UK

AI data centre surge pushes electricity demand in the UK to new heights

The UK faces rising pressure on its electricity system as about 140 new data centre projects could demand more power than the country’s current peak consumption, according to Ofgem.

The regulator said developers are seeking about 50 gigawatts of capacity, a level driven by rapid growth in AI and far beyond earlier forecasts.

Connection requests have surged since late 2024, placing strain on a grid already struggling to support vital renewable projects that are key to national climate targets.

Work needed to connect expanding data centre capacity could delay schemes considered essential for decarbonisation and economic growth, instead of supporting the transition at the required pace.

The growing electricity footprint of AI infrastructure also threatens the aim of creating a virtually carbon-free power system by 2030, particularly as high costs and slow grid integration continue to hinder progress.

A proposed data centre in Lincolnshire has already raised concerns by projecting emissions greater than those of several international airports combined.

Ofgem now warns that speculative grid applications are blocking more viable projects, including those tied to government AI growth zones.

The regulator is considering more stringent financial requirements and new fees for access to grid connections, arguing that developers may need to build their own routes to the network rather than rely entirely on existing infrastructure.

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Pension savers increasingly rely on AI for retirement planning

AI is becoming a preferred tool for those beginning their retirement planning. Data on searches and website traffic suggests AI is meeting early-stage needs for pension guidance.

Platforms offering general financial information, such as MoneyHelper, have seen traffic fall by 10% over the past six months. At the same time, AI-generated overviews of pension content are on the rise.

AI tools are mainly used to sense-check retirement decisions, model ‘what-if’ scenarios, simplify pension jargon, and assist with tax planning. Users view AI as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for regulated advice.

Despite the rise of AI, bespoke advisory services, such as Pension Wise, have remained relevant, providing personalised guidance that AI cannot fully replace. PensionBee highlights that AI is helpful for basic guidance, but services remain essential for more complex planning.

Experts warn that the retirement sector faces a challenge in maintaining trust and relevance as AI continues to improve. Savers increasingly rely on technology for guidance, signalling a shift in how pensions are researched and managed.

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Ashford Port Health Authority rolls out AI-powered compliance checks at UK border control

The Ashford Port Health Authority, operated by Ashford Borough Council at the Sevington Border Control Post in Kent, has deployed an AI-enabled system to support import compliance checks.

This technology uses Intelligent Document Processing to automatically extract, structure and evaluate import documentation for agricultural products and other regulated goods, reducing the need for manual review in early screening stages.

Officials describe the system as the first of its kind in the UK to fully automate initial documentary compliance checks for imported goods, including products of animal origin (POAO), high-risk food not of animal origin (HRFNAO) and other regulated consignments.

By mimicking the workflows of human officers, it helps improve productivity, consistency and speed of border controls while allowing staff to focus on frontline services.

The rollout also allows Ashford Borough Council to freeze official control charges for the 2026/27 financial year, as automation gains offset cost pressures. The council emphasises that the AI system augments rather than replaces expert oversight, strengthening compliance without sacrificing professional judgement.

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UK sets 48-hour deadline for removing intimate images

The UK government plans to require technology platforms to remove intimate images shared without consent within forty-eight hours instead of allowing such content to remain online for days.

Through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, firms that fail to comply could face fines amounting to ten percent of their global revenue or risk having their services blocked in the UK.

A move that reflects ministers’ commitment to treat intimate image abuse with the same seriousness as child sexual abuse material and extremist content.

The action follows mounting concern after non-consensual sexual deepfakes produced by Grok circulated widely, prompting investigations by Ofcom and political pressure on platforms owned by Elon Musk.

The government now intends victims to report an image once instead of repeating the process across multiple services. Once flagged, the content should disappear across all platforms and be blocked automatically on future uploads through hash-matching or similar detection tools.

Ministers also aim to address content hosted outside the reach of the Online Safety Act by issuing guidance requiring internet providers to block access to sites that refuse to comply.

Keir Starmer, Liz Kendall and Alex Davies-Jones emphasised that no woman should be forced to pursue platform after platform to secure removal and that the online environment must offer safety and respect.

The package of reforms forms part of a broader pledge to halve violence against women and girls during the next decade.

Alongside tackling intimate image abuse, the government is legislating against nudification tools and ensuring AI chatbots fall within regulatory scope, using this agenda to reshape online safety instead of relying on voluntary compliance from large technology firms.

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UK law firm rolls out AI chatbot to support job interview preparation

A law firm in the United Kingdom has deployed an AI-driven chatbot that allows jobseekers, particularly those applying to the firm, to practise job interview scenarios in a realistic, conversational format.

The tool simulates interviewer questions and provides tailored feedback to users on their responses, helping them prepare for real interviews by improving confidence, clarity and topical awareness.

The chatbot leverages generative AI to generate context-appropriate questions and evaluate answer quality, offering suggestions for improvement and highlighting areas such as communication strengths or gaps in key competencies.

The initiative aims to lower barriers to effective interview readiness, especially for early-career candidates who may lack formal coaching or guidance.

Firm representatives say the technology is not intended to replace human mentoring but to complement traditional preparation, enabling candidates to hone their skills at their own pace.

Observers note that such AI tools are increasingly appearing in HR and recruitment workflows, from CV review and candidate screening to training simulations, though they caution about ensuring fairness, data privacy and avoidance of algorithmic bias in evaluative feedback.

