New EU rules stipulate that people must be told when they’re interacting with AI or looking at AI-generated or -edited content, leading to fear of “disclosure fatigue.”

New EU rules stipulate that people must be told when they’re interacting with AI or looking at AI-generated or -edited content, leading to fear of “disclosure fatigue.”

Investors scramble to make sense of a shock Chinese challenge to the dominance of western chipmakers

Even for the rollercoaster world of AI, last week was particularly volatile as investors scrambled to keep up with developments that threatened the dominance of the largest western chipmakers.

It began with a double whammy. On Monday, the Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT floated on the Shanghai stock market, soaring by 466% in value to 3.3tn yuan (£365bn).

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© Photograph: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/AS/Reuters

© Photograph: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/AS/Reuters

© Photograph: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/AS/Reuters

Google rolled back a new feature Friday allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualizations on top of the service's satellite imagery, following a furious backlash from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation.

From melted electric sockets to shabby alternatives, readers tell of dealings with platform when things go wrong

Jane Ripley* spent some time researching the best apartment to stay in for her family’s trip to Batumi in Georgia, eventually settling on one with an “exceptional” rating on Booking.com.

But when the Ripleys arrived at 11pm on the first day, they were directed to another property that was shabby and had stains on the furniture and ceiling.

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© Photograph: Sergey Alimov/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sergey Alimov/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sergey Alimov/Getty Images

Apple (transcript, Hacker News):

The Company posted quarterly revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16 percent year over year.

[…]

“Today, Apple is proud to report our strongest June quarter ever, with double-digit revenue growth across iPhone, Mac and Services, and in every geographic segment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Jason Snell:

iPhone revenue was up 22%, Mac revenue was up 10.4%, Services revenue was up 12%, and Wearables revenue was up 6%. iPad revenue was down 6%.

John Voorhees:

Together, iPhone and Services accounted for 77.7% of Apple’s $109.4B in net sales.

Jordan Golson:

Gross margin for the quarter was 50.1 percent, compared to 46.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Jason Snell:

You can’t argue with the strong iPhone and Mac sales figures, and Apple specifically called out the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Neo, which Cook said “has been especially popular” and suggested that the company is still struggling to make them fast enough.

It’s admirable (and sensible) that Cook isn’t pointing fingers at anyone but customers who want Apple products, but the key phrase in his statement is “the supply chain just has less flexibility in it than normal.” This is an acknowledgement that while in the past, Apple might have been able to boost chip production from its partners, today the chip industry is maxed out thanks to the wild building of chips for AI applications.

[…]

As an aside, Cook also alluded to reports that Apple has tried to get the U.S. government to authorize purchase of RAM from some forbidden Chinese chipmakers, which has aroused political ire.

See also: MacRumors.

Previously:

• Apple Financial Statements: Products vs. Services
• Apple Hardware Price Hikes
• Apple’s Q2 2026 Results
• MacBook Neo Sales
• Apple’s Q3 2025 Results

As OpenAI and Anthropic employees grow quieter online, researchers at Chinese AI labs are flocking to X to explain their work, recruit talent, and shape the global conversation on AI.

Consumer sentiment confirmed its early-July reading, landing almost 12% above June, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

The majority of California's roughly 300,000 teachers don't have access to the state-funded paid leave program that most new parents in the private sector do. Instead, many local school districts deduct the cost of a substitute teacher from educators' pay during parental leave.

Emergency crews say situation remains ‘dynamic’ as more than 100 firefighters battle Dunwich Heath blaze

A wildfire near Britain’s biggest nuclear power station has caused “total devastation” to one of the UK’s most important landscapes, as fire crews said the situation remained “dynamic”.

More than 100 firefighters have been battling the blaze on Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, on the Suffolk coast since Wednesday evening. The fire service said on Friday afternoon the situation was stabilising but remained a “major incident” that was “dynamic and potentially changeable”.

