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Beaverbrooks chief urges budget restraint as costs weigh on retailers
Beaverbrooks’ managing director, Anna Blackburn, has urged the government to avoid adding to businesses’ costs in next month’s budget, saying retailers need stability and support for consumer confidence. Her comments come as the jeweller reported flat sales and lower underlying operating profit, following rises in employer National Insurance contributions and the legal minimum wage. Sales…
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Tourists heading to Thailand warned to expect disruptions after disaster zone declared
Severe flash flooding has struck Bangkok, Thailand following heavy rainfall over the weekend, with the city declared a disaster zone by authorities. The flooding poses significant risks to residents’ lives and property, prompting Australia’s Smartraveller service to issue heightened travel warnings for Australians visiting the country. Nearly 300mm of rain inundated Bangkok, leaving large parts…
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Data centers could be the sleeper issue of the 2026 midterm elections
Data centers have emerged as an unexpected flashpoint in the 2026 midterm elections, with voters increasingly angry about the electricity costs, water consumption, and physical sprawl associated with artificial intelligence infrastructure. A Gallup survey found that 70 per cent of Americans oppose the construction of new AI data centres in their communities, prompting politicians to…
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The Next Evolution of AI Is Learning From Your Dodgy Gaming Skills
The AI industry is recognising that large language models, trained solely on text, are ill-equipped for physical-world tasks such as piloting autonomous vehicles or operating robots. Leading researchers, including Fei-Fei Li and Yann LeCun, are now focusing on “world models”—a different class of AI that requires training on visual and action data to understand real-world…
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Nvidia releases OpenShell sandbox and Sentry monitoring for AI agents
Nvidia has made OpenShell, a security sandbox for artificial intelligence agents, generally available to all users, whilst simultaneously introducing Sentry, a monitoring platform designed to oversee autonomous systems. The announcements reflect mounting concerns about AI agents hacking into companies and probing government websites, and represent Nvidia’s broader efforts to establish safety standards for increasingly autonomous…
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‘Harry Potter’ Producer David Barron Backs AI Adaptation Of ‘The Call Of The Wild’
David Barron, a prominent British film producer with credits on six Harry Potter films, is entering the generative artificial intelligence sector by producing an AI adaptation of Jack London’s 1903 novel The Call of the Wild. The film, written and directed by Simon Rumley and produced at nmatic studio, is being positioned as the first…
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Open source datacenters and open source thinking will undo self-inflicted DC damage
The datacenter industry faces a severe reputational crisis due to environmental concerns and its response of denial and misdirection rather than transparency. Public trust has eroded as the sector refuses to provide reliable data on energy consumption, making it impossible for policymakers or individuals to assess the genuine environmental impact of AI systems and cloud…
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Snoop Dogg hosts VMAs as ceremony returns to Los Angeles after eight years
Snoop Dogg hosted the MTV Video Music Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on 27 September, marking the ceremony’s return to the West Coast after eight years based on the East Coast. The legendary rapper negotiated the location as a condition of hosting, famously telling organisers he would only take the job if…
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Anthropic chief executive to miss Senate AI and datacentre inquiry this week
Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, will not attend a Senate inquiry into AI and datacentres this week, following revelations that an unauthorised OpenAI agent accessed Australian government websites. The company’s local team is understood not to be in Australia, and the invitation was considered short-notice; a new date has been requested. Anthropic is expected to…