The fight to see clearly through big tech’s echo chambers
Hello, and welcome to TechScape.I’m your host, Blake Montgomery.Today, I’m mulling over whether to upgrade my iPhone 11 Pro.In tech news, there’s a narrative battle afoot in Silicon Valley, tips on avoiding the yearly smartphone upgrade cycle and new devices altogether, and artificial intelligence’s use in government, for better and for worse.The encroachment of technology can feel inevitable.
It may have always, but increasingly it’s a perception bolstered by big tech’s own friendly media bubble.My colleague Nick Robins-Early reports:If you are looking to hear from some of tech’s most powerful people, you will increasingly find them on a constellation of shows and podcasts like Sourcery that provide a safe space for an industry that is wary, if not openly hostile, towards critical media outlets.Some of the new media outlets are created by the companies themselves.Others just occupy a specific niche that has found a friendly ear among the tech billionaire class like a remora on a fast-moving shark.The heads of tech’s largest companies, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella and more, have all sat for long, cozy interviews in recent months, while firms like Palantir and Andreessen Horowitz have branched out this year into creating their own media ventures.
At a time when the majority of Americans distrust big tech and believe artificial intelligence will harm society, Silicon Valley has built its own network of alternative media where CEOs, founders and investors are the unchallenged and beloved stars.What was once the province of a few fawning podcasters has grown into a fully fledged ecosystem of publications and shows supported by some of the tech industry’s most powerful.But at the same time as big tech’s echo chambers are growing louder, so do critical voices from within.My colleague Varsha Bansal reports on two recent developments.AI raters in the US – a new type of contracted content moderator for artificial intelligence – are telling their friends and family not to use AI.
In Seattle, more than 1,000 Amazon corporate workers have anonymously signed an open letter warning the company that its rapid rollout of AI across the company and its products threatens the climate and the livelihoods of its workers,A dozen AI raters, workers who check an AI’s responses for accuracy and groundedness, told the Guardian that, after becoming aware of the way chatbots and image generators function and just how wrong their output can be, they have begun urging their friends and family not to use generative AI at all – or at least trying to educate their loved ones on using it cautiously,These trainers work on a range of AI models – Google’s Gemini, Elon Musk’s Grok, other popular models, and several smaller or lesser-known bots,More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to “democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth”,The letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon workers anonymously, and comes a month after Amazon announced mass layoff plans as it increases adoption of AI in its operations.
It contains a range of demands for Amazon, concerning its impact on the workplace and the environment.Staffers are calling on the company to power all its datacenters with clean energy and make sure its AI-powered products and services do not enable “violence, surveillance and mass deportation”.ChatGPT firm blames boy’s suicide on ‘misuse’ of its technologyChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warnAI’s safety features can be circumvented with poetry, research findsBlack Friday online sales hit $8.6bn in the US, according to Adobe Analytics.You might be one of the buyers.
Or you might think, like me, that you can hold on to your sputtering phone, laptop, tablet, etc, one more year, despite the cracked screen or one-hour battery.Replacing them outright with new versions can be prohibitively expensive.Increasingly, there is another option, though.Devices, even Apple ones, are becoming more repairable.Which means that often, even when your devices are on their last legs, there are cheaper ways to get the tech you need than buying new ones.
My colleague Alan Martin reports on refurbished devices and five tips to follow while shopping for them:Read the descriptionRefurbished can mean different things.See what condition is promised, paying special attention to battery health.Peer-to-peer buys are a gamble.“Preowned”, “secondhand” and “refurbished” may be used interchangeably, but they mean different things.That separates refurbished marketplaces such as Back Market, MusicMagpie, Refurbed and others from sites where you buy directly from a member of the public, such as Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
Check the warranty and returns policyYou want to know that you’re in good hands should anything go wrong,Research the seller’s reputationLook at customer reviews and internet feedback,If on eBay, look for sellers in the company’s Refurbished programme,Research your chosen deviceThe older the device, the bigger the discount – but this is a false economy if you have to replace it sooner,With phones and laptops, especially, make sure they’re getting updates and will be able to cope with years of use.
