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  • The Guardian view on AI in war: the Iran conflict shows that the paradigm shift has already begun

    The intensified use of artificial intelligence, and rows over its control, demonstrate the need for democratic oversight and multilateral controls “Never in the future will we move as slow as we are moving now,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned this week, addressing the urgent need to shape the use of artificial intelligence. The speed…

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  • Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’

    Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined The use of AI tools to enable attacks on Iran heralds a new era of bombing quicker than “the speed of thought”, experts have said, amid fears human ­decision-makers could be sidelined. Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, was reportedly used…

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  • Anthropic says it ‘cannot in good conscience’ allow Pentagon to remove AI checks

    Pete Hegseth has threatened to cancel $200m contract unless it is given unfettered access to Claude model Anthropic said Thursday it “cannot in good conscience” comply with a demand from the Pentagon to remove safety precautions from its artificial intelligence model and grant the US military unfettered access to its AI capabilities. The Department of…

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  • Keen bosses, strange mistakes and a looming threat: workers on training AI to do their jobs

    Some say the technology is devaluing their work, while others reckon it is not yet – and might never be – good enough to replace them entirely Workers grappling with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence have said they feel “devalued” by the technology and warned of a downward trajectory in the quality of work.…

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  • US AI giant accuses Chinese rivals of mass data theft

    Anthropic says three Chinese firms used ‘distillation’ technique to extract information from its Claude chatbot US artificial intelligence company Anthropic said on Monday it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. OpenAI leveled similar charges last month.…

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  • The splinternet: how online shutdowns are getting cheaper and easier to impose

    Iran has shown how plausible blackouts now are, with far-reaching consequences for the internet as we know it During the height of Iran’s blackout in January, people could still access a platform that, in some senses, was like the internet. Iranians could message family members on a government-monitored app and watch clips of Manchester United…

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  • US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content

    Freedom.gov appears to be administered by a branch of the Department of Homeland Security The US has built a portal that will allow Europeans to view blocked content including alleged hate speech and terrorism, according to Reuters. The portal, “freedom.gov”, will allow worldwide users to circumvent government controls on their content. The site features a…

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  • Digital blackface flourishes under Trump and AI: ‘The state is bending reality’

    From TikTok deepfakes to smears put out by the White House, fake videos modeled on Black archetypes are running rampant – putting Black users at risk Late last year, as a US government shutdown cut off the Snap benefits that low-income families rely on for groceries, videos on social media cast the fallout in frantic…

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  • Macron defends EU AI rules and vows crackdown on child ‘digital abuse’

    French president rejects US criticism as António Guterres and Narendra Modi warn on child safety and AI monopolies Business live – latest updates Europe live – latest updates Emmanuel Macron has hit back at US criticism of Europe’s efforts to regulate AI, vowing to protect children from “digital abuse” during France’s presidency of the G7.…

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  • US funding for global internet freedom ‘effectively gutted’

    Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threat For nearly two decades, the US quietly funded a global effort to keep the internet from splintering into fiefdoms run by authoritarian governments. Now that money is seriously threatened and a large part of it is already gone, putting into jeopardy…

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