Gamer role introduced in children’s hospital

A Scottish children’s hospital charity has introduced a gamer in residence for young patients in Glasgow. The new job involves visiting children to play video games with them, preventing boredom and providing some light relief. Steven Mair, who was appointed by the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, says gaming has already provided huge benefits to the…

TikTok founder Zhang Yiming becomes China’s richest man

The surging global popularity of TikTok has seen the co-founder of its parent company, ByteDance, become China’s richest person. According to a rich list produced by the Hurun Research Institute, Zhang Yiming is now worth $49.3bn (£38bn) – 43% more than in 2023. The 41-year-old stepped down from his role in charge of the company…

Instagram reveals it lowers quality of less popular videos

Instagram disclosing that it lowers the quality of older, less popular videos has been criticised as “alarming” by creators. Some users of the Meta-owned social media platform expressed concern after its boss Adam Mosseri said it reserved higher quality for more popular content. “We bias to higher quality… for creators who drive more views,” Mr…

How X users earn thousands from US election misinformation and AI images

BBC Some users on X who spend their days sharing content that includes election misinformation, AI-generated images and unfounded conspiracy theories say they are being paid “thousands of dollars” by the social media site. The BBC identified networks of dozens of accounts that re-share each other’s content multiple times a day – including a mix…

‘Sickening’ Molly Russell and Brianna Ghey chatbots found online

Chatbot versions of the teenagers Molly Russell and Brianna Ghey have been found on Character.ai – a platform which allows users to create digital versions of people. Molly Russell took her life at the age of 14 after viewing suicide material online while Brianna Ghey, 16, was murdered by two teenagers in 2023. The foundation…

China’s BYD overtakes Tesla revenue for first time

The Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has seen its quarterly revenues soar, beating Tesla’s for the first time. It posted more than 200bn yuan ($28.2bn, £21.8bn) in revenues between July and September. This is a 24% jump from the same period last year, and more than Elon Musk’s company whose quarterly revenue was $25.2bn. However,…

Russia fines Google more than entire world’s GDP

A Russian court has fined Google two undecillion roubles – a two followed by 36 zeroes – for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube. In dollar terms that means the tech giant has been told to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Despite being one of the world’s wealthiest companies, that is considerably more than the $2 trillion…

NatWest blocks staff from using WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger

NatWest Group has blocked messaging services WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Skype on company devices to stop staff using them to communicate with each other. The bank had already told employees to stick to “approved channels” for conversations about business matters. But now it has gone further and made the platforms inaccessible on work phones and…

The house paints that promise much more than colour

Juan Botero Juan Botero and his Halloween front door The door of Juan Botero’s apartment in Houston, Texas is made of wood – with a classy, walnut-like finish. But, for Halloween, he planned an eye-catching change. “I’m going to paint my door orange,” Mr Botero, founder and chief executive of Colombia-based Glasst, told the BBC…

End of content

End of content