Techlaw

George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 15.07.2026

Star Wars director calls AI technology ‘the future’ of film-making and says ‘there’s nothing you can do about it’The Star Wars director, George Lucas, has added his voice to the growing chorus of film-makers receptive to the rising use of AI tools in moviemaking.Speaking in an interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, Lucas, 82, said: “Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies.” Continue reading...

Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

Another mammoth Patch Tuesday update, likely topping 600 flaws in total, sends defenders into the weeds.

Prime minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham takes aim at outsourcing

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

Soon-to-be-appointed prime minister adds weight to government’s existing plan to ‘end era of outsourcing’

Home Office proposes AI tooling to accelerate digital disclosure

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

PoliceAI will be used to pilot artificial intelligence tools that are capable of automatically generating summaries of digital material, saving ‘countless’ admin hours

Reeves speaks up about UK sovereign AI

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

The UK government has ambitions to build out its own AI capabilities, but its plans are stumped by high datacentre power costs

‘Not up for grabs’: Albanese establishes AI office and vows to protect Australian creatives from copyright ‘theft’

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 15.07.2026

PM lays out plan for datacentre development and rejects prospect tech companies will be given free use of Australian dataFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese has promised “the strongest possible protection” for Australian creatives against misuse of their work by artificial intelligence models, warning it would be “theft” if writers, artists and musicians didn’t have control of their work or receive payment for its use.Amid growing community concern about large energy-intensive datacentres, the federal government will also set strict new rules for the facilities, including where they can be built, that they shouldn’t compete for land with housing, their power and water use, and that they don’t increase electricity prices for consumers. Continue reading...

ICO ‘less effective as a regulator’ due to toxic culture

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

Staff of the UK’s data protection watchdog say it was ‘less effective’ due to a toxic workplace culture upheld by senior leadership team

Out of sight, out of work: Creating opportunity for blind and partially sighted people

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

Billions of pounds are being lost - and hundreds of thousands of people excluded from the economy - because so much of our technology and working lives are not inclusive by design

CW@60: An adventure into cyber security

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

Cyber security expert Rik Ferguson charts an unlikely career from The Hobbit through childhood thespianism to the cutting edge of cyber defence

Made in Spain: Surveillance tech banned in EU booms in India

Published in Chaotic July Patch Tuesday threatens to overwhelm defenders on 15.07.2026

India is rolling out facial-recognition technology to monitor millions of its citizens, with much of the software coming from a Spanish company – but critics argue the government promise of public safety is not the main aim

Meta used AI to tag workers who took leave to be laid off, lawsuit claims

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 15.07.2026

Lawsuit filed by dozens of employees says people who took maternity or disability leave were disproportionately selected for layoffsDozens of Meta employees have sued the social media company over claims that it used artificial intelligence tools to tag workers for mass layoffs. The workers allege that those AI tools targeted them after they asked for protected or maternity leave or disability accommodation.The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in the northern district of California, points to Meta’s workforce reduction of about 8,000 employees earlier this year. Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The suit alleges that Meta used a “constellation of internal artificial intelligence systems”, including AI performance ratings and keystroke- and activity-monitoring data, to pinpoint who to lay off. Continue reading...

UK 16- and 17-year-olds to be encouraged to follow midnight social media curfew

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 14.07.2026

Midnight to 6am block on some apps is latest stage of Labour’s bid to protect young people from online harmsSixteen and 17-year-olds are to be encouraged to observe a midnight social media curfew, in the latest stage of Labour’s bid “to protect the next generation” from online harms, including poor sleep caused by night-time scrolling.From next spring, Britain’s oldest children will be urged to refrain from using certain apps with a midnight to 6am block being switched on by default. But the curfew will not be mandatory and can be overridden. The move is an extension of the under-16 social media ban announced last month, which included restrictions on platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. Continue reading...

Global cooperation needed to tackle AI threats, says Bank of England governor

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 14.07.2026

Andrew Bailey warns that US will not be able to achieve its ambitions aloneThe Bank of England governor has called for international cooperation to tackle growing AI threats, warning that the US and Trump administration would not be able to achieve their ambitions alone.Andrew Bailey’s comments come weeks after the US president, Donald Trump, temporarily banned foreigners from using Anthropic’s powerful Claude Mythos model. Continue reading...

IBM loses quarter of its value as tech giant’s shares plunge and profits falter

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 14.07.2026

IBM issued profit warning after weak second quarter, triggering selloff in software sector including MicrosoftShares in IBM plunged more than 25% on Tuesday after the US tech giant released disappointing preliminary second-quarter results. IBM’s stock was on track for an even steeper single-day decline than it suffered during ⁠the 1987 “Black Monday” crash.IBM had issued a profit warning and blamed shifts in corporate customers’ spending. The company said revenue for the three months ending in June came in at $17.2bn, up just 1% year-over-year. Continue reading...

The UK wants to catch up in the global AI race – but is too wary to go all-in

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 14.07.2026

UK fears a ‘triple whammy’: oversized investment in AI stocks, slower adoption of AI than predicted and the breakneck pace of AI’s developmentHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Today, we’re discussing the UK’s difficult position in the AI race, new doubts over OpenAI’s path toward a trillion-dollar stock market debut and the changes to IRL tech reporting in the age of AI.My patients use ChatGPT for therapy. Now I use it too | Sarah Darghouth | The GuardianChasing new skills, going back to basics and pushing for collective action: how software engineers are adapting to AI Continue reading...

Microsoft Surface Laptop 8 review: a quality PC whose trackpad taps you back

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 14.07.2026

Snappy performance, long battery life, great keyboard and excellent new haptic touchpad make the best of Windows 11Microsoft’s Surface laptop for consumers is back, faster and with longer battery life and a hefty price increase because of the high cost of memory and chips.The Surface Laptop 8 is a straight replacement for the seventh edition from 2024, which was the first of Microsoft’s new generation of ARM-based, Qualcomm-powered PCs designed to better rival Apple’s MacBook Air and other thin and light machines. Continue reading...