Lawmakers and security officials are increasingly worried that Huawei’s dominant role in solar inverters could create a new supply-chain vulnerability for Europe’s power grids. Two MEPs have written to the European Commission urging immediate steps to limit ‘high-risk’ vendors in energy systems.
Inverters are a technology that transforms solar energy into the electrical current fed into the power network; many are internet-connected so vendors can perform remote maintenance. Cyber experts warn that remote access to large numbers of inverters could be abused to shut devices down or change settings en masse, creating surges, drops or wider instability across the grid.
Chinese firms, led by Huawei and Sungrow, supply a large share of Europe’s installed inverter capacity. SolarPower Europe estimates Chinese companies account for roughly 65 per cent of the market. Some member states are already acting: Lithuania has restricted remote access to sizeable Chinese installations, while agencies in the Czech Republic and Germany have flagged specific Huawei components for further scrutiny.
The European Commission is preparing an ICT supply-chain toolbox to de-risk critical sectors, with solar inverters listed among priority areas. Suspicion of Chinese technology has surged in recent years. Beijing, under President Xi Jinping, requires domestic firms to comply with government requests for data sharing and to report software vulnerabilities, raising Western fears of potential surveillance.
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The Federal Reserve has signalled a shift towards decentralised finance, with Governor Waller saying the central bank now welcomes crypto innovators into mainstream payments.
Speaking at the Payments Innovation Conference on 21 October, Waller said the Fed intends to play an active role in the ongoing technology-driven transformation of the financial system.
Waller highlighted how stablecoins, tokenised assets, and AI are reshaping the payments landscape. He said private firms drive innovation but added that public institutions like the Fed must adapt to support evolving financial systems.
The governor said the central bank is exploring how tokenisation, smart contracts, and AI could enhance its own systems and foster closer dialogue with industry innovators.
In a significant policy proposal, Waller revealed that the Fed is studying a new type of ‘payment account’ for legally eligible institutions. The concept would provide streamlined access to Federal Reserve payment rails for fintech and crypto firms without requiring a full master account.
Such accounts would operate under tighter controls, including balance caps, no interest payments, and no overdraft privileges, allowing faster review times while maintaining system safety.
Waller said the payments revolution is underway and urged collaboration between traditional finance and emerging digital sectors. He called the event a turning point for Fed–innovator relations, noting that crypto and distributed ledgers are now part of modern payments.
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OpenAI will offer UK data residency for API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise, and ChatGPT Edu from October 24. The option, announced by Deputy PM David Lammy, is tied to a Ministry of Justice partnership. The government says it boosts privacy, security, and resilience for public services and business.
Lammy will unveil the ‘sovereign capability’ at OpenAI Frontiers, citing early MoJ efficiency gains. Over 1,000 probation officers will use Justice Transcribe to record and auto-transcribe offender meetings. Hours of admin shift to AI so staff can focus on supervision and public protection.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says UK usage has quadrupled in the past year. The company pitches AI as a way to save time and lift productivity across sectors. MoJ pilots have sparked interest from other departments, with broader adoption expected.
Data residency is a key blocker for regulated sectors, and this move aims to address that gap. Keeping data within the UK can simplify compliance and reduce perceived risk. It also underpins continuity plans by localising sensitive workloads.
ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-first web browser, was also announced this week. Its arrival could nudge users away from keyword searches toward conversational answers. OpenAI faces rivals Anthropic, Perplexity, and big tech incumbents in that shift.
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OpenAI’s ChatGPT could soon face the EU’s strictest platform regulations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), after surpassing 120 million monthly users in Europe.
A milestone that places OpenAI’s chatbot above the 45 million-user threshold that triggers heightened oversight.
The DSA imposes stricter obligations on major platforms such as Meta, TikTok, and Amazon, requiring greater transparency, risk assessments, and annual fees to fund EU supervision.
The European Commission confirmed it has begun assessing ChatGPT’s eligibility for the ‘very large online platform’ status, which would bring the total number of regulated platforms to 26.
OpenAI reported that its ChatGPT search function alone had 120.4 million monthly active users across the EU in the six months ending 30 September 2025. Globally, the chatbot now counts around 700 million weekly users.
If designated under the DSA, ChatGPT would be required to curb illegal and harmful content more rigorously and demonstrate how its algorithms handle information, marking the EU’s most direct regulatory test yet for generative AI.
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Tech firms led crypto’s hiring rebound, adding over 12,000 roles since late 2022, according to A16z’s State of Crypto 2025. Finance and consulting contributed 6,000, offsetting talent pulled into AI after ChatGPT’s debut. Net, crypto gained 1,000 positions as workers rotated in from tech, fintech, and education.
The recovery tracks a market turn: crypto capitalisation topping US$4T and new Bitcoin highs. A friendlier US policy stance on stablecoins and digital-asset oversight buoyed sentiment. Institutions from JPMorgan to BlackRock and Fidelity widened offerings beyond pilots.
Hiring is diversifying beyond developers toward compliance, infrastructure, and product. Firms are moving from proofs of concept to production systems with clearer revenue paths. Result: broader role mix and steadier talent pipelines.
