Meta's AI, built on ill-gotten content, can probably build a digital you
Column Llama 4 Scout is just the right size to ingest a lifetime of Facebook and Insta posts
AI + ML10 Apr 2025 | 28
Mark has worked in the technology industry since the late 1980s, and has contributed to all manner of products, from dial-up modems to 3D graphics including co-inventing VRML. He is an award-winning columnist who writes regularly for The Register. His full bio can be found here.
Apple has locked me in the same monopolistic cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users
Column Vendors just don't want machines to live double lives
Personal Tech12 Mar 2025 | 166
Ignorance really is bliss when you’re drowning in information
Column If only the joy of missing out was easier to achieve
Personal Tech12 Feb 2025 | 78
Memories fade. Archives burn. All signal eventually becomes noise
Column But where are the comprehensive archives to protect digital works, or allow us to memorialize friends?
Storage29 Jan 2025 | 104
When your technological ghosts come back to haunt you, expect humbug
Column Spirits of the NeXTcube, the web ad, and the cursed smartphone deliver a seasonal Technicarol
Personal Tech18 Dec 2024 | 12
Data is the new uranium – incredibly powerful and amazingly dangerous
Column CISOs are quietly wishing they had less data, because the cost of management sometimes exceeds its value
Disaster Recovery Week20 Nov 2024 | 56
Copilot's crudeness has left Microsoft chasing Google, again
Opinion Surely Redmond knows that almost nobody has tamed unstructured data?
AI + ML09 Oct 2024 | 27
AI has colonized our world – so it's time to learn the language of our new overlords
Column Brush up on your ‘Delvish’ – the lingo that flatters LLMs into a sort of submission
AI + ML11 Sep 2024 | 61
AI stole my job and my work, and the boss didn't know – or care
Column Everyone knows automation will happen, which is why everyone needs proof of human involvement
AI + ML15 Aug 2024 | 120
Big Tech's eventual response to my LLM-crasher bug report was dire
Column Fixes have been made, it appears, but disclosure or discussion is invisible
AI + ML10 Jul 2024 | 73
Microsoft's Recall should be celebrated as the savior of SMEs and scourge of CEOs
Column Small businesses have seldom had the chance to understand how they work. A history of PC use makes it possible
AI + ML12 Jun 2024 | 146
I stumbled upon LLM Kryptonite – and no one wants to fix this model-breaking bug
Feature Neural nets with flaws can be harmless … yet dangerous. So why are reports of problems being roundly ignored?
AI + ML23 May 2024 | 159
When AI helps you code, who owns the finished product?
Opinion It's not settled law. And it's going to mean trouble
AI + ML15 May 2024 | 67
Devaluing content created by AI is lazy and ignores history
Column The answer is not to hide from ML, but to be honest about it
AI + ML17 Apr 2024 | 65
Your PC can probably run inferencing just fine – so it's already an AI PC
Opinion Language models are entirely happy on the desktop
Personal Tech13 Mar 2024 | 37
It's time we add friction to digital experiences and slow them down
Column Decades of obsessing about always going faster have left us in constant danger
Software14 Feb 2024 | 77
Apple has botched 3D for decades. So good luck with the Vision Pro, Tim
Column It looks like a fine product, but it's the ecoystem that will determine success
Personal Tech24 Jan 2024 | 80
It's uncertain where personal technology is heading, but judging from CES, it smells
Column Our vulture spent a week in Las Vegas – here are his key takeaways
Personal Tech12 Jan 2024 | 33
Digital memories are disappearing and not even AI or Google can help
Column Technology allows us to keep more of our stuff than previously possible – but what use is it if we can't find it?
Storage06 Dec 2023 | 72
Software is listening for the options you want it to offer, and it's about time
Comment Talking back to devices will end the confusion caused by long menus of functions nobody uses
AI + ML15 Nov 2023 | 24
Go ahead, let the unknowable security risks of Windows Copilot onto your PC fleet
Column Or maybe don't let Microsoft's desire to defeat Google dictate your defensive strategy
AI + ML11 Oct 2023 | 72
Portable Large Language Models – not the iPhone 15 – are the future of the smartphone
Column Personal AI can redefine the handheld experience and perhaps preserve privacy too
Personal Tech13 Sep 2023 | 65
Bad software destroyed my doctor's memory
Column Design this bad should sicken developers – but it's the rest of us who end up feeling queasy
Software16 Aug 2023 | 136
Social media is too much for most of us to handle
Column I know, because I let it all flood in. And it was damaging to my mental health
Personal Tech20 Jul 2023 | 110
Open the pod bay doors, GPT, and see if you're smart enough for the real world
Column The combination of LLMs and autonomous agents will pour fuel on AI anxiety
AI + ML15 Jun 2023 | 49
Open source AI makes modern PCs relevant, and subscriptions seem shabby
Column Why sign up for ChatGPT when LLaMA and a multicore beast can do as well?
AI + ML11 May 2023 | 36
It's time to reveal all recommendation algorithms – by law if necessary
Column We should know why we see what we see, not be left in the dark
Software13 Apr 2023 | 84
Once AI can create endless viral videos, good luck switching off social media
Column Imagine humans … watching humans …watching TikTok … forever
AI + ML08 Mar 2023 | 53
Conversational AI tells us what we want to hear – a fib that the Web is reliable and friendly
Opinion As Google and Microsoft make us all AI consumers, remember that to err is human, but to really mess things up at scale takes a computer
AI + ML08 Feb 2023 | 48
AI may finally cure us of our data fetish
Column There's still a place in the world for good old-fashioned human intelligence
AI + ML18 Jan 2023 | 27
Voice assistants failed because they serve their makers more than they help users
Opinion Siri? Google? Alexa? Could ChatGPT save us from this data harvesting nightmare?
