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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 11h

“The AI industry purports to provide us with what we as humans most yearn: intelligence, agency, companionship. But it is these very qualities that are our only defence against its techno-fascist tendencies.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Big Tech deploys Orwellian doublespeak to mask its democratic corrosion | Peter Lewis

As AI asserts its power to shape social evolution, regulation is decried as ‘state control’ rather than the expression of our collective will

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Ben Holliday

Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 1d

Excellent Guardian piece on Aadhar, India's digital ID system, that captures the dilemma extremely well. Digital-by-default methods create huge convenience for some, double-down on social exclusion for others, and it is easy for their scope to rapidly expand www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘Your basis to live is checked at each and every step’: India’s ID system divides opinion

Keir Starmer is considering Aadhaar as model for UK, but detractors warn of ‘digital coercion’ and security breaches

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 2d

This is my base scenario for an AI bust.

Michael Love @elkmovie.bsky.social · 2d

I continue to think that while "LLMs aren't actually that world-changing" is a risk people have at least started paying attention to, "good-enough LLMs are going to be cheap and ubiquitous and those $1B data centers are going to become a liability rather than a moat" is an equally serious problem

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 2d

Andrej Karpathy unveils nanochat, a full-stack training and inference implementation of an LLM in a single, dependency-minimal codebase (Andrej Karpathy/@karpathy)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Stuart Hoddinott @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social · 2d

Crazy stat of the day: the NHS now publishes the cost of delayed discharge from hospital. They estimate that it was ~£220m in September

If that's a typical month, it means ~£2.6bn per year

For comparison, the govt spent £2.8bn on the entire courts and tribunal system in 2024/25

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 2d

What did make me smile is that the Rest is Money podcast is backed by Google AI/Gemini advertising - pushing it's own research which claims the potential to save SMEs 3 weeks each year through admin-based productivity gains. There's a lot of weight on 'potential to' in that claim

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 2d

I listened to this episode of The Rest is Money earlier which has some useful commentary around the indicators of an upcoming crash open.spotify.com/episode/2O23...

215. How Near Is An AI Crash?

Spotify video

open.spotify.com

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 2d

There's been lots of commentary since last week about the chances of an AI crash and when the latest tech bubble might burst. One of the signs is that everyone starts talking about when rather than if www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley

Some are worried that the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be a bubble waiting to burst.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 9d

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 12d

Why I don't believe in "small giants": mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/team-dy...

Team dynamics after AI

Small giants and real giants

mechanicalsurvival.com

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 10d

A good explainer on the enshittification of much of the internet … IMO modern digital services in the public sector look increasingly radical when they’re built for clarity, trust, and transparency (as they should be)

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...

www.theguardian.com

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 11d

as Alex explains: "Through exploration of a prototype or artefact, you can frame your research questions in a way that is grounded and relatable to your users, producing more actionable and precise insights. This can also be a useful tool for engaging different mindsets and ways of thinking." 3/3

Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 11d

…I've always thought about this as simply using artefacts to support exploratory learning. If you've got starting assumptions to work with then it's fine to use creative artefacts and models as part of early research. 2/3

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 11d

💡 Great post by Alex Sadler on the TPX design blog this week …the power of prototyping often gets overlooked in earlier research work, especially as part of discovery teams…

#userresearch #ux #product #govdesign

www.tpximpact.com/knowledge-hu...

Why prototype early? - TPXimpact

Why harnessing the power of prototyping can help your early research efforts.

www.tpximpact.com

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 11d

It’s been proper wild weather overnight in Cumbria. Our old car somehow has a puddle in it #StormAmy

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 16d

Switched off from everything and went for a long walk today. Recommend #breathe #UKLakeDistrict

Selfie of me by an impressive waterfall in the Newlands valley, UK Lake District

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Sharon O'Dea @sharonodea.com · 19d

A sensible take from @jamesomalley.co.uk on digital ID cards. Checks aren’t going away, so we do need to make them easier for citizens & employers. We have just such a system over here in NL and it does make life administratively a lot easier. open.substack.com/pub/jamesoma...

How the government's new digital ID will work

And why I've changed my mind on ID cards

open.substack.com

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 21d

Excellent day with @cdps.bsky.social for their digital leadership programme. Some really great conversations and sharing of work #keepgoing

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 21d

Flying visit. Morning from Cardiff 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Picture of a large hands statue and blue skies - taken in Cardiff city centre.

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Dean Vipond @deanvipond.bsky.social · 22d

I expect women’s networks would be hit especially by this, given many will be working condensed/compressed hours to manage other responsibilities. What a hopeless policy.

Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 22d

Even Thatcher did not hate the Civil Service as much as this Labour government obviously does.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Civil Service staff networks to only meet outside working hours and have all events signed off by senior managers

New rules have been issued to all Civil Service staff networks to ensure their activities remain within the Civil Service Code.

www.gov.uk

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 22d

"The FT sought to categorise the expected positive benefits of the technology. Most of the anticipated benefits, such as increased productivity, were vaguely stated and harder to categorise than the risks"

www.ft.com/content/e93e...

(note: Entergy is the fossil fuel company supplying Meta)

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/e93e56df-dd9b-40c1-b77a-dba1ca01e473

While non-tech companies are upbeat about AI, their filings suggest less clear upsides. During an earnings call in February, Coca-Cola was excited about the technology — even though the key use was in the production of a TV commercial.

The FT sought to categorise the expected positive benefits of the technology. Most of the anticipated benefits, such as increased productivity, were vaguely stated and harder to categorise than the risks.

Companies anticipated being able to optimise workflows through automation, and hope to achieve market differentiation through their use of AI. Some hoped to be able to use the technology to improve the personalisation of their products.

Filings do reveal that the companies able to give clear AI upsides include those that serve the rising AI-driven data centre boom. Energy companies First Solar and Entergy cited AI as a demand driver.

Freeport-McMoran, which has a stockpile of copper, stated that “data centres and artificial intelligence developments” would support the metal’s price. The company also said the technology can help with material characterisation and mineral extraction.

Equipment manufacturer Caterpillar reported that its energy business was benefiting from supporting “data centre growth related to cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence”.

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 22d

You can tell we’re fully into the swing of the new school term when I’m emergency shopping for food tech ingredients at 8pm on a Monday night. One spring onion, dried apricots etc.

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Ben Holliday @benholliday.com · 24d

Did our first junior Parkrun event today in Windermere with our 7yo - always super impressed by the organisation, volunteers, and the community that builds around these events

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Caroline Jarrett @cjforms.bsky.social · 26d

“AI is an aspiration, not a thing”

Steph Wright @elmosmoe.bsky.social at #SDinGov, inspiring us to think about responsibility and people when considering AI

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Frankie Roberto @frankieroberto.com · 28d

Shout out to everyone at #SDinGov!

I’m not there, but I’ll be following with interest.

A quick reminder that I help maintain a list of all UK gov digital services, including links to service assessments and code: govuk-digital-services.herokuapp.com

If your service is missing, let me know!

GOV.UK Services List

govuk-digital-services.herokuapp.com

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Reposted by Ben Holliday

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 28d

I love London so much. So much.

Did you know that London has the lowest level of ethnic violence of any city of comparable size in the world?

Multiculturalism has in fact worked here. They just don’t want it to be true because we happen to have a Muslim mayor.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 28d

In London, hate will never win.

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