UK insists US tech deal not dead as Trump threatens penalties against European firms

Keir Starmer’s office claims UK still in ‘active conversations’ about deal for tech industries in both countries to cooperate Downing Street insists the $40bn Tech Prosperity Deal between the US and UK that is on hold is not permanently stalled. The BBC reported on Tuesday evening that the prime minister’s office claimed that the UK … Read more

Elon Musk teams with El Salvador to bring Grok chatbot to public schools

President Nayib Bukele entrusting chatbot known for calling itself ‘MechaHitler’ to create ‘AI-powered’ curricula Elon Musk is partnering with the government of El Salvador to bring his artificial intelligence company’s chatbot, Grok, to more than 1 million students across the country, according to a Thursday announcement by xAI. Over the next two years, the plan … Read more

India orders phone makers to preload devices with state-owned cyber safety app

Critics voice concern as government says its Sanchar Saathi app combats cybersecurity threats for 1.2bn telecom users India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates. In tackling a … Read more

‘Vibe coding’ beats ‘clanker’ to be Collins dictionary’s word of the year

AI-inspired word joins ‘biohacking’, ‘Henry’ and ‘broligarchy’ on tech-heavy 2025 list “Vibe coding”, an emerging software development that turns natural language into computer code using artificial intelligence, has been named Collins dictionary’s word of the year for 2025. Lexicographers at Collins monitor the 24bn-word Collins Corpus, which draws from a range of media sources, including … Read more

Launch of veteran card will be used to test UK government’s digital ID scheme

Ministers hope scheme for 1.8 million people will show how technology works and ease privacy and security concerns Former military personnel will be used to test and refine the government’s divisive digital ID scheme from Friday, when ministers make a smartphone-based veteran card available to 1.8 million people. The proof of service, which in its … Read more