US Government To Review Major AI Models
The U.S. Department of Commerce will require Google, Microsoft and xAI to submit new AI models for pre‑deployment review, expanding the voluntary framework first used with OpenAI and Anthropic in 2024. The Centre for AI Standards and Innovation aims to assess frontier capabilities and mitigate security risks as the military ramps up AI use. The policy marks a shift from the previous administration’s deregulation stance, signaling tighter oversight of powerful AI systems. It also reflects growing concern over models that could facilitate sophisticated cyber exploits.
The AI Regulation Race: Can the US Keep Innovation Ahead of Oversight?
Artificial intelligence now powers 88% of enterprises, with 71% deploying generative AI, but only 31% of projects reach full production. In the United States, a fragmented regulatory landscape—mixing federal guidance, state initiatives, and global pressures—creates uncertainty for scaling AI responsibly....
Government Urges Action Amid ‘Significant’ Cyber Attacks
A UK government Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows 43% of businesses experienced a breach in the past year, with 69% of large firms affected. Phishing remains the most common attack at 38%, while ransomware incidents fell to 1%. The report...
Australian Regulator Warns Banks Over AI Risks
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) warned banks that AI‑driven hacking tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos are raising the speed, scale and probability of cyber attacks. A recent supervisory review found many institutions’ IT security practices lag behind rapid AI...
Meta Shares Slump As It Boosts Capex Prediction
Meta announced its 2026 capital expenditure will rise to $125‑$145 billion, up from $115‑$135 billion, as AI‑focused data‑center costs climb. The surprise lift knocked the stock down roughly 6 % in after‑hours trading. Component price inflation and a planned 10 % workforce reduction (~8,000...
Anthropic Considers Funding Offers At $900bn Valuation
Anthropic is weighing funding proposals that would value the AI startup at over $900 billion, potentially eclipsing rival OpenAI. The company’s February round raised $30 billion, lifting its post‑money valuation to $380 billion after a prior $183 billion level. If the new offers materialize,...
O2 Looks To Boost Sunderland 5G Service
Telefonica UK, operating as O2, and infrastructure firm Cornerstone have submitted a planning application to Sunderland City Council to install new rooftop antennas and upgrade fiber at the Sunderland Telephone Exchange. The upgrade aims to boost 5G capacity in response...
EU Plans Competition Push For Cloud, AI
The European Commission announced that its Digital Markets Act (DMA) will increasingly target cloud and artificial‑intelligence services, building on progress made in other sectors. Gatekeepers such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft remain subject to stricter obligations, and...
US Halts Chip Gear Shipments To China’s Hua Hong
The U.S. Commerce Department has issued “is‑informed” letters to domestic semiconductor equipment makers, ordering them to stop shipments to Hua Hong’s Chinese fabs. Companies such as Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA are among those notified. The move targets Hua Hong’s Fab 6...
Met Police Federation Decries ‘Outrageous’ Palantir AI System
The Metropolitan Police Federation is threatening legal action over the force’s new Palantir AI system, which it says breaches officers’ privacy and GDPR rules. The pilot, launched last week, has already led to two arrests and two suspensions while hundreds...
Cornerstone Plans 65-Foot 5G Mast In York
Cornerstone Telecoms has submitted a planning application to erect a 65‑foot 5G mast on Hospital Fields Road in York, replacing a previously rejected 57‑foot proposal. The monopole will carry nine antennas, three equipment cabinets, and six remote radio units to...
Chinese Robotaxi Companies Ramp International Plans
Chinese robotaxi leaders Pony AI and WeRide announced aggressive international expansion plans at the Beijing Auto Show. Pony AI unveiled a seventh‑generation vehicle priced below ¥230,000 (≈ $33,000), undercutting the entry‑level Tesla Model 3, and aims to ship 3,000 units globally by 2027. WeRide,...
TSMC Starts Work On Arizona Packaging Plant
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has broken ground on a new chip‑packaging plant in Arizona, aiming to have it operational by 2029. The facility will add CoWoS and 3D‑IC advanced packaging capabilities, addressing a current bottleneck that forces many high‑end...
China’s DeepSeek Holds First Funding Round
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek announced its first external funding round, offering up to 3% of equity to state‑backed and industrial investors. The round seeks to establish a market‑based valuation and give employees clarity on stock‑option worth, aiming to curb talent...
Micron Pushes US Lawmakers To Restrict China Sales
Micron is spearheading the MATCH Act, a congressional bill that would tighten U.S. export controls on chipmaking equipment to China. The legislation, cleared by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, targets advanced tools used by Chinese memory producers such as CXMT,...
Nio Hit By Patent Claim Over Battery-Swap Stations
Chinese EV maker Nio has been hit with a $250 million patent claim from Charge Peak, the BVI firm that now controls the intellectual property of the defunct Israeli start‑up Better Place. The claim targets three European patents covering battery‑swap technology used...
Wall Street Law Firm Apologises For AI Errors
Sullivan & Cromwell, a 140‑year‑old New York law firm, apologized to a federal judge after AI‑generated citations in a filing were found to be fabricated. Partner Andrew Dietderich acknowledged the errors, which included nonexistent case names and misquoted authorities. The mistakes...