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© Photograph: Humphrey Nemar/PA

© Photograph: Humphrey Nemar/PA

© Photograph: Humphrey Nemar/PA

Viral tales of good triumphing over evil are racking up millions of views. They’re almost entirely AI-generated clickbait.

Live, rolling coverage as London’s biggest companies defy Middle East disruption and UK petrol prices rise to around £1.60 per litre, the highest since Donald Trump ordered renewed strikes

The story piquing the interest of the financial press this morning is that of Leopold Aschenbrenner, the AI Wunderkind (he’s German-born) who has been forced to sell off his fund in a fire sale after the AI boom ran out of steam.

The 24-year-old had persuaded a lot of people to give him a lot of money for a hedge fund, after previously working for OpenAI and the FTX Future Fund, a charitable arm of the fraudulent crypto empire of Sam Bankman-Fried, who is now in prison. Aschenbrenner ploughed that money into debt-fuelled bets on artificial intelligence companies, earning huge returns until he found out that stocks can also fall.

The trader dubbed the “Nostradamus of AI” would have been hard-pressed to foresee how quickly his high-flying hedge fund would run into trouble.

The firm’s rapid downward spiral is a familiar tale, as Silicon Valley and Wall Street once again threw their weight behind a bright-eyed but untested investor who promised this time would be different. “Everybody always wants to find the next golden child,” said one longtime hedge fund executive. “It just keeps happening.”

In less than 24 hours — which included a conversation between Griffin and Aschenbrenner — Griffin’s Citadel hedge fund reached out to Situational Awareness and snapped up the investments at a discount, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified citing private information.

It was a startling reversal for Aschenbrenner, a former researcher at OpenAI who – before starting his hedge fund roughly two years ago — had no previous investment experience. His fledging firm has watched its assets plunge from $45bn at the start of July to about $10bn.

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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Boom in solar farms and home installations in first half of 2026 began shortly after start of US-Israel war against Iran

Great Britain has recorded more new solar power installations in the first half of this year than in any six-month period since 2011, as households turn to rooftop panels to help cut their energy bills.

An analysis of the government’s official figures shows that Great Britain added 142,536 solar installations in the first six months of the year, putting it on track to top last year’s record solar additions.

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© Photograph: Climate Central

© Photograph: Climate Central

© Photograph: Climate Central

In a review triggered by OpenAI’s Hugging Face incident, Anthropic discovered three of its AI models had breached real-world organizations during third-party evaluations.

As artificial intelligence becomes part of how people work, learn and solve problems, a new University of Phoenix survey conducted by The Harris Poll finds that recent working learners see meaningful opportunities for AI to support accessibility.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming modern finance, powering applications ranging from stock market forecasting to investment advice. But does making more accurate predictions necessarily lead to better investment decisions? According to two recent studies by researchers from Pusan National University and international collaborators, the answer may be no.

Digital workplace innovation could help more women entrepreneurs become leaders of family firms by making it easier to balance work and family life, according to new research from the University of East London.

Strategic public investment in research and development (R&D) can begin boosting economic activity immediately, according to a study led by the University of Southampton. The research shows it can also mobilize private R&D, supporting economic growth for years.

AI companies and evangelists frequently use terms such as copilot, coworker, cocreator and co-scientist to imply these rapidly developing systems can happily coexist with us humans. Their inference is clear: People should always be in the loop—the AI is never in charge.

Laptops, phones and documents seized as information commissioner acts on messages about mis-selling scandal

Laptops, mobile phones and documents have been seized after officials carried out search warrants in a crackdown on claims companies plaguing people with spam text messages about the car finance mis-selling scandal.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) executed warrants at homes and businesses linked to five companies in London, Liverpool, Bolton, Burnley and Swansea on Wednesday.

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© Photograph: Information Commissioner's Office

© Photograph: Information Commissioner's Office

© Photograph: Information Commissioner's Office