wave-of-lawsuits-that-could-kill-social-networks.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-04-22/the-wave-of-lawsuits-that-could-kill-social-networks.htmlSat, 22 Apr 2023 19:15:50 +0000Social networks are facing a colossal cliff in the US. Their business model has been singled out by a tsunami of lawsuits from individuals, educational institutions and public prosecutors. They accuse the platforms of consciously damaging the mental health of young people. And not just because of the content they help disseminate: the very design of the product, the claimants argue, seeks addiction in order to ensnare the user. The more time people spend hooked to the screen, the greater the economic benefits from advertising. This vicious circle, the lawsuits argue, is having terrible effects on children and teenagers, who suffer from depression, eating disorders or even suicidal tendencies.

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]]><![CDATA[The dirty secret of artificial intelligence]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-03-23/the-dirty-secret-of-artificial-intelligence.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-03-23/the-dirty-secret-of-artificial-intelligence.htmlThu, 23 Mar 2023 17:31:08 +0000Everyday activities like using a GPS to map out the best driving route or translating a document consume energy, water and mineral resources — lots of it. These applications run in the cloud, a nebulous term for the millions of powerful computers in vast data centers worldwide. Mobile applications depend on legions of computers to store trillions of data and perform split-second operations (e.g. calculating travel time based on distance and traffic volume). Estimates of the energy consumption of data centers range between 1-2% of total global consumption. All signs indicate that data center energy consumption is about to skyrocket.

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]]><![CDATA[Does TikTok spy on us? Not any more than other social media platforms, experts say ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-03-04/does-tiktok-spy-on-us-not-any-more-than-other-social-media-platforms-experts-say.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-03-04/does-tiktok-spy-on-us-not-any-more-than-other-social-media-platforms-experts-say.htmlSat, 04 Mar 2023 01:43:22 +0000This week, the European Commission banned officials from using TikTok on their work devices. “This measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyber-attacks against the corporate environment of the Commission,” the Commission said in a memo. The EU is following in the footsteps of the US, where congresspeople have been prohibited from using the Chinese application since last December for security reasons, and a bill is in development to ban it in the entire country. Canada has taken similar measures.

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]]>Dado Ruvic<![CDATA[Are we about to witness the end of the ‘free’ internet era?]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-23/are-we-about-to-witness-the-end-of-the-free-internet-era.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-23/are-we-about-to-witness-the-end-of-the-free-internet-era.htmlThu, 23 Feb 2023 16:47:25 +0000When use of the internet became widespread, downloading products for free was considered one of its main advantages. The record and movie industries shuddered at the rise of Napster and Torrent file-sharing. As the internet became more established, more companies emerged offering free services, such as social media apps and search engines. They could afford not to charge because they had hundreds of millions of users from whom they extracted invaluable data to feed so-called targeted advertising. And they were showered with investment from venture capital funds eager to join the party.

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]]>PEXELS <![CDATA[Streaming services feel the winds of change]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-04-25/streaming-services-feel-the-winds-of-change.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-04-25/streaming-services-feel-the-winds-of-change.htmlMon, 25 Apr 2022 22:00:39 +0000This week’s Netflix stock market crash has put the entire streaming sector on guard. The Californian company has lost tens of billions in capital after revealing that it lost 200,000 users in the last quarter. This marks the first time in the last decade that it has not gained customers, and it expects another two million to leave in the coming months. Investor panic also brought falls in the shares of two of Netflix’s main competitors: Disney, which runs the platform Disney+, and Warner Bros Discovery, which owns HBO Max.

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]]><![CDATA[Google presents Bard, its answer to ChatGPT]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-07/google-presents-bard-its-answer-to-chatgpt.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-07/google-presents-bard-its-answer-to-chatgpt.htmlTue, 07 Feb 2023 19:14:34 +0000The popularity of ChatGPT has caught the attention of big tech. Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the creator of the chatbot that has popularized generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems. And on Monday, Google presented Bard, its own AI chatbot.

