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2026, AI, AI & Machine Learning, Anthropic, Claude

When AI Becomes Too Powerful To Export: Anthropic, Fable 5, Mythos 5, and the moment AI became national security

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There are moments in technology when you can almost hear the gears of history clicking into place.

Not loudly. Not with fireworks or a bloke in a shiny suit standing on stage telling us that everything has changed. More often, it happens quietly, in a blog post, a government letter, or a hurried statement published late in the day.

This feels like one of those moments.

Anthropic has announced that it is suspending access to its Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 models after receiving a directive from the US government. The reason given is national security. The result is that Anthropic has had to abruptly disable the models for all customers, because the order reportedly prevents access by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States.

That even includes foreign national Anthropic employees.

Just pause on that for a moment.

We are not talking about a graphics card being shipped overseas. We are not talking about a missile guidance chip, a military radar system, or some piece of exotic lab equipment. We are talking about access to an artificial intelligence model.

Software has just been treated like a controlled strategic asset.

What are Fable 5 and Mythos 5?

Only a few days before this happened, Anthropic had announced Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5.

Fable 5 was presented as a highly capable model for general use, sitting above Anthropic’s previous Opus class models. It was described as being especially strong at software engineering, research, visual understanding, long running tasks and complex knowledge work.

Mythos 5, meanwhile, appears to be the more restricted version, intended for trusted partners, particularly in areas such as cyber defence and critical infrastructure. In simple terms, Fable 5 was the version with more safeguards. Mythos 5 was the version where some of those safeguards could be lifted for trusted users.

Anthropic’s argument was that these systems could do a great deal of good. They talked about helping cyber defenders secure important software, assisting with scientific research, and accelerating work in areas such as life sciences.

And that is where the difficult bit begins.

The same capability that helps a good actor find vulnerabilities in software can also help a bad actor find vulnerabilities in software. The same intelligence that can help researchers solve hard problems can also lower the barrier for people who should not be anywhere near those tools.

That is the uncomfortable dual use problem at the heart of advanced AI.

The jailbreak question

According to Anthropic, the US government’s concern appears to be around a possible way of bypassing, or “jailbreaking”, Fable 5’s safeguards.

A jailbreak in this context means finding a way to persuade the AI to ignore or work around its safety systems. Anyone who has used AI tools for a while will know that safety systems can sometimes be a bit clumsy. They can refuse harmless requests, misunderstand context, or behave like an over cautious supply teacher on a school trip.

But at the frontier end of AI, the stakes are rather higher than asking for a dodgy limerick or persuading a chatbot to roleplay as an unfiltered assistant. Here, the concern is that a model might be coaxed into helping with cybersecurity work in a way that could be misused.

Anthropic says it has only received limited evidence of a narrow jailbreak and that the vulnerabilities involved were already known and relatively minor. It also says other publicly available models can identify similar issues without needing any special bypass.

That is important, because it gets to the heart of the argument.

If every powerful AI model can be jailbroken in some narrow way, does that mean none of them should be released?

Or does it mean the industry needs layered defences, monitoring, responsible access programmes and clear rules?

Anthropic clearly believes the latter.

A sudden and very public clash

What makes this story so striking is not just the safety issue. It is the speed and bluntness of the response.

Anthropic says it received the directive at 5.21pm Eastern Time and that the letter did not give specific details of the national security concern. The company is complying with the order, but it also says it disagrees with the decision and believes the action was not transparent, fair, clear, or grounded in technical facts.

That is unusually direct language from a major AI company.

It is also a sign of the times. The relationship between AI labs and governments is going to become one of the defining technology stories of the next few years. These companies are building systems that may become essential to business, science, software development, education, defence, healthcare and almost every corner of modern life.

Governments are not going to sit back and treat that as just another app.

When AI Becomes Too Powerful To Export: Anthropic, Fable 5, Mythos 5, and the moment AI became national security
When AI Becomes Too Powerful To Export: Anthropic, Fable 5, Mythos 5, and the moment AI became national security

The export control problem

For years, the big AI export control story has mostly been about chips. Who can buy the most advanced GPUs? Which countries can access the hardware needed to train frontier models? How do you stop sensitive capability moving across borders?

This Anthropic story changes the focus.

Now we are talking about controlling access to the model itself.

That opens up a whole set of awkward questions.

  • What happens if a UK business builds a product around an American AI model and access is suddenly removed?
  • What happens to customers who have paid for a service?
  • What happens to employees of the AI company who are not US citizens?
  • What happens when powerful models are used through cloud platforms, APIs, apps and enterprise tools across dozens of countries?

For businesses, this is a bit of a wake up call.

Many companies are now rushing to bolt AI into their workflows. Customer service, coding, document analysis, marketing, finance, legal review, research, data extraction, the lot. But this story is a reminder that access to the most advanced models may not always be guaranteed.

