The AI Pulse

Issue #74 — 20th April 2026

Editor: Professor Alan Brown

This week's AI Pulse is supported by Liverpool University to promote their IT Reuse for Good survey. IT Reuse strengthens the circular economy by refurbishing devices, reducing e‑waste, and addressing digital exclusion. Please take the survey.

Highlights in this edition include:

The Human Side of AI Adoption: Lessons From the Field (MIT Sloan Management Review)

Most companies are stuck on AI chat (CIO)

Why having “humans in the loop” in an AI war is an illusion (MIT Technology Review)

Liz Kendall urges UK public to embrace AI as government makes first £500m fund investment (The Guardian)

12 Graphs That Explain the State of AI in 2026 (IEEE)

AI for Good

Top universities sign in support of AI for Science Strategy (UKAuthority) - UK universities have signed up to support the government’s AI for Science Strategy, describing it as a critical opportunity to position the UK as a global leader in AI-driven scientific innovation.

AI to predict how bowel cancer patients will respond to new NHS drug (The Guardian AI) - AI researchers are developing PhenMap, a tool that could help thousands of bowel cancer patients avoid ineffective NHS treatments by predicting which patients will actually respond to new drugs before treatment begins.

Bias and Ethics

How Project Maven Put AI Into the Kill Chain (The New Yorker) - A new book reveals how the Pentagon’s secretive Project Maven created an AI system that can identify and destroy targets with just four mouse clicks, fundamentally automating the machinery of war.

Social Mobility After Growth: Why the Old Ladder May Not Survive AI (The Economy) - Latin America’s economic history reveals how inequality can trap people in place despite overall growth, and AI threatens to break the traditional link between education, hard work, and climbing the social ladder.

Cyber Security

AI and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Risk (rand.org) - RAND researchers are mapping how AI could both create new CBRN threats and help defend against them, offering policymakers a roadmap to harness the technology’s protective potential while staying ahead of emerging risks.

Why having “humans in the loop” in an AI war is an illusion (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review argues that keeping humans involved in AI-powered warfare decisions is largely meaningless since we can’t actually understand how these systems make their choices.

Data & Decision Making

How poor data foundations can undermine AI success (CIO) - More than half of AI projects died after initial testing last year because companies discovered their data wasn’t ready for prime time, forcing IT leaders to rethink how they prepare data before launching ambitious AI initiatives.

12 Graphs That Explain the State of AI in 2026 (IEEE) - IEEE’s latest data reveals AI investment continues its explosive growth, though companies and workers are still figuring out how to actually integrate these tools into daily operations.

Three-quarters of AI’s economic gains are being captured by just 20% of companies – with the leading companies focused on growth, not just productivity (PwC) - A small group of AI leaders are pulling far ahead financially, while most companies struggle to see real returns, with the winners focusing on using AI to grow their business rather than just cut costs.

How robots learn: A brief, contemporary history (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review explores how today’s robotics boom stems from machines finally learning to navigate and respond to real-world environments in fundamentally new ways.

Innovation & Collaboration

Liz Kendall urges UK public to embrace AI as government makes first £500m fund investment (The Guardian) - The UK government is putting £500 million into a British AI startup while urging citizens to embrace the technology, with officials downplaying concerns about job displacement and cybersecurity risks.

Rethinking AI sovereignty: pathways to competitiveness through strategic investments (Hinrich Foundation) - The World Economic Forum analyzed how countries can build AI competitiveness by strategically investing in infrastructure and leveraging their unique strengths rather than trying to match every global leader.

Why opinion on AI is so divided (MIT Technology Review) - MIT researchers found that people who use AI tools regularly are becoming much more optimistic about the technology, while occasional users remain skeptical—creating a growing divide in public opinion.

Surviving AI Price Wars Without Destroying Your Business (a16z.news) - Five things app companies get wrong — and what to do instead.

Productivity & Efficiency

The AI Revolution in Math Has Arrived (Quanta Magazine) - AI is now proving mathematical theorems faster than ever before, and mathematicians believe we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible for automated mathematical discovery.

New Report Charts Key Strategies and Trade-Offs for Long-Term Growth (WEF) - The new economy will be shaped by accelerating AI adoption, geostrategic competition, high public and private debt, and environmental and demographic challenges.

What China’s AI Agents Reveal About the Future of Commerce (Harvard Business) - Chinese tech giants like Meituan and Alibaba are testing AI agents that can complete entire shopping transactions for users—from searching and comparing to ordering and paying—offering a glimpse into commerce where humans delegate routine purchases to AI assistants.

It takes too long to do things in the government (A16z) - The venture capital firm argues that government bureaucracy is stifling innovation and slowing down critical infrastructure projects that could boost economic growth.

Most companies are stuck on AI chat (CIO) - Most US companies are still just experimenting with ChatGPT-style tools rather than weaving AI into their actual business operations, with only 25% making the leap to transform how work gets done.

Generative AI in healthcare: Adoption matures as agentic AI emerges (McKinsey) - Healthcare organizations are moving beyond basic AI experiments to deploy autonomous agents that can actually perform complex medical tasks, signaling a shift toward AI systems that work independently rather than just assist doctors.

Treating enterprise AI as an operating layer (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review argues that the companies winning with AI aren’t just building fancy tools—they’re weaving intelligence directly into the systems that run their daily operations.

How AI Is Threatening Platforms’ Revenue Streams (Harvard Business) - AI agents are bypassing traditional platforms by making purchases and decisions directly for users, threatening the advertising and subscription models that power companies like Google and Meta who now must compete to be chosen by AI rather than capture human attention.

Regulation and Compliance

UK too reliant on foreign big tech giants (UKAuthority) - A new report has warned that the UK’s heavy reliance on a small number of foreign tech giants for critical digital infrastructure is creating significant economic, security, and policy risks.

Making AI operational in constrained public sector environments (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review explores how smaller, specialized AI models are helping government agencies deploy artificial intelligence while meeting their strict security and oversight requirements.

Anthropic Plots Major London Expansion (Wired) - Anthropic is rapidly expanding its London team from 200 to potentially 800 people, suggesting the AI company may be hedging its bets as regulatory pressures intensify back home in the US.

Sustainability

In its push to become Big Tech’s data center hub, India is overlooking local resistance (Rest of World) - Google and Microsoft are building massive data centers in India with government tax breaks, but local farmers are pushing back against these multibillion-dollar projects taking over their land.

User Experience

Why opinion on AI is so divided (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review finds that AI power users are becoming increasingly bullish on the technology while casual users remain skeptical, creating a growing divide in public opinion based on actual experience with AI tools.

The Human Side of AI Adoption: Lessons From the Field (MIT Sloan Management Review) - MIT Sloan reveals why AI rollouts fail in traditional industries like manufacturing and healthcare, offering three practical strategies for leaders navigating employee resistance and slower adoption cycles.

AI’s Next Frontier: People Skills (The Atlantic) - AI developers are racing to build chatbots that can read social cues and respond with genuine empathy, potentially transforming how we interact with machines in customer service and healthcare.

Workforce & Skills

Letting AI Do Your Work Erodes Your Confidence, According to a New Study (TIME) - A new study reveals that people who rely heavily on AI for their work experience declining self-confidence, while those who actively challenge and question AI outputs maintain stronger confidence in their abilities.

How to build a high-performing team during the AI era (Fastcompany) - Smart leaders are discovering that building high-performing teams in the AI era requires focusing more on uniquely human skills like creativity and collaboration, not just technical expertise.

AI in the interview room (CIO) - Technical leaders are scrambling to redesign their hiring processes as AI tools make traditional coding interviews less effective at identifying truly skilled developers.

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