Ken Eason obituary

My friend and former colleague Ken Eason, who has died aged 83, was an eminent academic. He specialised in the study of how the introduction of computer technology affects managers and employees in organisations, often with unexpected consequences.Much of his work took place at Loughborough University, where he was involved in the formation in 1970 of the university’s Human Sciences and Advanced Technology (HUSAT) Institute, which carried out some of the earliest research on human-computer interaction.He was the institute’s deputy director until succeeding its founder, Brian Shackel, as its director in 1992, holding that position until Husat was disbanded in 1996. Thereafter he was professor of cognitive ergonomics at Loughborough until his retirement in 2002

Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn’t know it

When Richard Dawkins met Claudia it was like a whirlwind romance. Over three days last week, a conversation bounced between the evolutionary biologist and the AI bot he called Claudia. “She” wrote poems for him in the manner of Keats and Betjeman and laughed at his “delightful” jokes. Dawkins gently admonished Claudia to avoid showing off. Together, they reflected on the sadness of the AI’s possible “death”

GameStop shares fall 10% after CEO skirts questions over eBay acquisition details

GameStop’s shares fell more than 10% on Monday as questions emerged about how the company would finance its surprise $55.5bn bid for eBay.In an interview with CNBC, Ryan Cohen, GameStop’s CEO, skirted repeated inquiries about how the video games retailer could afford the deal, saying he didn’t understand the questions.A letter published on GameStop’s website outlines a half-cash, half-stock proposal to acquire eBay at $125 a share, using about $9.4bn in “cash on hand”, and a $20bn in potential debt financing from TD Securities

AI platforms reference Nigel Farage more than other leaders when prompted on UK politics, study shows

AI platforms are more likely to reference Nigel Farage than any other UK leader when prompted about British politics, according to an AI search analytics firm.“We are confident in saying that Reform are showing up significantly more than you would expect,” said Malte Landwehr, an expert at Peec AI, the firm that did the research. “So they’re doing something right when it comes to LLM [large language model] visibility.”Peec’s research tested leading AI models – including ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overview – on their responses to 5,000 different structured prompts related to British politics, including the economy and jobs, immigration, healthcare and crime. These prompts were run repeatedly over the course of several weeks, generating over 280,000 data points

Vine video-sharing app is back – and battling AI slop

As a pioneer of the short-form video format, Vine has been credited as one of the most influential – if short-lived – social media platforms.The app, which allowed users to record a looping six seconds of video, boomed in popularity after its launch in 2013, spawning a plethora of viral comedy sketches and internet memes. It hit 100 million monthly active users at its peak and helped launch the careers of influencers such as Logan Paul.It was snapped up by Twitter – now X – soon after its creation, but closed in 2017 after the platform failed to make the sums add up.Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, is now backing an attempt to bring back a revamped version of the much-loved platform with a new philosophy: to be the short-form video app offering “freedom from AI slop”

GameStop makes $55.5bn takeover offer for eBay

US video games retailer GameStop has offered to buy eBay for $55.5bn (£41bn) in an unsolicited bid that its boss warned could turn hostile if the proposal is rebuffed by eBay’s board.GameStop, which has quietly accumulated a 5% stake in eBay, said it was willing to pay $125 a share, split 50-50 between cash and stock.It is an ambitious move by the games company, which catapulted to fame during the meme-stock craze of 2021 but is worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn on Friday before its bid, while eBay – originally launched as a side hobby by its founder Pierre Omidyar in 1995 – is worth about $46bn