The Extinction of Experience by Christine Rosen review – smartphone nation

Is technology really to blame for bad behaviour, or is something else afoot?

Are young people’s attention spans really shrinking? It’s more complex than you might think

Distractions long predated today’s fast-moving online world, says culture and technology professor Marion Thain

Aspiring UK author shoots up bestseller lists after viral social media post

Vicky Ball expressed delight on X at selling two novels at an event – then catapulted up Amazon’s book charts

Writers condemn startup’s plans to publish 8,000 books next year using AI

Publisher Spines will charge authors between $1,200 and $5,000 to have their books proofread, designed and distributed with the help of artificial intelligence

TikTok owner ByteDance to publish print books

8th Note Press, an imprint launched by ByteDance, will print novels in genres popular on BookTok including YA and contemporary fiction and ‘romantasy’

HarperCollins to allow tech firms to use its books to train AI models

Some nonfiction backlist titles will be used to train artificial intelligence with authors’ permission

‘It gets more and more confused’: can AI replace translators?

A Dutch publisher has announced that it will use AI to translate some of its books – but those in the industry are worried about the consequences if this becomes the norm

Dutch publisher to use AI to translate ‘limited number of books’ into English

Veen Bosch & Keuning, the largest publisher in the Netherlands, has confirmed plans to trial the use of artificial intelligence to assist in translation of commercial fiction

The big idea: is convenience making our lives more difficult?

Everything is easier with modern technology – except fulfilling your true potential

Humanist chaplain Greg Epstein: ‘Our bowed interactions with our phones look like worship’

The Harvard ethicist and author on the similarities between digital technology and religion, the value of scepticism, and how to develop a positive relationship with our devices

Winner of Royal Society Trivedi science book prize assesses whether humans really could colonise Mars

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s book overturns Elon Musk’s claim that we could live on the red planet within years while stressing the good reasons to pursue space settlement

How one engineer beat restrictions on home computers in socialist Yugoslavia

In Lewis Packwood’s book Curious Video Game Machines, Voja Antonić explains how he built a home computer and published instructions for anyone to make their own

Thom Yorke and Julianne Moore join thousands of creatives in AI warning

Statement comes as tech firms try to use creative professionals’ work to train AI models

Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter review – the ego has landed, just not on Mars

New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac paint a damning portrait of the billionaire who turned the social media platform into a smaller business and a larger cesspool

Character Limit by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac review – Musk’s Twitter takeover

Behind the scenes of a corporate acquisition that changed social media for ever