Uber loses appeal over tax on rivals, EE phone plans to ‘restrict internet’ for teens

Uber’s rival taxi operators will not have to pay 20% VAT on their profits outside London after a UK supreme court verdict in a long-running case. The court ruled that private-hire operators do not enter into a contract with passengers, dismissing an Uber appeal. Private-hire firms declared the verdict to be a “triumph for the sector” after a three-year legal battle, which they had said could end with fares rising sharply for passengers. Uber had brought the case after a 2021 supreme court decision that its drivers were workers, which had an impact on its tax and other obligations. The Guardian

Google has shown us what the end of the internet looks like. It calls it AI Mode. From Tuesday, instead of seeing ten blue links to third party websites when searching Google, users will see digests of information created by AI.  Google says this “lets you ask nuanced questions that would have previously required multiple searches.” Sometimes there is value in these digests – as demonstrated by AI startup Perplexity. However, the change has catastrophic economic consequences because of Google’s dominant position over what we see on the web. Telegraph 

EE is introducing new phone plans next month which it says will restrict the internet for teens – so long as they don’t use wi-fi. Its new Sim-only mobile plans will filter the web at different levels depending on the age of the child using it, with three separate tiers of protections. The plans will also have other features such as reduced internet speeds for younger teens to “limit streaming”, as well as protecting against scam calls. But EE can only control what is accessed by using mobile data using its network – meaning it cannot filter content accessed via wi-fi, which is operated separately. BBC 

OpenAI chief Sam Altman has painted a portrait of GPT‑5 that reads more like a thriller than a product launch. In a recent episode of the This Past Weekend with Theo Von podcast, he described the experience of testing the model in breathless tones that evoke more skepticism than whatever alarm he seemed to want listeners to hear. Altman said that GPT-5 “feels very fast,” while recounting moments when he felt very nervous. Despite being the driving force behind GPT-5’s development, Altman claimed that during some sessions, he looked at GPT‑5 and compared it to the Manhattan Project. Tech Radar

A scientist has saved an image inside a bird’s brain in what is believed to be the world’s first case of storing data inside an animal. Benn Jordan, a musician and acoustic scientist, was able to “write” the picture – a drawing of a bird – to a European starling by converting it to an audio file and playing it to the songbird. The bird was able to repeat the sound with remarkable accuracy, allowing the image to be recreated when put through computer software. Telegraph

The Pixel 6a battery fiasco has been something to watch unfold. Earlier this year, reports surfaced of Pixel 6a batteries malfunctioning, with some units even melting. In response, Google rolled out a mandatory Android 16 update for the Pixel 6a. It introduced new “battery management features” that reduce charging speeds and battery capacity for some affected units with more than 400 charge cycles to prevent overheating. However, it appears that even with these fixes, some Pixel 6a units are still at risk of catching fire. Android Police