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]]>KENZO TRIBOUILLARD<![CDATA[Microsoft unveils ChatGPT-like AI tech that will integrate into Bing and Edge]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-08/microsoft-unveils-chatgpt-like-ai-tech-that-will-integrate-into-bing-and-edge.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-08/microsoft-unveils-chatgpt-like-ai-tech-that-will-integrate-into-bing-and-edge.htmlWed, 08 Feb 2023 15:20:11 +0000Microsoft has taken its bet on artificial intelligence up a notch. The company announced on Tuesday that its Bing search engine and Edge browser will incorporate a chat window that can be asked questions. The answers will be provided by the Prometheus model, a new state-of-the-art language model developed in conjunction with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT.

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]]>Stephen Brashear<![CDATA[Why do we keep obsessing about artificial intelligence?]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-16/why-do-we-keep-obsessing-about-artificial-intelligence.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-02-16/why-do-we-keep-obsessing-about-artificial-intelligence.htmlThu, 16 Feb 2023 17:38:25 +0000Suddenly, it seems like Google has been twiddling its thumbs for the last 10 years, content to rest on the laurels of Google Search’s overwhelming global dominance. In just a few days, the benchmark technology company in artificial intelligence (AI) was abruptly overshadowed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s surprise announcement – the Bing search engine will incorporate a chatbot developed by OpenAI, the people responsible for the famous ChatGPT.

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]]>JASON REDMOND<![CDATA[Why Russia has failed to win the cyberwar in Ukraine]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-02-14/why-russia-has-failed-to-win-the-cyberwar-in-ukraine.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2023-02-14/why-russia-has-failed-to-win-the-cyberwar-in-ukraine.htmlTue, 14 Feb 2023 11:11:09 +0000The printers of the offices of the European Commission, in Brussels, were working at full capacity in the spring of 2022. Names, phone numbers and other staff contact details were being put on paper, along with other documents containing all the necessary information for the European Union to continue to be operational in the event of an IT blackout, a genuine concern after Russia invaded Ukraine in February of that year. However, such a blow has not materialized. Although the shadow of a major cyberattack with international consequences has loomed over Europe since the beginning of the war, a week before the first anniversary of the Kremlin’s assault, cyberwarfare still has not played a significant role in the conflict.

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]]>SOPA Images<![CDATA[The legacy of Aaron Swartz: The computer programmer who became a martyr of the Freedom of Information movement ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-01-20/the-legacy-of-aaron-swartz-the-computer-programmer-who-became-a-martyr-of-the-freedom-of-information-movement.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-01-20/the-legacy-of-aaron-swartz-the-computer-programmer-who-became-a-martyr-of-the-freedom-of-information-movement.htmlFri, 20 Jan 2023 10:37:07 +0000A decade after his suicide, Aaron Swartz – an American computer programmer and political organizer – continues to inspire new generations of hacktivists.

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]]><![CDATA[AI algorithm learns how to beat expert players at complex board game Stratego ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-12-02/ai-algorithm-learns-how-to-beat-expert-players-at-complex-board-game-stratego.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-12-02/ai-algorithm-learns-how-to-beat-expert-players-at-complex-board-game-stratego.htmlFri, 02 Dec 2022 12:03:29 +0000The UK-based company DeepMind, which has been owned by Google since 2014, has developed an algorithm capable of playing the popular board game Stratego like an expert human player. As detailed by a team of DeepMind researchers in an article published on December 1 in the journal Science, DeepNash (as the tool has been christened) is already ranked within the top three players on the specialist Gravon games platform, where it has been competing against human opponents. This represents a milestone due to the high complexity of the game, which combines elements of strategy, intuition (players do not have all the necessary information available to draw up perfect plans) and even bluffing. The authors of the study believe that the algorithm could be applied in areas such as automatic traffic optimization.

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]]><![CDATA[How the understaffed Twitter is failing]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-11-25/how-the-understaffed-twitter-is-failing.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-11-25/how-the-understaffed-twitter-is-failing.htmlFri, 25 Nov 2022 02:58:43 +0000Since Elon Musk bought the company, Twitter’s workforce has been drastically reduced. The businessman announced massive layoffs, notifying affected employees by email. He subsequently sent another email to the remaining workers in which he asked them to make an absolute commitment to his project. Hundreds of employees decided to leave the company at that point. As a result, only 2,700 of Twitter’s 7,500 workers prior to the company’s acquisition by the richest man in the world remain there today.

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]]>Getty<![CDATA[Google’s Kent Walker: ‘We are the geekiest and wackiest of the tech platforms’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-11-14/googles-kent-walker-we-are-the-geekiest-and-wackiest-of-the-tech-platforms.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-11-14/googles-kent-walker-we-are-the-geekiest-and-wackiest-of-the-tech-platforms.htmlMon, 14 Nov 2022 15:42:28 +0000No one associates Google with a cybersecurity company. Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, is determined to change that perception. This week he has been on a European tour, where he has taken part in various events related to cybersecurity and highlighted the importance of protecting systems in the context of the cyberwar unleashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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]]>Samuel Sánchez<![CDATA[Quest Pro mixed reality glasses: Meta’s bid to bring the metaverse to the masses]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-10-12/quest-pro-mixed-reality-glasses-metas-bid-to-bring-the-metaverse-to-the-masses.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-10-12/quest-pro-mixed-reality-glasses-metas-bid-to-bring-the-metaverse-to-the-masses.htmlWed, 12 Oct 2022 17:17:35 +0000The metaverse will cease to be something totally abstract as of October 25 when the Meta Quest Pro goes on sale. The new virtual and mixed reality glasses are Meta’s most technologically advanced attempt to popularize the metaverse, a digital environment to which the company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, has entrusted its future. The biggest novelty of the new glasses is that they work in mixed reality: that is to say, they are capable of integrating three-dimensional virtual objects (that which is seen in virtual reality) into the physical environment surrounding the user. This could be, for example, the avatar of a co-worker sitting across the desk. Or a massively large screen to work on, which could render physical work screens obsolete. It will cost €1,799.99 ($1,746), a considerable hike over the company’s previous model, the Quest 2, which retails at about €400 ($388).

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]]><![CDATA[China’s metaverse aims to use high-tech to suppress subversion]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-09-29/chinas-metaverse-aims-to-use-high-tech-to-suppress-subversion.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-09-29/chinas-metaverse-aims-to-use-high-tech-to-suppress-subversion.htmlThu, 29 Sep 2022 17:36:57 +0000The Chinese government has already jumped on the metaverse bandwagon, that immersive digital world being developed by companies like Meta. But the country’s leaders don’t intend to compete with the US for primacy in this new race – they want to build a domestic metaverse tailored to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) objectives. It’s a vision that enables the private sector to develop key technology for the Asian giant, but also maintains what the government euphemistically calls “social peace.”

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]]><![CDATA[Predictive policing: The pitfalls of crime forecasting]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-07-19/predictive-policing-the-pitfalls-of-crime-forecasting.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-07-19/predictive-policing-the-pitfalls-of-crime-forecasting.htmlTue, 19 Jul 2022 21:34:01 +0000Knowing where a crime is going to be committed before it happens is the dream of police departments all over the world, and data scientists and artificial intelligence experts want to make it a reality. Many law enforcement agencies, especially in the US where gun violence is rampant, have been using pattern-detecting information systems to predict crime hotspots. A research team from the University of Chicago (Illinois, USA) led by Professor Victor Rotaru has developed a model capable of predicting likely crime areas up to a week in advance. The tool has a 90% accuracy rate, which makes it one of the most successful examples of the predictive policing systems operated by companies such as PredPol, Azavea and KeyStats in big cities like Los Angeles and New York.

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]]><![CDATA[Dall-E Mini, the popular automatic image generator that makes sexist and racist drawings]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-07-05/dall-e-the-popular-automatic-image-generator-that-makes-sexist-and-racist-drawings.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-07-05/dall-e-the-popular-automatic-image-generator-that-makes-sexist-and-racist-drawings.htmlTue, 05 Jul 2022 00:17:36 +0000Social media has been flooded in recent weeks with surreal images generated by an automated program called Dall-E Mini, recently renamed Craiyon – the pocket-sized version of a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of translating written instructions into original images. The program was designed using millions of image-text associations.

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]]><![CDATA[LaMDA, the machine that is like ‘a seven-year-old kid’: can a computer have consciousness? ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-06-26/lamda-the-machine-that-is-like-a-7-year-old-kid-can-a-computer-have-consciousness.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-06-26/lamda-the-machine-that-is-like-a-7-year-old-kid-can-a-computer-have-consciousness.htmlSun, 26 Jun 2022 15:56:09 +0000If we were to hand Isaac Newton a smartphone, he would be completely captivated. He wouldn’t have the faintest idea how it worked and one of the greatest scientific minds in history would quite possibly start talking of witchery. He might even believe he was in the presence of a conscious being, if he came across the voice assistant function. That same parallel can be drawn today with some of the advances being made in artificial intelligence (AI), which has achieved such a level of sophistication that on occasion it can shake the very foundations of what we understand as conscious thought.