China Delivery Giants Fined £390m After Violent Clashes
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation imposed record fines totaling 3.6 billion yuan (about $500 million) on seven e‑commerce and food‑delivery platforms, including PDD Holdings, Meituan, JD.com, Alibaba and ByteDance. The penalties followed a probe marked by violent clashes, with employees injuring...
Chips With Everything: Securing the Silicon Future
U.S. firms must shift from treating semiconductors as a routine procurement category to viewing them as strategic inputs, akin to energy generation capacity. Companies should stratify sourcing by criticality—optimizing commodity parts, securing dual‑source contracts for strategic chips, and building architectural...
Humanoid Robot Chases Boar In Warsaw
A Chinese‑made Unitree G1 humanoid, dubbed Edward Warchocki, was filmed chasing a herd of wild boar through Warsaw’s streets, a stunt that amassed over 14 million Instagram views. The video sparked public approval as the city grapples with a surge to more...
Met Police Defeat Challenge To Live Facial Recognition
London’s High Court rejected a challenge to the Metropolitan Police’s live facial‑recognition (LFR) program, finding the technology and its procedures comply with human‑rights law. The case was brought by youth worker Shaun Thompson and Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo,...
Broadband Restored In Orkney Islands After Fibre Repairs
Broadband service was restored to Orkney’s North Isles after BT Group repaired a damaged subsea fibre cable. The outage, declared a major incident, began on 16 March and left Westray, Sanday, Stronsay and nearby islands without broadband and, in some cases,...
Silicon In Focus Podcast: Shaping Technology for Transformation
Silicon In Focus host David Howell interviews Dai Vaughan, CTO of Public Digital, about the hidden "leadership debt" that hampers digital transformation. Vaughan argues that legacy systems are only part of the problem; entrenched habits and governance structures slow AI...
Boeing Develops Medium-Sized Satellite Amid Growing Demand
Boeing and its subsidiary Millennium Space Systems have unveiled the Resolute, a medium‑sized “micro‑GEO” satellite platform designed to bridge the gap between small‑sat and large, custom GEO satellites. The platform combines Millennium’s rapid production methods with Boeing’s advanced payload technology,...
Ransomware’s Next Phase: From Data Encryption to Business Extortion
Ransomware has morphed from simple file‑encryption attacks into a multi‑layered business extortion threat, driven by AI‑enhanced reconnaissance and data exfiltration. BlackFog’s 2025 State of Ransomware Report shows a 49% year‑on‑year rise in disclosed incidents and a growing shadow of undisclosed...
Ganfeng Lithium Sees Profits Soar Amid Energy Disruption
China’s Ganfeng Lithium, the world’s largest lithium‑metal producer, expects a profit of 1.6 billion yuan (≈ $221 million) for the quarter ended March, a sharp reversal from a 360 million‑yuan loss a year earlier. The surge is driven by soaring oil prices that have...
Apple, Google Host Mobile Nudification Apps
Apple and Google’s app stores continue to host more than 100 AI‑driven nudification apps that can strip clothing from real‑person photos and generate explicit content. The Tech Transparency Project found that search terms like “nudify” and “deepnude” surface multiple such...
Amazon Launches First Logistics Hub In China
Amazon has opened its first smart warehouse in Shenzhen, branding it as a Global Warehousing and Distribution centre that promises up to a 45% cost reduction for Chinese merchants shipping to the United States. The hub consolidates storage, customs clearance,...
Teenaged Boy Arrested After NI Schools Hacked
A 16‑year‑old was arrested in Portadown after allegedly compromising the C2K platform used by schools across Northern Ireland. The breach, which occurred at the start of the Easter break, locked students out of their accounts and exposed some personal data....
Rethinking Insider Risk in the Age of AI and Autonomy
Insider risk now accounts for roughly half of all data breaches, a figure amplified by remote and hybrid work models. The rise of AI‑driven productivity tools introduces new, often inadvertent, leakage pathways as employees bypass sanctioned systems. Traditional defenses like...
Italian Court Accepts Legal Action Over Facebook Mass Breach
An Italian court in Milan has accepted a class‑action lawsuit against Meta Platforms over the 2018‑19 Facebook data‑scraping breach that exposed personal information of 533 million users worldwide, including tens of millions of Italians. The CTCU consumer association is pursuing compensation...
From Data to Decisions: Building a Real-Time Business
Enterprises are chasing real‑time decision‑making to outpace rivals, but speed alone isn’t enough. Leaders must define what “real‑time” means for their business, balancing latency against the ten‑to‑twenty‑five‑fold cost premium of streaming over batch processing. Cloud platforms provide the scalability and...
Banks Test Systems After Anthropic Mythos Warning
Anthropic warned that its new Claude Mythos model can autonomously discover and exploit vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers. The U.S. Treasury’s CIO, Sam Corcos, is seeking immediate access to run the model against federal systems. Wall Street banks have...
