UK’s Alan Turing Institute launches redundancy consultation process

The UK’s national institute for artificial intelligence and data science has launched a consultation process that could lead to redundancies among its 440 staff.In a memo sent to staff this month the Alan Turing Institute gave an update on its new strategy, under which it will concentrate on fewer projects.It was addressed to “affected employees” and stated that the government-backed institute “may need to consider making redundancies”. According to informal calculations by staff, the memo could have been sent to as many as 140 people.The internal document said the institute – which carries out research with universities, the private sector and government entities – was working on 111 live projects and needed to “move away from engaging in large numbers of individual projects”

iPhone 16 review: more buttons and speed for Apple’s standard phone

Apple’s latest iPhone bucks the trend of buttons vanishing from phones, gaining not one but two new controls on the outside, plus a big jump in chip performance and two-day battery life on the inside.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The standard iPhone 16 is Apple’s smallest and lowest-priced handset in the new 16 series, costing from £799 (€959/$799/A$1,399) sitting below the bigger and more expensive 16 Plus and 16 Pro models

‘It’s not me, it’s just my face’: the models who found their likenesses had been used in AI propaganda

The well-groomed young man dressed in a crisp, blue shirt speaking with a soft American accent seems an unlikely supporter of the junta leader of the west African state of Burkina Faso.“We must support … President Ibrahim Traoré … Homeland or death we shall overcome!” he says in a video that began circulating in early 2023 on Telegram. It was just a few months after the dictator had come to power via a military coup.Other videos fronted by different people, with a similar professional-looking appearance and repeating the exact same script in front of the Burkina Faso flag, cropped up around the same time.On a verified account on X a few days later the same young man, in the same blue shirt, claimed to be Archie, the chief executive of a new cryptocurrency platform

Google to buy nuclear power for AI datacentres in ‘world first’ deal

Google has signed a “world first” deal to buy energy from a fleet of mini nuclear reactors to generate the power needed for the rise in use of artificial intelligence.The US tech corporation has ordered six or seven small nuclear reactors (SMRs) from California’s Kairos Power, with the first due to be completed by 2030 and the remainder by 2035.Google hopes the deal will provide a low-carbon solution to power datacentres, which require huge volumes of electricity. The company, owned by Alphabet, said nuclear provided “a clean, round-the-clock power source that can help us reliably meet electricity demands”.The explosive growth of generative AI, as well as cloud storage, has increased tech companies’ electricity demands

TechScape: Elon Musk is stumping hard for Donald Trump

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, technology news editor at the Guardian US. Thank you for joining me.Average daily notifications: 270Apps with the most total notifications: – Messages: 391 – New York Post: 190 – Slack: 121Elon Musk is stumping hard for Donald Trump.The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has funded a pro-Trump political action committee with tens of millions of dollars and planned a packed campaign schedule to boost the former president in Pennsylvania

Oura Ring 4 review: best smart ring gets comfort and battery upgrade

Oura’s stylish smart ring worn by celebrities and athletes alike has slimmed down for its fourth iteration, making it easier to put on, more comfortable to wear and last longer between charges.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Ring 4 swaps the clear plastic insides of its predecessor for shiny titanium to look even less like a cutting-edge piece of tech on your finger