Tech

AI in 2026: The Year the Future Stops Waiting?

AI enters 2026 no longer as a promising technology but as a structural force reshaping economies, politics and everyday life. The US is pushing ahead with rapid deployment, the EU is tightening regulation to manage risk and the UK is positioning itself as a diplomatic bridge on AI safety. These diverging approaches highlight how global competition, education systems, labour markets and information environments are being transformed by increasingly capable artificial intelligence. With predictions of human-level and even superhuman systems this decade, governments are racing to balance opportunity and stability in a world where the pace of innovation now outstrips traditional policymaking.

As AI accelerates into 2026, the world’s major powers are scrambling to define their strategies. The US, EU and UK have taken sharply different paths, each reflecting contrasting philosophies on innovation, risk and geopolitical influence.

Opinion

Time to Extinguish Elon Musk’s Bonfire of Nonsense

Since Elon Musk took control of Twitter and rebranded it as “X”, the platform has spiralled into chaos — a space where conspiracies, hate speech, and self-promotion drown out genuine communication. Government departments in the UK still use X to issue statements and safety alerts, even as the site throttles links, rewards impersonators, and amplifies far-right narratives. Other institutions such as Barcelona’s city council, NPR, and North Wales Police have already left, proving there’s life beyond Musk’s digital empire. The longer Britain stays, the more it props up a platform hostile to truth, stability, and democracy itself.

Elon Musk’s X has devolved into a disinformation engine and megaphone for extremists. The UK government should stop lending it credibility and walk away before its authority sinks with the platform.

Entrepreneur and CEO of multiple technology companies.