It is not enough to ask, “Which model is best?”

You also have to ask, “What happens if it disappears tomorrow?”

The Gadget Man view

I find this fascinating because it marks a shift in how we think about AI.

For most people, AI still feels like a clever website. You type something in, it replies, and occasionally it makes you wonder whether the future has arrived slightly ahead of schedule.

But at the very top end, these models are becoming more like infrastructure. They are tools that can write code, analyse huge amounts of information, interpret images, reason through complex problems and assist in scientific work. They are no longer just novelty chatbots. They are engines of capability.

And that makes governments nervous.

Some of that nervousness is reasonable. A powerful AI system in the wrong hands could be dangerous. Nobody sensible should pretend otherwise.

But there is also a danger in sudden, opaque intervention. If companies are told to build safely, test thoroughly, work with governments, create safeguards and develop trusted access programmes, then the rules need to be clear. Otherwise, innovation becomes a guessing game.

Anthropic’s frustration seems to be that it believes it did many of the right things. It says it worked with government, carried out extensive testing, used strong safeguards and adopted a defence in depth approach. Yet it still found itself having to pull access almost immediately.

That will worry a lot of people in the AI world.

What does it mean for ordinary users?

For most casual users, probably not much today.

Access to Anthropic’s other models is not affected, and many people will not have been using Fable 5 or Mythos 5 yet. But the wider meaning is more significant.

This is a glimpse of the future of AI regulation.

The most advanced models may not be treated like ordinary software products. They may be controlled, restricted, monitored and sometimes withdrawn. Access may depend on who you are, where you are, what you are doing, and whether a government believes the system crosses a national security threshold.

That might sound dramatic, but it is not science fiction anymore. It is happening.

My closing thought

There is an old pattern in technology.

First, something looks like a toy.

Then it becomes useful.

Then it becomes essential.

Then it becomes strategic.

AI has moved through those stages at a frankly ridiculous speed.

The Anthropic Fable 5 and Mythos 5 story may turn out to be a misunderstanding, as Anthropic suggests. Access may be restored. The details may become clearer. The technical risk may prove to be less dramatic than the government feared.

But even if all that happens, the line has still been crossed.

A government has looked at an AI model and treated it as something powerful enough to restrict on national security grounds.

That is not just a story about Anthropic.

That is a story about where AI is heading next.

And whether we like it or not, the future of artificial intelligence is no longer just about clever prompts, faster coding, or shinier demos.

It is about power, trust, borders and control.

Welcome to the next chapter.

 

2026, Helpful Articles, Security, Useful Articles

Keeping Your Business Secure From Modern Threats: Three Areas to Consider

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Today’s business environment has changed considerably over the last 20 years. Organisations now face threats that simply didn’t exist in the past, or if they did, the risk was significantly lower than it is now. Ensuring that everyone stays safe and your premises remain secure requires not only that you implement the right strategy, but also that you’re constantly working to improve things; the world is evolving at a rapid pace, and taking your eye off the ball, even for a short period of time, can be problematic. 

Naturally, this makes getting started a stressful experience for many, and for those with existing businesses, the path forward can be obscured. It’s not easy to develop your organisation into something with the resilience required to operate effectively. 

It isn’t impossible, though, and with the right approach, anyone can do it. To help you begin, here are three areas you need to consider to build the foundation required to prosper. 

  1. Physical Security

Physical security is just as important as ever, and there’s a lot that goes into implementing a watertight security system to keep your premises safe and secure. 

First and foremost, you’ll need to consider your entrances and exits. These points should be locked with commercial-grade security equipment that preferably only permits access via keycard. For the internal structures of the building, you may want to use an access control system, as these help you manage who can and can’t enter certain areas. 

A high-quality alarm system is also key, and you should install security cameras both on the outside and inside of the building and monitor them closely. Larger organisations may be able to afford a physical security presence. 

  1. Cyber Security  

Many businesses rely almost entirely on digital technology to function, often storing large volumes of sensitive data within their systems. While the tech brings plenty of benefits, there’s always the risk of a data breach or hack. These scenarios could cause untold damage, so you’ll need to do your utmost to prevent them from occurring.

The best place to start is with a Cyber Essentials consultancy service. These teams help businesses implement measures to combat the world’s most common threats, protecting them not only with robust infrastructure, but also education. 

  1. Supply Chain Management

Another factor that is becoming increasingly complicated is supply chain management. 

Buisness is more interconnected than ever, with a greater emphasis on international shipping. 

As such, it’s vital to protect yourself against the risk of delays, ill-fitting partnerships, and geopolitical conflict. Choose who you work with very carefully, and make sure you fully understand the implications of each step in the chain to minimise the risk of something going wrong. Problems here not only hurt your reputation – they also mark a direct threat to your revenue stream. 

