AI Archives - The Factist

A hand reaches in from the edge of an empty telephone exchange, holding a single mint-green plug in front of a long wall of switchboards with empty chairs

Throwing a Few Switches

October 9, 2026November 8, 2026The Factist

I was driving to work when a Vodafone advert came on the radio to tell me that its broadband is better than every other broadband. It isn’t, of course. It is the same optic fibre going down to my property whoever I pay. Change your provider and what changes is some switching at the far…

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The Wild Mustang

October 7, 2026November 8, 2026The Factist

It is very hard to get your head around AI. Say you decide to learn how to use it. How long is that good for? How long before what you’ve learned is out of date? I could become an expert today and be left behind within a week. I could tell myself it’s all about…

Engraved tree of life with birds, fish and animals in its branches, and one mint-green branch turning into circuit-board lines.

A New Branch on the Tree of Life

September 18, 2026November 8, 2026The Factist

I was twenty minutes into the Diary of a CEO’s AI round-table the other day, driving to lunch. Four clever people — Ed Zitron, Roman Yampolskiy, Nate Soares and Andrew McAfee — and the framing was the one you get everywhere now: AI is an emergency, the labs aren’t being straight with us, and the…

A man stands on an empty plain looking up at a ladder that leans against a cloud, while two hands in the cloud place a new mint-green rung at the top

Wholly Rational

September 4, 2026November 8, 2026The Factist

Sam Altman told the G20 that AI is a tool and its use rests with individuals. He is right about what it removes. The question is what it arrives with — and whose ethics get trained in.