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No flattery please, Claude: I’m British | Brief letters

The otherwise admirable Richard Dawkins should adjust the local settings of the chatbot or tell it to be less obsequious (Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn’t know it, 6 May). Such bots are initially geared to American overenthusiasm and egregiously flattering reinforcement, but just tell them you want British attitude. They’re only simulating you know.Brian Reffin SmithBerlin, Germany With artificial intelligence bringing “large language models” into everyday use, the LLM after my name has acquired a new meaning. For 70 years I assumed that it referred to my Cambridge master of laws

1 day ago
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TikTok’s algorithm favored Republican content in 2024 US elections, study finds

A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature finds that TikTok’s algorithm systematically prioritized pro-Republican content in three states leading up to the 2024 US elections.Researchers created hundreds of dummy accounts and conditioned them to mimic real users’ behavior by watching a set of videos either aligned with the US Democratic or Republican parties. Then, they tracked the videos TikTok recommended on these accounts’ For You pages, TikTok’s main feed.“We found a consistent imbalance,” they wrote in Nature.About 42% of US social media users say that these platforms are important for getting involved with political and social issues, according to Pew Research, but it’s not often clear how recommendation algorithms shape what appears in feeds

1 day ago
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‘Your craft is obsolete’: WiseTech staff in limbo as AI touted as better than humans

Staff at WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they are among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in AI, with workers criticising the wait as stressful and “ridiculous”.The comments come as its founder on Tuesday told investors an AI agent could learn a human’s job in just 15 minutes, according to the Australian Financial Review.The Australian Stock Exchange-listed company announced in late February that it would lay off almost 30% of its workforce across 40 countries, with 2,000 of the 7,000 jobs set to go over the next 18 months.Some areas would be hit harder than others, with product and development and customer service teams expected to be reduced by up to 50%, the chief executive, Zubin Appoo, told an investor briefing in February.“The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over,” Appoo said

1 day ago
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New Mexico proposes $3.7bn fine for Meta and sweeping changes to its social platforms

Meta has returned to court in the US this week for the second phase of a lawsuit brought by Raúl Torrez, New Mexico’s attorney general, following a March verdict that found the company liable for child safety failures and imposed a $375m fine. On Monday, the state petitioned for a legal sanction against the company, a monetary penalty 10 times the original amount, and a sweeping, drastic overhaul of Meta’s child safety protocols.In the second part of the landmark case, known as the remedies phase, the state is asking for Meta to be declared a public nuisance and for the judge to order the company to pay $3.7bn in an abatement plan. The money would fund programs for law enforcement, mental health services and educators

1 day ago
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US and tech firms strike deal to review AI models for national security before public release

The US government has struck deals with Google DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI to review early versions of their new AI models before they are released to the public.The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), part of the US Department of Commerce, announced the agreements on Tuesday, saying the review process would be key to understanding the capabilities of new and powerful AI models as well as to protecting US national security. These collaborations will help the federal government “scale (its) work in the public interest at a critical moment”, the agency said in a press release.“Independent, rigorous measurement science is essential to understanding frontier AI and its national security implications,” said Chris Fall, CAISI director.CAISI is an agency meant to facilitate collaboration between the tech industry and the federal government in developing standards and assessing risks for commercial AI systems

2 days ago
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OpenAI president’s ‘deeply personal’ diary becomes focus in Musk’s case against Altman

As Elon Musk’s case against OpenAI entered its second week, focus shifted to the company’s president, Greg Brockman. Over the course of several hours on Monday and Tuesday, Brockman faced questions about his emails, texts and one piece of evidence that has become central to the trial: his personal diary.Musk’s lawsuit revolves around his allegation that Brockman, OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, violated the founding agreement of the artificial intelligence firm by turning it into a for-profit entity. Musk argues that Altman and Brockman also unjustly enriched themselves in the process, essentially taking Musk’s money while deceiving him about their true intent for the business. He is seeking Altman and Brockman’s removal, the undoing of the for-profit restructuring and $134bn, which Musk wants distributed to OpenAI’s non-profit

2 days ago
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Financial stability risks are rising as AI fuels cyber-attacks, IMF warns; oil below $100 on Iran peace hopes – as it happened

about 5 hours ago
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Climate campaigners attack Shell over ‘windfall’ profits from Iran war

about 5 hours ago
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Europe’s AI translation industry told it risks reputation by partnering with US firms

about 15 hours ago
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Shivon Zilis, mother of four of Elon Musk’s children, testifies in OpenAI trial

about 22 hours ago
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Jonas Vingegaard targets Grand Tour slam as Giro d’Italia begins in Bulgaria

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From ‘whiff-whaff’ to the Table Tennis World Championships – photo essay

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Election results timeline: when do key battlegrounds in England, Scotland and Wales report?

about 15 hours ago
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Labour is braced for a brutal set of local, Scottish and Welsh election results that will define either the next phase of Keir Starmer’s prime ministership or bring about the end of it.Party strategists expect losses of close to 2,000 seats across England, Wales and Scotland but the damage could be a lot worse.The danger for the prime minister is not whether Labour loses heavily but where those losses come from and who those voters turn to.Across England, Reform UK is hoping to turn public anger over immigration, living standards and distrust of Westminster into local power.In progressive cities, the Greens believe voters are ready to punish Labour from the left, while in parts of Blackburn, Birmingham and east London the independents are continuing to capitalise on anger over Gaza.

In Wales and Scotland, huge losses have been predicted and could trigger a deep political crisis within Labour, given the party has been able to rely on the support of its voters there for decades,The results will arrive in waves on Friday into Saturday,Here is a guide to the key declaration windows and what the results could mean for Britain after less than two years of a Labour government,The early hours of Friday morning will produce only a handful of declarations but they could shape the mood of the entire elections,Hartlepool is one of the first major tests of whether Reform UK can convert polling momentum into real council gains.

