Whether taking in the news, one’s social media feed, using a software or just holding a conversation, artificial intelligence is now nigh on inescapable. At a social event I recently attended, someone even casually offered me use of their Meta Glasses, its integrated AI feature able to translate the foreign language being spoken at the event. Like most people in the UK, I am suspicious of the promises of AI, particularly of the large US firms driving the so-called AI bubble

“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” – Roy Amara, Stanford computer scientist. Dotcom, housing, crypto, and now, AI. The Fastest Scaling in History An asset bubble is a period where the price of an asset skyrockets beyond its intrinsic value before violently crashing. They have plagued economies for centuries. The artificial intelligence industry has experienced what is considered the fastest techn

Global security alliances have enjoyed a resurgence in relevance as regions the world over come under ever-increasing geopolitical strain. In the shadow of this global uncertainty, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) will convene its 2026 summit in Türkiye on 7-8 July 2026. Originally confined to the Euro-Atlantic domain, catering to traditional security, the alliance’s footprint has assumed a global dimension. India, though outside its formal structure, remains a p

Artificial intelligence has ushered in a new age of geopolitics. The unveiling of Anthropic's Mythos AI model in April may one day be remembered as a historic turning point. But this is not a technology story. It is a geopolitical one. How the technology is being distributed, and how Washington has responded to its unveiling, tells us a great deal about the world that is emerging. New geopolitical lines are being drawn, and Mythos may prove to be the ink. What is it exactly?

Tony Blair’s unabashed tendency to offer his unsolicited opinion on the decline of the Labour party has unfortunately become a rather exhausting feature of British politics. Refusing to comply with his fate of exiting stage left and disappearing into irrelevancy, the former Prime Minister and Labour party leader has maintained an irritating desire to be heard. His latest intervention comes in the form of a rambling essay posted to the Tony Blair Institute’s so-called ‘insight

A teenage boy in Guldborgsund, Denmark, is searching for a pirated stream of the newly released Project Hail Mary on YouTube. Five videos later, he is watching a man wearing a crisp Oxford shirt calmly making the case that immigration to Europe is eroding Western civilisation. The boy does not pause to think. He does not resist the idea. He now actively searches for content that feeds this narrative. By the third day, the algorithm, having already registered his latent prefer

"Let us suppose that foreigners came from another country, and brought opium into England, and seduced the people of your country to smoke it, would not you, the sovereign of the said country, look upon such a procedure with anger, and in your just indignation endeavor to get rid of it?" This is an excerpt from the famous 1839 letter, penned by Lin Zexu, addressed to Queen Victoria. Supposedly, this letter was never received by the monarch; no halt in the export of the goods

Following in the footsteps of the Australian government, the UK government recently released its research briefing proposing a ban on social media for children. The report identifies the rationale behind such a ban, citing obvious harms such as exposure to child sexual abuse images, pornography, sexual content, cyberbullying, self-harm, and violent material. It is perhaps surprising that it is only in 2025 that we are beginning to see meaningful legislation that actually reg

Last month, the BBC reported on a growing cluster of Instagram accounts posting AI-generated images and videos of women with disabilities – including Down’s syndrome, amputations and even fabricated “conjoined twins” – in highly sexualised scenarios designed to attract followers and direct traffic toward monetised adult platforms. At first glance, these profiles might appear to be little more than another grotesque curiosity of the internet. Yet the phenomenon points toward

The Labour government has been cast further adrift this month, perilously overladen with scandal and factionalism. Whilst I don’t doubt that Starmer will go down with this ship, certain members of his cabinet could survive unscathed, and miraculously so. Certain names and policies scattering the headlines are doing an impressive job of diverting attention away from more subdued and insidious acts of party betrayal. Take Shabana Mahmood, the UK’s Home Secretary, whose vision f

In the late hours of the 6 th of February, Donald Trump posted a bizarre, AI generated video that depicted his political opponents as animals on Truth Social. The now-deleted clip had the faces of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez superimposed onto jungle animals, whilst The Lion Sleeps Tonight blared in the background. Amongst them, former President Joe Biden took the form of a mon

The official narrative behind data-driven surveillance technology promises a new era of “impartial”, “scientific”, “evidence-based” policing, sewn together by the techno-futurist allure of automated algorithms and their supposed apolitical neutrality. The reality of the vast upsurge in UK surveillance since 2020 is one of alarming privacy invasion and intense racialisation, especially against racial and ethnic minorities. Tools like the now-defunct Metropolitan Police's Gan

Though AI safety is often perceived as an overly nihilistic field of study, it has become an increasingly prevalent feature of international policy debates ranging from its use in courts and parliaments to the defence industry. AI safety has entered public discourse in the context of spurring on unemployment, AI misuse, and the potential for critical systems failures or bias. In a European context, the EU is explicitly seeking to develop a uniquely European approach to deve

It’s very easy to get attention in business news by printing a headline with words to the effect of “Leading Investor X Warns of Impending Recession”, “InvestWithUs CEO Thinks Current Market is A Bubble”, or my personal favorite: “Michael Burry Just Sold All His Stocks.” The fact you’re reading this is somewhat proof of this. In a shockingly high number of cases, these events never materialise, at least not in the way they were predicted to, and we’re rarely called out on ou

In the latest move to curb immigration fears in the face of Reform UK’s extraordinary polling performances, the government has announced plans to introduce mandatory digital ID cards. The scheme will be rolled out “by the end of parliament,” and has done little to improve the government’s reputation for cracking down on civil liberties. The digital cards will be needed to prove a person’s right to live and work in the UK but will not have to be carried all the time. Plans pu

The Labour Government, with all the grace of a cantankerous aunt rearranging your closet, has turned its gaze to the internet. The...

Alongside Trump’s continued ICE raids across America, his Administration is attacking immigration from a more insidious angle:...

On 1 June, Ukraine carried out an “unprecedented and unique” operation against Russia. Codenamed “Operation Spiderweb,” the Security...

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) has been at the centre of debates on ethics and...

The idea of waking up to a world without access to news, social media, or the ability to contact loved ones is difficult to grasp,...