Landmark losses for Meta and YouTube as big tech misses the point

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor for the Guardian. I’m hoping futilely for warm spring weather in New York City, but while it’s still cold, I’m sitting inside and reading The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Published in 2010 and a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, the book is a fascinating record of our anxieties about technology at a time when the iPhone was just three years old and Facebook was just six. Google Chrome had debuted two years prior, and I think I was using Mozilla Firefox as my main browser

UK parents: what do you think about the government’s advice on screen time for children under five?

Children under five should spend no more than an hour a day on screens and under-twos should not be watching screens alone, according to UK government advice.The guidance was developed by a panel led by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, and the children’s health expert Prof Russell Viner.Keir Starmer said the guidance would help families keep children safe and ensure they built healthy habits with screens.The prime minister said: “Parenting in a digital world can feel relentless. Screens are everywhere, and the advice is often conflicting

Palantir’s UK boss criticises ‘ideological’ groups as ministers move to scrap NHS contract

Palantir’s UK boss has urged the government not to give in to “ideologically motivated campaigners” as government ministers explore a way out of a £330m NHS contract with the tech company.Ministers have sought advice on triggering a break clause in Palantir’s deal to deliver the Federated Data Platform (FDP), amid questions over the company’s presence in the public sector.The FDP is an AI-enabled data platform designed to connect disparate health information across the NHS, while Palantir also has contracts with the Ministry of Defence, several police forces and the UK’s financial watchdog.Louis Mosley, the executive vice-chair of Palantir in the UK, told the Times the government should resist calls to eject the company from NHS England’s data systems.“Having a review clause in a contract is good and normal practice

If OpenAI is to float on the stock market this year, it needs to start turning a profit

If OpenAI is going to float this year, it has to get serious about its business model. The wow factor around the US company – the poster child of an AI industry boom that has stoked fears of a stock market bubble – has been long established, but when will the profits come? The party can’t go on for ever.The developer of ChatGPT is one of the biggest startups in the world and is now valued at $850bn (£645bn). Meanwhile, it is reportedly spending $600bn on infrastructure (the amount it invests in datacentres and chips to power its AI models) by 2030. At least this is a reduction on an initial estimate of $1

MacBook Neo review: the budget Apple laptop powered by an iPhone chip

Apple’s brand new entry-level laptop is powered by the chip from an iPhone and offers more than just the essential MacBook experience for a great price, putting the PC industry on notice.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The MacBook Neo is the first of its kind from Apple

Apple subsidiary fined by UK government over Moscow sanctions breach

The UK government has fined a subsidiary of Apple £390,000 for breaching sanctions against Moscow over payments it made to a Russian streaming platform.Apple Distribution International (ADI), based in the Republic of Ireland, instructed an unnamed UK-based bank to make two payments to a company owned by a sanctioned Russian entity.The payments, worth more than £635,000 in total, were made to the streaming service Okko from an ADI bank account based in Britain. ADI is responsible for selling Apple products in Europe and the Middle East, including from the iPhone maker’s app store.The fine was imposed by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the UK’s sanctions watchdog and part of the Treasury