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Ian Tucker

Ian Tucker is the editor of New Review's science, technology and nature section, Discover, and deputy editor of the Observer Tech Monthly.

July 2024

  • From left, Mark Graham, Callum Cant and James Muldoon

    James Muldoon, Mark Graham and Callum Cant: ‘AI feeds off the work of human beings’

    The Fairwork trio talk about their new book on the ‘extraction machine’, exposing the repetitive labour, often in terrible conditions, that big tech is using to create artificial intelligence

May 2024

  • scientist and writer layal liverpool

    Layal Liverpool: ‘Racism is a public health crisis – and we can do something about it’

    The science journalist reveals what inspired her to write her new book about racism in medicine, and what really needs to be done to tackle ethnic health inequalities
  • Some of the images created by Tal Danino. All images © Tal Danino/Rizzoli

    Mesmerising microbes: bacteria as you’ve never seen them before – in pictures

    Scientist Tal Danino’s incredible images of the microbial world
  • Scott Galloway

    Pivot podcast host Scott Galloway: ‘Tech bros conflate luck with talent’

    The US academic on why the Mr Burns caricature of rich people is wrong, the double-edged sword of godlike technologies, and why young people shouldn’t follow their passion

June 2023

  • Meredith Whittaker: ‘I did not stand by and let my integrity get eaten away by making excuses for being complicit.’

    Signal’s Meredith Whittaker: ‘These are the people who could actually pause AI if they wanted to’

    The president of the not-for-profit messaging app on how she believes existential warnings about AI allow big tech to entrench their power, and why the online safety bill may be unworkable

April 2023

  • Chatbots have a reputation for manufacturing truth and inventing sources.

    AI journalism is getting harder to tell from the old-fashioned, human-generated kind

    Ian Tucker
    I rumbled a chatbot ruse – but as the tech improves, and news outlets begin to adopt it, how easy will it be to spot it next time?

May 2022

  • peter kalmus poses for a portrait in an extinction rebellion t-shirt

    Peter Kalmus: ‘As a species, we’re on autopilot, not making the right decisions’

    The Nasa data scientist explains why inaction on the climate crisis pushed him to chain himself to an LA bank – and why trusting in the ‘people in charge’ is so dangerous

March 2022

  • psychologist and author mary-frances o'connor

    Mary-Frances O’Connor: ‘People struggle to understand grief, but it is a byproduct of love’

    The US psychology professor talks about her new book on the experience of losing a loved one and the lessons we can learn

February 2022

  • Julie Smith: ‘I found a lot of people didn’t realise that a part of therapy is educational.’

    Dr Julie Smith: ‘Mental health is no different to physical health. No one is immune’

    The clinical psychologist has 3 million TikTok followers and now her book is a bestseller. She talks about the simple tools that really help

January 2022

  • Foreign secretary Liz Truss visits British troops in Estonia.

    From stand-in stars to tech titans: The Observer’s faces to watch in 2022

    We look at who will be making headlines this year, in both a positive and negative light

August 2021

  • Francois Balloux.

    Prof Francois Balloux: ‘The pandemic has created a market for gloom and doom’

    The UCL scientist and ‘militant corona centrist’ on the risk of new variants, psychosomatic long Covid and when he expects the crisis to end

July 2021

  • Martin Turpin photographed in Alliston, Ontario.

    Martin Turpin: ‘Bullshitting is human nature in its honest and naked form’

  • Daniel M Davis in the garden of his home in wilmslow, cheshire

    Daniel M Davis: ‘Unbelievable things will come from biological advances’

March 2021

  • Sherry Turkle

    Sherry Turkle: 'The pandemic has shown us that people need relationships'

    The acclaimed writer on technology and its effect on our mental health talks about her memoir and the insights Covid has given her

January 2021

  • A dejected girl being consoled by another.

    The five
    The five: emotional contagion

  • The mirrors of the James Webb space telescope, due to launch in October, undergo cryogenic testing.

    The five
    The five: space missions for 2021

October 2020

  • cory doctorow seated in an armchair in his office

    Cory Doctorow: ‘Technologists have failed to listen to non-technologists’

    The tech activist on his new sci-fi novel and why we mustn’t treat the moral downsides of social media as a necessary evil

July 2020

  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses testifying before a House Energy and Commerce hearing on Capitol Hill in 2018.

    Roger McNamee: ‘Facebook is a threat to whatever remains of democracy in the US'

  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

    Yaël Eisenstat: 'Facebook is ripe for manipulation and viral misinformation'

May 2020

  • Residents of Rio de Janeiro break social isolation and walk along the beach on 31 May.

    Coronavirus live
    Spanish PM seeks final extension to state of emergency – as it happened

    Spanish PM seeks final extension to state of emergency; Brazil becomes fourth worst country for deaths; pressure builds on South African president
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