Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: ‘AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings’

His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was

Roger Allers, Disney film-maker and co-director of The Lion King, dies aged 76

With Rob Minkoff, Allers directed 1994’s The Lion King, which remains the highest-grossing traditionally animated film of all time

UK politics ‘constantly suffering’ from online disinformation, says Labour MP

Emily Thornberry says risk posed to British democracy by bot farms and biased algorithms requires action

More than 60 Labour MPs urge Starmer to back under-16s social media ban

Exclusive: Letter signed by figures on right and left of party says UK should follow Australia’s example by enacting ban

AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage

AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots

‘That magazine looms so large’: food writers on Gourmet’s comeback after 16 years

A group of journalists look to fill the void left by Condé Nast’s Gourmet by reviving it as a worker-owned newsletter

‘Still here!’: X’s Grok AI tool accessible in Malaysia and Indonesia despite ban

Experts warn use of VPNs makes it hard to limit access to technology that can create nonconsensual explicit images

My favourite wake-up under the sun: Lumie Bodyclock Glow 150 sunrise alarm clock review

Our reviewer loved this wake-up light more than any other he’s tested – it’s even knocked his previous best sunrise alarm off the top spot

Inventor says robo-vaccination machine could be used to combat bovine TB

Tony Cholerton created Robovacc to inoculate a timid tiger at London zoo – but says it could administer jabs to badgers

Sentimental Value sweeps up at European Film Awards

Joachim Trier’s drama about an ageing film-maker and his estranged actor-daughter wins top five awards

Trump buys $1m in Netflix and Warner Bros bonds days after saying he’ll ‘be involved’ in merger

Warner Bros is also being pursued by Paramount Skydance, helmed by David Ellison, son of president’s ally

Tech companies’ access to UK ministers dwarfs that of child safety groups

Exclusive: Amazon, Meta and X among firms holding hundreds of meetings with people at heart of government, data shows

‘She had a hidden identity’: new film uncovers a mother’s second world war secrets

In harrowing documentary My Underground Mother, a woman finds out what really happened to her mother in the war

‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward

Progress of artificial general intelligence could stall, which may lead to a financial crash, says Yoshua Bengio, one of the ‘godfathers’ of modern AI

My picture was used in child abuse images. AI is putting others through my nightmare

I was a child actor, exploited by strangers on the internet. Now millions of children face the same danger