George Osborne has a new job in tech, and it doesn't bode well for Britain OpenAI is the latest to make a political hire as big tech spreads its tentacles around the world. Since leaving frontline politics, the former chancellor has served as the chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, edited (not entirely successfully) the Evening Standard, advised asset manager BlackRock, joined boutique advisory firm Robey Warshaw, been appointed as the chair of the British Museum and taken on roles including advising crypto firm Coinbase . But Osborne's latest job is the most eye-opening - and is an alarming augur of what is to come. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has become the latest organisation to employ Osborne . He will run OpenAI for Countries, a unit tasked with working directly with governments while expanding the company's Stargate datacentre programme beyond the US.

Rishi Sunak has taken up senior part-time advisor roles at tech giant Microsoft and artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic. The former prime minister has been told he must not lobby ministers on behalf of the companies by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), an independent watchdog which oversees the activities of former government figures. Sunak - who remains the MP for Richmond and Northallerton - will donate payments for the jobs to a charity he recently founded, the watchdog said. During his premiership, Sunak made tech regulation a significant priority, setting up an AI safety summit in 2023. In letters of advice sent to Sunak by Acoba and published on Thursday, his role at Microsoft was described as providing high-level strategic perspectives on geopolitical trends.

Bad actors have created deepfakes to imitate celebrity endorsements, President Biden and employers. But, one of the most heinous uses is making sexually explicit deepfakes of real people. Now, the UK government is taking new steps to deter their creation, introducing new criminal offenses for producing or sharing sexually explicit deepfakes. Only sharing deepfakes is currently an offense under UK law. "With these new measures, we're sending an unequivocal message: creating or sharing these vile images is not only unacceptable but criminal," said Baroness Margaret Beryl Jones, minister for the future digital economy and online safety.

When the U.K. hosted the world's first AI Safety Summit last November, Rishi Sunak, the then Prime Minister, said the achievements at the event would "tip the balance in favor of humanity." At the two-day event, held in the cradle of modern computing, Bletchley Park, AI labs committed to share their models with governments before public release, and 29 countries pledged to collaborate on mitigating risks from artificial intelligence. It was part of the Sunak-led Conservative government's effort to position the U.K. as a leader in artificial intelligence governance, which also involved establishing the world's first AI Safety Institute--a government body tasked with evaluating models for potentially dangerous capabilities. While the U.S. and other allied nations subsequently set up their own similar institutes, the U.K. institute boasts 10 times the funding of its American counterpart. Eight months later, on July 5, after a landslide loss to the Labour Party, Sunak left office and the newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer began forming his new government.

After a gruelling first day discussing how to finance a prolonged war against an authoritarian dictator, G7 leaders in Puglia next turned for advice from someone who insists he is infallible, and for good measure thinks Ukraine should have the courage to wave the white flag. Normally when an 87-year-old claiming infallibility turns up at your door, the instinct is to give them a cup of tea and quietly ring social services. But when 1.3 billion other people, including your hostess, believe he is indeed infallible, the dynamic somewhat changes. So Pope Francis, invited by the devout Catholic and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, was warmly greeted when he reached the summit of mammon, the G7 club of western wealthy countries. Even if G7 is used to listening to the prophecies of economists, he is the first religious leader ever to attend this event, and to give his prediction of what the future holds.

The first 16 companies have signed up to the voluntary artificial intelligence safety standards introduced at the Bletchley Park summit, Rishi Sunak has said on the eve of the event's follow-up in Seoul. But the standards have faced criticism for lacking teeth, with signatories committing only to voluntarily "work toward" information sharing, "invest" in cybersecurity and "prioritise" research into societal risks. "These commitments ensure the world's leading AI companies will provide transparency and accountability on their plans to develop safe AI," Sunak said. "It sets a precedent for global standards on AI safety that will unlock the benefits of this transformative technology." Included in the 16 are Zhipu.ai, The presence of signatories from countries that have been less willing to bind national champions to safety regulation is a benefit of the lighter touch, the government says.

The Conservatives are currently behind Labour in the polls and Mr Sunak faces an uphill struggle to turn thing around before the next general election, expected this year. In his 30 minute speech - which sounded like the opening salvo in an election campaign and included a personal attack on the Labour leader - Mr Sunak described a future that was both a time of danger but also of transformation. He warned of threats from an "axis of authoritarian powers" such as Russia, Iran, North Korea and China and spoke of the challenges to cyber security. However, he also argued there were reasons for optimism citing the potential of artificial intelligence to improve education and health. In contrast to his conference speech last autumn, which had the theme of change, he also sought to defend the Conservatives' time in government, while attempting to personify the future.

The Republic of Ireland is looking to amend the law to allow the return of asylum seekers to the United Kingdom, according to broadcaster RTE, after an influx over the border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. Dublin's Minister of Justice Helen McEntee, who will visit London on Monday, told a parliamentary committee this week that she estimates 80 percent of those applying for asylum in the republic came over the land border with Northern Ireland. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Sky News it was evidence that London's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is acting as a deterrent. "What it shows, I think, is that the deterrent is … already having an impact because people are worried about coming here," he said. In response, a spokesperson for Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris said the leader "does not comment on the migration policies of any other country but he is very clear about the importance of protecting the integrity of the migration system in Ireland", RTE reported.

This year, the U.S. military carried out strikes against Iranian forces and allied militias in Syria and Iraq in response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. And in 2020, the United States killed a top Iranian commander, Maj. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed that Britain had helped defend Israel against the Iranian attack, saying that Britain's air force had shot down "a number of Iranian attack drones" and would now work with allies to de-escalate tensions. "What we now need is for calm heads to prevail," Mr. Sunak told the BBC on Sunday. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel's chief military spokesman, said that Israel had intercepted most of the 200 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles launched by Iran with "some assistance" from its allies.

Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports that the U.S. military has shot down'dozens' of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as attack drones. International world leaders collectively condemned Iran's drone and missile attacks on Israel, calling for peace in the Middle East. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he condemned Iran's "reckless" attack against Israel. "I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime's reckless attack against Israel," Sunak said in a statement. "Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard."