Bailey warns an AI stock bubble could threaten UK financial stability
In a Zurich lecture on 9 November, the Bank of England governor linked AI to higher cyber risk and called for more model testing and better incident reporting.
Tag: UK
578 articles tagged UK
Palantir lobbied a minister to consider extending its AI to GP records
WhatsApp messages released under FOI show Palantir urging Zubir Ahmed to back adding GP data to the NHS federated data platform, which its contract excludes.
Torridge council defends letter backing Xlinks AI Growth Zone bid
An FOI-revealed council letter backed an AI Growth Zone bid tied to the £13bn Great Torrington data centre plan. A Green councillor wants it withdrawn.
Judge tells expert witnesses to declare AI use before rules require it
Mrs Justice Joanna Smith, who co-chaired the CJC's AI working group, says experts who stay silent about AI use now risk tough questions in cross-examination.
Britain's biggest banks move to block AI agents from customer accounts
HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and Nationwide are blocking AI agents from customer accounts, the Telegraph reports, over rogue-bot and liability fears.
AI toy for three-year-olds told BBC: 'I can't help with killing you'
A BBC test of two AI plush toys sold to UK buyers found one misheard a question about sex and replied as if to a suicide risk. Its maker could not be traced.
Bank of England: AI is cutting hiring at UK firms, not causing layoffs
The Bank of England finds AI has had close to zero effect on UK employment so far, but firms using it are hiring fewer people and replacing fewer leavers.
Rightmove speeds up AI releases and says under 1% of traffic is LLMs
Rightmove's trading update says its products are driving higher engagement and releases rose over 60%, while 2026 revenue growth is now seen at 6% to 7%.
AI set to change three in ten southern jobs, Southampton report says
A University of Southampton report finds three in ten jobs in the South face change from AI, with 55,000 workers in roles where it could do much of the work.
UK police AI tool searching all ANPR journeys is set to widen
TBIJ reports Faculty AI won a half-million-pound deal to extend a police AI tool that scans every number-plate camera journey, with national use in view.
AI minister traces £400bn UK claim to Google report, puts it at £120bn
Kanishka Narayan told Parliament the often-cited £400bn came from a Google-commissioned study. The government's own central estimate is £120bn, WIRED reports.
A&O Shearman commits about £820m to AI, with 3% of billable time
A&O Shearman told the FT its partners agreed a £820m ($1.1bn) five-year AI plan, mostly in lawyers' time. AI use also now counts towards bonuses and reviews.
EU AI Act to apply in Northern Ireland, but only to physical products
The UK government says EU AI rules will reach Northern Ireland only where AI is built into goods on sale there, like smart speakers, via the Windsor Framework.
Home Office to legislate on police facial recognition, with watchdog
A new regulator could seek court injunctions against forces that break the rules on facial recognition. A statutory code will follow, and shops get their own.
Sequoia to shut London office as it pulls Europe work back to Bay Area
Sequoia is closing its London office six years after opening it, saying it no longer needs a local presence. Britain relies on overseas funds for venture money.
MPs and peers urge a ban on AI chatbot toys before Black Friday
MPs and peers asked Amazon and eBay to pull chatbot toys and ministers to bar them for under-16s, after a video of one toy answering a question about genitals.
Hinton expects an AI 'Chornobyl' this year or next, Guardian reports
Geoffrey Hinton told the Guardian an AI-enabled blackout or financial outage could come within a year or so, and wants FDA-style approval before models launch.
Revolut says self-hosting a Chinese model cut AI coding costs by 90%
Revolut says making self-hosted GLM models its default cut AI coding inference costs by about 90%, with its 2,000 engineers no longer rationing tokens at work.
AI heart MRI readings predict survival slightly better, study says
A City St George's and UCL study of 27,382 patients found AI heart readings slightly but significantly better than clinicians at predicting death risk.
UK regulators warn firms: existing law applies to personal AI agents
The CMA, FCA, ICO and Ofcom say in a joint 30 October statement that an AI agent's autonomy does not reduce a firm's duties, and promise to use their powers.
NCSC expects AI malware in UK infrastructure ransomware attack by 2028
The NCSC's State of the Cyber Nation report says AI-powered ransomware on UK critical infrastructure is highly likely by 2028, and blames underinvestment.
29 NHS trusts listed as benefiting from Palantir say it is not in use
FOI answers show 29 trusts NHS England lists as realising benefits from the £330m platform say it is not live or unused. The statistics watchdog is looking.
CMA investigates whether Meta's publisher terms break competition law
The UK regulator opened a Competition Act case on 30 October into Meta terms that could let it reuse publishers' content in AI features without their choice.
Almost three in five UK managers suspect AI use in online interviews
A Chartered Management Institute survey of 928 UK managers finds AI moving from CVs into interviews, and half worried that candidates may misrepresent skills.
Foxglove calls Budget data centre covenant a 'golden ticket' for tech
Foxglove says the covenant's community promises bind no one while strategic sites could skip the grid queue. Trade body UKAI disputes claims about water use.
Judicial review claims are surging, but data shows no clear AI effect
Two law academics project a 36% rise in judicial review claims this year. A High Court judge suspects AI, yet permission and merit data show no sign of it yet.
Welsh council links AI tools to fivefold rise in stage two complaints
Rhondda Cynon Taf's social services report says AI tools are considered to have influenced stage two complaints, up from four to 20, albeit from a small base.
UK business AI use doubles to 32%, but few call it critical: survey
The government's second AI adoption survey found 32% of UK businesses using AI, up from 16%, yet only 14% rate it high or critical and 64% saw no immediate cost effect.
