The AI Pulse
Issue #69 — 9th March 2026
Editor: Professor Alan Brown
This Week's AI Pulse is supported by AI Public Sector Week. The UK's biggest annual knowledge exchange on what's happening with AI in delivering our public services. Starting next Monday, 16th March, book your free place here.
Highlights in this edition include:
AI for Good
AI can write genomes — how long until it creates synthetic life? (nature.com) - Scientists have developed Evo2, an AI that can write short genetic code sequences, but creating fully functional genomes for living organisms remains a significant challenge requiring major breakthroughs.
The Smart Home Never Quite Worked. Now It’s Getting an A.I. Reboot. (NY Times) - Amazon and Google think that artificially intelligent assistants like Alexa+ and Gemini will speed up the process of setting up a smart home, but many problems remain unsolved.
Good news: AI Will Eat Application Software (Andreessen Horowitz) - Despite recent fears of a “SaaSpocalypse,” Andreessen Horowitz argues that generative AI will actually expand the enterprise software market by helping established players build stronger competitive advantages while creating entirely new AI-first companies.
Bias and Ethics
AI is rewriting reputation – what happens when it gets you wrong? (City AM) - AI systems are now shaping company reputations in real-time, leaving businesses vulnerable to algorithmic decisions they can’t control or predict.
Online harassment is entering its AI era (MIT Technology Review) - AI tools are now powering sophisticated online harassment campaigns, turning digital abuse into a more automated and potentially dangerous threat for individuals and businesses alike.
Don’t Call It ‘Intelligence’ (The Atlantic) - The Atlantic argues we should stop calling AI “intelligent” since humans excel at asking questions while AI systems are built to provide answers—a fundamental difference that matters for how we deploy these tools.
What AI Models for War Actually Look Like (WIRED) - While AI companies debate ethical boundaries for military applications, Smack Technologies is actively building models that help military commanders plan real battlefield operations—showing the gap between policy discussions and what’s already happening on the ground.
Tech firms and AI farming tools ‘playing with the food system’, warns thinktank (The Guardian AI) - Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are quietly reshaping agriculture with AI tools that influence what farmers grow and how they farm, raising concerns about corporate control over the global food supply.
ChatGPT as a therapist? New study reveals serious ethical risks (ScienceDaily) - Brown University researchers found that ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots violate 15 core mental health ethics when giving therapy-style advice, including mishandling crises and showing fake empathy—a major concern as millions seek mental health support from these systems.
Cyber Security
White House Unveils President Trump’s Cyber Strategy for America (The White House) - The White House released Trump’s new cybersecurity strategy, laying out how the administration plans to keep America’s digital infrastructure secure and competitive in an increasingly connected world.
‘It means missile defence on data centres’: drone strikes raises doubts over Gulf as AI superpower (the Guardian) - Iran’s drone strikes on UAE and Bahrain data centers reveal how cyberwarfare is evolving into physical attacks, forcing Gulf nations to rethink their ambitious AI expansion plans.
AI Danger Gets Real (The Economist) - Why the squabble between America’s government and Anthropic makes an AI disaster more likely.
The biggest AI threats come from within - 12 ways to defend your organization (ZDNET) - Organizations face their biggest AI security risks from insider threats rather than external hackers, with experts outlining twelve key strategies to protect against employees and internal systems that could misuse AI tools.
Why enterprise AI agents could become the ultimate insider threat (ZDNET) - As AI agents gain the ability to autonomously spawn other agents, make purchases, and alter company systems, they’re evolving from helpful assistants into potential insider threats that could act beyond human oversight.
Rolling out AI? 5 security tactics your business can’t get wrong - and why (ZDNET) - Security experts are sharing their playbook for safely deploying AI in business, focusing on data protection strategies that let companies innovate without exposing themselves to costly breaches.
Data & Decision Making
Executive Decisions Driving Agentic AI Value (Deloitte) - Deloitte explores how executives can move beyond AI pilot projects to create real business value, focusing on leadership strategies and governance frameworks that actually scale across organizations.
How AI is shaping the war in Iran — and what’s next for future conflicts (nature.com) - Iran’s ongoing conflicts are becoming a testing ground for AI-powered warfare technologies, offering a preview of how machine intelligence will reshape military strategies in future global conflicts.
The public sector’s techno-amnesia finally has a solution (government-transformation.com) - Government agencies are finally getting AI tools to preserve institutional knowledge and prevent the costly memory loss that typically derails major modernization projects.
When AI Challenges Strategy (Harvard Business) - Harvard Business explores how artificial intelligence is forcing companies to fundamentally rethink their strategic planning, as AI’s rapid evolution makes traditional long-term business models increasingly obsolete.
How AI Is Transforming Customer Segmentation and Targeting (Thedatascientist) - AI is reshaping how companies understand their customers by using predictive analytics to create more precise audience segments and deliver personalized marketing that actually converts.
Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’ (the Guardian) - The US military’s rapid AI-powered war planning systems are raising concerns that human oversight could be bypassed in critical bombing decisions, potentially transforming warfare into an automated process faster than human judgment can intervene.
Innovation & Collaboration
The UK Doesn’t Need Its Own ChatGPT, It Needs a National Open-Source AI Lab (Tony Blair Institute) - The Tony Blair Institute argues that the UK should focus on building a national open-source AI lab rather than chasing its own version of ChatGPT, positioning itself as a global leader by advancing collaborative AI development instead of competing for proprietary dominance.
