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TECH


At last, the fool’s bargain that the media struck with AI may be over

Jun 9, 2026

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5 min read

At last, the fool’s bargain that the media struck with AI may be over

In a thunderous speech last week, the boss of the New York Times sounded a rallying call to news organisations to rise up against the theft of their work by Big Tech – and not before time, writes Branko Brkic

Branko Brkic
Branko Brkic
‘Her silence was more powerful than words’: how I interviewed a Facebook whistleblower who wasn’t allowed to speak

Jun 5, 2026

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6 min read

‘Her silence was more powerful than words’: how I interviewed a Facebook whistleblower who wasn’t allowed to speak

The Nerve’s Carole Cadwalladr was all set to talk to Sarah Wynn-Williams, author of the explosive memoir Careless People, at the Hay festival when Meta’s lawyers intervened ... and turned the event into ‘absurdist theatre’

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
‘What’s happening is horrifying’: the rebel film-maker challenging AI’s march into Hollywood

Jun 5, 2026

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4 min read

‘What’s happening is horrifying’: the rebel film-maker challenging AI’s march into Hollywood

While pro-Silicon Valley documentaries got major distribution deals, Valerie Veatch had to struggle to get her film, about Big Tech’s dark past and future, into the world. She talked to Charlotte O’Sullivan about what some attendees called ‘the scariest movie playing at Sundance’

Charlotte O'Sullivan
Charlotte O'Sullivan
Cory Doctorow: Hell is other people – so billionaires are using AI to replace them

Jun 2, 2026

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4 min read

Cory Doctorow: Hell is other people – so billionaires are using AI to replace them

The tech elite are pouring billions into dispensing with inconvenient humans. Now governments want the same trick to wish away the migrants their economies desperately need, writes the author and Nerve columnist

Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
‘They are weapons of war’: Gisèle Pelicot on the tech platforms that facilitate rape

May 29, 2026

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7 min read

‘They are weapons of war’: Gisèle Pelicot on the tech platforms that facilitate rape

The woman whose courage at trial transformed the debate around abuse talks to Lucia Osborne-Crowley about survival, reclaiming confidence – and shutting down the tools of sexual exploitation

Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
‘It’s not progress, and we can stop it’: journalist Karen Hao on big tech, protest and the preventable AI future

May 26, 2026

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8 min read

‘It’s not progress, and we can stop it’: journalist Karen Hao on big tech, protest and the preventable AI future

The US reporter and bestselling author was one of the first journalists to get inside OpenAI – and was alarmed at what she found. Six years on, she tells Carole Cadwalladr, a coalition of resistance is growing to oppose the new Silicon Valley ascendancy

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election?

May 15, 2026

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9 min read

‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election?

A platform backed by Peter Thiel and advised by Donald Trump Jr. is taking anonymous crypto bets on UK elections, missile strikes and the death of world leaders. In Britain no regulator will touch it, writes Ian Tucker in this in-depth guide to so-called "prediction markets"

Ian Tucker
Ian Tucker
New fears over spread of Palantir’s influence after ‘Big Brother’ Met police project extended

May 15, 2026

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6 min read

New fears over spread of Palantir’s influence after ‘Big Brother’ Met police project extended

The programme, designed to expose officer misconduct, was due to expire last month. The Nerve has established that it was extended to today, May 15, with no indication what happens next. Officers fear they will be under long-term surveillance, while it’s also emerged the project could be rolled out to more staff. Report by Max Colbert and Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Max Colbert
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Max Colbert, +1
‘It’s like they were sharing tips on building a barbecue’: how the ‘rape academy’ teaching men to become Dominique Pelicot was exposed

May 12, 2026

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7 min read

‘It’s like they were sharing tips on building a barbecue’: how the ‘rape academy’ teaching men to become Dominique Pelicot was exposed

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy was one of a team that made headlines when they uncovered a porn site specialising in abusing drugged women. She talked to Lucia Osborne-Crowley about the impact of her work – and the toll it can take

Richard Dawkins’s chatbot isn’t conscious: it’s just all talk

May 8, 2026

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5 min read

Richard Dawkins’s chatbot isn’t conscious: it’s just all talk

The acclaimed scientist spent time with Anthropic’s ‘Claudia’ and couldn’t believe she wasn’t sentient. But Dawkins' own work has taught us that complexity can exist without a divine spark, writes neuroscientist Anil Seth

Anil Seth
Anil Seth
Wellness scammers promise to ‘reset your nervous system’ for money. Don’t believe them

May 8, 2026

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5 min read

Wellness scammers promise to ‘reset your nervous system’ for money. Don’t believe them