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Reddit’s human creators remain popular amid surge of AI content

According to reporting by the BBC, Reddit is seeing renewed growth as users seek human interaction in an online environment increasingly filled with AI-generated content.

Reddit reported 116 million daily active users globally, marking a 19% year-on-year increase in its most recent third quarter.

The platform, historically associated with tech-oriented male users, has become more demographically balanced. Women now account for more than 50% of users in both the US and UK, and the platform is reportedly the fastest-growing social network among UK women.

Reddit operates through user-created communities known as subreddits, where posts are ranked by upvotes rather than chronological order. Volunteer moderators manage individual communities, while company administrators can intervene when necessary.

Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong said Reddit has preserved ‘human authenticity’ amid AI-driven content that has crowded the internet. Popular discussion areas include parenting, skincare, reality television, and deeply personal experiences such as pregnancy or hair loss, topics where peer perspectives and lived experience are valued.

However, experts caution that Reddit faces governance challenges. Dr Yusuf Oc of Bayes Business School notes that upvote systems can reward consensus rather than factual accuracy, potentially reinforcing echo chambers, groupthink, and coordinated manipulation tactics such as brigading and astroturfing. Moderation quality may vary across communities due to reliance on volunteers.

Reddit has also signed data licensing agreements with AI companies, including OpenAI, allowing tools such as ChatGPT to access Reddit content. A study commissioned by Reddit found it to be the most cited source across AI search tools, including Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.

Analysts suggest these agreements increase visibility but are not necessarily the primary driver of user growth. The article situates Reddit’s rise within a broader shift toward platforms perceived as offering candid, less polished discussion in contrast to influencer-driven or AI-generated content ecosystems.

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AI adoption reshapes UK scale-up hiring policy framework

AI adoption is prompting UK scale-ups to recalibrate workforce policies. Survey data indicates that 33% of founders anticipate job cuts within the next year, while 58% are already delaying or scaling back recruitment as automation expands. The prevailing approach centres on cautious workforce management rather than immediate restructuring.

Instead of large-scale redundancies, many firms are prioritising hiring freezes and reduced vacancy postings. This policy choice allows companies to contain costs and integrate AI gradually, limiting workforce growth while assessing long-term operational needs.

The trend aligns with broader labour market caution in the UK, where vacancies have cooled amid rising business costs and technological transition. Globally, the technology sector has experienced significant layoffs in 2026, reinforcing concerns about how AI-driven efficiency strategies are reshaping employment models.

At the same time, workforce readiness remains a structural policy challenge. Only a small proportion of founders consider the UK workforce prepared for widespread AI adoption, underscoring calls for stronger investment in skills development and reskilling frameworks as automation capabilities advance.

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British Transport Police trial live facial recognition at London Bridge station

On 11 February 2026, the British Transport Police (BTP) deployed Live Facial Recognition cameras at London Bridge railway station as the first phase of a six-month trial intended to assess how the technology performs in a busy railway environment.

The pilot, planned with Network Rail, the Department for Transport and the Rail Delivery Group, will scan faces passing through designated areas and compare them to a watchlist of individuals wanted for serious offences, generating alerts for officers to review.

BTP says the trial is part of efforts to make the railways safer by quickly identifying high-risk offenders, with future LFR deployments to be announced in advance online.

Operational procedures include deleting images of people not on the authorised database and providing alternative routes for passengers who prefer not to enter recognition zones, with public feedback encouraged via QR codes on signage.

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Northumbria graduate uses AI to revolutionise cardiovascular diagnosis

Jack Parker, a Northumbria University alumnus and CEO/co-founder of AIATELLA, is leading a pioneering effort to speed up cardiovascular disease diagnosis using artificial intelligence, cutting diagnostic times from over 30 minutes to under 3 minutes, a potential lifesaver in clinical settings.

His motivation stems from witnessing delays in diagnosis that affected his own father, as well as broader health disparities in the North East, where cardiovascular issues often go undetected until later stages.

Parker’s company, now UK-Finnish, is undergoing clinical evaluation with three NHS trusts in the North East (Northumbria, Newcastle, Sunderland), comparing the AI tool’s performance against cardiologists and radiologists.

The technology has already helped identify individuals needing urgent intervention while working with community organisations in the UK and Finland.

Parker credits Northumbria University’s practical and inclusive education pathway, including a foundation degree and biomedical science degree, with providing the grounding to translate academic knowledge into real-world impact.

Support from the university’s Incubator Hub also helped AIATELLA navigate early business development and access funding networks.

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Researchers tackle LLM regression with on policy training

Researchers at MIT, the Improbable AI Lab and ETH Zurich have proposed a fine tuning method to address catastrophic forgetting in large language models. The issue often causes models to lose earlier skills when trained on new tasks.

The technique, called self distillation fine tuning, allows a model to act as both teacher and student during training. In Cambridge and Zurich experiments, the approach preserved prior capabilities while improving accuracy on new tasks.

Enterprise teams often manage separate model variants to prevent regression, increasing operational complexity. The researchers argue that their method could reduce fragmentation and support continual learning, useful for AI, within a single production model.

However, the method requires around 2.5 times more computing power than standard supervised fine tuning. Analysts note that real world deployment will depend on governance controls, training costs and suitability for regulated industries.

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