Philippa Kaur

When OpenAI announced a new generative artificial-intelligence (AI) model, called o3, a few days before Christmas, it aroused both excitement and scepticism. Excitement from those who expected its reasoning capabilities to be a big step towards superhuman intelligence (some reckoned it would be a bigger deal than OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in 2022). Scepticism because OpenAI did not release it to the public and had every incentive to overplay the firm’s pioneering role in AI to curry favour with Donald Trump, the incoming president. More

The campaign to ban TikTok has been going for almost as long as the viral video app has been operating in America. Now, after six years of fending off security investigations, executive orders and legal threats, the Chinese-owned company faces being outlawed within days. On January 17th the Supreme Court upheld a law which prohibits social networks controlled by “foreign adversaries”, singling out TikTok and China. The ban will take effect on January 19th. More

Dear friends and colleagues,A belated happy new year to you all! This is my 11th new-year message to you, but the first to come so late in January. As you know, I have been recovering from a freak accident sustained during an equine leadership course that I attended in Wyoming. I’d like to thank all of you who sent good wishes, and reassure those of you who did not that I bear no grudges towards you. More

It sold out in four days. The “Aldon Schokolade Dubai Style” was created by patissiers at a fancy hotel in the centre of Berlin. It came in 500g bars with ingredients like home-roasted pistachios and French Valrhona chocolate. Only 50 were made and they went for the princely sum of €69 ($71) apiece in November. More

THE DISRUPTIVE innovator of the global gas industry is stepping out of the shadows. On January 13th Venture Global, a privately held exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) based in Virginia, unveiled details of its planned flotation in New York. About a decade ago it sprang from obscurity and shocked incumbents in America’s Texan oil patch by using scalable, modular equipment made in factories rather than costly, bespoke techniques used by its competitors. In doing so, the upstart reduced the time required to build a massive LNG terminal by about half, to less than three years. That helped it to undercut rivals on price and win early contracts with prestigious customers including Shell, a British oil major. More

“YOU LOOK thicker” sounds like a slight. Coming from Joe Rogan, the thick-set podcasting megastar and martial artist, it is high praise. Directed at Mark Zuckerberg, the uber-nerd behind Meta’s $1.5trn social-media empire, it may seem highly misplaced. But it is true. Mr Zuckerberg does look beefier than five years ago. During the covid-19 pandemic he got into Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a rough combat sport. Now he would like to see more “masculine energy” in the corporate world, too. More

Elon Musk likes to think big, from giant rockets to blockbuster pay packets and massive, if misguided, investments in social media. In Mexico’s case it was an investment, announced in March 2023, in “the biggest ev plant in the world”. Tesla’s boss said that he would spend $5bn to build a “gigafactory” in Nuevo León, a state bordering the United States, that on completion in 2026 would churn out more electric vehicles (evs) than any of his existing facilities in America, China and Germany. Almost two years later, however, Tesla has yet to break ground. Why has the mercurial Mr Musk’s interest cooled? More

Few middle powers have the towering technological ambitions of the rich Gulf states. As they seek to shift their economies away from fossil fuels, the Emiratis want to lead the world in artificial intelligence (AI) and the Saudis want the kingdom to become home to startups in cutting-edge areas such as robotics. Those aspirations, however, are about to collide with geopolitical reality. More