Wrapping Up

While the areas discussed above don’t cover everything, provided you pay careful attention to each element, you should find yourself in a very secure position. Remember, though: this is something you’ll need to refine over time. Don’t forget to periodically assess what’s working and what’s not.

2026, Gadget Man, Gadget Man Projects, History

The Pub That Became My House: The Woodbines and the Three Horse Shoes

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Regular readers will know this blog usually concerns itself with things that have plugs, screens, or at the very least an exciting number of megapixels. Bear with me, then, because this post is about a Victorian pub. It is also, I promise, a gadget story — because everything you’re about to read was uncovered in a single evening, from the sofa, on a phone, well past midnight. No archives were visited. No white gloves were worn. There’s a roundup of the tools that did the heavy lifting at the end, in case you fancy turning detective on your own four walls.

First, though, the pub.

I used to live in one. I should clarify that before anyone gets the wrong idea — by the time I moved in, it had been a perfectly respectable house for decades. But the building at 38 and 39 Long Close, Lower Stondon — both halves called Rose Cottage — spent the first part of its life as the Three Horse Shoes public house. And the story of how a village pub became a pair of cottages turns out to be the story of one remarkable family, a prize cabbage, a misleading photograph, and very nearly the story of an entire street.

A photograph that lies

If you go looking for the Three Horse Shoes, the first thing you’ll find is a photograph in the Francis Frith Collection, labelled “The Three Horse Shoes c.1955, Lower Stondon” (ref. L213010). It’s a lovely image. It’s also, in one important respect, wrong.

What the photographer actually captured was the pub sign, which stood out on Station Road at the entrance to what is now Long Close. The pub itself sat further down, set well back from the road — you can see it plainly marked “Three Horseshoes (P.H.)” on the old Ordnance Survey maps, a comfortable distance from where the sign caught the eye of passing trade.

And remarkably, this arrangement was confusing people long before any photographer turned up. At the Ampthill licensing sessions, when the tenant of Stondon’s Red Lion applied for a Sunday licence and the Three Horseshoes objected, his solicitor complained that the magistrates had misunderstood the position of the two houses — because the Three Horseshoes, “though having a sign on the main road, was yet forty yards away down a tortuous lane.” There it is, in sworn evidence: sign on the main road, pub forty yards down the lane. The very lane, give or take a few park homes, that is now Long Close.

A sensible bit of marketing in its day, then. A century-long red herring for anyone researching it since. I know this because I lived in the building, and I’m setting it down here so the next person to find that photograph doesn’t go hunting in the wrong spot.

The Woodbines

The earliest licensee I’ve traced is Emery Cooper, a Stondon man all his life and Chief Ranger of the Foresters at Shillington Lodge. He died on 2 March 1933, aged seventy-two, and his funeral report records that he had kept the Three Horse-shoes until a few years before — placing his retirement from the pub in the late 1920s, just as the next chapter was about to begin.

But the family whose name runs through the pub’s final decades is the Woodbines. John Woodbine was born at March in Cambridgeshire and came to Stondon around 1910, working first for Tom Simkins and then for the Bedfordshire County Council for twenty-five years. He and his wife Rosina — Stondon born and bred — took on the Three Horse Shoes around 1930, and John was its proprietor for twenty-four years. The 1939 Register duly finds the family at “2, Three Horse Shoes, Station Road, Lower Stondon.”

John was, by all accounts, a well-known figure in the district, and his chief passion was the garden. The year before he died he grew the largest cabbage ever seen in the district — it weighed twenty-eight and a half pounds, and the local paper thought it worth recording in his obituary. Quite right too.

John Woodbine died at the Three Horseshoes on 20 September 1954, aged sixty-nine. And here the arithmetic gets satisfying: Rosina’s own obituary, years later, records that she was licensee for twenty-seven years until the pub closed. Twenty-seven years from 1930 lands at 1957 — and sure enough, a court report from 1957 still gives “The Three Horseshoes, Lower Stondon” as a working address. So the picture comes into focus: the widowed Rosina carried on as landlady in her own right for about three years after John’s death, and called last orders for the final time around 1957. The Frith photographer, whether he knew it or not, caught the sign in the pub’s last trading years.

The pub makes the papers

The Three Horse Shoes had its moment of notoriety in 1948, when it managed to appear before the Ampthill magistrates twice in quick succession.

In September of that year, a lodger at the pub — Michael Maroney, a twenty-seven-year-old painter — was fined for assaulting a builder named Alan Cooper. The dispute was over twelve shillings in wages, and it ended with Cooper invited into the pub’s scullery, grabbed by the waistcoat, told “You are going to have this,” and struck over the eye. The papers gave it the immortal headline “ASSAULT IN A SCULLERY: MAN FINED.” For good measure, Maroney also admitted stealing two bottles of gin, valued at £2 18s — the property of one Rosina Woodbine. He was fined for both, his solicitor explaining that he had been under the influence of drink at the time, which, given where he was living, can’t have come as an enormous surprise to anyone.