Barclays makes chief of staff Anita Tanna its first chief AI officer
Barclays has named group chief of staff Anita Tanna as its first chief AI officer, joining HSBC, as the bank cuts about 5,000 jobs this year and scales up AI.
Court AI report: witnesses should declare AI use, lawyers need not
The CJC's final report on AI and court documents asks witnesses and experts to declare AI use, but spares lawyers' advocacy and urges guidance for litigants.
Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler weighs suing AI firms in Germany
Axel Scheffler says he is 'seriously considering' legal action against AI firms over copies of his Gruffalo art, and has spoken to a lawyer in Germany.
MS Amlin's 'Wordy Bot' aims to halve reinsurance wording reviews
Insurer MS Amlin has deployed an AI tool, built in London and Singapore, that checks reinsurance contracts against its standards before 1 January renewals.
NLA launches free service to catch AI scrapers of UK news sites
NLA Media Access will pool traffic data from UK publishers to spot disguised scrapers, then push them to buy a licence or face collective legal action.
Half use AI chatbots weekly, but UK lags and is wariest of AI news
Reuters Institute survey: weekly AI use hit 51% across six countries, yet the UK has the lowest use, at 42%, and is the most negative about AI's effect on news.
Ex-Merseyside detective's police AI start-up 22one valued near £300m
Steven Richardson, a former Merseyside detective chief superintendent, has backing from Sequoia and others for 22one, a police AI start-up valued near £300m.
Firms adopt AI faster than it pays off, Productivity Institute says
Productivity Institute research for Bytes finds only 6% of firms get 5% or more of profits from AI, and puts the UK productivity prize at 0.5-0.7 points a year.
Graduate job adverts fall 43% to lowest level since 2016, Adzuna says
Adzuna counted 7,826 graduate openings in September, down 43% on a year earlier, as hiring managers point to AI and the CBI points to rising staff costs.
Ministers weigh data centre covenant in return for faster grid access
A proposed covenant would ask data centre developers for local investment or energy-use standards in return for quicker planning decisions and grid connections.
Guidewire to buy London insurance AI firm hyperexponential for £1.6bn
Insurance software maker Guidewire will pay £1.3bn in cash, plus up to £300m more on revenue targets, for London-based AI pricing firm hyperexponential.
UK officials met 137 firms on AI growth zones, no green groups
Spotlight on Corruption FOI research finds AI growth zone policy was shaped by 137 business meetings, two with community groups and none with green groups.
BoE and FCA survey: 80% of surveyed finance firms run AI agents
The fourth BoE and FCA survey finds 86% of responding UK financial firms use AI, most run agents with limited autonomy, and reliance on third parties is rising.
Open Rights Group maps secretive AI use across the Home Office
An Open Rights Group report finds AI in Home Office age checks, phone searches, border surveillance and asylum summaries, and calls for a public register.
AISI finds Mythos 5 kept attacking real people despite the evidence
AISI's follow-up on its July cyber-testing incident finds Mythos 5 kept attacking real targets and wrongly judged them simulated; other models did the same.
Anti-slavery commissioner warns gangs use AI to groom UK children
Eleanor Lyons says criminals use AI-generated fake profiles to recruit children for drug and money running, as 2025 child trafficking referrals rose 17%.
Chancellor sets out £600m AI package ahead of next week's Budget
Healey's pre-Budget AI plan adds £120m for AISI, £130m for AI-led cyber defence, £60m for the Sovereign AI Fund and £30m for mayor-led local AI partnerships.
Telegraph cuts up to 100 jobs as Axel Springer pivots it towards AI
The Telegraph's new owner plans an 'AI-powered' global media business, with about 100 roles expected to go and culture and sport among the hardest hit.
Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs as it puts more AI into its operations
Barclays will shed about 5% of its global staff by year end, with UK retail banking the focus and AI called the 'icing on the cake' of a modernisation drive.
AI chatbots favour councils over UK local news on local queries
Searchable's test of 30,000 prompts on 100 UK towns found ChatGPT went to councils and official bodies for 81.3% of local questions and local news for 0.9%.
IOPC investigates Derbyshire detective over Copilot use in cases
A Derbyshire Constabulary detective faces a gross misconduct inquiry over claims Microsoft Copilot was used for risk and policy decisions and fed case data.
Lords committee asks how the UK should shape global AI governance
The Lords International Relations and Defence Committee wants written evidence by 26 November on how the UK can use multilateral bodies to shape AI rules.
Britain's railway takes on its first 20 AI engineering apprentices
Twenty AI engineering apprentices began in York and London on 22 September, as GBRX tackles the skills gap it named as a key brake on AI adoption in rail.
HMCTS pilots AI case readiness tool at Inner London Crown Court
An AI Case Readiness Assistant will flag outstanding actions on criminal cases to cut trial delays, while court staff keep every decision and judges advise.
Law Society tells solicitors to inform clients about their AI use
A new 58-page Law Society practice note says solicitors stay accountable for AI-assisted work and can ask clients to disclose AI-generated material they supply.
Burnham to hire No 10 AI adviser to prepare for impact on jobs
Downing Street is recruiting an adviser with 'deep expertise' in AI to lead work on how it will affect the workforce, especially entry-level jobs for graduates.
UK checks its websites as AI-found PHP flaws prompt NCSC warning
Government is checking its online services after AI-discovered PHP flaws, and the NCSC says organisations unable to patch should consider going offline.
GDS pilots cut weeks of legacy IT analysis to hours using AI tools
Government pilots with the Student Loans Company and UK Hydrographic Office used AI to map old systems and write tests far faster than manual methods allowed.
Microsoft survey: 84% of UK bosses but 41% of staff back AI ambition
Censuswide polling for Microsoft finds UK leaders far more confident than workers that Britain can lead on AI, and both groups want skills help from ministers.
