The AI Pulse

Issue #64 — 2nd February 2026

Editor: Professor Alan Brown

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Highlights in this edition include:

The role of humans in a world of AI [Saïd Business School]

The AI productivity trap: Why your best engineers are getting slower [CIO]

How China Caught Up on AI—and May Now Win the Future [TIME]

How Gen Z Uses Gen AI—and Why It Worries Them [Harvard Business]

NIST’s AI guidance pushes cybersecurity boundaries [CSO Online]

AI for Good

How AI Is Transforming Biological Research (The Data Scientist) - AI is accelerating biological discovery and disease research by enabling faster data analysis and predictive modeling, offering organizations new opportunities to innovate in healthcare and pharmaceutical development.

Inside OpenAI’s big play for science (MIT Technology Review) - OpenAI launches dedicated science division led by Kevin Weil, aiming to enhance scientific productivity through AI tools, signaling the company’s strategic expansion beyond consumer applications into specialized research markets.

Google DeepMind launches AI tool to help identify genetic drivers of disease (The Guardian AI) - Google DeepMind’s AlphaGenome tool analyzes one million DNA letters simultaneously to identify disease-causing genetic variations, potentially accelerating pharmaceutical R&D and personalized medicine development for healthcare organizations.

Bias and Ethics

The role of humans in a world of AI (Saïd Business School) - AI’s expanding technical capabilities necessitate robust human ethical oversight, creating strategic imperatives for business leaders to establish governance frameworks that balance automation benefits with responsible implementation.

What the Numbers Show About AI’s Harms (TIME) - AI-related incidents, including deepfake scams and chatbot-induced psychological harm, are increasing steadily, requiring business leaders to implement stronger risk management and ethical AI governance frameworks.

Building trust to scale AI: Interview with the CEO of Stack Overflow (McKinsey) - Stack Overflow’s CEO discusses scaling AI implementation while maintaining developer trust, emphasizing transparent governance and ethical practices as critical success factors for enterprise AI adoption.

Abusers using AI and digital tech to attack and control women, charity warns (The Guardian AI) - Domestic abusers are increasingly weaponizing AI-enabled devices like smartwatches and smart home technology to monitor and control victims, presenting new challenges for law enforcement and requiring updated digital safety protocols.

Cyber Security

NIST’s AI guidance pushes cybersecurity boundaries (CSO Online) - NIST’s new AI guidance signals a strategic shift from treating AI as traditional software to implementing specialized risk management frameworks, requiring organizations to reassess their cybersecurity approaches for AI systems.

Roughly half of employees are using unsanctioned AI tools, and enterprise leaders are major culprits (CIO) - Senior leaders are driving widespread unauthorized AI adoption, with roughly half of employees using unsanctioned tools that expose proprietary data, creating significant security and compliance risks for enterprises.

Data & Decision Making

Who profits from AI? Not OpenAI, says think tank (CIO) - Research from Epoch AI reveals that AI companies like OpenAI may struggle to achieve profitability as revenue from current models gets consumed by escalating development costs for next-generation systems.

Forget the chief AI officer - why your business needs this ‘magician’ (Zdnet) - Companies should prioritize hiring senior data executives with collaborative expertise over chief AI officers to effectively harness generative AI’s strategic potential across organizational functions.

Where Tech Leaders and Students Really Think AI Is Going (WIRED) - Tech leaders and students reveal mixed perspectives on AI’s trajectory, offering strategic insights into both transformative opportunities and significant risks that business leaders must navigate in their planning.

Big tech results show investor demand for payoffs from heavy AI spending (The Guardian AI) - Big tech earnings reveal divergent AI investment returns, with Meta’s AI-powered ad targeting delivering measurable revenue gains while Microsoft struggles to demonstrate concrete payoffs from its massive AI expenditures.

Innovation & Collaboration

How China Caught Up on AI—and May Now Win the Future (TIME) - China’s focus on rapid deployment and large-scale implementation of AI solutions may provide strategic advantages over the U.S.’s breakthrough-oriented approach in determining global AI leadership.

AI and Humane Leadership: A Davos Discussion (Harvard Business) - CEOs and board members at Davos emphasize that AI integration requires strengthening human-centered leadership qualities like trust, empathy, and judgment to maintain organizational effectiveness and innovation.