AI Won’t Fix This (MIT Sloan Review) - MIT Sloan’s spring issue tackles the messy realities of digital transformation, reminding business leaders that AI alone won’t solve their organizational challenges.
Bridging the operational AI gap (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review explores how companies are moving beyond basic automation to create AI systems that can actually make decisions and take actions on their own, potentially transforming how entire organizations operate.
Government to create new lab to keep UK in the fast lane on AI breakthroughs (GOV.UK) - The UK government is launching a new AI research lab to accelerate breakthroughs in healthcare, transportation, and science, positioning Britain to compete globally in the AI race.
Balancing Innovation and Risk in the Age of AI (MIT Sloan Review) - Liberty Mutual’s CIO Monica Caldas explains how the insurance giant is threading the needle between AI innovation and prudent risk management while keeping an eye on sustainable growth.
Productivity & Efficiency
The AI productivity paradox: Why your teams are busier, but not faster (CIO) - AI is flooding development teams with code that’s quick to write but slow to review and deploy, creating new bottlenecks that risk overwhelming senior developers and compromising system quality.
Goldman finds ‘no meaningful relationship between AI and productivity at the economy-wide level (Fortune) - Goldman’s analysis of recent earnings reveals that while AI hasn’t delivered economy-wide productivity gains yet, two specific business applications are showing impressive 30% efficiency boosts, highlighting the gap between AI’s promise and current reality.
AI data center optimization needs a semantic digital twin (CIO) - AI data centers are turning to “digital twins” – virtual replicas of their facilities – to solve the complex puzzle of managing power and cooling systems more efficiently than traditional trial-and-error methods.
AI won’t replace strategy: It will expose it (Fastcompany) - AI is forcing companies to confront whether their business strategies are actually working, revealing gaps and inefficiencies that were previously hidden behind manual processes and guesswork.
AI revenues skyrocket — and enterprise CIOs pay the bill (CIO) - Major AI companies are betting big with massive investments while projecting triple revenue growth, raising concerns that enterprises may ultimately foot the bill for this ambitious expansion.
The Growing Role of AI in Modern Service Industries (Thedatascientist) - AI is quietly reshaping how service businesses operate, from automating routine tasks to personalizing customer experiences in ways that help companies cut costs while actually improving what they deliver.
Regulation and Compliance
UN creates new scientific AI advisory panel: what will it do? (Nature) - The UN launched a scientific advisory panel for AI, modeled after the influential climate change group that helped broker major international agreements, signaling AI governance could soon get the same global treatment as environmental policy.
A Dire Warning From the Tech World (The Atlantic) - Trump’s former AI adviser warns that recent political attacks on Anthropic signal a broader breakdown in how Washington approaches the tech industry, potentially threatening America’s competitive edge in artificial intelligence.
No one has a good plan for how AI companies should work with the government (TechCrunch AI) - As OpenAI evolves from a hot consumer startup into critical national security infrastructure, the company appears unprepared for the complex responsibilities that come with this transformation.
Sovereign AI: Building ecosystems for strategic resilience and impact (McKinsey) - McKinsey argues that countries need to build their own AI ecosystems to reduce dependence on foreign tech giants and protect national security interests, rather than relying solely on imported AI solutions.
Sustainability
The Farming Industry Has Embraced ‘Precision Agriculture’ and AI, but Critics Question Its Environmental Benefits (Inside Climate News) - Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are diving deep into agriculture with AI-powered “precision farming” tools, but critics are questioning whether these high-tech solutions actually deliver on their promised environmental benefits.
Data for AI in the energy system: call for evidence (GOV.UK) - The UK government seeks evidence on high-impact energy datasets to unlock AI’s potential for economic growth, grid efficiency, and achieving 2030 clean energy missions.
User Experience
AI, copyright and the creative industries (UK Parliament) - A UK House of Lords Select Committee review has issued a report that concludes that to protect its creative economy, the UK must reject unlicensed data mining, instead mandating transparent licensing and developing sovereign AI models for ethical growth.
The first ‘AI societies’ are taking shape: how human-like are they? (Nature) - Scientists are creating AI agents that interact socially with each other, raising questions about whether these digital communities represent genuine new forms of society or just elaborate simulations of human behavior.
Creative Work in an Age of Digital Production (Nicholas Carr) - Researchers are exploring how AI and digital tools are reshaping creative processes, questioning whether algorithmic methods can truly capture the nuance of human artistic expression.
Anthropomorphism Is Breaking Our Ability to Judge AI (Tech Policy Press) - Tech Policy Press explores how AI systems designed to mimic human conversation are making it harder for us to objectively evaluate their actual capabilities and limitations.
Workforce & Skills
Anthropic just mapped out which jobs AI could potentially replace (Fortune) - Anthropic released a job impact analysis showing which white-collar roles AI currently handles versus those it’s targeting next, warning of potential widespread professional displacement.
Building IT leaders for an AI-driven future (CIO) - Travelers’ chief technology officer shares practical strategies for CIOs to build resilient IT cultures and leadership teams that can navigate the rapid changes AI brings to business operations.
How Human Work Will Remain Valuable in an AI World (Towardsdatascience) - AI can’t replicate human creativity and emotional intelligence, which means businesses still need people for complex problem-solving and relationship-building even as automation spreads.
How AI Is Changing the Labor Market (Harvard Business) - Harvard researchers analyzed five years of U.S. job postings and found that AI is reshaping rather than eliminating white-collar work—routine jobs dropped 13% while analytical and creative roles surged 20% after ChatGPT launched.
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