Technology

A brain chip company owned by Elon Musk has said it has received permission to start recruiting for human trials. Neuralink has created an implant designed to let people control a computer mouse or keyboard with their thoughts. It would be inserted into a region of the brain that controls the intention to move. Musk,

“Finish him!” Besides “bon appetit”, few phrases fill me with as much anticipation. The Mortal Kombat series might be even older than I am, but more than 30 years after it became a poster child for moral panic about video game violence, its infamous “fatality” moves remain intriguing. Not content with allowing players to beat

Elon Musk has said he will start charging people to use the social media site formerly known as Twitter. NBC News reports the billionaire businessman, who renamed the platform to X, revealed on a live stream that the company would introduce a “small monthly payment” to combat “vast armies of bots”. Musk has long complained

The Online Safety Bill is on the cusp of becoming law. It is expected to be one of the government’s flagship pieces of legislation for this term, but comes following several delays due to controversy over its potential privacy implications. Online Safety Bill set to pass final hurdle – politics latest Sky News understands it

Reports of children falling victim to a form of online sexual extortion have soared this year, a charity has warned. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it had received an “unprecedented” 191 reports of “sextortion” in the first half of this year, compared to 30 reports across the whole of last year. The number of

Ahead of the release of the iPhone 15, a major software update will land on Apple’s existing handsets today. iOS 17 brings new features including a standby mode that turns your device into a bedside smart display, interactive widgets for the home screen, and the ability to clone your voice with AI. Sky News has

Ten years ago today, Grand Theft Auto V debuted on shop shelves. Even by the standards set by previous entries in the iconic video game series, its success – both immediate and long-term – could not have been anticipated. The fastest entertainment product in history to make $1bn (£792m), and the most profitable ever made,

Never mind typing on WhatsApp, swiping on Tinder, or scrolling on TikTok; even after all these years, few apps are able to turn you into a phone-obsessed zombie quite like Candy Crush. More than a decade since it debuted on Apple and Google‘s app stores, the colourful tile-matching puzzle game remains an entertaining time sink

TikTok has been fined €345m (£296m) for breaching privacy laws over the processing of children’s personal data, an EU regulator has said. The investigation by Ireland‘s data protection commission found the Chinese-owned video app‘s default settings made teenagers’ accounts publicly viewable by default. It said this also posed a risk to children under 13 who

Incoming changes to Unity’s gaming engine have caused outrage among developers who use the platform, with some of its biggest creators threatening to pull their games from the engine entirely. Developers have been scathing of pricing changes announced by Unity to its gaming engine, with many threatening to switch to its competitors. Unity’s engine –

Almost 40% of people who underwent CPR and survived cardiac arrest had memories, dreamlike experiences or some perception even when they were unconscious, a study into near-death experiences suggests. Researchers also found signs of brain wave activity, suggesting awareness – sometimes up to an hour – before they were resuscitated. “There’s nothing more extreme than

NASA has appointed its first director of UFO research after an independent scientific panel said it should play a larger role in detecting them. It announced the move following the publication of a 33-page report, which contained a series of recommendations describing how the space agency could advance the US government’s understanding of such phenomena.

UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings has secured a $54.5bn (£43.6bn) value ahead of its eagerly anticipated return to the stock market later on Thursday. Shares in the firm, majority-owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group, are scheduled to start trading today on the Nasdaq in New York. High demand from investors meant it was able to sell

The world is “nowhere close” to artificial intelligence (AI) becoming an existential threat, according to the Pentagon’s computer intelligence chief who predicts future supremacy in the field will all come down to data. Recent headlines around generative models like ChatGPT have misled people about their power, according to Dr Craig Martell, the US defence department’s

Vaping adverts that appeared on TikTok despite breaking the platform’s own rules have been banned by the UK regulator. The app‘s community guidelines prohibit the promotion of tobacco products, including vapes and e-cigarettes. But videos marketing Zovoo, Innofly HK, Vapes Bars, and The Disposable Vape Store all appeared in recent months. In one for the

Apple has announced its new iPhone 15 range with a USB-C charging port, ditching its lightning standard to comply with EU rules. It marks the first time since 2012 that the tech giant has changed the connector on its flagship device. The switch had been anticipated since last year, when the EU mandated that all