Abusers using AI and digital tech to attack and control women, charity warns

Exclusive: Smartwatches, Oura rings, smart home devices and Fitbits being weaponised, says Refuge

Domestic abusers are increasingly using AI, smartwatches and other technology to attack and control their victims, a domestic abuse charity says.

Record numbers of women who were abused and controlled through technology were referred to Refuge’s specialist services during the last three months of 2025, including a 62% increase in the most complex cases to total 829 women. There was also a 24% increase in referrals of under-30s.

Published: January 30, 2026, 7:00 am

AI-generated news should carry ‘nutrition’ labels, thinktank says

The Institute for Public Policy Research also argues that tech companies must pay publishers for content they use

AI-generated news should carry “nutrition” labels and tech companies must pay publishers for the content they use, according to a left-of-centre thinktank, amid rising use of the technology as a source for current affairs.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said AI firms were rapidly emerging as the new “gatekeepers” of the internet and intervention was needed to create a healthy AI news environment.

Published: January 30, 2026, 6:00 am

Universal basic income could be used to soften hit from AI job losses in UK, minister says

Lord Stockwood says people in government ‘definitely’ talking about idea as technology disrupts industries

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The UK could introduce a universal basic income (UBI) to protect workers in industries that are being disrupted by AI, the investment minister Jason Stockwood has said.

“Bumpy” changes to society caused by the introduction of the technology would mean there would have to be “some sort of concessionary arrangement with jobs that go immediately”, Lord Stockwood said.

Published: January 29, 2026, 10:40 am

What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit

Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out – but it’s going to take collective effort

Summer after summer, I used to descend into a creek that had carved a deep bed shaded by trees and lined with blackberry bushes whose long thorny canes arced down from the banks, dripping with sprays of fruit. Down in that creek, I’d spend hours picking until I had a few gallons of berries, until my hands and wrists were covered in scratches from the thorns and stained purple from the juice, until the tranquillity of that place had soaked into me.

Published: January 29, 2026, 5:00 am

‘This can’t be left to individual families’: how social media ban could affect under-16s

Parents, teachers and young people share their views on whether social media restrictions would work in the UK

Pressure is mounting on the UK government to introduce a ban on social media for under-16s, after a decisive vote in House of Lords in favour of Australian-style restrictions.

Peers backed a Tory-led amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill by 261 votes to 150, despite the government opposing the move. Ministers are already considering a ban as part of a consultation due to report by the summer and so the Lords amendment is unlikely to pass in the Commons. Starmer is also understood to want to wait until evidence from Australia’s ban, which came into force in December, has been assessed, though the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has urged him to “just get on with it”.

Published: January 29, 2026, 6:00 am

Millions creating deepfake nudes on Telegram as AI tools drive global wave of digital abuse

Analysis finds at least 150 channels on messaging app that are distributing AI-generated images and video

Millions of people around the world are creating and sharing deepfake nudes on the secure messaging app Telegram, a Guardian analysis has shown, as the spread of advanced AI tools industrialises the online abuse of women.

The Guardian has identified at least 150 Telegram channels – large encrypted group chats popular for their secure communication – that appear to have users in many countries, from the UK to Brazil, China to Nigeria, Russia to India. Some of them offer “nudified” photos or videos for a fee: users can upload a photo of any woman, and AI will produce a video of that woman performing sexual acts. Many more offer a feed of images – of celebrities, social media influencers and ordinary women – made nude or made to perform sexual acts by AI. Followers are also using the channels to share tips on available deepfake tools.

Published: January 29, 2026, 11:00 am

The slopaganda era: 10 AI images posted by the White House – and what they teach us

Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here’s what you need to know to navigate the trolling

It started with an image of Trump as a king mocked up on a fake Time magazine cover. Since then it’s developed into a full-blown phenomenon, one academics are calling “slopaganda” – an unholy alliance of easily available AI tools and political messaging. “Shitposting”, the publishing of deliberately crude, offensive content online to provoke a reaction, has reached the level of “institutional shitposting”, according to Know Your Meme’s editor Don Caldwell. This is trolling as official government communication. And nobody is more skilled at it than the Trump administration – a government that has not only allowed the AI industry all the regulative freedom it desires, but has embraced the technology for its own in-house purposes. Here are 10 of the most significant fake images the White House has put out so far.