Rosina herself gave evidence in the case. Earlier the same summer, the family had been through a far less comic episode, when an airman from the camp stood trial — and was acquitted — over an alleged assault on the Woodbines’ twenty-year-old daughter Joan, who lived at the inn with her parents.

And Maroney? Here’s the thing about village life. Six years later, there he is in the list of mourners at John Woodbine’s funeral — still lodging at the Three Horseshoes, gin theft evidently long forgiven. He wasn’t entirely reformed, mind: he later found himself remanded at a special Ampthill Magistrates’ Court over a pound taken from a neighbour’s house down Fakeswell Lane, having told the police, with a certain weary candour, “All right. I’ll tell you about it. I took a pound.” His address was still given as the Three Horseshoes. Some lodgers come with the fixtures and fittings.

The pub becomes a house — and a street

When the Three Horse Shoes closed around 1957, Rosina didn’t leave. The solid-walled old pub became her home, renamed Rose Cottage — and you don’t need to squint very hard to see the landlady’s own name softened into the house’s. Rosina’s cottage. Rose Cottage. Seventy years on, the connection is all but invisible unless someone tells you.

Her obituary adds the detail that ties everything together: when the pub closed, the land around it was made into a caravan park. That caravan park is what grew into the residential park home site at Long Close — the very lane whose entrance the old pub sign once marked. The Three Horse Shoes didn’t just become a house. In a roundabout way, it became the whole street.

Rosina Woodbine died at Rose Cottage on 6 November 1978, aged 81, and was buried at Stondon church that week — a well-known resident, as the paper put it, who was born in the village and never left it. Some time after, the old building was extended towards the road and divided into two houses, numbers 38 and 39, both keeping the Rose Cottage name. One of them, years later, had me in it.

A small correction to the record

So if you ever come across that Frith photograph, now you know: the sign stood at the entrance to Long Close, the pub stood forty yards down the lane, and behind both stood the Woodbines — John with his prodigious cabbages, Rosina the landlady of twenty-seven years, and the quiet reason a house called Rose Cottage exists at all.

Lower Stondon’s history is famously hard to pin down — the village spent a century buried in Shillington’s records, and even the Parish Council admits the cupboard is rather bare. Consider this one small jar put back on the shelf.

The Gadget Man bit: how it was done

As promised, the tools. Because the genuinely remarkable thing about this story isn’t the cabbage — though it’s a close-run thing — it’s that a hundred years of a building’s history can now be reassembled in an evening, in bed, on a phone.

The workhorse was Findmypast and its digitised British newspaper archive. Type a name like “Rosina Woodbine” or “Three Horseshoes Stondon” into the search box and decades of local papers — the courts, the funerals, the prize vegetables — surface in seconds, each one searchable, highlightable, and clippable. This is the stuff that, twenty years ago, meant a day at the county archives winding through microfilm with a bag of pound coins for the printer. The 1939 Register on the same site did something quietly brilliant: it didn’t just list the family at “2, Three Horse Shoes, Station Road”, it overlaid their address on a historical Ordnance Survey map — which is how the pub’s true position, forty yards down the lane, jumped off the screen.

The Francis Frith Collection (francisfrith.com) supplied the photograph that started it all — free to browse, and with a memories feature where locals can correct the record, which I intend to do. And I’ll admit to a research assistant: I bounced findings off Claude, an AI chatbot, as I went — it helped join the dots between clippings, spotted that 1930 plus twenty-seven years of Rosina’s licence landed precisely on the 1957 court report, and generally played the role of an enthusiastic colleague who never needs a tea break.

Total cost: a Findmypast subscription and a late night. Total equipment: one phone. If your house is more than a lifetime old, somebody’s story is sitting in those archives waiting for you. Go and find them.

Sources: Francis Frith Collection ref. L213010; 1939 Register (RG101/1995C/020/30); Ampthill Division licensing sessions report (Red Lion seven-day licence application); Bedfordshire press reports, September 1948; Hertfordshire Express, 1 October 1954 (obituary of John Woodbine); Bedfordshire Times and Independent, 10 March 1933 (funeral of Emery Cooper); Bedfordshire press, 1957; obituary and funeral reports of Rosina Woodbine, November 1978; Ordnance Survey mapping; and the author’s own knowledge of the building.