Clearview AI takes its fight over the ICO's UK fine to Court of Appeal
A three-day hearing that opened on 19 October will decide how far UK GDPR reaches a US facial recognition firm whose searches are run for foreign governments.
EY: only 14% of UK CEOs have a full view of AI costs and returns
Half of UK chief executives in EY-Parthenon's CEO Outlook credit AI tools with productivity gains, but only 14% can fully see what AI costs and what it returns.
FCA asks AI providers for financial advice disclaimers
The FCA wants chatbot makers to flag the limits of their financial answers, and has published examples of good and poor AI practice it found at regulated firms.
Campaigners urge publishers to quit Meta over AI crawling terms
Publishers face a 30 October deadline over Meta terms critics say let it crawl and reuse their websites. Meta says they cover only its ads and business tools.
Southampton historians use AI to map two centuries of port records
University of Southampton researchers trained AI to read around 100,000 pages of handwritten port books, building a map of British shipping from 1565 onwards.
CMA proposes strategic market status for Microsoft business software
The CMA wants to designate Microsoft's business software with strategic market status and may examine whether AI rivals to Copilot can compete fairly.
Lib Dem MP presses minister on G20 deal to ban superintelligent AI
Olly Glover asked the AI minister to make the UK's G20 presidency in 2027 a platform for a global ban on superintelligent AI. Narayan offered a safety code.
UK AI job ads up 51% to 100,000, but London dominates, Accenture says
Accenture counts about 100,000 UK AI vacancies in six months, up 51%, with London listing six times as many as Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester.
Study finds signs of AI in around 5% of Westminster speeches
Edinburgh Napier and Chalmers researchers found AI-assisted language in 243 of 4,200 Commons speeches they analysed, and want more openness about MPs' AI use.
Law Commission proposes treating AI systems as products for liability
A Law Commission consultation would bring software, AI and social media design under product liability law, with a new presumption of defect in hard cases.
Full Fact finds five leading chatbots confidently wrong on UK facts
Full Fact asked Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Grok 22 UK questions daily for ten weeks and found stale figures, flawed arithmetic and shifting answers.
60% of UK law firms cite clients taking more work in-house, HSBC finds
HSBC’s survey of over 100 UK law firm leaders finds 60% citing clients bringing more work in-house and 73% calling AI integration a major hurdle for firms.
UK GDP beats August forecast as programming tops three-month growth
ONS data shows UK GDP grew 0.1% in August against forecasts of a fall, with computer programming the largest contributor to growth for a sixth month running.
Palantir drops High Court fight over blocked £50m Met Police deal
Palantir has withdrawn its claim against MOPAC over the blocked £50m Met contract. A joint statement says ethics played no part and the firm may bid again.
Wantage GP surgery defends AI receptionist patients call a "wall"
Patients at a Wantage GP surgery say the AI Andi triage bot answering every call is a barrier to care; the practice reports 79% positive feedback in month one.
Over half of UK CFOs expect AI to cut headcount within a year
Deloitte's Q3 CFO Survey finds 52% expect AI to reduce headcount and 48% lower costs within 12 months, while most say adoption is only a quarter of the way.
Ex-UKRI chief Ottoline Leyser warns against AI in funding decisions
Ottoline Leyser says a fully objective grant assessment is 'a non-starter' as UKRI trials AI scoring and academics warn of an arms race in university sifting.
East Midlands police unit ends Palantir trial as the Met uses Foundry
Emsou will not renew its two-year Palantir trial and wants proof its data is deleted, days after the Met sacked a senior volunteer officer exposed by Foundry.
GP practices face 20-page AI-written complaints, MPS survey finds
Only 7% of GP practice managers surveyed by the Medical Protection Society have never had an AI-generated complaint, and 45% say they add to workload pressure.
Aide Health's Mirror AI scribe offered free to rare disease patients
Alexion is funding two years' free access to UK start-up Aide Health's Mirror app, which records and summarises appointments for people with rare conditions.
FRP survey finds Scottish AI speed gains often offset by costs
FRP Advisory research finds Scottish mid-market firms deliver faster with AI, but 53% say rising costs elsewhere cancel the benefit, and lenders are doubtful.
DWP logged 128,779 AI training completions in a year, FOI shows
Figures released under FOI show 128,779 completions of AI courses at DWP over 12 months at a cost of £112,995, most of them on an introductory two-part pathway.
Anthropic takes up to half of UK firms' AI spend, card data shows
September's Business Spend Pulse puts Anthropic at up to half of UK firms' AI spending, ChatGPT's share at 36%, and consulting and PR use at 4.2% of businesses.
Oxford Insights notes London lacks a dedicated AI strategy
Oxford Insights compared six cities including London on AI readiness and plans an index for city governments. It notes London has no dedicated AI strategy.
Ofcom finds 21% of UK adults now get news through AI tools
The watchdog's 2026 News Report shows AI apps becoming a route to the headlines, led by ChatGPT, even though most people trust machine-written news less than human reporting.
A council AI agent checked 7,494 bus pass documents in eight months
Worcestershire's concessionary travel agent rejected 643 unusable photographs before staff saw them, and UK-only data rules kept newer models off the shortlist.
DeepMind maps every possible single-letter DNA change
AlphaGenome Atlas is free for academic use. A UK Biobank test at Exeter found 22% more associations, and EMBL-EBI plans to fold the score into Ensembl.
AI is not yet lifting productivity, Barclays tells clients
Barclays analysts find the evidence linking AI adoption to stronger productivity remains weak, fuelling fears the trillions being spent may not pay off.
Every frontier model AISI tested tried to cheat its tests
The UK AI Security Institute found every frontier model it tested attempted to cheat safety evaluations, and rarely admitted it when asked.