Published: January 29, 2026, 10:00 am

South Korea’s ‘world-first’ AI laws face pushback amid bid to become leading tech power

The laws have been criticised by tech startups, which say they go too far, and civil society groups, which say they don’t go far enough

South Korea has embarked on a foray into the regulation of AI, launching what has been billed as the most comprehensive set of laws anywhere in the world, that could prove a model for other countries, but the new legislation has already encountered pushback.

The laws, which will force companies to label AI-generated content, have been criticised by local tech startups, which say they go too far, and civil society groups, which say they don’t go far enough.

Add invisible digital watermarks for clearly artificial outputs such as cartoons or artwork. For realistic deepfakes, visible labels are required.

“High-impact AI”, including systems used for medical diagnosis, hiring and loan approvals, will require operators to conduct risk assessments and document how decisions are made. If a human makes the final decision the system may fall outside the category.

Extremely powerful AI models will require safety reports, but the threshold is set so high that government officials acknowledge no models worldwide currently meet it.

Published: January 29, 2026, 12:31 am

Big tech results show investor demand for payoffs from heavy AI spending

Meta wowed Wall Street with improvements in ad targeting fueled by AI alongside huge investment. Microsoft had less to show for its billions spent

Big tech earnings so far this week have sent a clear warning: investors are willing to overlook soaring spending on artificial intelligence if it fuels strong growth, but are quick to punish companies that fall short.

The contrast was clear in Thursday’s stock market reaction to earnings from Microsoft and Meta, highlighting how dramatically the stakes have changed since the launch of ChatGPT started the AI boom more than three years ago.

Published: January 29, 2026, 7:11 pm

There’s a reason that Wii Bowling remains my mum’s favourite game | Dominik Diamond

At a family gathering over Christmas, I took on my 76-year-old mother once again at virtual bowling. Could I finally best her?

My mother bore me. My mother nurtured me. My mother educated me. She has a resilience unmatched, a love all-forgiving. She is the glue that holds our family together. But right now, I am kicking her ass at video game bowling, and it feels good!

In the 00s, my mum was the best Wii Bowling player in the world. She was unbeatable. Strike after strike after strike. The Dudette in our family’s Big Lebowski. So when she said she was coming to visit us in Canada, I thought the time was right to buy the updated Nintendo Switch Sports version of her favourite game. She’s 76 now, and I might finally have a chance of beating her, I thought, especially if I allowed myself a cheeky tune-up on the game before she arrived.

Published: January 30, 2026, 10:00 am

Cairn review – obsession, suffering and awe in a climbing game that hits exhausting new heights

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; The Game Bakers
A punishing, beautiful survival game that turns mountaineering into an intimate test of endurance, fixation and emotional resolve – you’ll be in tears by the end

Mountaineers and climbers, especially the free-solo kind, are humanity’s most fascinating maniacs: single-minded, daring souls who throw themselves into profoundly optional life-endangering feats. It is hard not to be compelled, and appalled, by someone like Alex Honnold. Even with ropes, a single wrong move can mean death in mountaineering, a mad activity that puts you at the full mercy of nature. You cannot help but wonder what kind of person willingly chooses this: what kind of person looks at a towering cliff face, or a wall of wind-whipped ice, and thinks, I bet I can get up there.

Aava, Cairn’s protagonist, is that kind of person: a champion climber, a woman who has conquered summit after summit, but for some reason can’t walk away. Before her stands Mount Kami, an ice-tipped, Himalayan-style peak that has never before been climbed. Kami was once home to a tribe of people, whose remnants you find as you pull yourself up each section of the mountain, but now you are very much alone. Controlling Aava’s limbs, you move her hands and feet towards imperfections in the rock, jamming her fingers into cracks and her toes on to tiny ledges. You quickly learn to read the mountain, as Aava would.

Published: January 29, 2026, 2:00 pm