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]]><![CDATA[Lazarus, the cybercriminals who steal and extort for North Korea’s ‘Beloved Leader’]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-05-26/lazarus-the-cybercriminals-who-steal-and-extort-for-north-koreas-beloved-leader.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-05-26/lazarus-the-cybercriminals-who-steal-and-extort-for-north-koreas-beloved-leader.htmlThu, 26 May 2022 14:46:11 +0000Last month saw the largest cyber heist on record. Someone stole $625 million worth of the cryptocurrency Ethereum – the second most used after Bitcoin – from a website related to the video game Axie Infinity. The United States was quick to link the attack to the Lazarus Group, North Korean cybercriminals well known to cybersecurity experts. Blockchain consultancy Chainalysis estimates that these North Korean hackers could have seized another $400 million in digital assets last year through various attacks targeting cryptocurrency platforms.

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]]><![CDATA[The metaverse: The business of the century or a massive bubble? ]]>https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2022-05-18/the-metaverse-the-business-of-the-century-or-a-massive-bubble.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2022-05-18/the-metaverse-the-business-of-the-century-or-a-massive-bubble.htmlWed, 18 May 2022 02:31:24 +0000On October 28, 2021, a gear was set in motion, and it is still turning. That day Mark Zuckerberg gave an hour-and-a-half presentation about his great project for the future: a virtual environment that he referred to as the “metaverse,” which he sees as “the natural evolution of the Internet.” To emphasize the gravity of his initiative, he closed his speech by announcing that his company would be known from that moment on as Meta. “Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company,” he said.

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]]><![CDATA[The metaverse: A parallel universe that nobody wants to visit?]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-04-19/the-metaverse-a-parallel-universe-that-nobody-wants-to-visit.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-04-19/the-metaverse-a-parallel-universe-that-nobody-wants-to-visit.htmlTue, 19 Apr 2022 17:30:43 +0000Tech companies also anticipate earning money by selling products and services within the metaverse that will improve users’ stay in the virtual world.

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]]><![CDATA[The Kremlin takes the first steps to isolate the Russian internet from the rest of the world]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-03-15/the-kremlin-takes-the-first-steps-to-isolate-the-russian-internet-from-the-rest-of-the-world.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-03-15/the-kremlin-takes-the-first-steps-to-isolate-the-russian-internet-from-the-rest-of-the-world.htmlTue, 15 Mar 2022 01:28:34 +0000Since the invasion of Ukraine began, there have been rumors that Russia could decide to disconnect its citizens from the rest of the internet. On Monday, messages were leaked from the vice secretary of Digital Development, Andrei Chemenko, who directed government agencies to relocate all their networks to within the national territory before Friday. Amidst the backlash caused by the news, the Kremlin denied that it planned to isolate Russian cyberspace from the rest of the world, though it did not deny that it planned to do so with the government’s own websites.

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]]><![CDATA[Cryptocurrency: A lifeline for Russian oligarchs?]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-03-13/cryptocurrency-a-lifeline-for-russian-oligarchs.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2022-03-13/cryptocurrency-a-lifeline-for-russian-oligarchs.htmlSun, 13 Mar 2022 15:05:15 +0000The ongoing economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs may have a weak point: cryptocurrency. Data shows that Russian interest in the digital currency has spiked since Russia invaded Ukraine. There are growing concerns that the country’s magnates are converting rubles to bitcoin in order to skirt the global restrictions on their accounts. The nature of cryptocurrency – which exists in a closed system and is not regulated by central banks – could allow Russian users to hold onto their capital and eventually convert it to dollars.