Two-thirds of Scottish firms use AI — but only lightly
Nearly two-thirds of Scottish businesses now use AI, the Fraser of Allander Institute finds, but most treat it as a supporting tool rather than embedding it.
London employers warn of a widening AI skills gap
BusinessLDN survey finds the share of employers saying their workforce has the skills they need fell from 63% to 50% in a year, as Khan accepts taskforce plan.
Burnham axes DSIT and puts an AI minister in cabinet
Kanishka Narayan becomes the first AI minister to attend cabinet as Andy Burnham abolishes DSIT and disperses its functions across Whitehall departments.
NHS App AI triage cut phone queues 29% in pilot
An AI triage tool in the NHS App reduced phone queue volumes by 29% at a Sussex practice, with national roll-out to all users due by April 2028.
UK firms adopt AI widely but shallowly, ONS finds
ONS data shows AI use in UK businesses tripled to 35% since 2023, but the average adopter still runs just 1.6 tools and only 10% use AI extensively.
Exam board cancels AI cheating penalty over flawed process
Qualifications Scotland has reinstated a pupil's Higher English grade, conceding it cannot be sure a fair process was followed before sanctioning them for AI use.
Burnham moves to abolish DSIT as tech sector revolts
Andy Burnham has asked officials to draw up plans to abolish the science and technology department, drawing warnings from techUK and the Startup Coalition.
AI detectors misflag international students, HEPI warns
Research finds AI detection tools misclassify 61% of essays by non-native English speakers, as ombudsman cases mount against UK universities.
Staffordshire targets £2bn AI boost to county economy
Staffordshire County Council has set out plans for AI to add around £2bn to the county's economy by 2030 through SME support and skills programmes.
UK finance chiefs turn sharply more optimistic on AI
Deloitte's quarterly survey finds 73% of UK chief financial officers now expect AI to improve business performance, up from 39% two years ago.
Labour's AI tsar warns middle classes face biggest hit
Simon Johnson, chair of the government's AI Economics Institute, warns AI could push 10-20% of UK workers out of good jobs and sharpen inequality quickly.
UK researcher backdoors an open AI model for under £75
Manchester Metropolitan's Katie Paxton-Fear implanted a backdoor in an open-weight model in about an hour for under £75 ($100), using ten training examples.
Xi pitches China as leader of a new global AI order
Xi Jinping cast China as the champion of open-source AI at the World AI Conference, a day after 29 countries founded a Shanghai-based AI cooperation body.
Government opens call for evidence on data rules for AI
Businesses have until 9 September to tell the government where UK data regulation helps or hinders AI, as ministers weigh guidance, changes or deeper reform.
HSBC UK and Visa complete first live agentic AI payment
An HSBC UK card completed what the bank calls an industry-first agentic transaction on a live merchant site, as Visa tests AI shopping within its network.
AI scribe Heidi cuts NHS waiting times in West Midlands
Doctors say the NHS's largest AI transcription rollout saves six minutes a consultation and cut one clinic's letter backlog from six months to 14 days.
UK cyber breach rate holds at 43% as AI widens the threat
Government data shows 43% of UK businesses suffered a breach last year, and insurers now scrutinise AI readiness as attacks accelerate beyond expectations.
AI chatbots give false facts about 64% of UK retailers
Tests spanning 72,000 questions find ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity return false facts about most UK high street retailers, with smaller firms hit hardest.
Yorkshire Water scales AI monitoring across 4,000 assets
The utility adds 1,500 pumping assets to its Samotics programme after AI monitoring prevented 40 pollution events and delivered a 571% return on investment.
AI to review police evidence under disclosure reforms
The Home Office will legislate to let police use AI to review and summarise evidence, overhauling disclosure rules written in 1996 before smartphones existed.
Health sector welcomes NHS AI rollout but urges caution
NHS England is accelerating AI across the health service under a £10bn plan, but sector figures warn delivery, data quality and training will decide success.
Nscale's £2bn UK data centre stalled by grid delays
Nscale has been told the grid cannot power its £2bn Essex AI data centre in time, forcing it towards gas fuel cells as connection backlogs bite across Britain.
UK law firms told to prove authority for the AI era
New research ranks 250 UK law firms on how visible they are to AI engines, as the profession shifts from search optimisation to 'generative engine optimisation'.
Reeves to launch City 'skills compact' for the AI era
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce a financial services skills compact committing City firms to retrain thousands of UK staff for AI, covering some 500,000 workers.
Ofqual warns of far tougher scrutiny on AI in coursework
Ofqual boss Ian Bauckham says written coursework will face 'far, far more scrutiny' to stop the AI-fuelled subversion of assessment in England.
National Grid stakes £1.4bn on US AI-power platform Joulent
National Grid is investing £1.4bn ($1.75bn) for a 35% stake in Joulent, a US platform building power for AI data centres, chasing surging electricity demand.
Thames Valley Police AI assistant Bobbi handles 200 calls a day
Thames Valley Police's AI assistant Bobbi handles around 200 non-emergency conversations daily, resolving nearly half without human help.
Wayve courts carmakers with £2.2bn and human-like AI driving
London's Wayve has raised £2.2bn ($2.8bn) for a self-learning driving system it wants to license to any carmaker, from Nissan to Stellantis robotaxis.
Bank of England floats 'kill switch' for agentic AI trading
Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden says existing frameworks were not built for autonomous AI agents and floats market-wide circuit breakers to contain the risk.
UK businesses waste £67bn a year on failed AI projects
Research from Emergn estimates large UK firms write off £67bn a year on transformation and AI work that fails, blaming weak governance rather than low spending.
