The AI Pulse
Issue #76 — 11th May 2026
Editor: Professor Alan Brown
Our editor Alan Brown has just launched a new book, Making AI Work for Britain: From Strategies to Practice. Britain's digital government made progress by consolidating demand and diversifying supply. It shows how this approach can turn the UK's bold AI strategy into responsible delivery. Find out more and download for free now!
Highlights in this edition include:
AI for Good
A blueprint for using AI to strengthen democracy (MIT Technology Review) - MIT Technology Review outlines how artificial intelligence can enhance democratic participation and civic engagement, offering practical strategies for using AI tools to strengthen rather than undermine democratic institutions.
Making Agentic AI Work for Government: A Readiness Framework (WEF) - Without a strategic, evidence-based grasp of where agentic AI can deliver the greatest public value – balancing high potential with manageable complexity – governments risk investing in the wrong places, undermining confidence in the technology and launching pilots that fail to scale.
AI outperforms doctors in Harvard trial of emergency triage diagnoses (The Guardian AI) - Harvard researchers found that AI outperformed doctors in emergency room triage decisions, potentially transforming how hospitals prioritize patient care and allocate medical resources.
Bias and Ethics
Flaws in Kenya’s AI-driven health reforms driving up costs for the poorest (The Guardian) - Kenya’s AI-powered healthcare system, promised to help the poorest citizens, is actually making it harder for them to access care while benefiting wealthier patients instead.
Are we losing our minds to AI? (Fastcompany) - Fast Company explores whether our growing reliance on AI tools might be diminishing our cognitive abilities, questioning if convenience comes at the cost of critical thinking skills.
Cyber Security
“Cyber Defense Has to Move at the Speed of AI” (Harvard Business) - Companies are struggling to keep up with AI-powered cyber attacks that evolve faster than traditional security measures, forcing leaders to completely rethink their defense strategies.
Accelerating the ‘kill chain’ – a terrifying glimpse of future warfare (The Spectator) - America’s military struggles to win modern conflicts despite its technological superiority, revealing a troubling pattern of failing to learn from past defeats and adapt to changing warfare realities.
NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears (New Scientist) - NHS England is quietly reversing its open-source software policy after discovering that AI models can exploit publicly available code to launch cyberattacks on healthcare systems.
Pentagon inks deals with seven AI companies for classified military work (The Guardian AI) - The Pentagon signed deals with seven AI giants including OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia for classified military projects, although Anthropic declined over concerns about potential weapons applications.
Data & Decision Making
The AI economy needs a new vocabulary (CIO) - The tech industry is struggling to distinguish genuinely useful AI innovations from worthless hype because we’re still using vague, outdated terms that lump everything together.
The Myth of the Informed Citizen (Nicholas Carr) - Nicholas Carr explores how today’s information overload paradoxically leaves citizens less informed despite having unprecedented access to news and data.
Operationalizing AI for Scale and Sovereignty (MIT Technology Review) - Companies are building their own “AI factories” to maintain control over their data while scaling AI operations, but they’re struggling to balance data ownership with the need for safe, high-quality information flows that actually generate reliable business insights.
AI won’t fix your data problems. Data engineering will (CIO) - Smart AI models often fail in business because companies skip the unglamorous work of organizing their messy data first—solid data engineering turns promising prototypes into reliable tools that actually work.
Rebuilding the data stack for AI (MIT Technology Review) - Enterprise leaders are discovering that successful AI deployment isn’t just about algorithms—it requires completely rethinking how companies organize, measure, and contextualize their data to ensure AI systems actually deliver reliable business results.
Innovation & Collaboration
Five architects of the AI economy explain where the wheels are coming off (TechCrunch AI) - Five AI industry leaders gathered at the Milken Global Conference to discuss mounting challenges across the entire AI supply chain, from chip shortages to fundamental questions about whether current tech architecture can actually scale.
How to Move from AI Experimentation to AI Transformation (Harvard Business) - Harvard Business Review reveals why most companies’ AI investments aren’t paying off: they’re optimizing individual tasks instead of rethinking entire workflows, missing the chance to transform how their business actually operates.
New AWS report reveals that nearly two-thirds of UK organisations now use AI (Amazon UK) - AWS found that 64% of UK organizations now use AI—a jump from 52% last year that puts Britain well ahead of Europe’s 54% average, signaling the country’s push to become an AI leader.
