UK parents suing TikTok over children’s deaths ‘suspicious’ about data claims

Four British parents who are suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their children say they are “suspicious” about the social media platform’s claim to have deleted their children’s data.The parents have filed a lawsuit in the US that claims that their four children died in 2022 as a result of attempting the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend that circulated on social media in 2021.The week after the lawsuit was filed, a TikTok executive said that there were some things “we simply don’t have” because of “legal requirements around when we remove data”. Under UK GDPR rules, platforms are obliged to not keep personal data for longer than necessary.However, the parents were surprised that their children’s data would be deleted so quickly

Samsung Galaxy S25 review: the smallest top-tier Android left

The smallest and cheapest of Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 line might be the one to buy, offering top performance and the very latest AI features for less and proving that smaller-sized Androids can still be great.Unlike previous generations of Samsung’s smaller models sold in the UK and Europe, the regular S25 has the same top-flight chip as the enormous and pricey Ultra model, offering a lot of performance while costing £799 (€919/$800/A$1,399).The rest of the S25 hasn’t changed materially since last year. It still has a great 6.2in screen, three cameras on the back, flat aluminium sides and glass front and back

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity guts DEI after assuring staff it would continue

The for-profit charity organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, has done an about-face on its commitment to corporate diversity.Executives at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) informed employees on Tuesday evening that the organization would in effect do away with both internal and external diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, according to an internal email and other correspondence viewed by the Guardian. On 10 January, leaders at CZI reassured staff that its longstanding support for DEI was not changing. Zuckerberg’s company Meta had announced earlier that day it would terminate its DEI programs, in the days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration.Marc Malandro, CZI’s chief operating officer, wrote in the email to all employees he had been reviewing the organization’s programs “to ensure that they align with our focus as a science philanthropy as well as the current legal and policy landscape”

Apple launches iPhone 16e and ditches home button

Apple has put the final nail in the coffin of the home button after 18 years with the release of the new iPhone 16e.The lowest-cost new iPhone replaces the 2022 iPhone SE, which was the last Apple product standing with the touch ID button, finishing off its drawn-out demise, which started with the iPhone X back in 2017.The iPhone 16e costs £599 (€709/$599/A$999) and offers a modern iPhone experience similar to the regular iPhone 15 and latest iPhone 16 but with a few bells and whistles removed to reach a slightly lower price. It replaces the previously cheapest available £599 iPhone 14 and £429 iPhone SE in Apple’s lineup, and thus marks a considerable price increase for the cheapest new iPhone when it ships on 28 February.The new iPhone has an aluminium frame, glass front and back and an 15

Microsoft unveils chip it says could bring quantum computing within years

Quantum computers could be built within years rather than decades, according to Microsoft, which has unveiled a breakthrough that it said could pave the way for faster development.The tech firm has developed a chip which, it says, echoes the invention of the semiconductors that made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible by miniaturisation and increased processing power.The chip is powered by the world’s first topoconductor, which can create a new state of matter that is not a solid, liquid, or gas – making it possible to design quantum systems that fit in a single chip smaller than the palm of a hand, and to create more reliable hardware, a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature reports.Paul Stevenson, a professor of physics at the University of Surrey, said Microsoft could be “very serious competitors” in the race to build the first reliable quantum computers if the company successfully built on this research.“The new papers are a significant step, but as with much promising work in quantum computing, the next steps are difficult and until the next steps have been achieved, it is too soon to be anything more than cautiously optimistic,” he said

EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act

An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act.The intervention came as 15 cultural organisations wrote to the European Commission this week warning that draft rules to implement the AI Act were “taking several steps backwards” on copyright, while one writer spoke of a “devastating” loophole.Axel Voss, a German centre-right member of the European parliament, who played a key role in writing the EU’s 2019 copyright directive, said that law was not conceived to deal with generative AI models: systems that can generate text, images or music with a simple text prompt.Voss said “a legal gap” had opened up after the conclusion of the EU’s AI Act, which meant copyright was not enforceable in this area. “What I do not understand is that we are supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas and content