'Vagus nerve stimulation', which scientists still don’t fully understand, has become a trend – pushed by influencers who could cause serious harm, writes the Nerve's Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Cory Doctorow: Comrade Trump is the unwitting hero of a green revolution

May 5, 2026

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7 min read

Cory Doctorow: Comrade Trump is the unwitting hero of a green revolution

In the first of a new monthly column for the Nerve, the author and cyber-activist argues that by dumping cheap solar panels on Asia and starting a catastrophic war in the Gulf, the president has started a headlong rush for cleantech that no eco-activism could match

Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
Iran is winning the propaganda war against Trump – brick by brick

Apr 17, 2026

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3 min read

Iran is winning the propaganda war against Trump – brick by brick

Tehran’s viral videos satirising a Lego-style president have harnessed the power of AI – and Maga’s debasing of political discourse – and turned it against the US, writes disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz

Your pension, Palantir’s war machine

Apr 2, 2026

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9 min read

Your pension, Palantir’s war machine

USS, the UK's largest private pension fund, has £45m invested in the AI company that, its CEO boasts, can bring ‘violence and death’ to America's enemies. University union leaders want change, reports Ian Tucker

Ian Tucker
Ian Tucker
Big Tech tried to get young people addicted. Now the reckoning has begun

Mar 31, 2026

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8 min read

Big Tech tried to get young people addicted. Now the reckoning has begun

Two seismic court decisions in the US have intervened where legislators have failed to defend social media users from exploitation, writes campaigner Zamaan Qureshi

The UK tech energy grab: how AI data centres are delaying the building of homes

Mar 27, 2026

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11 min read

The UK tech energy grab: how AI data centres are delaying the building of homes

Artificial intelligence infrastructure is being handed priority access to Britain's overwhelmed electricity grid, pushing housing down the list. But as the US shows, there's an alternative: make Big Tech pay for the power it needs. Report by Nicole Kobie

What will AI's impact be on public-interest media? Ask an AI

Mar 26, 2026

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4 min read

What will AI's impact be on public-interest media? Ask an AI

As an ex-Google executive takes the helm of the BBC, film-maker Beadie Finzi asks Claude about what the media will look like in 2030. The results are concerning

Will Google’s AI hype man kill the BBC?

Mar 25, 2026

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5 min read

Will Google’s AI hype man kill the BBC?

Matt Brittin spent two decades at Google, a tech company helping to destroy journalism. His appointment as leader of Britain’s biggest news organisation represents an existential threat, writes Carole Cadwalladr

Is Palantir in your pension? UK institutions have over £5bn invested in US tech corporation

Mar 19, 2026

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10 min read

Is Palantir in your pension? UK institutions have over £5bn invested in US tech corporation

Research reveals size of investment by UK organisations – including some of Britain’s biggest retirement providers – in Silicon Valley’s most controversial technology company. Carole Cadwalladr and Ian Tucker report

Ian Tucker
Carole Cadwalladr
Ian Tucker, +1
'Why should young people have to beat an algorithm?’ Molly Russell, Meta, and the fight against online harm

Feb 27, 2026

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13 min read

'Why should young people have to beat an algorithm?’ Molly Russell, Meta, and the fight against online harm

As a new documentary tells the story of the teenager, who took her own life in 2017, her father, her friends and the film’s director talk about the unchecked power and threat of social media

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Feb 13, 2026

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14 min read

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-long project that cloaked eugenics, race science and sexual misconduct in Ivy League respectability

Virginia Heffernan
Virginia Heffernan
We’ve found the dog... but lost our privacy: how Ring’s Super Bowl ad went viral for the wrong reasons

Feb 13, 2026

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3 min read

We’ve found the dog... but lost our privacy: how Ring’s Super Bowl ad went viral for the wrong reasons

The smart doorbell company’s heartwarming story of helping find a lost pet was quickly called out by viewers as a chilling demonstration of high tech surveillance, writes Michaela Makusha

Michaela Makusha
Michaela Makusha
A teenager was hounded until she died by the 'ordinary women' of Tattle Life. A ban is long overdue.

Feb 13, 2026

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6 min read

A teenager was hounded until she died by the 'ordinary women' of Tattle Life. A ban is long overdue.

The suicide of 16-year-old Princess Dickson came after incessant targeting on the anonymous influencer gossip forum. The commenters – mainly professional women – should be ashamed, writes Dr Jessica Taylor

I confronted a tech boss about my sister’s suicide. I don’t know why I bothered

Feb 3, 2026

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6 min read

I confronted a tech boss about my sister’s suicide. I don’t know why I bothered

Aimee died at 21 after going on a notorious self-harm forum. But when I approached a tech CEO to talk about online safety at a Davos debate, I was threatened with removal, writes Adele Walton

Adele Walton
Adele Walton

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