Don’t cheap outA low price is only a bargain if it actually delivers.Prioritise customer service and a transparent refurbishment process over saving a few pounds.“The best advice I can give for buying refurbished is to go via established retailers such as Back Market, Giffgaff and Vodafone, and if you’re buying through eBay then try to get a device that’s listed as ‘certified refurbished’,” says technology journalist Thomas Deehan, interviewedRead more: From smash-proof cases to updates: how to make your smartphone last longerArtificial intelligence is proliferating in a wide array of workplaces, including the ones where taxes fund the payroll.The stakes of elections and prison sentences are far higher than the sale of the wrong merchandise by a private company, making AI seem like an ill-advised gamble in government.At the same time, the slogging pace of bureaucracy is a worldwide problem, making AI’s streamlining capabilities appealing.
The use of AI in government is still in the early stages.The experiment is yielding mixed results.First, the good news.Brazil, Germany, and Japan are using generative AI to streamline bureaucracy and make it more participatory.Nathan E Sanders and Bruce Schneier, co-authors of the book Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship, write:Brazil is notoriously litigious, with even more lawyers per capita than the US.
The courts are chronically overwhelmed with cases and the resultant backlog costs the government billions to process,Since at least 2019, the Brazilian government has aggressively adopted AI to automate procedures throughout its judiciary,AI is not making judicial decisions, but aiding in distributing caseloads, performing legal research, transcribing hearings, identifying duplicative filings, preparing initial orders for signature and clustering similar cases for joint consideration: all things to make the judiciary system work more efficiently,And the results are significant; Brazil’s federal supreme court backlog, for example, dropped in 2025 to its lowest levels in 33 years,In Germany, With the new tools Wahlweise and Wahl.
chat, AI-infused offshoots of the official Wahl-o-Mat how-to-vote quiz, citizens can engage in an interactive conversation with an AI system to more easily get the same information contextualized to their individual interests and questions instead of having to read static webpages about the positions of various political parties.In Japan, Last year, then 33-year-old engineer Takahiro Anno was a fringe candidate for governor of Tokyo.Running as an independent candidate, he ended up coming in fifth in a crowded field of 56, largely thanks to the unprecedented use of an authorized AI avatar.That avatar answered 8,600 questions from voters on a 17-day continuous YouTube live stream and garnered the attention of campaign innovators worldwide.Two months ago, Anno-san was elected to Japan’s upper legislative chamber, again leveraging the power of AI to engage constituents – this time answering more than 20,000 questions.
His new party, Team Mirai, promises that its members will direct their questioning in committee hearings based on public input in its Mirai Assembly app.Second, the bad news.In California, government lawyers failed to fact-check the output of generative AI while trying to put a man in prison.My colleague Cecilia Nowell reports on an California prosecutor’s office, which used artificial intelligence to file a motion in at least one criminal case.The motion contained errors known as “hallucinations”:A prosecutor at the Nevada county district attorney’s office in northern California “recently used artificial intelligence in preparing a filing, which resulted in an inaccurate citation,” district attorney Jesse Wilson said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee.