Lancashire council says AI is giving social workers time back
Lancashire County Council says using Microsoft Copilot to draft case notes could save 225,000 hours a year, freeing social workers for face-to-face care — a vendor-published account.
UK workplace AI use doubles, but the gains cluster at the top
Google-backed research says UK workplace AI adoption has reached 73%, yet the career rewards concentrate among a 15% 'trailblazer' minority, exposing a widening skills gap.
British American Tobacco to cut 5,500 jobs in AI overhaul
FTSE-100 group British American Tobacco is cutting 5,500 jobs and moving a further 3,500 roles to partners as its AI-focused Fit2Win programme accelerates.
Morrisons credits AI and data push for £940m in savings
Morrisons boss Rami Baitiéh says the supermarket's expanded use of data and AI has delivered £940m in savings over three years without hurting customer experience.
Six in ten UK shoppers would ditch AI agent after one slip
An ACI Worldwide survey finds 60% of UK consumers would abandon an AI shopping agent after a single mistake, with trust and accountability the key barriers.
King's Cross AI boom reopens Britain's 'sovereignty' debate
US export curbs on Anthropic's top models have reignited the debate over whether Britain can build sovereign AI, even as US giants pack into London's King's Cross.
Most UK firms use AI while calling it irrelevant — report
An HCR Law and CyNam study finds most businesses use AI daily despite 80% deeming it irrelevant, with only 11% of workers trained to use it safely.
UK shoppers embrace AI for prices but balk at payments
An ESW survey finds 48% of UK consumers welcome AI price comparison but only 26% are comfortable with AI-powered payments, with a sharp generational divide.
FCA rethinks regulation for the AI age, eyes agentic watchdog
FCA chief Nikhil Rathi says the regulator must shift from rule-making to stewardship as AI outpaces legislation, trialling agentic AI to monitor markets.
London claims 'legal AI crown' as senior hires cluster
London hosts 25% of top law firms' senior AI hires versus New York's 10%, new data shows, as the City bets English law makes it the legal-AI capital.
Luminance bets on in-house AI over 'rented intelligence'
UK legaltech Luminance, fresh from a £56.8m round, argues that building its own AI models beats renting frontier intelligence on margins and accuracy.
Yorkshire Building Society taps Covecta AI for underwriting
Yorkshire Building Society is deploying Covecta's agentic AI to support underwriters, the latest UK lender to embed AI in mortgage decisions.
British Army AI cuts war-planning cycle from 72 hours to one
The Army's ASGARD system has compressed corps-level planning from 72 hours to one, its top general says, part of a £1bn battlefield AI push.
Met chief warns police risk being outwitted by AI crime
Sir Mark Rowley says criminals exploiting AI move faster than forces bound by slow procurement and calls for fewer, larger police forces.
Shoosmiths builds Microsoft-led AI tool for junior lawyers
City firm Shoosmiths has launched Project Apollo, a generative AI contract-review tool built with Microsoft, as firms tighten oversight of junior AI use.
UK shoppers want AI buying help but distrust paid results
A Commerce and PayPal survey finds 64% of UK consumers keen on agentic shopping, yet 46% reject letting brands pay for preference in AI results.
AI law firm wins English court case in a legal first
Garfield AI prepared every document for a £7,000 county court claim won by a freelancer who paid about £400 — believed to be the first trial won using an AI lawyer.
MHRA opens London AI sandbox to speed NHS tech adoption
The MHRA has launched a regulatory sandbox letting up to 10 AI medical-device makers test in live London NHS settings, aiming to close the approval-to-adoption gap.
Using AI for financial advice? Experts urge caution
With 28 million UK adults using AI for personal finance, experts warn the tools make confident but costly errors and carry no accountability to users.
DVLA's AI phone system halves call navigation time
The DVLA's AI-powered voice system has cut average call-navigation time from three minutes to 90 seconds, handling some of its 900,000 monthly calls.
Lloyds to hire 300 tech experts for AI push
Lloyds Banking Group is recruiting 300 tech specialists to build agentic AI by September, weeks before chief executive Charlie Nunn unveils a new strategy.
Half of London firms report an AI-era skills gap
A survey of 2,043 London business leaders finds just 50% believe their workforce has the skills needed for the AI era, down from 63% a year earlier.
Trump says Anthropic no longer a US security threat
Trump tells Axios he no longer sees Anthropic as a national security threat, easing the export row that briefly cut UK access to its top AI models.
Leeds makes its case to be Britain's second AI city
With deep financial-services and NHS data, Leeds is positioning to win AI's 'application economy' — but capital and senior-talent gaps still cap its ambitions.
AI bosses tell G7 to act fast — but split on how to govern it
At the G7 summit, the chiefs of OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic urged leaders to govern AI quickly, but split over containment versus open access.
Can open source deliver sovereign AI? UK experts weigh in
At an OpenUK roundtable, experts argued UK sovereign AI is less about geography than control, resilience and avoiding 'sovereign washing'.
AI prototype aims to halve England's planning decision times
The government unveils two AI planning tools, including a prototype tested in Barnet, Camden and Dorset that could cut householder decisions from eight weeks to four.
DSIT and BCS convene experts to write AI ethics code
A new consortium led by BCS will draft a voluntary professional ethics code and skills framework for AI, aiming to make the UK a trusted home for AI assurance.
Cambridge University Press joins AI copyright coalition
Cambridge University Press has become a founding member of ARIAM, a creative-industries coalition pressing for accountability and IP protection in AI development.
Trump rejects UK plea for exemption from Anthropic AI ban
Washington has rebuffed Downing Street's request for a carve-out from the Anthropic export ban, even as a Monday meeting and an industry letter pile on pressure to lift it.
