The UK says it will establish a national to help strengthen its defences against emerging biological threats. As part of Wednesday’s Budget, the government will commit £100m to establishing the new, “world first” institute with the support of leading AI firms. The chancellor will also pledge millions of pounds in spending across a range of initiatives aimed at shoring up the UK’s ability to respond to evolving cyber, biological and AI-enabled threats. “AI will transform daily life: every firm, community, hospital, school, and every aspect of our economy can benefit,” John Healey said.

Leaders in cybersecurity are sounding the alarm after the discovery of a major vulnerability this week. They are predicting that artificial intelligence tools will expose more fundamental weaknesses in global internet infrastructure in the months to come. “I no longer think we’re going to be able to patch all bugs,” said Sam Altman on Thursday evening, joining the chorus of executives. In the midst of what’s being called “Black October”, tech executives are warning about the ways AI will be used both to identify and exploit security vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale and pace. The Guardian

Yesterday marked the official start of shipping for the iPhone Duo, but unless you pre-ordered one, you will have to wait a while for a unit to become available. While you wait, you can have a look at what Samsung has to offer. The is the only other wide foldable in the US market. Motorola allegedly has something in the works, but it will be months before we see it. Google has never been fast at launching new models, so we don’t expect a wide Pixel anytime soon.

Swotting up on has become fashionable in recent months. Satya Nadella, the Microsoft boss, is telling everybody to buy 1873, a book about the railroad boom and bust. Barack Obama recommends 1929, a recent bestseller about the interwar crash. One day, 2026 may be another ominous title on a famous person’s reading list. In recent days, a stratospheric AI boom has been replaced by bubble fears as financial markets are jolted by a severe loss of confidence. Telegraph 

As the chief executive of may one day find himself in line for not one but three outsized pay awards. Their value would depend not on the usual sober metrics devised by remuneration committees, but on market value as well as criteria such as whether he can establish a permanent colony on Mars, send data centres into orbit, launch fleets of robotaxis and sell more than one million humanoid robots. The potential payout: around $1.7tn. If this reeks of intergalactic ambition and wealth beyond earthly imagining, you would expect nothing less from the man who has come to embody the vast aspirations of late-stage techno-capitalism. FT.com

Do you remember those 200 questions you asked ChatGPT — the ones you’d be far too embarrassed to ask your own mom? You may have thought it was all confidential, but a growing number of cases show these chats are not protected by any legal safeguards and could end up in court. In May 2025, a US court ordered OpenAI to hand over more than 20 million ChatGPT logs that users had previously deleted in connection with the New York Times copyright case. And just two months ago, a Washington Post investigation revealed that at least a dozen court cases had cited logs from AI chatbots as evidence. Tech Radar 

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