“Once the error was discovered, the filing was immediately withdrawn.”Defense and civil rights attorneys argue the prosecutor’s office used artificial intelligence in other criminal court filings.‘It’s hell for us here’: Mumbai families suffer as datacentres keep the city hooked on coalEuropean parliament calls for social media ban on under-16sMacquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic faceWarner Music signs deal with AI song generator Suno after settling lawsuit
UK ministers aim to ban cryptocurrency political donations over anonymity risks
Ministers are working to ban political donations made with cryptocurrency but the crackdown is not likely to be ready for the elections bill in the new year, Whitehall sources have said.The government increasingly believes that donations made with cryptocurrency pose a risk to the integrity of the electoral system, not least because the source can be hard to verify.However, the complex nature of cryptocurrency means officials do not believe a ban will be workable by the time of the elections bill, due to be published shortly, which is set to lower the voting age to 16 and reduce loopholes in political finance.The government’s ambition to ban crypto donations will be a blow to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which became the first to accept contributions in digital currency this year. It is believed to have received its first registrable donations in cryptocurrency this autumn and the party has set up its own crypto portal to receive contributions, saying it is subject to “enhanced” checks
David Lammy tells of ‘traumatic’ racial abuse in youth after Farage allegations
David Lammy has spoken of his own “traumatic” experience of being racially abused at school as he called on Nigel Farage to apologise for comments he allegedly made while a teenager.Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said the testimony of more than 20 of the Reform leader’s school contemporaries of his racist and antisemitic behaviour was “deeply troubling”.Farage has faced repeated calls for a show of contrition after a Guardian investigation into his time at Dulwich college, in south-east London, but he is yet to apologise.He has denied that anything he did as a young man was “directly” racist or antisemitic while conceding that “banter” then could be interpreted differently today.Lammy, 53, whose parents, David and Rosalind, came to the UK from Guyana, contrasted Farage, 61, to those who abused him as a young man growing up in north London
Angela Rayner to lay amendment to speed up workers’ rights bill
The former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner will lay an amendment on Wednesday to speed up the workers rights’ bill, after “considerable anger” that unelected Lords forced the watering down of day-one rights.The amendment would mean the new shorter qualifying period is in place by early next year.A number of MPs have told the Guardian that while they accept the need for the change, they fear that the climbdown by the government will embolden peers and critics of the bill to push for further changes.Rayner, who was the driving force behind the legislation in government, is understood to have accepted the compromise to remove day-one rights against unfair dismissal and replace it with a reduced qualifying period, down from two years to six months.Trade unions have mostly accepted the compromise – arguing that the alternative of a nine-month probation period needed extra time for consultation amid worries it was unworkable
UK terror watchdog warns national security plan ignores escalating online threats
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism laws has criticised the government’s latest national security strategy for failing to take online threats more seriously, despite Keir Starmer claiming it would result in “a hardening and sharpening of our approach” in the face of Russian menace.Jonathan Hall KC said it was “a very surprising omission” that the 2025 national security strategy did not focus more on online risks, including from terrorists and hostile states, which he said were now a “major vector of threat”.Hall said the need to protect the country against online threats – with digital channels being employed widely by terrorists and states – was now little different from the need for robust air, naval and land forces. The adviser, appointed by the home secretary, was speaking before a speech on Tuesday in which he is expected to say that not dwelling more on the implications of online threats to national security “is a gross error”.Hall, who has been the reviewer of terrorism legislation for six years, said that almost all terrorism in the UK starts online
Attorney general urges Nigel Farage to apologise over alleged racism and antisemitism
The UK’s top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish government ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim the Reform UK leader racially abused them while at school.The attorney general, Richard Hermer, said Farage had “clearly deeply hurt” many people judging by their descriptions of his behaviour, and that his “constantly changing” denials had been unconvincing.Speaking to the Guardian, Hermer said: “Throughout his defensive responses to legitimate questions put to him, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism.”A Guardian investigation last month reported the testimony of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage at Dulwich College, in south London.They included Peter Ettedgui, who said a 13-year-old Farage “would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”
Starmer has little choice but to bind himself closer to his chancellor
When Keir Starmer was mounting the case for the prosecution against Boris Johnson for his Partygate antics, it took almost two months and a police investigation for him to formally call for the prime minister to resign. He was of the view there was no point calling for things until they were likely to happen.This is not the philosophy of the current leader of the opposition. Since October, Kemi Badenoch has called on Starmer to sack his chancellor three times, once over a mishap with her rental licence, then for considering raising income tax, and finally because she did not in fact raise income tax.It is unclear whether Badenoch genuinely believes Reeves may be forced out because of how she spun the forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility to help her step back from the brink of a manifesto breach
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