Banning phones in schools not improving wellbeing, Google misses revenue target – just
Banning phones in schools is not linked to pupils getting higher grades or having better mental wellbeing, the first study of its kind suggests. Students’ sleep, classroom behaviour, exercise or how long they spend on their phones overall also seems to be no different for schools with phone bans and schools without, the academics found. But they did find that spending longer on smartphones and social media in general was linked with worse results for all of those measures. Dr Victoria Goodyear, the study’s lead author, told the BBC the findings were not “against” smartphone bans in schools, but “that those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impacts”. BBC
Shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet fell more than 6% after the company reported a slight miss in expected revenue on Tuesday. The company reported $96.5bn, compared with analyst expectations of $96.67 bn. The company surpassed investors’ expectations of $2.13 in earnings per share, however, with $2.15 in EPS. Q4 was a strong quarter driven by our leadership in AI and momentum across the business,” Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai wrote in a statement. “We are building, testing, and launching products and models faster than ever, and making significant progress in compute and driving efficiencies.” The Guardian
An arms race for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy, triggered by recent panic over Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, risks amplifying the existential dangers of superintelligence, according to one of the “godfathers” of AI. Canadian machine learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, author of the first International AI Safety Report to be presented at an international AI summit in Paris next week, warns unchecked investment in computational power for AI without oversight is dangerous. “The effort is going into who’s going to win the race, rather than how do we make sure we are not going to build something that blows up in our face,” says Mr Bengio. Sky News
Britain’s top statistician has told MPs that he “lies awake at night” worrying about the UK’s official labour market data. Professor Sir Ian Diamond, who leads the Office for National Statistics, told members of the Commons Treasury committee: “We’re finding very, very, very high levels of flat refusal compared with pre-pandemic.” The ONS’s monthly labour force survey has been beset by inaccuracies over the past two years with response rates collapsing from about 40 per cent to only 13 per cent. Gated communities and Ring doorbells, which allow residents to screen visitors at the front door from their phone, have increased the proportion of flat refusals. The Times
The new Apple Invites app has officially been announced. The main iCloud.com page has seemingly confirmed Apple’s rumored invites tool, which has yet to be officially announced by the company.
The page says “Apple Invites” will be an iCloud+ feature: :”Upgrade to iCloud+ to get more storage, plan events with Apple Invites, and have peace of mind with privacy features like iCloud Private Relay, Hide My Email, and HomeKit Secure Video.” Mac Rumors
Rachel Reeves is gearing up to review a £700m tax on American tech giants as Donald Trump escalates a global trade war. The Chancellor will this year reassess the digital services tax (DST), which risks becoming a flashpoint as Britain attempts to avoid being slapped with tariffs by the US president. Ahead of the review, Ms Reeves is expected to face intense pressure from the White House and companies potentially affected by the tax, including the likes of Apple, Amazon and Google. Telegraph