This whole AI thing is simpler than you think (Fastcompany) - AI implementation success depends more on strategic planning and organizational readiness than technical complexity, offering accessible opportunities for businesses to gain competitive advantages through focused adoption.

Productivity & Efficiency

Leaders, gainers and unexpected winners in the Enterprise AI arms race (A16z) - Leading enterprises are reshaping competitive advantages through strategic AI investments, with unexpected industry winners emerging as CIOs prioritize measurable ROI and operational transformation over technology experimentation.

Management as AI superpower (oneusefulthing.org) - AI agents will transform management by amplifying human decision-making capabilities, requiring leaders to develop new skills in directing autonomous systems while maintaining strategic oversight of increasingly complex operations.

Top British AI expertise to help spark renewal of public services and bolster national security (GOV.UK) - The UK government is recruiting top AI talent to modernize public services and strengthen national security as part of its digital transformation strategy, aiming to bring world-class expertise into Whitehall operations.

PD Technology book | Shaping technology for transformation (public.digital) - Public Digital’s new technology guide provides business leaders with strategic frameworks for reducing technical debt and building robust technological capabilities to drive organizational transformation.

Regulation and Compliance

Tim Berners-Lee Warns of a Battle for the Internet’s Soul (TechRepublic) - Tim Berners-Lee’s evolving perspective from optimism to anxiety about the internet’s future signals critical strategic decisions ahead for business leaders navigating digital governance and platform dependencies.

South Korea’s ‘world-first’ AI laws face pushback amid bid to become leading tech power (The Guardian AI) - South Korea’s groundbreaking AI legislation faces criticism from tech startups claiming overregulation and civil rights groups demanding stronger protections, highlighting the challenge of balancing innovation with governance in emerging technologies.

Sustainability

This university campus is heated by an AI data center. Your home could be next (CNBC) - Universities and cities are pioneering innovative solutions to repurpose excess heat from AI data centers for residential and campus heating, transforming AI's energy consumption challenge into a sustainable heating opportunity.

The AI infrastructure boom shows no sign of slowing down (TechCrunch AI) - ASML’s record chipmaking equipment orders signal continued massive investment in AI data center infrastructure, indicating sustained enterprise demand and potential supply chain advantages for early adopters.

User Experience

AI Opportunities Action Plan: One Year On (GOV.UK) - One year on, the UK government has met 38 of 50 AI commitments, driving economic growth through infrastructure, increased compute capacity, and scaled public service adoption.

The “User-Generated Content” Ruse (newcartographies.com) - Platform algorithms that curate user feeds have become the primary content product, transforming social media companies from content hosts into sophisticated editorial decision-makers with significant influence over information consumption.

You’re not alone in feeling unprepared for the AI boom (Fastcompany) - Many business leaders share concerns about organizational readiness for AI transformation, highlighting the urgent need for strategic workforce development and technology integration planning to remain competitive.

Workforce & Skills

How Gen Z Uses Gen AI—and Why It Worries Them (Harvard Business) - Gen Z’s widespread adoption of AI tools despite workplace restrictions signals inevitable workplace integration, while their concerns about cognitive dependency highlight the need for strategic frameworks that preserve critical thinking skills.

AI is hitting UK harder than other big economies, study finds (The Guardian) - UK faces net job losses from AI adoption according to Morgan Stanley research, suggesting Britain is experiencing more severe workforce disruption than other major economies during the AI transition.

Companies Are Laying Off Workers Because of AI’s Potential—Not Its Performance (Harvard Business) - Companies are conducting layoffs based on AI’s anticipated future impact rather than proven performance, risking employee cynicism and potential rehiring costs while undermining long-term AI adoption strategies.

Free AI training for all, as government and industry programme expands to provide 10 million workers with key AI skills by 2030 (GOV.UK) - The UK government-industry partnership aims to upskill 10 million workers with practical AI competencies by 2030, offering free training to all adults to address workforce readiness challenges in the AI era.

Artificial intelligence will cost jobs, admits Liz Kendall (The Guardian AI) - UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall acknowledges AI will displace jobs while announcing a massive reskilling initiative to train 10 million Britons in AI capabilities for workforce adaptation.

Universal basic income could be used to soften hit from AI job losses in UK, minister says (The Guardian AI) - A UK government minister confirms officials are actively discussing universal basic income as a policy tool to mitigate workforce displacement from AI-driven industry disruption.

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