Tesla reports steep drop in profits despite US rush to buy electric vehicles

Despite record vehicle sales, Tesla saw a precipitous drop in profit in its most recent quarter.A rush to buy electric vehicles before a US tax credit for them disappears had boosted Tesla’s flagging sales, leading to the automaker exceeding some of Wall Street’s projections in its most recent financial quarter. Yet the company failed to meet earnings expectations and its stock fell in after-hours trading.Tesla reported third-quarter earnings of $0.50 a share on Wednesday after market close, less than the $0

OpenAI relaxed ChatGPT guardrails just before teen killed himself, family alleges

The family of a teenager who took his own life after months of conversations with ChatGPT now says OpenAI weakened safety guidelines in the months before his death.In July 2022, OpenAI’s guidelines on how ChatGPT should answer inappropriate content, including “content that promotes, encourages, or depicts acts of self-harm, such as suicide, cutting, and eating disorders”, were simple: the AI chatbot should respond, “I can’t answer that”, the guidelines read.But in May 2024, just days before OpenAI released a new version of the AI, ChatGPT-4o, the company published an update to its Model Spec, a document that details the desired behavior for its assistant. In cases where a user expressed suicidal ideation or self-harm, ChatGPT would no longer respond with an outright refusal. Instead, the model was instructed not to end the conversation and “provide a space for users to feel heard and understood, encourage them to seek support, and provide suicide and crisis resources when applicable”

Apple and Google face enforced changes over UK mobile phone dominance

Google and Apple face enforced changes to how they operate their mobile phone platforms, after the UK’s competition watchdog ruled the companies require tougher regulatory oversight.The Competition and Markets Authority has conferred “strategic market status” (SMS) on the tech firms after investigating their mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers. It means Apple and Google will be subjected to tailormade guidelines to regulate their behaviour in the mobile market.The CMA said the two companies have “substantial, entrenched” market power, with UK mobile phone owners using either Google or Apple’s platforms and unlikely to switch between them. The regulator flagged the importance of their platforms to the UK economy and said they could be a bottleneck for businesses

Google hails breakthrough as quantum computer surpasses ability of supercomputers

Google has claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing after developing an algorithm that performed a task beyond the capabilities of conventional computers.The algorithm, a set of instructions guiding the operation of a quantum computer, was able to compute the structure of a molecule – which paves the way for major discoveries in areas such as medicine and materials science.Google acknowledged, however, that real-world use of quantum computers remained years away.“This is the first time in history that any quantum computer has successfully run a verifiable algorithm that surpasses the ability of supercomputers,” Google said in a blogpost. “This repeatable, beyond-classical computation is the basis for scalable verification, bringing quantum computers closer to becoming tools for practical applications

iPhone 17 review: the Apple smartphone to get this year

It may not look as different as the redesigned Pro models this year or be as wafer thin as the new iPhone Air, but the iPhone 17 marks a big year for the standard Apple smartphone.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.That’s because Apple has finally brought one of the best features of modern smartphones to its base-model flagship phone: a super-smooth 120Hz screen

Harry and Meghan join AI pioneers in call for ban on superintelligent systems

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have joined artificial intelligence pioneers and Nobel laureates in calling for a ban on developing superintelligent AI systems.Harry and Meghan are among the signatories of a statement calling for “a prohibition on the development of superintelligence”. Artificial superintelligence (ASI) is the term for AI systems, yet to be developed, that exceed human levels of intelligence at all cognitive tasks.The statement calls for the ban to stay in place until there is “broad scientific consensus” on developing ASI “safely and controllably” and once there is “strong public buy-in”.It has also been signed by the AI pioneer and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, along with his fellow “godfather” of modern AI, Yoshua Bengio; the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; the UK entrepreneur Richard Branson; Susan Rice, a former US national security adviser under Barack Obama; the former Irish president Mary Robinson, and the British author and broadcaster Stephen Fry