Oracle Expands Fuel-Cell Deal With Bloom Energy
Oracle announced an expanded agreement to purchase up to 2.8 GW of fuel‑cell power from Bloom Energy for its U.S. data‑centre portfolio. The deal builds on an existing 1.2 GW commitment slated for 2026‑27, with the first system delivered in just 55...
Hackers Steal Healthcare Recruitment Data
Hackers identifying themselves as XP95 claim to have exfiltrated roughly half a million files from Healthdaq, a recruitment platform used by health trusts in Northern Ireland. The stolen data spans driving licences, criminal background checks, vaccine records, passports and other...
Uber Delivery Robots Defaced In Sheffield
Uber Eats’ autonomous delivery robots, operated by Starship Technologies, began service in Sheffield’s Meersbrook neighbourhood on March 20, 2026. Within a week, the devices were vandalised with spray‑paint messages, bent poles, gaffer tape and traffic cones placed to block movement. Residents...
China’s Shenzhen Activates Huawei-Powered AI Cluster
Shenzhen has activated a new supercomputing cluster built with 10,000 Huawei Ascend 910C AI accelerator cards, delivering 11,000 petaflops of performance. Combined with a 3,000‑petaflop system launched in 2025, the facility now offers 14,000 petaflops, and 92 % of its capacity...
Regulator Says Humans Remain Responsible For AI Audit Errors
The UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) released the world’s first guidance on AI use in auditing, emphasizing that human auditors remain accountable for audit quality. The guidance warns that AI can produce hallucinations, data distortions, and other errors that could...
Google Maps Displays Non-Existent Clean Air Zone In Manchester
Google Maps mistakenly displayed a Clean Air Zone around Greater Manchester, warning drivers of potential charges for a scheme that was never implemented. The error, traced to a 2019 proposal abandoned in 2023, was reported by Transport for Greater Manchester,...
Nuclear Provider X-Energy Files For IPO Amid Data Centre Boom
Nuclear reactor developer X‑Energy, backed by Amazon, has filed for a Nasdaq IPO under the ticker “XE”. The company is pursuing more than 11 GW of small modular reactor (SMR) capacity in the United States and the United Kingdom, targeting high‑ass‑low‑enriched...
Dutch Finance Ministry Hit By Hack
The Dutch Finance Ministry restricted access to several computer systems after detecting a hack on March 19. The intrusion affected internal processes in the policy department but left tax, customs and benefits services uninterrupted. Officials attribute the attack to the ShinyHunters...
Huawei Sees AI Agent Boost To GPU, CPU Businesses
At its China Partner Conference, Huawei announced AgentArts, an AI‑agent development platform slated for beta on April 30 and open‑source release on May 30, claiming it can accelerate agent creation by over 60%. The company said autonomous agents like OpenClaw will drive...
Orkney Broadband Outage Declared ‘Major Incident’
A subsea cable fault between Evie and Westray has been declared a major incident, cutting broadband for several hundred residents and businesses across Westray, Sanday, Stronsay and other northern Orkney islands. Openreach says repairs will require a specialist cable ship...
US Trade Judge Says Apple Can Sell Redesigned Blood Monitor
A U.S. trade judge issued a preliminary ruling that Apple can keep selling a redesigned blood‑oxygen monitor on its Apple Watch, finding it does not infringe Masimo’s patents. The original monitor was blocked by the International Trade Commission in 2023,...
Deezer Reports First Profit, Two Decades After Launch
Deezer announced its first full‑year net profit for fiscal 2025, posting €8 million in net income and €10 million in adjusted EBITDA on €543 million of revenue. The profit stemmed from a €12 million expense reduction and a 25.4% adjusted gross‑profit margin. Meanwhile, the...
Broadcast Highlights Dangers Of AI ‘Poisoning’
A CCTV investigation exposed generative‑engine optimisation (GEO) firms “poisoning” AI chatbots by inserting fabricated product data, such as the non‑existent Apollo‑9 fitness tracker, into chatbot recommendations. The broadcast, aired on World Consumer Rights Day, highlighted how automated review farms can...
Meta Plans Four In-House AI Chips In Two Years
Meta Platforms announced a rapid rollout of four custom AI accelerators—MTIA 300, MTIA 400, MTIA 450 and MTIA 500—targeted for deployment by the end of 2027. The MTIA 300 is already powering smaller‑model training for ranking and ad recommendation, while the MTIA 400 has cleared lab...
Ukraine Deploys Robot Battalion To Fight Russia
Ukraine has organized a dedicated battalion of uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) that are now armed and actively engaging Russian forces on the front lines. The robots, originally intended for logistics, carry machine guns, grenade launchers and explosive payloads, and are...
London Officials Plan Data Centre Policy Amid Backlash
London City Hall is drafting a dedicated policy to curb the carbon, power and water footprints of data centres while preserving their economic contribution. Officials highlighted the need to balance growth benefits with "quite challenging" energy and water demands. The...
Exposure Is the New Currency of Risk: Why Cybersecurity Speaks the Language of Business
Cybersecurity is evolving from a patch‑centric practice to Exposure Management (EM), a framework that quantifies an organization’s attack surface in business terms. EM aggregates vulnerability, cloud, identity and attack‑surface data into exposure scores tied to revenue, compliance and brand reputation....