US puts £31bn tech deal with the UK on hold, how private AI chats are sold for profit

The US has paused its promised multi-billion-pound investment into British tech over trade disagreements, marking a serious setback in US-UK relations. The £31bn “tech prosperity deal”, hailed by Keir Starmer as “a generational stepchange in our relationship with the US” when it was announced during Donald Trump’s state visit, has been put on ice by Washington. As part of the deal, US tech companies pledged to spend billions in the UK, including a £22bn investment from Microsoft and £5bn from Google. But Washington has paused the implementation of the agreement, citing a lack of progress from the UK in lowering trade barriers in other areas. The Guardian

The government has launched a new taskforce it says will help women “enter, stay and lead” in the UK tech sector. Led by technology secretary Liz Kendall, it will see female leaders from tech companies and organisations advise the government on how to boost diversity and economic growth in the industry. BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, recently suggested women accounted for only 22% of those working in IT specialist roles in the UK. Ms Kendall said the Women in Tech group would “break down the barriers that still hold too many people back”. BBC 

Here we go again. As a gentle reminder, your AI assistant is not your friend, it’s not your financial adviser and it’s certainly not your doctor or your therapist. It’s someone else’s computer, stacked in a data center, sucking up energy and water. As such, beware what you share. The latest warning comes courtesy of Koi, which has just caught a family of Google Chrome extensions harvesting user chats and selling them to third parties. Forbes

With the Ring Outdoor Cam Pro, the manufacturer has upped its game by going full 4K for the first time. Available in black or white, this new model can be used either outdoors or indoors, with a number of different mounting options to suit your individual set up. Screws and wall plugs are provided for mounting on a wall, fence or even a celling. Alternatively, you can use the built-in stand for placing indoors on a bookshelf or a unit. Unfortunately, unlike other models in the range, the Ring Outdoor Cam Pro is mains-powered only. Tech Radar

Despite Wall Street jitters and reports to the contrary, Oracle insists its $300 billion datacenter deal with OpenAI is on track and proceeding on schedule. Oracle denied a Bloomberg report that Big Red had delayed some of its datacenter projects until 2028 — a full year later than originally planned. “Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed,” Oracle said in a statement. The Register 

If you ever feel like your iPhone is getting worse, take solace in the fact that one of the world’s biggest pop stars is in the same spot. Last week, Justin Bieber vented to his 90 million X followers about a button in the Apple Messages app that starts recording a voice note when pressed. Infuriatingly for Bieber, the button is in the same place as the one used to send a text, meaning it is frequently hit by mistake. Telegraph