Hardware, Helpful Articles, Helpful Guides, Work

The Power Of Marginal Gains: 3 Small Tweaks That Dramatically Boost Productivity

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Productivity is a skill that not everybody in this world has. It is something that everybody can learn and get into the habit of, however. It’s not something you are born with; it’s something that you choose based on how you currently think. Crucially, it’s not something that requires major lifestyle changes or dramatic overhauls in order to achieve. The truth is that small improvements can compound into great results over time. In the digital world, distractions are constant, and demands shift quickly, which means even minor adjustments can make a noticeable difference to your productivity. When it comes to marginal gains, it’s about improving many small things by a small percentage in order to make a big overall impact. Rather than looking to chase big transformations, people have to focus on consistency and refinement in order to see actual long-term outcomes. Even the subtle changes will make a person work faster and think more clearly throughout the day. Here are three small tweaks that will dramatically boost your productivity: 

The Power Of Marginal Gains: 3 Small Tweaks That Dramatically Boost Productivity
The Power Of Marginal Gains: 3 Small Tweaks That Dramatically Boost Productivity

Reducing Small Frustrations In Daily Work 

One of the best ways to improve productivity throughout your day is to remove points of friction in your daily routine. Even the smallest things can slow you down without you even realising. This might mean organising your digital workspace or reducing unnecessary steps when dealing with daily tasks. When these small issues are removed, all kinds of work can feel smoother and more natural. You can flow a lot more smoothly throughout the day and stay focused on what you have to do. Over time, these improvements will add up in your favour. They might seem like minor adjustments at the start, but you will experience noticeable gains in overall efficiency.

Upgrading Tools That Quietly Slow You Down

The tools you use each day will either make or break your productivity levels. Even the smallest limitations in performance can lead to frustrating delays that add up. Using an older setup might slow down tasks that need speed and responsiveness for things to be done properly. By upgrading to something more capable, like a Refurbished M5 MacBook Pro, you will reduce the lag and create a much smoother working experience. This sort of upgrade is useful as it does not mean you need a complete overhaul. You don’t need to constantly upgrade these tools; it’s mainly about identifying when your tools are holding you back. 

Restructuring Focus To Stop Mental Overload

We mainly associate productivity with speed, but it’s also about managing your attention properly. Without the right kind of structure, you will feel overwhelmed and experience mental overload that reduces your ability to concentrate. Breaking work into small chunks can help reduce cognitive strain. This kind of basic practice can make it easier to prioritise tasks and maintain focus. Doing so consistently will improve your decision-making and clarity. Training yourself to work in these controlled blocks will allow you to create a more stable environment for productivity and high-quality work.

2026, Cars, Helpful Articles, Helpful Guides

Signs Of Car Issues That You Should Not Ignore

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When it comes to your car, it’s a wise move to always keep one eye and ear open to potential issues. This is a part of being a driver that is really quite important. A car rarely fails without warning. It tends to speak first in small, subtle changes that are easy to dismiss, especially when life is busy and the car still “mostly works.” The problem is that most major breakdowns begin as minor symptoms. Recognising those early signs can save a lot of money, stress, and in some cases prevent being stranded at the worst possible time. One of the most important habits a driver can develop is paying attention to anything that feels different: sounds that weren’t there before, changes in how the car responds, or even new smells. These are often the earliest indicators that something underneath is starting to wear out or fail.

Strange New Noises

One of the clearest warning categories is unusual noise. A healthy car has a kind of baseline sound profile you become accustomed to over time. When that changes, it matters. A grinding noise when braking can indicate worn brake pads or issues with the discs. A knocking sound from the engine may point to poor lubrication, low oil levels, or internal wear. A whining noise that rises with speed can suggest gearbox or wheel bearing problems. None of these sounds tend to fix themselves, and ignoring them usually allows the underlying issue to accelerate.

Vibrations

Another early signal is vibration or changes in how the car feels through the steering wheel, pedals, or seat. If the steering wheel begins to shake at certain speeds, it could be wheel balancing, tyre wear, or suspension issues. If vibration appears when braking, it often suggests warped brake discs. If the whole car feels rougher than usual, it may be engine misfiring or worn engine mounts. These are all symptoms that can remain manageable if addressed early, but become significantly more expensive if left unchecked.

Performance Changes

Performance changes are often the most subtle but also the most telling. If acceleration feels sluggish, or the engine revs higher than normal without a corresponding increase in speed, something in the drivetrain may be slipping. In manual vehicles, this is commonly associated with clutch wear. The clutch is responsible for transferring power from the engine to the wheels, and as it wears down, it can begin to slip under load. This is where the condition of the clutch kit becomes particularly relevant. A clutch kit typically includes the clutch disc, pressure plate, and release bearing, all working together to engage and disengage engine power smoothly.

Warning Lights

Warning lights on the dashboard are another obvious but often underestimated sign. Modern cars are designed to monitor themselves constantly, and a warning light is not a suggestion – it is a direct signal that something is outside normal operating conditions. An engine management light could relate to anything from a faulty sensor to misfiring cylinders. An oil pressure warning should never be ignored, even for short journeys, as it can indicate immediate risk to engine health.

