4chan investigated by UK regulator, Uber driverless taxis promised for Spring 2026

4chan
The online message board 4chan is being investigated by the UK communications regulator over failure to comply with recently introduced online safety rules. Ofcom says it has received complaints over potential illegal content on the website, which has not responded to its requests for information. Under the Online Safety Act, online services must assess the risk of UK users encountering illegal content and activity on their platforms, and take steps to protect them from it. Ofcom is also investigating porn provider First Time Videos over its age verification checks, and seven file sharing services over potential child sexual abuse material. BBC

President Trump’s “anti-migrant rhetoric” may be helping the UK’s tech industry, according to tech executives. “If the US continues its foreign policy, anti-migrant rhetoric, it’s going to put founders off and operators off,” said Husayn Kassai, a founder of the UK’s AI Hub and the chief executive of Quench AI. “Already you have some students that were considering moving to the US 1749592721 considering the UK, and you have tech founders and operators, which are just as important, again increasingly considering the UK relative to the US,” he said to Sky News during London Tech Week. Sky News

BT is plotting a rescue of TalkTalk as an escalating cash crisis threatens disruption in the broadband market. The former state monopoly is in the early stages of exploring a takeover of TalkTalk and its 3.2m customers, according to City sources. BT is considering a bid for Britain’s fourth-largest broadband provider amid fears that its own business could be damaged by the tightening squeeze on TalkTalk’s finances. Telegraph

Tech firms have transformed how the public takes taxis, but echoes remain from the minicab controllers of old: not least the promise that a long-awaited vehicle is, this time, just around the corner. Now Uber has announced that self-driving taxis will appear on roads in London next year, after the UK government confirmed that trials of fully autonomous vehicles would be brought forward to spring 2026. For the first time in Europe, companies will be allowed to run pilots of small-scale taxi or “bus-like” services for public use without any human safety driver onboard or in the driving seat. Guardian

Apple will allow millions of app developers to access its artificial intelligence models for the first time, as the tech group looks to capitalise on its vast hardware and software ecosystem to give it an edge over its competitors. Yet the iPhone maker took a cautious approach to its annual developer event on Monday, unveiling a makeover to its operating systems and incremental new AI software features, while steering away from the blockbuster announcements that have characterised previous conferences. FT.com

A Russian billionaire and critic of Vladimir Putin is preparing to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in the UK. Nebius, a technology company headquartered in the Netherlands, will invest £200m to establish an “AI factory” in Britain, deploying 4,000 graphics-processing chips designed to power the latest generation of machine-learning technology. The $12bn (£9bn) business is assessing potential data centre sites in the South East. Telegraph