The declaration guide itself flags the possibility of Reform making significant advances there as one of the key storylines of the night.If Reform performs strongly, Labour strategists will worry less about isolated local setbacks and more about the emergence of a durable anti-establishment challenger capable of eating into Labour’s old coalition in towns the party once considered safe.Oxford could offer an early sign of how fragmented progressive and anti-Tory voters have become, with Labour, the Greens and Liberal Democrats all competing for similar voters.The declaration guide refers to “a mess of different liberal winners in Oxford”.Dudley matters because it sits in politically volatile Midlands territory where Labour faces pressure from Reform amid frustration over immigration, living standards and distrust of Westminster politics.

This is the point at which the elections start to become nationally reflective.Hampshire is one of the most important Conservative stress tests of the entire cycle.If the Tories struggle badly there, it will reinforce the sense that their decline extends far beyond Westminster and into the local political structures that once sustained the party across southern England.London will also begin to reveal its increasingly fragmented politics.Wandsworth remains symbolically important after Labour’s breakthrough there in recent years, while Bexley and Havering are outer-London battlegrounds where Reform hopes to test whether its message can resonate beyond its traditional target areas.

For Labour, these boroughs expose the tension inside Starmer’s coalition.The party is trying to hold together progressive urban voters, socially conservative suburban voters and former Labour supporters drifting towards Reform, often all at the same time.Manchester is unlikely to produce an existential result for Labour, but the scale of any protest vote will matter.A poor showing there would suggest dissatisfaction among younger and progressive voters is deeper than ministers publicly admit.Blackburn and other northern authorities with large Muslim populations will be closely watched for signs Labour continues to suffer politically over Gaza.

Independent candidates and local groupings have increasingly targeted Labour-held areas where anger towards the government remains high,Sheffield may be among the most politically revealing declarations of the day,The Greens have steadily built strength there over several election cycles, and the council will be watched closely for signs they can translate years of local growth into broader influence,If Labour performs badly in Sheffield, the result will deepen concerns inside the party that Starmer is simultaneously leaking support to Reform on one side and the Greens on the other,Scotland will add another layer of uncertainty to Friday afternoon.

Unlike England, Scotland is not holding local council elections, but counting votes in the Scottish parliament elections,Seats including Rutherglen & Cambuslang and Motherwell & Wishaw will be watched closely for signs of whether Labour’s recovery in Scotland has stalled,For Starmer, a weak Scottish performance would matter politically even if Labour remains competitive overall,One of the central arguments for his leadership has been that he restored Labour’s credibility in Scotland after years of decline,Any sense that the recovery is already faltering would deepen wider anxieties inside the party.

This will be the busiest and politically most dangerous phase of the elections.Most Welsh declarations are expected during this period, with the guide showing the bulk of Welsh seats reporting on Friday afternoon.For Labour, poor results in Wales would carry heavy consequences in a region that has long been one of its political anchors, with the party facing major losses in the Senedd.Plaid Cymru hopes to benefit from anti-Westminster frustration, while Reform UK believes it can exploit economic frustration in former Labour areas.Elsewhere, Essex and Norfolk are key Reform battlegrounds.

Farage’s party has targeted both heavily as part of its attempt to establish itself as the primary anti-establishment force in England.Sunderland and Barnsley are equally important for Labour because they represent exactly the kind of working-class areas Reform believes it can penetrate.If Labour performs badly there, Starmer’s leadership will face renewed criticism from MPs who already fear the party lacks emotional connection with parts of its former base.London also becomes politically volatile during this period.Hackney, Harrow, Barnet and Barking and Dagenham each represent different forms of pressure on Labour, from Green advances in inner London to Reform testing support in outer boroughs.

At this point, the national narrative is likely to have been formed,But some of the most politically symbolic declarations will arrive late,Camden and Lambeth will be closely watched for Green advances against Labour in progressive inner London,Labour MPs privately worry that younger urban voters increasingly see the party as too cautious and insufficiently ambitious, particularly on climate and housing,Newham matters for different reasons.

It reflects Labour’s growing vulnerability to independents and hyperlocal campaigns in diverse urban areas where traditional party loyalty has weakened,Birmingham is politically important because it encapsulates many of Labour’s wider vulnerabilities at once, strained public services, distrust in local institutions and fragmented opposition politics,Meanwhile, Bromley remains a marker of whether the Conservatives can still dominate parts of outer London,If the Tories lose heavily there as well as in Hampshire and Essex earlier in the day, the scale of Conservative decline will become difficult for even party loyalists to dismiss,The final declarations arrive on Saturday afternoon, including Bradford, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets.

These elections are unlikely to produce one neat national verdict.Instead, they may reveal a country fragmenting into different political blocs.Reform doing well in towns and areas Labour once dominated, Greens growing in progressive cities, independents challenging Labour in Muslim communities and Conservatives struggling to defend even traditional heartlands.For Starmer, the most dangerous outcome would not necessarily be catastrophic losses in one place.It would be evidence of simultaneous erosion almost everywhere.

Labour strategists know governments almost always lose support in local elections,But if the results suggest the party is bleeding voters to multiple rivals at once, while also weakening in Wales and failing to build decisively in Scotland, questions about the strength of Starmer’s coalition and ultimately his leadership will become much harder to suppress,The headline and text of this article were amended on 7 May 2026,An earlier headline wrongly suggested there were local elections in Scotland and Wales,Also, Senedd elections are taking place this year and a reference to next year’s elections was incorrect.