One In Three Adults Turning To AI For Emotional Support

One in three adults in the UK have used artificial intelligence (AI) for companionship, emotional support or social interaction, according to new research from a government-backed AI safety body, a finding that takes on added significance during the Christmas and New Year period when loneliness and mental health pressures often peak. Frontier AI Trends The…

Problems With Windows 11 Updates Reported

Many MSPs have been reporting that Windows 11 updates are increasingly causing upgrade failures, BitLocker lockouts and unexpected behaviour, and here we look at what may be going wrong, why it is happening now, and what can realistically be done to prevent it. The Pattern Many MSPs Are Seeing on the Ground It has been…

No More £100 Contactless Limit From March

The UK’s £100 contactless card payment limit is set to be lifted from March 2026, after the financial regulator confirmed it will remove the fixed cap and give banks greater freedom to decide how contactless payments are handled. Not Forced To Do It Immediately The change, announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), does not…

Pentagon To Deploy Elon Musk’s Grok AI For Government Use

The US Department of War has confirmed plans to integrate Elon Musk’s xAI models, including Grok, into its internal GenAI.mil platform, extending advanced artificial intelligence tools to millions of military and civilian personnel from early 2026. xAI The agreement, announced in December, will see the Department of War add xAI for Government to GenAI.mil, a…

Ofcom Investigates BT and Three Over 999 Call Failures

Ofcom has opened formal investigations into BT and Three following separate UK-wide mobile network failures this summer that left some customers unable to connect 999 emergency calls. Two Major Outages The investigations centre on two major outages, one affecting Three customers in June and another impacting BT and EE customers in July, both of which…

B&Q Adds Sustainable Brick to Its Online Range

B&Q has added a brick described as the world’s most sustainable to its online marketplace, making a low-carbon construction material previously used mainly on commercial projects available to UK consumers for the first time. Kenoteq The product in question is the K-Briq, developed by Scottish cleantech firm Kenoteq, and its arrival on B&Q’s website marks…

Ofcom Fines Virgin Media £23.8 Million

Ofcom has fined Virgin Media £23.8 million after finding that the company’s move to digital landlines left thousands of vulnerable telecare customers at direct risk of harm. What Ofcom Has Decided On 1 December 2025, Ofcom announced that it had imposed a £23.8 million penalty on Virgin Media for serious failings during its programme to…

WordPress Telex Uses AI To Turn Plain Language Into Working Blocks

WordPress has introduced Telex, an AI powered tool that turns simple written prompts into working WordPress blocks, opening up custom development to people who cannot write code. What Is Telex? Telex is an experimental system that converts natural language instructions into functional Gutenberg blocks, which are the modular elements that make up WordPress sites. The…

BT Launches Sovereign Platform For UK Cloud And AI Control

BT has launched a new UK-based sovereign platform designed to give organisations tighter control over their data, systems, and AI infrastructure at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and growing public sector reliance on cloud services. A New Foundation For Sovereign Services Sovereign services are digital services run entirely within UK infrastructure and UK legal…

Travel And New Devices Driving Global eSIM Adoption

Global use of embedded SIMs is finally starting to accelerate as international travel and wider device support push the technology towards the mainstream. What Is An eSIM And Why Does It Matter Now? An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a programmable chip built directly into a phone or other device, replacing the removable plastic SIM card.…