AI, AI & Machine Learning, Technology

Half of Workers Fear AI Will Take Their Jobs, and I Can Understand Why

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Artificial Intelligence is everywhere at the moment.

It is in our phones, our laptops, our search engines, our photo apps, our cars, our customer service systems and, increasingly, our workplaces. For those of us who love technology, AI is fascinating. I use it, I write about it, I test it, and I can see enormous potential in what it can do.

But there is another side to this story, and it is one we cannot afford to ignore.

A new mass survey by GMB Union has found that almost half of workers are worried AI will take their job. The survey, which questioned 5,294 workers across a range of sectors in May and June 2026, found that 48 per cent are concerned that the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in their workplace could lead to them losing their job.

That is not a small number. That is not a fringe concern. That is nearly one in two workers looking at the rapid rise of AI and wondering whether the machine is coming for them next.

The same survey found that 58 per cent of workers believe AI will take jobs away in their workplace. Almost a third said their employer has already introduced AI, and around a quarter of those said AI is now doing tasks they would usually do themselves.

Perhaps most worrying of all, nearly half said AI is being used to track the activity of them or their colleagues during working time.

AI as a tool, or AI as a workplace watchdog?

That, for me, is where the conversation changes.

There is a world of difference between using AI as a helpful tool and using it as a digital overseer. One can make work easier, safer and more productive. The other risks turning workplaces into something cold, monitored and deeply uncomfortable.

This week, there have also been reports of around 1,000 jobs at Asda’s George brand being affected as the supermarket expands its use of AI and automation. Nestlé is also planning hundreds of job cuts at UK sites, with concerns that many roles could be replaced by AI and robotics.

Robert Battell, a Nestlé worker, is due to speak at GMB’s annual congress in Blackpool about what this means for workers on the ground. His words are stark. He describes the heartbreak of seeing colleagues and friends lose their jobs and be replaced by robots.

And that is the human bit we must not lose sight of.

Behind the buzzwords are real people

Behind every phrase like “efficiency savings”, “automation”, “streamlining” or “digital transformation”, there are real people. People with mortgages, rent, children, caring responsibilities, bills, routines and lives built around the work they do.

I am not anti-AI. Far from it. I think AI could be one of the most important technological developments of our lifetime. Used properly, it can help people work smarter. It can take away dull, repetitive tasks. It can help with accessibility, creativity, admin, logistics, research, design, customer support and countless other areas.

But the key phrase there is “used properly”.

Technology should serve people, not quietly replace them with no safety net.

This is our Industrial Revolution moment

The Industrial Revolution changed the world of work forever. Machines altered entire industries, and society had to adapt. AI feels like another of those moments.

It is not just another piece of software. It is a shift in how work itself is organised, measured and valued.

That means we need a serious conversation about rules, protections and responsibilities.

If AI removes a task, what happens to the person who used to do it? Are they retrained? Redeployed? Supported? Or simply shown the door?

If AI is being used to monitor staff, who decides what is fair? How much tracking is too much? What happens when an algorithm gets it wrong?

And if companies are saving money by replacing people with automation, what responsibility do they have to the communities and workers who helped build those businesses in the first place?

AI is not the enemy

AI is not the enemy. Badly used AI is the problem.

There is a version of the future where AI helps doctors, teachers, engineers, designers, drivers, warehouse staff, office workers and small businesses do more with less stress.

There is another version where it becomes a blunt cost-cutting tool, used to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of people before replacing them altogether.

We still have a choice about which version we build.

The technology is moving quickly. The question now is whether the laws, workplace protections and business ethics can move quickly enough to keep up.

Because if half of workers are already worried AI will take their job, then this is no longer some distant debate about the future.

It is happening now.

2026, Helpful Articles, Helpful Guides, The Gadget Man, Thermal Imaging

What Is a Thermal Imaging Survey and How Does It Work?

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Improving the efficiency of a building is important for the person or persons financially responsible for it.

Sometimes, a thermal imaging survey is required to help pinpoint hidden heat loss or missing insulation, both of which can be beneficial to address to improve the building’s efficiency. 

So what is a thermal imaging survey, and how does it work? When and where is it often used? Let’s answer these questions to see if it’s something that will match what you need.


Image Source

How Thermal Imaging Works

Thermal imaging uses infrared cameras to detect and visualise temperature variations across surfaces. It’s used to pinpoint the above-mentioned, as well as dampness and electrical faults in buildings.

Detects infrared radiation

Every object emits some level of infrared radiation depending on its temperature. Thermal cameras capture the invisible radiation and convert it into a visual image called a thermogram.

Colour-coded temperatures

The survey maps temperatures into colour gradients. Warmer areas, like escaping heat or electrical faults, will appear in bright colours like red, orange, or yellow. Cooler areas will show up as dark blue or purple.

