Meloni says banning kids from social media is not a solution on its own
Meloni says banning kids from social media is not a solution on its own

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday that her government would not take the initiative to introduce a social media ban for teens, breaking from the approach taken by Britain and France. “I am not against a social media ban for under-…

Britain lobbied Trump for an exemption from the Anthropic AI ban. The answer was no.
Britain lobbied Trump for an exemption from the Anthropic AI ban. The answer was no.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government spent the weekend lobbying the White House to restore British access to Anthropic’s most capable AI models. A source close to President Trump told The Telegraph there was “zero chance” of a UK carve-out. The rejection land…

China’s new five-year plan makes tracking AI’s hit to jobs a national priority
China’s new five-year plan makes tracking AI’s hit to jobs a national priority

China has spent two years telling the world it intends to win the AI race. Its new five-year employment plan is the quieter admission that winning it could cost a lot of people their jobs. The State Council, effectively China’s cabinet, has issued its …

Poland bought a stake in ElevenLabs to grow its next AI champion
Poland bought a stake in ElevenLabs to grow its next AI champion

Poland produced one of the world’s most valuable AI companies almost by accident. Now it is spending public money to make sure the next one stays closer to home. Vinci, the venture arm of Poland’s state development bank BGK, has taken an $11mn stake in…

The US is paying an AI startup $500M to break China’s grip on chip materials
The US is paying an AI startup $500M to break China’s grip on chip materials

The US government has just become a shareholder in an AI startup, in exchange for a bet that artificial intelligence can break China’s hold on the materials inside every chip factory. The Department of Commerce has awarded SandboxAQ $500mn under the CH…

Estonia wants to give every AI agent its own ID number
Estonia wants to give every AI agent its own ID number

When an AI agent does something on your behalf today, it usually has to become you. It logs in as you, with your access to everything. Estonia wants to end that. The country plans to issue personal identification numbers to AI assistants, the first nat…

Grok helped strike 2,000 targets at Iran. Now its pollution is ‘national security’.
Grok helped strike 2,000 targets at Iran. Now its pollution is ‘national security’.

The Pentagon says Grok helped strike 2,000 targets in 96 hours, and that the polluting power plant behind it is a matter of paramount national security. The two claims belong in the same sentence, and that is the problem. The admission did not come in …

Amazon could face billions in fines as the FTC eyes its ad business
Amazon could face billions in fines as the FTC eyes its ad business

Amazon’s advertising business has become its quiet money machine. It may also be its next big regulatory headache. The US Federal Trade Commission has drafted a potential complaint accusing Amazon of misleading advertisers, a case that could lead to bi…

Helion just got the world’s first licences to run a fusion power plant
Helion just got the world’s first licences to run a fusion power plant

Helion has become the first company in the world licensed to operate a fusion power plant. On 16 June, the Washington-based firm said it had received two licences from the state’s Department of Health, clearing a regulatory bar no fusion company has re…

Mistral spent two years warning the US could switch off its rivals. A fat-cat meme just made the point for it.
Mistral spent two years warning the US could switch off its rivals. A fat-cat meme just made the point for it.

On Wednesday, Arthur Mensch took his seat at a G7 working lunch in Evian alongside Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, and Dario Amodei. Days earlier, the US government had ordered Amodei’s company to cut foreign nationals off from its most capable models, and…