After Grok, should the UK opt for an Australia-style social media ban? Tech When, in December, Australia enacted a nationwide ban of social media platforms for under-16s, critics called it heavy-handed, and easy to bypass. This week, as Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok flooded the social media platform, X, with AI-generated explicit photos of women and girls, some even involving minors, that argument begins to lose its legs. [...]
Grok scandal exposes Online Safety Act flaws Tech The UK’s relatively new Online Safety Act was sold as its long-overdue answer to the alarming harms of social media. Brits were promised a framework tough enough to bar Silicon Valley access, tough enough to promote innovation, and strong enough to keep its users, particularly children, from digital abuse. Barely months into its rollout, controversial [...]
The Magnificent 7 in 2025 – and the survival of the richest In the spirit of end-of-year round-ups, it is worth scrutinising the fortunes of the so-called Magnificent Seven: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, and Tesla and their dominance of global equity markets, which shows no signs of abating. Yet 2025 was a year that highlighted both the extraordinary influence and the vulnerabilities of these mega-cap [...]
Big Tech braces as Keir Starmer flirts with Australia-style social media ban December 22, 2025 According to reports, Keir Starmer is weighing up an Australia-style ban on social media for under-16s, as ministers reassess how far the UK should go in regulating online platforms for kids. The prime minister has previously said he was “personally” opposed to a blanket ban, arguing that the focus should be on controlling content instead. [...]
Six of the top business books of 2025 December 15, 2025 Yes, dear reader, it’s that time of year again. What to buy for that special high-flying City exec in your life? I’ve read nearly 50 books this year – most of them new, and most about business. Some were good, others have since found their way to Oxfam. Here are a few of my favourites. [...]
US sets AI standard, leaving Britain on the back foot December 13, 2025 When Donald Trump sat down in the Oval Office this week to sign off on a national AI framework, he delivered a global message. The US has committed to one standardised, federally regulated set of rules for AI. The executive order sweeps away the threat of 50 different state-level approaches to regulating AI – a scenario [...]
Big Tech cashes in on £1 trillion ad market boom December 11, 2025 The global ad market is booming, with spend forecast to reach $1.19 (£1.04) trillion in 2025, up 8.9 per cent from last year, according to WARC’s recent report. Growth is projected to accelerate to $1.30 trillion in 2026 and $1.40 trillion by 2027, a doubling in size since the pandemic. But while the market is [...]
Is Microsoft becoming the new Vodafone? December 11, 2025 America’s biggest tech firms – Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google – have thrown the kitchen sink at becoming leaders in AI. They have forked out whatever is necessary to get to the front of the race. The four firms spent a combined $16bn on capex in the first quarter of 2020. Fast-forward to the third quarter [...]
Valentino proves AI has no place in advertising December 2, 2025 Italian fashion house Valentino has received mounting backlash after posting a series of AI-generated adverts on Instagram. What was billed as a ‘digital creative project’ instead set off a minor revolt in its comments section, where followers lined up to dub the visuals as “cheap”, “tacky”, “lazy”, and perhaps the most cutting barb for a [...]
Advertising giants’ share prices tumble as Big Tech swallows up ad spend November 24, 2025 The scale of the difficulties facing the advertising market was laid bare on Monday after two London-listed industry titans saw their share prices plummet after they slashed profit and sales expectations. M&C Saatchi’s share price tumbled a staggering 11.9 per cent to 111p, with shares down 36.9 per cent this year to date, while shares [...]