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Schools in the EU start adapting to the AI Act

European schools are taking their first concrete steps to integrate AI in line with the EU AI Act, with educators and experts urging a measured, strategic approach to compliance.

At a recent conference on AI in education, school leaders and policymakers explored how to align AI adoption with the incoming regulations.

With key provisions of the EU AI Act already in effect and full enforcement coming by August 2026, the pressure is on schools to ensure their use of AI is transparent, fair, and accountable. The law classifies AI tools by risk level, with those used to evaluate or monitor students subject to stricter oversight.

Matthew Wemyss, author of ‘AI in Education: An EU AI Act Guide,’ laid out a framework for compliance: assess current AI use, scrutinise the impact on students, and demand clear documentation from vendors.

Wemyss stressed that schools remain responsible as deployers, even when using third-party tools, and should appoint governance leads who understand both technical and ethical aspects.

Education consultant Philippa Wraithmell warned schools not to confuse action with strategy. She advocated starting small, prioritising staff confidence, and ensuring every tool aligns with learning goals, data safety, and teacher readiness.

Al Kingsley MBE emphasised the role of strong governance structures and parental transparency, urging school boards to improve their digital literacy to lead effectively.

The conference highlighted a unifying theme: meaningful AI integration in schools requires intentional leadership, community involvement, and long-term planning. With the right mindset, schools can use AI not just to automate, but to enhance learning outcomes responsibly.

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ChatGPT adds meeting recording and cloud access

OpenAI has launched new features for ChatGPT that allow it to record meetings, transcribe conversations, and pull information directly from cloud platforms like Google Drive and SharePoint.

Instead of relying on typed input alone, users can now speak to ChatGPT, which records audio, creates editable summaries, and helps generate follow-up content such as emails or project outlines.

‘Record’ is currently available to Team users via the macOS app and will soon expand to Enterprise and Edu accounts.

The recording tool automatically deletes the audio after transcription and applies existing workspace data rules, ensuring recordings are not used for training.

Instead of leaving notes scattered across different platforms, users gain a structured and searchable history of conversations, voice notes, or brainstorming sessions, which ChatGPT can recall and apply during future interactions.

At the same time, OpenAI has introduced new connectors for business users that let ChatGPT access files from cloud services like Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, and others.

These connectors allow ChatGPT to search and summarise information from internal documents, rather than depending only on web search or user uploads. The update also includes beta support for Deep Research agents that can work with tools like GitHub and HubSpot.

OpenAI has embraced the Model Context Protocol, an open standard allowing organisations to build their own custom connectors for proprietary tools.

Rather than serving purely as a general-purpose chatbot, ChatGPT is evolving into a workplace assistant capable of tapping into and understanding a company’s complete knowledge base.

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M&S CEO targeted by hackers in abusive ransom email

Marks & Spencer has been directly targeted by a ransomware group calling itself DragonForce, which sent a vulgar and abusive ransom email to CEO Stuart Machin using a compromised employee email address.

The message, laced with offensive language and racist terms, demanded that Machin engage via a darknet portal to negotiate payment. It also claimed that the hackers had encrypted the company’s servers and stolen customer data, a claim M&S eventually acknowledged weeks later.

The email, dated 23 April, appears to have been sent from the account of an Indian IT worker employed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a long-standing M&S tech partner.

TCS has denied involvement and stated that its systems were not the source of the breach. M&S has remained silent publicly, neither confirming the full scope of the attack nor disclosing whether a ransom was paid.

The cyber attack has caused major disruption, costing M&S an estimated £300 million and halting online orders for over six weeks.

DragonForce has also claimed responsibility for a simultaneous attack on the Co-op, which left some shelves empty for days. While nothing has yet appeared on DragonForce’s leak site, the group claims it will publish stolen information soon.

Investigators believe DragonForce operates as a ransomware-as-a-service collective, offering tools and platforms to cybercriminals in exchange for a 20% share of any ransom.

Some experts suspect the real perpetrators may be young hackers from the West, linked to a loosely organised online community called Scattered Spider. The UK’s National Crime Agency has confirmed it is focusing on the group as part of its inquiry into the recent retail hacks.

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Gemini 2.5 Pro tops AI coding tests, surpasses ChatGPT and Claude

Google has released an updated version of its Gemini 2.5 Pro model, addressing issues found in earlier updates.

Unlike the I/O Edition, which focuses mostly on coding, the new version improves performance more broadly and is expected to become a stable release in both the Gemini app and web interface.

The company claims the updated model performs significantly better in code generation, topping the Aider Polyglot test with a score of 82.2 percent—surpassing offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepSeek.

Beyond coding, the model aims to close previous performance gaps introduced with the March 25th update, especially in creativity and response formatting.

Developers can now fine-tune the model’s ‘thinking budget’, while users should notice a more transparent output structure. These changes and consistent improvement in leaderboard ratings on LMArena and WebDevArena suggest that Google is extending its lead in the AI race.

Google continues to rely on blind testing to judge how people feel about its models, and the new Gemini Pro seems to resonate well. In fact, it now answers even quirky test questions with more clarity and confidence—something that had been lacking in earlier versions.

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G42 and Mistral team up to build AI platforms

Abu Dhabi-based tech company G42 has partnered with French startup Mistral AI to co-develop advanced AI platforms and infrastructure across Europe, the Middle East, and the Global South.

The collaboration aims to span the full AI value chain, from model training to sector-specific applications, combining Mistral’s open-weight language models with G42’s infrastructure expertise.

The deal builds on prior AI cooperation agreements endorsed by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and French President Emmanuel Macron, reinforcing both countries’ shared ambition to lead in AI innovation.

