Latest posts

  • UK tech advocates alarmed by Burnham plan to scrap technology department

    MPs and industry experts say potential reorganisation will waste time at critical moment for AI and economic growth Andy Burnham’s plan to scrap the government’s technology department has triggered an angry backlash from MPs, Whitehall officials and tech experts. The incoming prime minister has asked officials to draw up plans to abolish the Department for…

    Read more

  • Revealed: landmark Scottish AI project has no prospect of meeting renewables promise

    Exclusive: Government and developers privately acknowledged Lanarkshire datacentre site had power provision ‘issue’ ‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre What are Britain’s AI growth zones and are the plans feasible or ‘complete bunk’? A landmark AI development billed as delivering jobs and prosperity has misrepresented its…

    Read more

  • OpenAI’s apparent failure to visit key site raises questions over UK investment

    Exclusive: £20bn of ‘potential’ £30bn AI investment touted by UK ministers appears to have been hypothetical It was to be the biggest undertaking in Britain for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Stargate UK – a multibillion-pound UK datacentre project – would represent “a major step forward in the US-UK technology partnership”. But the plans were…

    Read more

  • Attorney general tells department to stop using X amid UK disinformation concerns

    Exclusive: Richard Hermer’s office understood to be first in government to restrict use after recent riots The attorney general for England and Wales has told his office to no longer post on X, making it the first UK government department to stop using the Elon Musk-owned platform amid increasing worries about its use to incite…

    Read more

  • Farage trying to block ‘Britcoin’ plans that could be costly for billionaire donor

    Reform UK leader used private meeting at Bank of England to urge governor to drop plans for state-run cryptocurrency Nigel Farage has been trying to block a Bank of England cryptocurrency plan that could be costly for the billionaire bankrolling his party. The Reform UK leader has said Christopher Harborne wants nothing in exchange for…

    Read more

  • UK ministers lobby Trump to avert backlash against social media ban

    No 10 is worried about retaliation from White House over restrictions on under-16s’ internet use Ministers have embarked on a concerted lobbying operation to prevent a backlash from the Trump administration to the under-16s social media ban announced by Keir Starmer. Officials said they had spent weeks trying to reassure senior Trump officials and the…

    Read more

  • UK sets out AI infrastructure push at London Tech Week – how does it stack up?

    Government announces plans to invest billions, but questions linger over how its proposals on chips, social media and more will work Ownership of the commanding heights of the AI economy is a political talking point around the world, as countries seek to assert some control of a technology dominated by the US and China. London…

    Read more

  • Crackdown on tech platforms will go ahead despite US intervention, says No 10

    US embassy came out against UK’s proposed under-16 social media ban, which would affect American firms White House displeasure over the prospect of an under-16 social media ban will not deter the UK from cracking down on tech platforms, the British government has said. The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, told the Guardian she was not…

    Read more

  • Starmer gives tech firms ultimatum to block explicit images on children’s phones

    Companies such as Apple and Google have until September to install software or face legislation, says PM UK politics live – latest updates Apple and Google have been given until September to install software that blocks explicit images on children’s mobile phones or face legislation enforcing its requirement, Keir Starmer said on Monday. The prime…

    Read more

  • Silicon Valley including Meta has embraced Maga politics, says Nick Clegg

    Meta’s former head of global affairs says executives pivoted right in some cases for ‘rather more self-interested’ reasons Silicon Valley companies including Meta have decided to embrace Maga politics, some for “rather more self-interested” reasons, the former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said. Clegg, who spent nearly seven years at Meta as the…

    Read more