Experts working to benchmark resource use of AI models say new version’s enhanced capabilities come at a steep cost

In mid-2023, if a user asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT for a recipe for artichoke pasta or instructions on how to make a ritual offering to the ancient Canaanite deity Moloch, its response might have taken – very roughly – 2 watt- hours , or about as much electricity as an incandescent bulb consumes in 2 minutes.

OpenAI released a model on Thursday that will underpin the popular chatbot – GPT-5 . Ask that version of the AI for an artichoke recipe, and the same amount of pasta-related text could take several times – even 20 times – that amount of energy, experts say.

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From the US and Australia to France and Italy, those seeking to obliterate privacy and restrict content are on the move

Over the past two weeks, the UK has reportedly blocked internet users’ access to everything from SpongeBob SquarePants gifs to Spotify playlists . Information about Joe Biden’s police funding plan has been restricted, along with a post about an up-and-coming political party . Gamers say they have been unable to tweak colours in games such as Minecraft. And it’s all because of a new age verification law.

Since the child safety provisions contained within the Online Safety Act came into effect on 25 July, web service providers have been forced to institute “highly effective” age verification measures to prevent children from accessing “harmful” or “adult” content. The penalty for failing to adequately comply with the act includes hefty fines and potential criminal action.

Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.

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Alba Kapoor from Amnesty International responds to an article about the Met’s increased use of the technology

Facial recognition technology has been proven repeatedly to be discriminatory against communities of colour and will further entrench racism within policing ( Met police to more than double use of live facial recognition, 31 July ).

It has been known to lead to misidentification and the risk of wrongful arrest, as we saw in the reporting this week on the case of Shaun Thompson . It’s also known to be less accurate in scanning the faces of people of colour, so using it to target attenders of Notting Hill carnival is very concerning, especially when we consider the Casey report’s conclusion that the Metropolitan police are guilty of institutional racism .

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Academic study suggests devices cannot differentiate between someone being overworked and being excited

They are supposed to monitor you throughout the working day and help make sure that life is not getting on top of you.

But a new study has concluded that smartwatches can’t accurately measure your stress levels – and may think you’re overworked when really you’re just excited.

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After Mehdi Hasan’s debate with far-right opponents went viral, some worry about the embrace of rage-fuelled content

Mehdi Hasan knew he had gone viral. The broadcaster and author saw the views ticking up on YouTube, his phone was pinging incessantly. But the realisation that things had become, well, really quite surreal, came when an older gentleman approached him at an event in Washington and, in Urdu, said: “I watched you with the 20 crazies.”

The man was referring to the British-American commentator’s appearance on Surrounded , a gladiatorial one-v-many debate web series, hosted on YouTube by Jubilee Media. During the debate – billed as “ 1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives ” – Hasan was asked about his “ethnic background”, by a man who the Guardian unmasked as the organiser of two violent far-right protests . Another debater laughed maniacally to applause while agreeing he was a fascist (he was later sacked, condemned – and then raised $30,000 (£22,300) from supporters on a Christian crowdfunding site). The video has now been viewed more than 10m times.

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People in Gaza use Bluesky to crowdfund for milk and diapers – repeated deletion of their profiles has spawned a guerrilla verification squad

Hanin Al-Batsh estimates she has signed up for more than 80 Bluesky accounts in the last six months.

Like hundreds of other Palestinians struggling to buy or even find food in Gaza, Al-Batsh uses Bluesky to promote her crowdfunding campaigns, hoping to raise enough money for flour and milk for her children in a given week.

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The virtual world can bring a kind of friendship and a kind of connection, even to the grieving. But it can also facilitate exploitation of very human needs

Joaquin Oliver was 17 years old when he was shot in the hallway of his high school. An older teenager, expelled some months previously, had opened fire with a high-powered rifle on Valentine’s Day in what became America’s deadliest high school shooting . Seven years on, Joaquin says he thinks it’s important to talk about what happened on that day in Parkland, Florida, “so that we can create a safer future for everyone”.

But sadly, what happened to Joaquin that day is that he died. The oddly metallic voice speaking to the ex-CNN journalist Jim Acosta in an interview on Substack this week was actually that of a digital ghost: an AI, trained on the teenager’s old social media posts at the request of his parents, who are using it to bolster their campaign for tougher gun controls. Like many bereaved families, they have told their child’s story over and over again to heartbreakingly little avail. No wonder they’re pulling desperately at every possible lever now, wondering what it takes to get dead children heard in Washington.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Paranoia is exploited to control us. Movies are groomed to flatter us. And trauma has been twisted to make us blame ourselves. How can we make sense of our lives? The two film-makers try to navigate the chaos

Ari Aster’s new movie, Eddington , pits Joaquin Phoenix against Pedro Pascal as men with conflicting takes on how to get their small town through the crisis of Covid. It’s also a film about the contemporary political crisis in the US and the influence of technology on our lives.

Adam Curtis ’s latest documentary series, Shifty, covers similar themes but through the lens of British life in the Thatcher years of the late 1970s to early 1990s. This era, he argues, put in place a substantial shift in power away from the individual and the nation state, changes that are still playing out today.

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