Building heat loss

By identifying any cold spots inside and warm spots on the exterior, a surveyor can see exactly where heat is escaping within your home. That information can then be utilised to improve the home’s efficiency.

When and Where is Thermal Imaging Used?

There are plenty of places around the home where thermal imaging is typically used. 

Windows, doors, and floors

This type of survey helps reveal any cold spots, drafts, and any ineffective insulation, particularly around windows, doors, and floors.

For leak and moisture detection

Thermal imaging is used to identify hidden plumbing leaks or areas where dampness and water ingress often compromise flat roofs.

Electrical safety

It can be helpful to pinpoint any hazardous areas where electrical faults or overloaded circuits might lie. This can generate excess heat before a failure occurs, which is why thermal imaging proves useful in this scenario.

The Benefits of Thermal Imaging Surveys

Thermal imaging surveys definitely offer some great benefits and are worth sharing if you’re considering such a service for your home or business.

Firstly, they’re great at identifying hidden energy loss. Knowing exactly where warm air is escaping or where cold air is entering the home helps you seal off leaks or upgrade poor insulation in the roof and wall spaces. This helps cut down the expense of heating and/or cooling your home.

Moisture in walls and under floors can be problematic for structural damage and mould before it’s even visible. Thermal cameras help identify these hidden areas before they end up getting worse.

Surveys can pinpoint any overloaded circuits, overheating components, and loose connections before they end up resulting in equipment downtime or catastrophic electrical fires.

It’s worth knowing that if you’re thinking about thermal imaging surveys but you’re worried about potential damage, the process is contactless. That means there’s no need to drill into walls or pull up floorboards to do the survey.

Customer Experience, Helpful Articles, Helpful Guides, Technology

How to Make Your Customer’s Experience Better

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Creating a great customer experience is one of the best ways that you can help your business to grow. People are always going to be more likely to return to a business that makes them feel valued, respected, and supported through the buying process from start to finish. Even making some small improvements to this process leaves a lasting impression, especially if those improvements have come off the back of customer experiences and reviews. This allows you to build some strong customer relationships over time. Improving customer experiences doesn’t have to require some big changes, and you don’t have to outlay too much money either. Often it just comes down to making things easier and more enjoyable for the people who are buying from you, and it can start with making payments more simple.

One of the fastest ways that you can frustrate your customers is with a difficult checkout process. People want payments to fill fast and securely, whether they’re shopping online or not. Businesses that operate in more complex industries may also benefit from working with a high risk payment processor to help create smoother transaction experiences and reduce payment issues for customers. When the checkout process feels easy, customers are more likely to complete their purchases and return again in the future. The same can be said for responding quickly to questions. Nobody enjoys waiting days for a reply to a simple question. With faster communication, you can make your customers feel important and reassured, especially if they need help before making a purchase. Even if you can’t solve the issue immediately, sending a quick response to acknowledge the customer makes a big difference.

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People generally appreciate honesty and communication far more than they do silence from business. You can keep things friendly and personal because customers will often remember how a business made them feel more than the actual product itself. With a friendly service, you can create a far more enjoyable experience, and that could be something as simple as using their name when they call you or remembering previous orders. Businesses that feel warm and approachable are often easier for customers to trust. If you want customers to trust you, you could also look at the way your website works and make it easy to use a confusing website that quickly drives customers away.

Customers should never feel like they have to work hard to buy something from you, so listen to their feedback. It can be incredibly valuable for improving your business. Reviews, comments, complaints, they all matter and they often highlight the areas that you may not have noticed yourself. Rather than viewing criticism negatively, try treating it like useful information that it is because that can help to strengthen your customer experience. People also appreciate businesses that generally listen and make improvements based on that feedback because it’s that consistency there that helps to build that trust we discussed earlier on.

People remember a company who handles things well. Customers want to feel valued rather than treated like just another sale. When it comes down to it, better customer experiences usually come down to making people feel respected through their journey with your business.

2026, AI, AI & Machine Learning, Gadget Man, Work

AI and the Future of Work: Are We Excited, Terrified, or Just Trying to Keep Up?

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There are moments in technology when you can almost hear the gears of history turning.

I remember when having a computer in the office made you “the computer person”. I remember dial-up modems, fax machines, early websites, clunky email systems, and the strange magic of watching a machine do something that previously required a drawer full of paper, a telephone call, and usually someone called Janet who knew where everything was filed.

Artificial intelligence feels like one of those moments, except this time the machine is not just helping us type the letter. It is writing the letter, summarising the meeting, drawing the logo, coding the website, generating the video, and quietly eyeing up half the tasks we thought were safely ours.

AI and the Future of Work: Are We Excited, Terrified, or Just Trying to Keep Up?
AI and the Future of Work: Are We Excited, Terrified, or Just Trying to Keep Up?

