Alex Hern
The Guardian
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Alex:
TechScape: Will Meta’s open-source LLM make AI safer – or put it into the wrong hands?
The AI arms race heats up as Meta makes a deal with Microsoft while its Cupertino competitor toils away on ‘Apple GPT’. Plus, Twitter’s X-tinction → Read More
AI watch: from Wimbledon to job losses in journalism
Artificial intelligence is either going to save humanity or finish it off, depending on who you speak to. Either way, every week there are new developments and breakthroughs. Here are just some of the AI stories that have emerged in recent days … The Wimbledon tennis tournament revealed it will be introducing AI-generated audio and text commentary in its online highlights this year. The All… → Read More
Tech firms to be forced to hand over data to inquests into child deaths
Bereaved families welcome online safety bill amendment that hands greater powers to coroners → Read More
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk say they’re up for a cage match. Who would win?
Zuckerberg has been competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu; Musk has size on his side – and a move called ‘the Walrus’ → Read More
Big tech is trying to weaken new digital markets regulator, Rishi Sunak warned
A legal battle is brewing over how giant firms will be able to appeal against new unit’s decisions → Read More
Wimbledon to introduce AI-powered commentary to coverage this year
All England Club teams up with IBM to offer AI-generated audio commentary and captions in online highlights clips → Read More
How John Oliver became a weapon in Reddit’s civil war
Moderators flood feeds with pictures of TV comic as they fight owners’ plans to go public → Read More
‘Mental anguish’: how a crypto scam advertised on Facebook cost victim her life savings
Guardian investigation reveals the human stories behind the scams on Meta’s social media platforms → Read More
‘I felt stupid and embarrassed’: victim of ‘Hi Mum’ fraud on WhatsApp lost £1,600
Guardian investigation reveals the human stories behind the scams on Meta’s social media platforms → Read More
Instagram scam: ‘I spent £1,200 on clothes for my son that never arrived’
Guardian investigation reveals the human stories behind the scams on Meta’s social media platforms → Read More
Music publishers sue Twitter for $250m citing Elon Musk’s copyright stance
Sony Music Group and Universal are among 17 publishers pursuing legal challenge against company → Read More
British film board turns to AI to help spot bad language, sex and violence
Partnership with Amazon’s cloud computing division aims to save time and money classifying content → Read More
Reddit moderators vow to continue blackout in API access fees row
Social network says it will not back down from plan to levy data charges against third-party tool developers → Read More
EU regulator orders Google to sell part of ad-tech business
Competition commission accuses firm of favouring its own services to detriment of rivals → Read More
AI discrimination is a bigger risk than human extinction – EU chief
Commissioner says existential threat unlikely, but ‘guardrails’ needed for decision affecting livelihoods → Read More
TechScape: The US is clamping down on cryptocurrency – is the UK next?
Regulators have launched two big lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, and Rishi Sunak could mine the benefits → Read More
Reddit communities to ‘go dark’ in protest over third-party app charges
Thousands of subreddits to go private on Monday over plans to charge other companies for access to data → Read More
Mind-reading tech ‘must include neurodivergent people to avoid bias’
UK data watchdog says science of monitoring brain and nervous system is expanding fast but holds ‘real danger’ of discrimination → Read More
BA, Boots and BBC cyber-attack: who is behind it and what happens next?
A cybercrime group has exploited a flaw in MOVEit software and is demanding a ransom → Read More
Cybercrime gang hits BA, Boots and BBC with ultimatum after mass hack
Russian-speaking Clop group demands ransom negotiations after stealing data of thousands of staff → Read More