Productivity & Efficiency
What happens when engineering teams reorganize around AI agents (Infoworld) - Tech founders from companies like Browserbase and Fireworks AI are sharing hard-won lessons about restructuring engineering teams to work alongside AI agents, revealing both practical challenges and emerging best practices.
The future of healthcare is about giving back attention (Fastcompany) - Healthcare technology is shifting toward giving doctors more time to actually focus on patients instead of drowning them in administrative tasks and digital distractions.
Making AI correct for business and trade (UKAuthority) - The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is taking steps to prevent AI tools from providing incorrect or outdated government information, as generative AI increasingly pulls from niche or unmaintained web pages to answer public queries.
AI can make work more meaningful (Fastcompany) - AI is helping workers escape mundane tasks and focus on creative, strategic work that actually engages their skills and interests.
AI in the cloud is easy but expensive (Infoworld) - Cloud platforms make AI deployment incredibly easy for businesses, but the convenience comes with hefty price tags that companies need to carefully balance against their AI ambitions.
So, About That AI Bubble (The Atlantic) - AI companies are finally turning hype into actual revenue, with tools like Claude Code proving that AI agents can deliver real business value beyond the initial excitement.
Over 80% of US government agencies already use AI agents - and it’s only the beginning (ZDNET) - A new survey reveals that over 80% of US government agencies are already deploying AI agents, with leaders predicting human-AI collaboration will define public sector work by 2030.
The Future Is Shrouded in an AI Fog (Harvard Business) - AI’s breakneck pace is making it nearly impossible for leaders to predict what’s coming next, forcing them to rethink how they invest in the future. Smart executives are learning to stay flexible and build companies that can pivot quickly when the fog clears.
Regulation and Compliance
How an AI Bill Becomes a Law (a16z.news) - Congress is clearly interested in passing AI legislation, but the real challenge now is whether lawmakers can align politically to actually move a bill through the legislative process.
AI Hype and the Capture of EU AI Regulation (Tech Policy Press) - European policymakers are struggling to balance AI innovation with meaningful regulation, as tech industry lobbying threatens to water down protective measures before they take effect.
AI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warn (The Guardian) - Facial recognition technology is spreading faster than governments can regulate it, with biometrics watchdogs warning that the systems aren’t as accurate as vendors claim and desperately need new oversight laws.
Shadow AI is already inside your organization. Now what? (CIO) - Your employees are already using AI tools without permission, so instead of fighting it, smart leaders are creating secure, approved alternatives that meet their teams’ actual needs.
The US Is Fighting for Control of AI. It Would Be Better Off Building Standards. (Tech Policy Press) - The US should focus on building AI standards rather than using heavy-handed tactics to control global AI governance, according to a new policy analysis arguing that collaboration beats confrontation.
Sustainability
From computation to environmental cost, the resource burden of artificial intelligence (Nature) - New research reveals that AI training consumes thousands of graphics processors and several tons of hazardous materials, with each small performance improvement requiring disproportionately massive resource investments.
Europe must steer AI and digitalisation to support its green transition (European Environment Agency) - Europe’s environmental agency warns that AI could either turbo-charge the continent’s climate goals or derail them entirely, depending on how policymakers choose to deploy these powerful technologies.
User Experience
Agentic AI for marketing: Reimagine end-to-end customer experiences (CIO) - Adobe is rolling out AI agents that can handle marketing tasks from campaign creation to customer engagement, promising to automate the entire customer journey while keeping brands in control.
Shopping in the age of AI: Redefining stores for a new era (McKinsey) - McKinsey explores how AI is transforming retail stores, helping businesses personalize shopping experiences and streamline operations to meet evolving consumer expectations.
Workforce & Skills
No, AI won’t destroy software development jobs (Infoworld) - History suggests AI will likely create more software development opportunities, not eliminate them—just as previous tech advances expanded rather than contracted the industry.
The rise of the human–AI workforce (McKinsey) - McKinsey finds organizations are increasingly blending human workers with AI tools to create hybrid teams that can tackle complex problems faster than either could alone, fundamentally reshaping how work gets done.
The “AI Job Apocalypse” Is a Complete Fantasy (A16z) - A16z argues that fears of AI wiping out jobs are overblown, claiming critics lack evidence and misunderstand how humans actually adapt to new technology.
Mayor announces tech pioneer Baroness Lane-Fox as Chair of new London AI and Jobs Taskforce (London City Hall) - London’s mayor appointed tech entrepreneur Baroness Martha Lane-Fox to lead a new taskforce examining how AI will reshape the city’s job market and workforce.
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