iPhone users will soon be able to clone their own voice

Thanks to a new iPhone feature that lets anyone clone their voice with no technical chops and little time required, meeting anxiety may become a thing of the past. Announced back in May and now available as part of the public beta for iOS 17, the "personal voice" tool lets my voice read aloud any text whatsoever…

Jaguar Land Rover confirms UK-based gigafactory

Jaguar Land Rover’s owner has confirmed it will invest £4 billion to build a gigafactory in the UK, in a major boost for the British automotive sector and following months of speculation. Tata Group – the Indian conglomerate who have owned JLR since 2008 – said that its investment in the new 40GWh battery plant…

AI will take our jobs, confirms head of UK’s new AI taskforce

Protecting British jobs will be a challenge as artificial intelligence systems become more advanced, the new head of the government's AI taskforce has told the BBC. Ian Hogarth said it was "inevitable" that more jobs would become increasingly automated. The whole world will have to rethink the way in which people work, he added. "There…

Elon Musk launches ‘pro-humanity’ AI startup, xAI

Elon Musk (above) has launched an artificial intelligence startup that will be “pro-humanity”, as he said the world needed to worry about the prospect of a “terminator future” in order to avoid the most apocalyptic AI scenarios. Musk said xAI would seek to build a system that would be safe because it was “maximally curious”…

Twitter receives backing of Taliban!

Twitter has won the support of a big name backer against fast-growing rival Threads - but it's the Taliban. A leader of the hardline Islamist group, which seized power in Afghanistan in summer 2021, said Elon Musk's platform was a tolerant place that allowed freedom of speech to thrive.Anas Haqqani offered his endorsement in a tweet on…

Threads signs up over 100 million users in five days

Threads, the social media app aimed at rivalling Twitter, has signed up more than 100 million users in less than five days. The platform, launched by Instagram-owner Meta, has beaten a record set by Open AI's ChatGPT app. Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries, including the UK, last Wednesday.…

Twitter-killer Threads hits 10 million sign ups after 7 hours

Threads, the long-awaited Twitter rival from Meta, has launched - with 10 million people signing up in the first few hours. Built by the firm's Instagram team, it's billed as a home for "sharing text updates and joining public conversations". Its release couldn't be more aggressively timed, coming days after another controversial move by Twitter's incendiary…

Meta to launch ‘Twitter-Killer’ app, Threads, this Thursday

Facebook owner Meta is launching its new app to rival Twitter and says it will go live on Thursday. The app, which is called Threads and is available for pre-order on the Apple App Store, will be linked to Instagram. Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a "text-based…

Virgin Galactic rocket plane begins operations

Italian members of the team aboard Unity hold up their country's flag in space. Image: Virgin Galactic It's taken just shy of 20 years but Sir Richard Branson has finally begun commercial operations with his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, Unity. The vehicle soared high over the New Mexico desert on Thursday…

Paedophiles using AI technology to create life-like child porn

Image: BBC Paedophiles are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create and sell life-like child sexual abuse material, the BBC has found. Some are accessing the images by paying subscriptions to accounts on mainstream content-sharing sites such as Patreon. Patreon said it had a "zero tolerance" policy about such imagery on…