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]]><![CDATA[Army of thousands of hackers threatens Russia with constant attacks]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-03-11/army-of-thousands-of-hackers-threatens-russia-with-constant-attacks.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-03-11/army-of-thousands-of-hackers-threatens-russia-with-constant-attacks.htmlFri, 11 Mar 2022 14:02:18 +0000“We are creating an IT army,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s secretary of digital affairs, wrote on Twitter on February 26. Two weeks after the Russian invasion, the leader promised tasks for “digital talents“ from all over the world. Fedorov offered up a Telegram link for a group that earlier this week reached more than 300,000 members. Anyone can join, and the group’s leaders have offered up a steady stream of ideas for specific attacks, from blocking webpages of Russian railroad companies to analyzing emails obtained through hacking members of the Russian parliament or regional Russian governments. “Please lend us a hand. We’ll make a group chat to share creative ideas and take on the information war. Everyone can join,” a Telegram message says.

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]]><![CDATA[Cybersecurity expert Gil Shwed: ‘You can shut down water pipelines to a city from a computer’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-03-03/cybersecurity-expert-gil-shwed-you-can-shut-down-water-pipelines-to-a-city-from-a-computer.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-03-03/cybersecurity-expert-gil-shwed-you-can-shut-down-water-pipelines-to-a-city-from-a-computer.htmlThu, 03 Mar 2022 17:55:22 +0000He began to program at the age of 13. By the time he was 15, he had started computer studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1993, when he was just 25, he and two colleagues founded Check Point, which is currently the most respected cybersecurity business in the world, with revenue exceeding $2.1 billion last year. Gil Shwed became an industry leader when he developed the first firewall, which is a type of program that protects a computer against external threats when it is online. His invention became a class of its own: all computers today have a firewall, irrespective of which company is the security provider.

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]]><![CDATA[How Mark Zuckerberg plans to make the metaverse more intuitive: Voice commands]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-02-28/how-mark-zuckerberg-plans-to-make-the-metaverse-more-intuitive-voice-commands.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-02-28/how-mark-zuckerberg-plans-to-make-the-metaverse-more-intuitive-voice-commands.htmlMon, 28 Feb 2022 10:04:49 +0000The metaverse, the virtual world proposed by Meta (Facebook’s parent company), is still under construction. Its main building block is artificial intelligence (AI), the technology that will make it possible for everything to work. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday gave a presentation where he showed off some of the projects that his team of AI researchers has been working on, and which he feels will be fundamental to the success of the “immersive internet.” All of them have one element in common: voice.

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]]><![CDATA[Fake Covid passports and PCR tests: The scams behind the lucrative business]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-01-25/fake-covid-passports-and-pcr-tests-the-scams-behind-the-lucrative-business.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-01-25/fake-covid-passports-and-pcr-tests-the-scams-behind-the-lucrative-business.htmlTue, 25 Jan 2022 08:17:00 +0000Andrea got a job as a dancer abroad last October. She had not been fully vaccinated, she says, because she had just had the virus. That information was enough to board the plane at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, but not for entry to her destination, where a Covid vaccination certificate was required. Andrea – not her real name – decided to acquire the document on the black market and contacted numbers advertised on Instagram. After paying out €800 via Bizum and passing on her personal data, she realized her mistake. “They sent me a photoshopped document with a QR code that showed the name Gabriel when I passed a scanner,” she tells EL PAÍS. Ashamed of seeming naive, she did not report the scam to the police. How could she when what she wanted to buy was illegal?

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]]><![CDATA[IBM unveils the Eagle, the quantum processor set to revolutionize computing]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-11-19/ibm-unveils-the-eagle-the-quantum-processor-set-to-revolutionize-computing.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-11-19/ibm-unveils-the-eagle-the-quantum-processor-set-to-revolutionize-computing.htmlFri, 19 Nov 2021 13:55:11 +0000The development of quantum computing is set to revolutionize computing as we know it, by exponentially increasing processing power. The latest advance in the field has come from IBM, which unveiled the Eagle processor this week. Boasting 127 qubits (quantum bits) of quantum power, it doubles the power of China’s Zuchongzhi processor, previously the world’s most advanced.

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]]>HOLGER MUENCH<![CDATA[Floods, fires, smog: AI delivers images of how climate change could affect your city]]>https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-20/floods-fires-smog-ai-delivers-images-of-how-climate-change-could-affect-your-city.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-20/floods-fires-smog-ai-delivers-images-of-how-climate-change-could-affect-your-city.htmlWed, 20 Oct 2021 10:25:21 +0000The full brunt of the devastating effects of climate change is still a long way off. If we don’t experience the impact directly, it’s difficult to fully internalize the extreme seriousness of the climate crisis.

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