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Mark Sellman
@mpsellman.bsky.social
370 followers 80 following 35 posts
Technology Correspondent at The Times. Gooner who likes cycling. All views my own unless I’ve nicked them from someone else
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Aug 5
Some child-friendly smartphones have appeared on the UK market in the last few months (Pinwheel, HMD Fusion X1 and Sage). We asked one family to test them out and this is their verdict
www.thetimes.com/article/a535...
Which is the best child-friendly smartphone?
Concerns about screen time, cyberbullying and toxic content have led some parents to ban phones altogether. But if your child insists, here are some options
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jul 22
Part-ban on ransom payments to hackers set to come into force in the UK. It will be fascinating to see the impact of this in the next few years. Most experts welcome it but Jamie MacColl of RUSI sceptical it will work until a full ban

www.thetimes.com/article/cf85...
Businesses banned from paying hackers’ ransoms to target cybercrime
New laws mark some of the strictest in the world to target hackers, requiring the private sector to seek government permission before paying cybercriminals
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jul 11
EXC: Spotify threatens to quit Turkey in row over playlists that mock the Erdogans’ ‘golden toilet’
www.thetimes.com/article/946b...
Erdogan and Spotify battle over playlists that mock wife’s ‘gold toilet’
The streaming platform has threatened to withdraw from Turkey as the government condemns content that targets the couple’s lavish spending
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jul 4
Exc: Logically, the UK's biggest fact checking and anti-disinfo company, has gone into administration. The causes are in dispute, but it's another blow for a beleaguered industry www.thetimes.com/uk/media/art...
Britain’s biggest fact-checking company goes into administration
Logically, which worked with the government to counter disinformation during the Covid pandemic, had recently lost contracts with social media giants
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 30
Why is the age rating for some of the most popular games 4+ when the terms and conditions say you need to be a teenager?
www.thetimes.com/article/034f...
Four-year-olds ‘exploited’ by tech giants’ app store age ratings
Games with in-app purchases and targeted advertising are being marketed by Apple and Google at children far younger than the limits set by developers
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 27
Kai West, 25, a Briton, has been accused by the US of being the notorious hacker IntelBroker. For those wondering whether he worked for the NCA and HackerOne, both orgs have denied it.

www.thetimes.com/article/ea3f...
British ‘hacker’, 25, accused of $25m cybercrimes in the US
The US agency claims Kai West, who was arrested in France in February, is a hacker known as IntelBroker who stole data and tried to sell it on the dark web
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 27
A huge chunk of terror content has been sitting on social media despite the illegal harms section of Online Safety Act being in force for months. It raises questions for Ofcom as to whether their methods are effective

www.thetimes.com/article/0acc...
New online laws fail to stop promotion of terror groups
Content urging the killing of ‘Zionists’ and videos of Israeli hostages being executed remains despite social media platforms having a legal duty to take it down
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 23
Yes, we all know we spend a lot of time on our smartphones, but when you put it this way ... www.thetimes.com/article/f02c...
Students ‘will spend 25 years on their mobiles’
Smartphones wreck our ability to study, with most people surveyed unable to focus for an hour without using them
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 21
Stephen Bartlett has decided to take a stand over Google/YouTube taking creator content to train on AI. It's not well known in the industry, but as it does become it will be interesting to see if more big names like him speak out www.thetimes.com/article/b3db...
Steven Bartlett warns YouTube over using creators’ videos for AI
The Diary of a CEO podcast host says that the video-sharing site will he ‘hollowed out’ if it continues to take videos to train AI without paying creators
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 19
The Chatham House Russia expert Keir Giles has done everyone a great service by releasing all the details of how Russian intelligence hacked his Gmail account. As he says: “people finding out about this problem is more important than my embarrassment”.