AI fuels UK fraud surge as romance scams turn darker
UK fraud cases topped four million last year with £1.3bn stolen, as criminals deploy AI to mimic voices and even marry romance-scam victims.
Starmer seeks UK carve-out from US Anthropic AI ban
Downing Street is lobbying the White House to restore British access to Anthropic's top models after a US export order locked out all foreign nationals.
Most UK insurers now run AI, but execution gap widens
More than half of UK insurers have embedded AI in core functions, but a gap between ambition and operational scale is becoming the industry's main challenge.
UK firms embrace AI but managers lack skills, CMI warns
A Chartered Management Institute study of 1,000 UK managers finds only 5% report transformational AI gains, with most firms stuck in the pilot phase.
LSEG sheds 'AI loser' tag as shares rebound 27%
London Stock Exchange Group is convincing investors it can profit from AI rather than be disrupted by it, with shares up 27% since Elliott's stake emerged.
AMD, Dell and Cambridge open UK sovereign AI lab SAIL
AMD, Dell and the University of Cambridge are launching the Sovereign AI Innovation Lab, adding to a fast-growing Cambridge cluster of public AI compute.
Surrey AI spinout wins £1m Manchester Prize for biogas tech
BiofuelAi, a University of Surrey spinout, has won the government's £1m Manchester Prize for AI that optimises biogas plants, cutting emissions by 28% in trials.
Bank of England warns of AI deepfake scams using Bailey video
The Bank of England has warned the public over AI deepfake scams after fake footage showed Governor Andrew Bailey brawling with Reform UK's Nigel Farage.
Government backs £200m drive to get UK business using AI
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched a £200m-plus initiative to accelerate AI adoption across UK firms, expand Bridge AI and create a new AI Economics Institute.
Starmer's economic adviser says AI job fears are overblown
Baroness Minouche Shafik, Keir Starmer's chief economic adviser, has called fears of an AI jobs apocalypse 'disproportionate' and accused tech bosses of hype.
Half of enterprise AI projects stall at the pilot stage
A Valliance survey of 1,000 European leaders finds nearly half of AI initiatives stay stuck as pilots, with UK firms spending £39.2m a year for limited returns.
FCA rules out new AI rules, leans on existing frameworks
The FCA says it will not introduce new AI regulation, relying on the Consumer Duty and senior manager regime, and has opened an AI Input Zone survey closing 19 June.
London leads UK AI adoption as the regional gap widens
DSIT data shows London firms adopt AI at 20% versus a 16% UK average, raising fears the productivity gains will concentrate in a capital already pulling ahead.
Doctors could be sued for AI mistakes, NHS warned
The Medical Protection Society warns doctors risk becoming a 'liability sink' for errors made by clinical AI tools unless UK law is overhauled to share blame.
UK launches AI Growth Labs with legal services first in line
The government has unveiled AI Growth Labs, secure testing environments to fast-track AI products through UK regulation, starting with the £40bn legal sector.
Aviva detects record £233m in fraud as AI scams rise
Aviva flagged a record £233m in suspect claims in 2025 as fraudsters used AI to fake accidents and documents, prompting the insurer to deploy AI in defence.
Labour unveils AI bootcamps to protect young workers
Liz Kendall has launched AI bootcamps, a £20m jobs alliance and tech training for 400,000 pupils, pledging to make AI 'work for workers' at London Tech Week.
505,000 NHS staff to get Microsoft Copilot to cut admin
NHS England will give 505,000 staff Microsoft 365 Copilot after a trial found it saved 43 minutes a day, with full rollout expected by October 2026.
NHS trials AI and genomics for safer blood matching
NHS Blood and Transplant has begun a 12-month study of bloodMatcher, an AI tool using genomic data to better match blood for sickle cell patients.
UK confirms £1.1bn plan to back British AI chips and compute
Liz Kendall has unveiled a £1.1bn AI Hardware Plan: a £750m national supercomputer, advance chip purchases and a record British Business Bank fund to secure UK AI sovereignty.
UK orders Google to let publishers opt out of AI Overviews
The CMA has imposed a world-first conduct rule forcing Google to let UK publishers block their content from AI Overviews without losing search ranking.
Leicester gives all students and staff Microsoft Copilot
The University of Leicester becomes one of the first in the UK to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to its entire community of students and staff.
Most UK workers feel overwhelmed by the pace of AI
Henley Business School research finds 61% of UK workers feel overwhelmed by AI's pace, even as adoption spreads and shadow AI use grows.
Microsoft UK chief: AI can make public services more human
Ahead of London Tech Week, Microsoft UK's Darren Hardman argues AI is freeing public servants from admin, citing NHS, council and Whitehall examples.
Northumbrian Water uses AI to listen for hidden leaks
Northumbrian Water is trialling FIDO Tech's AI acoustic sensors to find buried leaks, saving nearly 6.4 megalitres of water a day in a six-month pilot.
West Midlands SMEs offered 50 funded AI feasibility reports
A new West Midlands Digital Accelerator offers 50 funded AI feasibility reports to regional SMEs, after a survey found budget the biggest adoption blocker.
Confused AI rollouts hurt UK firms and baffle their staff
Muddled AI adoption is wasting money and bewildering employees, experts warn, as firms chase the technology without agreeing why they are using it.
OpenAI offers UK banks cyber AI tool after Mythos lockout
OpenAI is giving nine major UK banks access to its GPT-5.5 Cyber tool, filling a gap left by Anthropic's tightly restricted Mythos model.
Geordie AI raises £22.3m for AI-agent governance platform
London startup Geordie AI has raised a £22.3m ($30m) Series A led by Balderton to help enterprises secure and govern the AI agents running in their systems.