AI + ML14 Dec 2022 | 172
If Apple's environmental rhetoric is meaningful, Macs and iPads should converge
Opinion An Apple a day keeps the doctor away, but too many might be a burden on the planet.
Personal Tech23 Nov 2022 | 48
AI-driven creativity gives overpowered PCs something worthwhile to do, at last
Column Take your desktop rig out for a proper run, turning words into images, 3D models and videos – if it can
AI + ML26 Oct 2022 | 10
To preserve Earth's treasures, digital silence is golden
Column There are beautiful, undisturbed places in the world. You do not have to catch 'em all
Software14 Sep 2022 | 56
Amazon has repackaged surveillance capitalism as reality TV
Column Smile! You're on Candid Doorbell – and the joke's on us all
Personal Tech24 Aug 2022 | 195
After 40 years in tech, I see every innovation contains its dark opposite
Column From modems to the Metaverse, Mark Pesce has seen it all
Software20 Jul 2022 | 138
If you didn't store valuable data, ransomware would become impotent
Column Start by pondering if customers could store their own info and provide access
Storage23 Jun 2022 | 44
LIDAR in iPhones is not about better photos – it's about the future of low-cost augmented reality
Column The cost of kit to capture the real world is plummeting, thanks to Apple
Personal Tech11 May 2022 | 35
'Bigger is better' is back for hardware – without any obvious benefits
Column Software was supposed to eat the world, but it's scarcely snacking on today's monstrous silicon
On-Prem13 Apr 2022 | 49
The right to repairable broadband befits a supposedly critical utility
Column A bolt of lightning has caused me days of misery, because the fix requires too much proprietary tech
Networks16 Mar 2022 | 85
Apple has missed the video revolution
Column COVID-19 turned many of us into media producers, but the tools favour Windows
On-Prem01 Mar 2022 | 62
COVID-19 was a generational opportunity for change at work – and corporate blew it
Column Faux flexibility – and then back in the office where we can keep an eye on you ...
On-Prem19 Jan 2022 | 106
A proposal to beat below-the-belt selfies: Crowdsourced machine learning using victims' image stashes
Column Empty your inboxes, people, we can duck this problem together
Bootnotes22 Dec 2021 | 77
Zuck didn't invent the metaverse, but he's started a fight to control it
Column Begun, the Metaverse Wars have. And the metaverse will fight Facebook's attempts at domination
Software11 Nov 2021 | 70
It's one thing to have the world in your hands – what are you going to do with it?
Column Google won the patent battle against ART+COM, but we were left with little more than a toy
Off-Prem19 Oct 2021 | 18
Through the Looking Glass – holographic display hardware is great, but it's not enough
Review An intriguing proof of concept for real-time 3D arrives, but without the software it's just a gimmick
Personal Tech29 Sep 2021 | 45
Measuring your carbon footprint? There's no app for that
Column Smartphones can keep us informed about everything other than environmental impact. That needs to change
Applications15 Sep 2021 | 58
The web was done right the first time. An ancient 3D banana shows Microsoft does a lot right, too
Column It's wonderful that code written for Windows 3.1 still works well today
Columnists11 Aug 2021 | 136
Great reset? More like Fake Reset: Leaders need a reality check if they think their best staff will give up hybrid work
Column Fortune favours the flexible in the new normal
Offbeat28 Jul 2021 | 98
Restoring your privacy costs money, which makes it a marker of class
Column Opting out of data monetisation is neither easy nor cheap
Security15 Jul 2021 | 89
Imagine a world where Apple shacked up with Xerox in the '80s: How might it look today?
Feature An alternative history of the computer revolution
On-Prem14 Jul 2021 | 91
Data collected to promote public health must never be surrendered to police
Column Voluntary location-tracking to crimp COVID is too good a tool to waste
Legal01 Jul 2021 | 108
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The best time to build a semiconductor foundry is 5 years ago
Column The history of computing is all change, all the time. Yet silicon-slingers let the chips fail where they may
On-Prem09 Jun 2021 | 50
Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish
Column Preserving privacy is hard. I know because when I tried, I quickly learned not to play with weapons
Security12 May 2021 | 171
Harassers and bullies succeed in tech because silence is encouraged
Column Countless people signed away the right to have their trauma acknowledged, and that can’t stand
Legal20 Apr 2021 | 136
A Code War has replaced The Cold War. And right now we’re losing it
Column There’s always someone to blame for bad infosec, but never a willingness to make meaningful change
Columnists10 Mar 2021 | 85
How do we combat mass global misinformation? How about making the internet a little harder to use
Column We’re blinded by our trust of the Search box and its inscrutability
Networks08 Feb 2021 | 162
Breaking up big tech can make smartphones interesting again
Column We’re not upgrading to gorgeous new hardware because cloud services have stagnated
SaaS14 Dec 2020 | 40
The revolution will not be televised because my television has been radicalised
Column When recommendation engines promote misinformation during a pandemic, it's a matter of life and death
Science16 Nov 2020 | 119
To stop web giants abusing privacy, they must be prevented from respawning. Ever
Column History tells us tech companies just get bigger, even after being broken up or battered
Security16 Oct 2020 | 103
Biting the hand that feeds IT