A new report from The Policy Institute at King’s College London, AI and the Future of Work, gives a fascinating snapshot of how the British public, workers, students and employers are feeling about all this.

And the overall picture is not simple optimism. It is more like standing in front of a very clever robot vacuum cleaner that has suddenly learned accountancy.

 

We are wary, but we know it is coming

One of the most interesting findings is that the public are more negative than positive about AI, yet many people still expect to use it.

Almost half of the public say they would rather avoid AI-based technologies, 41% say they are afraid of AI, and only 24% think AI is positive for humanity. Yet 43% agree they will use AI in the future.

That feels very human to me.

It is the same feeling we had when smartphones began taking over our pockets. We complained about them, worried about them, said they were ruining attention spans, then used them to check the weather, order a takeaway, find a route, take photos of the dog and pay for parking.

AI may be following the same path, only with rather larger consequences.

Parents are looking at this very differently

The part of the report that really lands is the section about parents.

Half of parents with children under 30 say they are worried about how AI will affect their children’s career prospects. Yet only around three in ten parents of 11 to 29-year-olds have actually had a conversation with their child about how AI might affect their future career, and a similar number have encouraged them to learn how to use AI tools.

That gap matters.

Because whether we like AI or not, pretending it is not happening is not a strategy. The best advice we can give young people is probably not “avoid AI”, but “understand it, question it, and learn how to use it better than the next person”.

When I was younger, knowing your way around a computer gave you an edge. Then knowing the web gave you an edge. Then knowing social media, search engines, ecommerce, video, and automation gave you an edge.

Now the edge may come from knowing how to work alongside AI without becoming completely dependent on it.

The fear is not just science fiction

The report also shows that concern about jobs is widespread.

Seven in ten people are worried about the economic impact of job losses caused by AI, and majorities of the general public, young people, university students and workers believe AI will eliminate far more jobs than it creates.

That is not a small worry. That is not people muttering about robots in the pub. That is a mainstream concern.

There is also a particularly sharp anxiety around entry-level roles. The report notes that many people believe AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years.

This is where I think the real danger lies. Not necessarily in AI replacing every professional overnight, but in it quietly removing the first rung of the ladder.

Most of us learned by doing the boring stuff first. We answered support calls, updated spreadsheets, wrote simple copy, fixed small bugs, processed orders, filed things, checked things, tested things, and gradually became useful.

If AI takes away the junior work, where exactly do the next generation learn?

You cannot become experienced without first being inexperienced.

Employers are more optimistic, but even they are worried

Employers are generally more positive about AI than the wider public, but they are not blindly cheerful.

According to the report, 63% of employers are worried about the economic impact of job losses caused by AI, even while many are excited about new jobs opening up.

That is the strange contradiction at the heart of this whole debate.

AI is both an opportunity and a threat. It can help small businesses move faster, reduce admin, improve customer service, generate ideas, speed up research and make previously expensive tasks accessible to people working from a spare room.

But it can also concentrate power.

One of the starkest findings is that 65% of the public think the economic benefits of AI will mainly go to wealthy investors and large companies, while just 7% think the benefits will be shared fairly across society.

That is probably the bit we should be talking about more.

The question is not simply “will AI be clever?” It clearly will be. The question is “who benefits?”

My view from the Gadget Man shed

I use AI. I find it fascinating, useful, occasionally infuriating, sometimes astonishing and often a little unsettling.

It can be like having an enthusiastic assistant who has read everything, forgotten where it read it, and sometimes confidently hands you a screwdriver when you asked for a banana.

But used properly, it is powerful.

For people like me who create websites, write content, tinker with servers, make videos, build odd little systems and generally chase ideas down rabbit holes, AI can be a genuine productivity boost.

It can help you get from “I wonder if this is possible?” to “here is a working prototype” much faster than before.

But I do not think we should confuse productivity with progress.

If AI helps a small business survive, brilliant. If it helps a student learn, excellent. If it helps someone with a disability communicate, create, work or live more independently, fantastic.

If it simply allows large companies to employ fewer people while making a handful of shareholders wealthier, then we have built something clever but not necessarily something good.

The future is not automatic

Technology does not arrive with a moral compass fitted as standard. We decide how it is used.

That means schools, parents, businesses and government all have some catching up to do.

Young people need to understand AI not as magic, but as a tool. Workers need training, not vague reassurance. Employers need to think about responsibility as well as efficiency. And the rest of us need to keep asking awkward questions.

AI is coming into the workplace whether we welcome it with open arms or hide behind the photocopier.

The important thing now is not to panic, but not to sleepwalk either.

We have been here before with big technological shifts, but this one feels faster, wider and stranger.

The machine is no longer just on the desk.

It is in the conversation.

Source: King’s College London, The Policy Institute, “AI and the Future of Work”, May 2026.

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