G42 subsidiaries Core42 and Inception will support the initiative by contributing technical development and deployment capabilities.

This partnership is part of a broader UAE strategy to position itself as a global AI hub and diversify its economy beyond oil. With AI expected to add up to $91 billion to the UAE’s economy by 2030, such international alliances reflect a shift in AI power centres toward the Middle East.

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Reddit accuses Anthropic of misusing user content

Reddit has taken legal action against AI startup Anthropic, alleging that the company scraped its platform without permission and used the data to train and commercialise its Claude AI models.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco’s Superior Court, accuses Anthropic of breaching contract terms, unjust enrichment, and interfering with Reddit’s operations.

According to Reddit, Anthropic accessed the platform more than 100,000 times despite publicly claiming to have stopped doing so.

The complaint claims Anthropic ignored Reddit’s technical safeguards, such as robots.txt files, and bypassed the platform’s user agreement to extract large volumes of user-generated content.

Reddit argues that Anthropic’s actions undermine its licensing deals with companies like OpenAI and Google, who have agreed to strict content usage and deletion protocols.

The filing asserts that Anthropic intentionally used personal data from Reddit without ever seeking user consent, calling the company’s conduct deceptive. Despite public statements suggesting respect for privacy and web-scraping limitations, Anthropic is portrayed as having disregarded both.

The lawsuit even cites Anthropic’s own 2021 research that acknowledged Reddit content as useful in training AI models.

Reddit is now seeking damages, repayment of profits, and a court order to stop Anthropic from using its data further. The market responded positively, with Reddit’s shares closing nearly 67% higher at $118.21—indicating investor support for the company’s aggressive stance on data protection.

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OpenAI and India plan AI infrastructure push

OpenAI is in discussions with the Indian government to collaborate on data centre infrastructure as part of its new global initiative, ‘OpenAI for Countries’.

The programme aims to help partner nations expand AI capabilities through joint investment and strategic coordination with the US. India could become one of the ten initial countries in the effort, although specific terms remain under wraps.

During a visit to Delhi, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer Jason Kwon emphasised India’s potential, citing the government’s clear focus on infrastructure and AI talent.

Similar to the UAE’s recently announced Stargate project in Abu Dhabi, India may host large-scale AI computing infrastructure while also investing in the US under the same framework.

To nurture AI skills, OpenAI and the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s IndiaAI Mission launched the ‘OpenAI Academy’. It marks OpenAI’s first international rollout of its educational platform.

The partnership will provide free access to AI tools, developer training, and events, with content in English, Hindi, and four additional regional languages. It will also support government officials and startups through dedicated learning platforms.

The collaboration includes hackathons, workshops in six cities, and up to $100,000 in API credits for selected IndiaAI fellows and startups. The aim is to accelerate innovation and help Indian developers and researchers scale AI solutions more efficiently, according to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

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Gmail accounts at risk as attacks rise

Google has urged Gmail users to upgrade their account security after revealing that over 60% have been targeted by cyberattacks. Despite the increasing threat, most people still rely on outdated protections like passwords and SMS-based two-factor authentication.

Google is now pushing users to adopt passkeys and social sign-ins to improve their defences. Passkeys offer phishing-resistant access and use biometric methods such as fingerprint or facial recognition tied to a user’s device, removing the need for traditional passwords.

While digitally savvy Gen Z users are more likely to adopt these new methods, but many still reuse passwords, leaving their accounts exposed to breaches and scams. Google emphasised that passwords are both insecure and inconvenient and called on users to switch to tools that offer stronger protection.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has gone even further by encouraging users to eliminate passwords entirely. Google’s long-term goal is to simplify sign-ins while increasing security across its platforms.

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Europe gets new cybersecurity support from Microsoft

Microsoft has launched a free cybersecurity initiative for European governments aimed at countering increasingly sophisticated cyber threats powered by AI. Company President Brad Smith said Europe would benefit from tools already developed and deployed in the US.

The programme is designed to identify and disrupt AI-driven threats, including deepfakes and disinformation campaigns, which have previously been used to target elections and undermine public trust.

Smith acknowledged that AI is a double-edged sword, with malicious actors exploiting it for attacks, while defenders increasingly use it to stay ahead. Microsoft continues to monitor how its AI products are used, blocking known cybercriminals and working to ensure AI serves as a stronger shield than weapon.

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China accuses Taiwan of cyber attacks and offers a bounty

Authorities in Guangzhou have placed a secret bounty on more than 20 individuals suspected of launching cyber attacks on Chinese targets, according to state news agency Xinhua.

One named suspect, Ning Enwei, is reportedly linked to Taiwan’s government. While the size of the reward remains undisclosed, officials claim the accused hackers targeted sectors including defence, aerospace, energy, and science—alongside agencies in Hong Kong and Macau.

Xinhua stated that Taiwan’s ‘information, communication and digital army’ has coordinated with US forces to carry out cyber and cognitive warfare against China.

These accusations form part of a broader Chinese narrative suggesting Taiwan is seeking independence through foreign alliances, particularly with US intelligence agencies. State media also claimed the US has trained Taiwanese personnel and helped orchestrate cyber attacks on the mainland.

In response, a senior Taiwanese security official, speaking anonymously, dismissed the claims as fabricated. The official argued that Beijing is attempting to deflect criticism following allegations of Chinese cyber activities in Europe, especially in the Czech Republic.

‘It is typical of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to change the narrative,’ the official said, branding Beijing an international cyber threat instead of a victim.

Taiwan’s government has yet to issue an official statement.

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