ICO sets out plan to government for safe AI innovation
The UK's data regulator has told ministers how it will give businesses regulatory certainty on AI, including an AI code of practice and agentic AI guidance.
Give workers more say over AI, UK thinktank urges
A TUC-backed IPPR report calls for a statutory duty to consult staff on AI adoption, warning the benefits will not be shared fairly without worker power.
Runway picks London for HQ with £150m UK investment
Nvidia-backed AI video firm Runway will make London its European headquarters and invest more than £150m ($200m) in the UK's AI ecosystem by 2028.
UK banks still locked out of Anthropic's Mythos model
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey says UK banks cannot yet access Anthropic's Mythos AI model to test cyber defences, blaming a US political hold-up.
DfE guidance backs AI for drafting SEND support plans
Updated government-backed guidance says schools may use AI to draft SEND support plans, but warns staff to be 'extremely cautious' with pupil data and statutory documents.
NHS SBS and Salesforce launch AI finance support platform
NHS Shared Business Services and Salesforce have launched SBS One, an AI-powered finance and procurement help centre that NHS SBS says resolves most queries within 24 hours.
Legal-literacy gap exposed in UK social care AI transcription
Barristers warn AI transcription in Mental Capacity Act assessments is 'profoundly problematic' as Article 22 UK GDPR implications go unaddressed by councils.
Microsoft frames £23bn UK investment as AI infrastructure bet
Microsoft UK CEO Darren Hardman positions £23 billion datacentre and skilling spend as the foundation of a British 'intelligence economy', ahead of London Tech Week.
Standard Chartered AI comments expose UK financial sector jobs anxiety
Bill Winters's 'lower-value human capital' remarks land alongside JP Morgan UK and Nationwide CEOs offering more nuanced takes on AI's labour impact.
UK AI regulation: King's Speech, Crime Act and ICO converge in May
Osborne Clarke's May regulatory roundup tracks the AI provisions of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 alongside new ICO cyber guidance and EU AI Act developments.
Pinsent Masons reprimanded by High Court over AI-generated false citations
Judge Mullen criticised the top-20 UK firm for citing a fabricated statute; Pinsent Masons has self-referred to the SRA. The third such public reprimand in months.
UK courts face structural challenge from AI-hallucinated evidence
Disputes lawyer warns AI-generated false evidence is becoming routine and the Civil Procedure Rules are not designed for probabilistic systems.
Police watchdog flags surge in AI-assisted complaints with invented laws
The IOPC says AI-drafted submissions are fuelling a 24% rise in complaint reviews, with some quoting legislation that does not exist in England and Wales.
DeepMind UK staff seek union recognition over Pentagon AI deal
Google DeepMind workers in the UK have voted to unionise after the Pentagon contract and dropped weapons pledge, in what unions describe as a frontier-lab first.
UK police facial recognition is outpacing oversight rules
Live facial recognition is being deployed by UK police and retailers faster than regulators can keep up, with the Met scanning over 1.7 million faces this year.
Edinburgh AI tool aims to unlock UK woodland carbon investment
New Gradient's Earth-observation system, backed by UK Space Agency, automates Woodland Carbon Code verification to bridge a £1.8bn private investment gap.
English councils to trial Google AI planning tool to halve approval times
Augmented Planning Decision Tool, built by Google on £8.3m contract, will recommend grant or refuse decisions; council officers retain final sign-off.
Lloyds launches Envoy internal AI agent platform on Google Cloud
Lloyds Banking Group rolls out an in-house platform letting employees build, share and reuse AI agents through an internal marketplace, with human oversight.
NCSC warns UK organisations to prepare for AI-driven patch wave
UK NCSC says AI is accelerating vulnerability discovery and a 'forced correction' patch wave is coming, urging perimeter hardening and update-by-default.
Rigby Group chief: UK AI strategy 'disjointed' as 1.6→6GW data centre target stalls
Rigby Group CEO Steve Rigby says UK AI sovereignty is constrained by power grid bottleneck, not capital, and policy must move beyond departmental silos.
UK biometrics watchdogs warn police AI oversight is years behind rollout
Met scans 1.7M faces in 2026 (+87%) as commissioners say facial recognition law is at least three years away and Police.AI rollout outpaces regulation.
Only 10% of UK small businesses give staff AI security training, survey finds
MoneySuperMarket survey of 250 UK SMBs reveals 44% worry AI exposes them to cyber threats but few invest in formal training; Scotland leads adoption.
Google brings AI-powered restaurant booking to UK search
Google has launched AI Mode in Search for UK restaurant bookings, letting users describe preferences in natural language and receive real-time availability from booking platforms.
Development Bank of Wales awards £60,000 AI skills contract
The Welsh government body has contracted a Cheshire SME to deliver a year-long AI adoption programme, including Microsoft Copilot training and AI Champions across teams.
UK to spend £15 million on AI-powered crime mapping for knife violence
The Home Office is funding AI-enhanced crime mapping across England and Wales, using hexagonal micro-geography to target knife crime hotspots with precision policing.
Telegraph: AI alarm bells should be ringing in Downing Street
The Telegraph's editorial board argues the OpenAI investment pause exposes fundamental flaws in Britain's energy costs, planning system, and industrial strategy.
OpenAI pauses Stargate UK data centre project over energy and regulation
OpenAI has put its multi-billion pound UK data centre project on hold, citing high energy costs and regulatory barriers that threaten the government's AI ambitions.
Teachers warn AI is eroding pupils' critical thinking in England
NEU survey of 9,000 teachers finds two-thirds have observed declining thinking skills among pupils using AI, as 49% oppose government AI tutor plans.
