Cory Doctorow’s The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI promises a route out of the AI hype cycle, but a sharp review in The Conversation calls it an outdated map that fails to answer its own question. Our opinion: both sides hold half the truth, and the argument matters for any business planning what comes after the bubble.
OpenAI shipped three ChatGPT upgrades in five days: interactive quiz generation, restaurant reservation search through OpenTable, Resy and Yelp, and a Google Drive integration that can browse and even edit Docs, Sheets and Slides from the chat. Here is what each feature does, which plans get it, and what the new write access means for businesses.
Apple has trained its own AI model for the Chinese market with Alibaba’s support, becoming the first foreign firm approved by Beijing to offer a proprietary generative AI model. Here is what the new Apple AI model does, how Alibaba Qwen and Baidu fit around it, and when Apple Intelligence finally launches in China.
Google will now allow users to remove the visible watermark from its AI generations. Here is how the new Gemini watermark toggle works across Nano Banana, Omni and Lyria, what SynthID and C2PA metadata still record, who gets the option, and the risks for trust online.
AI research agents can read the literature, write analysis code and draft convincing papers — yet benchmarks show they fail most realistic research tasks and cannot yet originate science. Here is the evidence, why the gap persists, and how to use them safely.
What a managing agent actually needs from an IT partner: lettings and client accounting systems kept running, client money and tenant data duties evidenced as a by-product of normal service, out-of-hours emergencies understood, and pricing that reflects an agency rather than an office.
What a law practice actually needs from an IT partner: case management and accounts systems kept running, SRA and GDPR duties evidenced as a by-product of normal service, completion-day urgency understood, and pricing that reflects a firm rather than an office.
What hotels and hospitality businesses actually need from an IT partner: a service desk that answers at 2am, segmented networks that keep guests away from the tills, PCI DSS and GDPR duties handled properly, and pricing models that fit shared tills and shift work rather than office logins.
What manufacturers actually need from an IT partner: shift-pattern service cover, a secured boundary between office IT and the machines on the line, ERP and MES recovery targets written against production impact, and pricing models that reflect a factory rather than an office.
What accountancy practices actually need from an IT partner: the security layers that protect client records, the Microsoft 365 configuration that matters more than the licence price, and the compliance duties — UK GDPR, anti-money laundering rules and Making Tax Digital — the practice cannot delegate.