www.thetimes.com/article/a9b1...
How Russian hackers hoodwinked Chatham House’s Kremlin critic
Keir Giles has revealed how he fell for a sophisticated phishing attack that gave cybercriminals posing as the US State Department access to his Gmail account
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jun 5
Sir Elton John finds a new insult for the government over its copyright plans. Definitely one of the more unusual headlines .... www.thetimes.com/article/0aa4...
Elton John: Labour is like an ostrich on AI copyright bill
The singer condemned the parliamentary stand-off and praised peers who voted for new measures to protect the creative ­industries
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · May 21
GCHQ's top cyber official has expressed his frustration that organisations are not following his advice on cyber security. Those I spoke to said that the NCSC lacks teech to implement its guidance and the big picture is that the market incentives need to change www.thetimes.com/article/9aca...
Businesses ignore advice on preventing cyberattacks, says GCHQ
The chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre tells British firms to ‘implement our advice immediately’ after a spate of hacks of commercial websites
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · May 2
So the government concessions in the copyright row have failed to move the needle. Next stop, report stage of the data bill on May 7 and then onto the Lords on May 12. If the Kidron amendments go back in, it's ping-pong and tick-tock ...what will ministers do then? www.thetimes.com/article/2bd8...
Artists reject concessions in revolt over AI copyright law
MPs, peers and creative industry figures demand measures to force AI companies to reveal what copyrighted works they have used
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Apr 28
I had a chat with Jordan Stephens from Rizzle Kicks about being too sober for one 0 per cent brand ...some interesting commentary from Millie Gooch too.

www.thetimes.com/article/fb3c...
Jordan Stephens ‘too sober’ to be a hero for zero alcohol
The hip-hop star says a deal promoting Madri ­Excepcional was withdrawn because he was too open about his journey to sobriety
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Apr 25
I anticipate there will be some quite divergent views about this AI service that calls your elderly parents for you ...
www.thetimes.com/article/651e...
Mother feeling lonely? Pay for an AI app to give her a call
Inventor is selling a £24.90 per month artificial intelligence caller, which checks-in with elderly people every day and chats about their lives
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Apr 18
Sometimes the response you get from a freedom of information request is not the one you expected .... AI minister who hailed AI revolution has not used AI at work

www.thetimes.com/article/5f26...
AI minister who hailed AI revolution has not used AI at work
Feryal Clark told MPs that generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT would be ‘at the heart’ of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Apr 4
Don’t relax tech laws to appease Trump, campaigners tell PM

www.thetimes.com/article/02e9...
Don’t relax tech laws to appease Trump, campaigners tell PM
Online safety groups and newspapers including The Times do not want legislation sacrificed in trade negotiations
www.thetimes.com
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Apr 4
Academic accused of bias for opposing smartphone ban in schools

www.thetimes.com/article/1eab...
Academic accused of bias for opposing smartphone ban in schools
Amy Orben, a Cambridge psychologist leading a government review, does not believe there is a simple solution to protect youngsters
www.thetimes.com
Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Feb 9
We don't tend to talk about that that much, butt's not some new outlier they found, but it's, it's impressive."
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Feb 9
I think one of the things that people talk about is the efficiency of the model, but actually our models, our Gemini models, our latest versions, the flash versions, are more efficient for performance.
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Feb 9
"But it's exaggerated a little bit ... I think the hype that we've seen about it, but it nonetheless is a very good model, although it's not some new...
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Feb 9
"But it's very well implemented and it shows they can do extremely good engineering. And, you know, it's definitely an interesting thing that's arrived on the market. And it changes things, I think, on a geopolitical scale. So there's a lot of implications there.
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Feb 9
"But it's important to understand that despite the hype, there's no actual new scientific advance there. It's using known techniques, actually, many of the techniques we invented, things like AlphaZero and some of the reinforcement learning they use.
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Feb 9
Sir Demis Hassabis lays down his and Google's response to DeepSeek in Paris before AI summit: - 'no new scientific advance' : "It's an impressive piece of work, and I think it's probably the best work I've seen come out of China.
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Mark Sellman @mpsellman.bsky.social · Jan 25
Apparently there is no Nobel in maths because Nobel’s wife had an affair with a mathematician. Hat tip Bill Gates
www.thetimes.com/article/0811...
Bill Gates: Trump, Musk and how my neurodiversity made me
He frequently failed at school, so how did the ‘weirdo’ teenager Bill Gates go on to found Microsoft and become a billionaire by 31? He talks about his memoir, Source Code — and what happened when he ...
www.thetimes.com
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