UK sales of new Tesla cars slump by more than a third amid Musk backlash

Sales of new Tesla cars slumped by more than a third in the UK last month as the electric carmaker lost ground to China’s BYD and other rivals, amid a political backlash against its billionaire boss, Elon Musk.Tesla sold 2,016 vehicles in the UK in May, down from 3,152 in May 2024 – a 36% drop, according to the monthly snapshot from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).The Chinese carmaker BYD’s sales in the UK jumped by 407%, from 596 in May last year to 3,025 last month. It sells hybrids as well as pure electric cars. BYD first overtook Tesla in January

Amazon ‘testing humanoid robots to deliver packages’

Amazon is reportedly developing software for humanoid robots that could perform the role of delivery workers and “spring out” of its vans.The $2tn (£1.47tn) technology company is building a “humanoid park” in the US to test the robots, said the tech news site the Information, citing a person who had been involved in the project.The Information reported that the robots could eventually take the jobs of delivery workers. It is developing the artificial intelligence software that would power the robots but will use hardware developed by other companies

English-speaking countries more nervous about rise of AI, polls suggest

People in English-speaking countries including the UK, US, Australia and Canada are more nervous about the rise of artificial intelligence than those in the largest EU economies, where excitement over its spread is higher, new research suggests.A global split over what has been dubbed “the wonder and worry” of AI appears to correlate with widely divergent levels of trust in governments to regulate the fast-developing technology.The polling of 23,000 adults in 30 countries, shared exclusively with the Guardian by Ipsos Mori, also showed a quarter of people globally still do not have a good understanding of what AI is, despite it being widely described as the most transformative technology in decades.On Wednesday, Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus revealed he was writing a musical with the assistance of AI, describing it as “like having another songwriter in the room with a huge reference frame”.Britons appear to be among the world’s most worried people about the rise of AI, with two-thirds of people in Great Britain saying they are nervous about the technology being deployed in products and services, and less than half trusting the UK government to regulate AI responsibly

Trump family disown debut of crypto wallet: ‘I know nothing about this project!’

A splashy website featuring an illustration of Donald Trump, looking buff and pumping his fist in the air, appeared online on Tuesday. The image is the logo of one of Trump’s digital currencies, and the website claims to be the “Official $Trump Wallet”, hawking a product that would allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, primarily the president’s own.The website prominently features the name of Trump’s coin, $Trump, and invites people to join the waitlist to use the digital wallet. It was first noticed by the crypto newsletter Citation Needed. Magic Eden, an established cryptocurrency marketplace, said on the website that it had partnered with Trump’s official digital coin team to create the wallet

Peers vote to defy government over copyright threat from AI

Defiant peers have delivered an ultimatum to the government – calling on it to offer artists copyright protection against artificial intelligence companies or risk losing a key piece of legislation.The government suffered a fifth defeat in the House of Lords over controversial plans to allow the AI companies to train their models using copyrighted material.Peers voted by 221 to 116 on Wednesday to insist on an amendment to force AI companies to be transparent about what material they use to train their models.Speaking at an awards event after the vote, Elton John said copyright protection was an “existential issue” for artists and urged the government “to do the right thing”.He added: “We will not let the government forget their promise to support our creative industries

BBC and Sky bosses criticise plans to let AI firms use copyrighted material

The BBC director general and the boss of Sky have criticised proposals to let tech firms use copyright-protected work without permission, as the government promised that artificial intelligence legislation will not destroy the £125bn creative sector.The creative industry has said that original proposals published in a consultation in February to give AI companies access to creative works unless the copyright holder opts out would “scrape the value” out of the sector.Dana Strong, the group chief executive of Sky, compared the proposal to its own battles against TV piracy and said individuals and small companies would not have the experience and financial resources to protect their intellectual property.“Sky is one of the leading forces in trying to fight against piracy,” she said, speaking at the Deloitte and Enders Media and Telecoms conference.“As I look ahead to artificial intelligence, protecting copyright is a very big issue, and I think some of the consequences of the opt-out are impossible to police