A16z contrasts AI centralisation with crypto’s open ethos. OpenAI/Anthropic dominate AI-native revenue; big clouds hold most of the infrastructure share; NVIDIA leads GPUs. Crypto advocates pitch blockchains as a counterweight via verifiable compute and open rails.
Utility signals mature, too. Stablecoins settled around US$9T in 12 months, up 87% year over year. That’s over half of Visa’s annual volume and five times that of PayPal’s.
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Cloudflare’s chief executive Matthew Prince has urged the UK regulator to curb Google’s AI practices. He met with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in London to argue that Google’s bundled crawlers give it excessive power.
Prince said Google uses the same web crawler to gather data for both search and AI products. Blocking the crawler, he added, can also disrupt advertising systems, leaving websites financially exposed.
Cloudflare, which supplies network services to most major AI companies, has proposed separating Google’s AI and search crawlers. Prince believes the change would create fairer access to online content for smaller AI developers.
He also provided data to the UK CMA showing why rivals cannot easily replicate Google’s infrastructure. Media groups have echoed his concerns, warning that Google’s dominance risks deepening inequalities across the AI ecosystem.
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JLR’s cyberattack is pegged at £1.9bn, the UK’s costliest on record. Production paused for five weeks from 1 September across Solihull, Halewood, and Wolverhampton. CMC says 5,000 firms were hit, with full recovery expected by January 2026.
JLR is restoring manufacturing in phases and declined to comment on the estimate. UK dealer systems were intermittently down, orders were cancelled or delayed, and suppliers faced uncertainty. More than half of the losses fall on JLR; the remainder hits its supply chain and local economies.
The CMC classed the incident as Category 3 on its five-level scale. Chair Ciaran Martin warned organisations to harden critical networks and plan for disruption. The CMC’s assessment draws on public data, surveys, and interviews rather than on disclosed forensic evidence.
Researchers say costs hinge on the attack type, which JLR has not confirmed. Data theft is faster to recover than ransomware; wiper malware would be worse. A claimed hacker group linked to earlier high-profile breaches is unverified.
The CMC’s estimate excludes any ransom, which could add tens of millions of dollars. Earlier this year, retail hacks at M&S, the Co-op, and Harrods were tagged Category 2. Those were pegged at £270m–£440m, below the £506m cited by some victims.
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OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser built around ChatGPT to help users work and explore online more efficiently. The browser lets ChatGPT operate directly on webpages, using past conversations and browsing context to assist with tasks without copying and pasting.
Early testers say it streamlines research, study, and productivity by providing instant AI support alongside the content they are viewing.
Atlas introduces browser memories, letting ChatGPT recall context from visited sites to improve responses and automate tasks. Users stay in control, with the ability to view, archive, or delete memories.
Agent mode allows ChatGPT to perform tasks such as researching, summarising, or planning events while browsing. Safety is a priority, with safeguards to prevent unauthorised actions and options to operate in logged-out mode.
The browser is available worldwide on macOS for Free, Plus, Pro, and Go users, with Windows, iOS, and Android support coming soon. OpenAI plans to add multi-profile support, better developer tools, and improved app discoverability, advancing an agent-driven web experience with seamless AI integration.
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The Dutch data authority warns AI chatbots are biased and unreliable for voting advice ahead of national elections. An AP investigation found chatbots often steered users to the same two parties, ignoring their actual preferences.
In over half of the tests, the bots suggested either Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV) or the leftwing GroenLinks-PvdA led by Frans Timmermans. Other parties, such as the centre-right CDA, were rarely mentioned even when users’ answers closely matched their platforms.
AP deputy head Monique Verdier said that voters were being steered towards parties that did not necessarily reflect their political views, warning that this undermines the integrity of free and fair elections.
The report comes ahead of the 29 October election, where the PVV currently leads the polls. However, the race remains tight, with GroenLinks-PvdA and CDA still in contention and many voters undecided.
Although the AP noted that the bias was not intentional, it attributed the problem to the way AI chatbots function, highlighting the risks of relying on opaque systems for democratic decisions.
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OpenAI says ChatGPT will leave WhatsApp on 15 January 2026 after Meta’s new rules banning general-purpose AI chatbots on the platform. ChatGPT will remain available on iOS, Android, and the web, the company said.
Users are urged to link their WhatsApp number to a ChatGPT account to preserve history, as WhatsApp doesn’t support chat exports. OpenAI will also let users unlink their phone numbers after linking.
Until now, users could message ChatGPT on WhatsApp to ask questions, search the web, generate images, or talk to the assistant. Similar third-party bots offered comparable features.
Meta quietly updated WhatsApp’s business API to prohibit AI providers from accessing or using it, directly or indirectly. The change effectively forces ChatGPT, Perplexity, Luzia, Poke, and others to shut down their WhatsApp bots.
The move highlights platform risk for AI assistants and shifts demand toward native apps and web. Businesses relying on WhatsApp AI automations will need alternatives that comply with Meta’s policies.
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