From the archive
AI policy sets the rules for how artificial intelligence is developed, deployed and held accountable. Follow AI regulation, copyright disputes, privacy, surveillance and government decisions affecting the technology. Our coverage explains who a proposal applies to, whether it is law or still under discussion, and what it could mean for developers, businesses and the people using AI.
Lead story
AI agents could one day guide people through legal problems, draft claims and negotiate with institutions, the Law Society warns. Its foresight study argues that accountability and meaningful human oversight need settling before such systems become a doorway into justice.
Read the report & discussion ↗Watch Desk
Aleph Alpha released Kolibri 1, a German-English open-weight language model with 78.1 billion parameters, on 3 October. Its Apache 2.0 licence allows users to modify and redistribute the weights, but running the full model still calls for substantial hardware.
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Cloudflare has released its first machine-learning models, Clef and Clef-flash, for tasks such as choosing from predefined options. TokenPost reports that both are available through Workers AI, with weights under the Apache 2.0 licence for download and self-hosting. The practical draw is speed and flexibility, though the hosted…
NVIDIA Watch
NVIDIA’s head of sustainability argues that growing electricity demand, including demand from AI, strengthens the case for a US nuclear expansion. The essay also sets out the company’s view of where computing could help nuclear developers, and where policy needs to change.
Watch Desk
SignSplit has launched with a reported $400 million strategic seed commitment, pitching infrastructure for people to license personal data, creative work and likenesses to AI developers. The bigger question is whether signed consent and payment can become practical plumbing for AI training, rather than another promise attached to…
Mistral AI Watch
Morocco’s digital transition ministry and Mistral AI have developed two AI tools aimed at helping software understand Moroccan Arabic: a dialect identifier and a speech-recognition model that can transcribe conversations switching between Arabic, French and English. The planned open-source release could give developers a useful building block for…
Watch Desk
Mearns Castle High School in East Renfrewshire has appointed Jamie Laycock to a dedicated AI literacy post, with lessons for pupils and training for colleagues. The approach is less “AI is the future” than “check what it tells you”, which is a more useful starting point for a…
Watch Desk
The White House’s new “Super Intelligence” task force has 120 days to advise President Trump on AI policy, as officials weigh competing approaches to oversight and keeping the US ahead in the AI race. Its work could shape how federal agencies review advanced models, even if it stops…
Watch Desk
The UK government will act on all 44 proposals for regulating healthcare AI, according to Resultsense. The shift puts more emphasis on monitoring AI medical devices after they reach patients, with draft guidance on product updates due by December.
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An Arizona appeals court has ordered a man resentenced after finding that an AI-generated video portraying his deceased victim was unreliable. The case puts a difficult question in view: when does a synthetic memorial become something a court must treat as evidence?
Google DeepMind Watch
Google DeepMind staffer Paige Bailey demonstrated Gemma 4 running locally in a web browser, with no API call or data sent off the device. The talk also laid out a range of model sizes and on-device tools, putting the practical case for open, smaller AI models on display.
Aleph Alpha Watch
Aleph Alpha has detailed Kolibri’s design for German-speaking public administration and industry, including document-grounded answers, native tool calling and adjustable reasoning. The practical proposition is a model built for infrastructure customers control, rather than another assistant whose operating arrangements arrive as a surprise. Its 5 October announcement adds…
Anthropic Watch
Claude Code 2.1.290 adds more detail to plugin hooks and subagent permission events, gives users a Deny button for pending sign-ins, and fixes a broad set of session, scheduling and access-control bugs. Anthropic’s release notes make this a substantial developer update, not merely a new number on the…
Jacob Coxon Watch
Former AI researcher Jacob Coxon told New York City Council members that leading developers do not know how to prevent AI systems from pursuing goals their creators did not assign. His testimony adds a pointed safety challenge to a hearing where company representatives defended their work and officials…
Watch Desk
Schneider Electric has agreed to buy industrial software maker PTC for $22.6bn in cash, in a deal the companies say will help build an industrial AI business. The proposed acquisition combines Schneider’s energy and process data with PTC’s product and engineering software, with shareholder and regulatory approvals still…
Meta AI Watch
Norway is considering temporary restrictions on AI-enabled eyewear in some public places, citing the risk that people could be recorded without their knowledge. The proposal could affect Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, but officials have not settled which devices or locations would be covered, and no ban is in force.
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Reflection says its forthcoming Beam model has 501 billion parameters and is designed to give businesses and governments another open-weight AI option. The founders’ account makes the story about more than a model launch: Reflection is betting that open access can coexist with a business selling the infrastructure…
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Bridgewater Associates is urging policymakers to consider a 35% tax on AI use, with revenue used to give the public a stake in AI companies and help workers. The proposal, reported by the New York Post, turns the debate over AI’s economic gains into a concrete question: who…