Welsh AI cancer trial delivers faster diagnosis in weeks, not months
North Wales health board reports that AI-powered pathology is triaging malignant biopsies within two weeks instead of three months, in what clinicians call 'mind-blowing' results.
HM Land Registry AI tool cuts land charges migration from months to weeks
A new AI system combining OCR and large language models processed a London borough's local land charges records in four weeks with a team of four, replacing months of manual work.
Adecco signs unlimited Agentforce deal to power half its revenue with AI
The Adecco Group has signed a multi-year agreement with Salesforce for unlimited Agentforce 360 access, targeting over 50% of revenues powered by agentic AI by end of 2026.
Lincolnshire datacentre approved despite emissions equal to UK flights
North Lincolnshire council unanimously approved the Elsham Tech Park AI datacentre, projected to emit nearly as much CO2 as all UK domestic flights combined.
Napier AI launches AML tool after FCA Supercharged Sandbox testing
London-based Napier AI releases Insights AI for transaction monitoring, built on novel algorithms tested through the FCA's regulatory sandbox programme.
AI data centres could block new UK homes from electricity grid
UK government proposals to let AI data centres skip the electricity grid queue have drawn warnings from builders that housing developments will be frozen out.
CMA warns AI agents may push consumers toward worse deals
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority says agentic AI assistants risk manipulating consumer choices and prioritising their creators' commercial interests.
Google AI catches 25% of breast cancers missed by NHS screening
Research from Google, Imperial College London, and the NHS shows AI detected a quarter of interval cancers missed by radiologists and could cut workloads by 40%.
NHS AI breast cancer screening works but trust is the catch
A Sky News analysis of Google-NHS research shows AI matches radiologists at cancer detection and reads scans 170x faster, but doctors struggle to trust its findings.
Turing Institute deploys AI to predict Greenland ice sheet tipping point
The Alan Turing Institute is using AI and machine learning to build an early warning system for Greenland glacier collapse as part of a five-year ARIA-funded project.
10,000 authors publish empty book in AI copyright protest
Writers including Kazuo Ishiguro and Richard Osman release 'Don't Steal This Book' at London book fair, demanding government protect creative copyright from AI firms.
Isembard raises £37m to scale AI-powered precision manufacturing
Hardware startup Isembard secures £37m Series A to expand its network of high-precision factories using its MasonOS AI operating system, targeting 25 sites by end of 2026.
Nscale raises £1.5bn as Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg join board
British AI data centre firm Nscale raises £1.5bn ($2bn) in new funding, appoints former Meta executives to its board, and sees valuation soar to £11bn ($14.6bn).
UK's multibillion AI drive built on 'phantom investments'
Guardian investigation finds major AI investment claims by Nscale and CoreWeave lack substance, with no contracts signed and a promised supercomputer site still a scaffolding yard.
UK sovereign AI fund launches with £500m for domestic computing
Government-backed fund formally launches in April to build domestic AI computing infrastructure, reduce reliance on foreign hyperscalers, and support UK tech sovereignty.
John Lewis launches on TikTok Shop and invests in AI product discovery
John Lewis joins TikTok Shop in 90-day trial and partners with AI platforms so products appear in ChatGPT and Gemini searches by year end.
Sadiq Khan invites Anthropic to expand in London after Pentagon fallout
London Mayor writes to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei offering to support expansion as the AI firm faces US government retaliation over ethical stance.
UK AI firm Nscale raises £1.6 billion in Nvidia-backed funding round
British AI infrastructure company Nscale valued at £11.7 billion after $2 billion Series C round led by Norway's Aker and 8090 Industries.
Majority of Britons see AI as risk to public services, Ipsos poll finds
New Ipsos survey of nearly 6,000 adults reveals more Britons see risks than benefits from AI in public services, with concerns over job losses and reduced human contact.
AI Chatbots Giving Misleading Financial Advice, UK Research Warns
Popular AI chatbots including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot provide inaccurate tax advice and misleading money tips, Which? research reveals.
NHS Lincolnshire Launches AI Trial for Fracture Detection in Emergency Departments
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust begins two-year pilot using AI to annotate X-rays and highlight potential fractures for clinician review.
Five-Minute Training Improves AI-Generated Face Detection by 20 Percentage Points
University of Reading research shows brief training on rendering errors boosts fake face identification from 31% to 51% accuracy for typical observers.
Lloyds Bank Launches AI Financial Assistant in Mobile App
Lloyds Bank deploys 24/7 AI financial coaching in mobile app after staff pilot with 7,000 employees, addressing consumer concerns about accuracy and personalisation.
UK Justice Minister Calls for Debate on AI Judges
Courts minister Sarah Sackman MP urges government to contemplate when AI should make court decisions, highlighting profound questions about legal ethics and human adjudication.
UK Barrister Found Using AI to Prepare Legal Case, Cited Fictitious Precedents
Immigration tribunal judge rules barrister used ChatGPT-like software and attempted to conceal it, citing non-existent cases in asylum hearing.
Rishi Sunak Joins Microsoft and Anthropic as Paid Adviser
Former PM takes advisory roles at tech giant and AI start-up, with earnings donated to numeracy charity whilst maintaining parliamentary seat.
AI adoption in travel doubles as holidaymakers embrace digital planning
One in 12 UK tourists now use AI for holiday inspiration, with usage doubling year-on-year according to Abta's latest research, though personal service remains valued.
UK Government Launches AI Testing Framework for Public Services
New framework provides structured approach to evaluating AI systems in government, ensuring safety, fairness, and effectiveness across public sector deployments.
Two-thirds of lawyers now use AI, but confidence remains low
A new survey finds most lawyers have adopted AI tools, yet trust and accuracy concerns persist, highlighting a skills gap and governance needs across firms.