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Love it or loathe it, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay – and it’s getting harder to ignore. From how we generate and consume content to how industries operate and innovate, AI is reshaping the world around us. It’s making waves across sectors from media to science, transforming not just the headlines, but the way we live and work.
Each month, the Fire on the Hill AI Digest breaks down the biggest stories in AI, exploring their broader impact on brands, industries, and everyday life.
Just Google it
Like many of us, when Apple was looking for information on AI, the Cupertino behemoth simply Googled it. A brief statement from the two tech titans released this month confirmed they have entered into a “multi-year collaboration” under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Gemini from Google.
These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalised Siri coming this year, the statement said.
Apple has apparently determined that AI technology from Google provides the “most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models”. Quite a change of course for the company, which had to date sought to largely go it alone on AI, sometimes with mixed results, as anybody who has been left shouting at Siri to perform even simple tasks can attest.
What does the new partnership mean in practice? “By outsourcing the foundational layer of its AI to Google, Apple is effectively admitting that its internal efforts could not compete with Google’s Gemini in terms of capability and scale in the short term,” the fabulously named IDC analyst, Francisco Jeronimo, told the BBC.
There may also be regulatory issues, with EU and UK bodies previously expressing concern over big tech deals out of fears they could leverage their size, wealth and market power to maintain dominance in certain sectors.
For consumers, there is unlikely to be noticeable change in the short term as the two companies work to integrate their offerings. Looking further ahead, Siri and other AI features from Apple will likely become smarter, faster, and more competitive.
The deal can be chalked up as a major success for Google. Originally seen as slow to start in the AI race, its vertically integrated platforms – encompassing custom chips (TPUs), global cloud infrastructure, foundation models (Gemini) and consumer products – are letting it build, run and distribute AI end to end without relying on third parties.
Investors love it, with Google reaching an all-time share price peak this month, valuing the company at over US$4 trillion.
AI Overviews in the crosshairs
Staying with Google, regulators in the UK want the company to change its search services to give businesses and consumers more choice. The move would allow publishers to opt out of their content being used in its AI Overviews or to train standalone AI models.
The proposals come after the Competition & Markets Authority designated Google as having “strategic market status” in October, giving the CMA the power to take measures to increase competition in the sector.
The discussion is part of wider concerns around the power held by AI providers. As search shifts from links to answers, publishers are seeing traffic to their websites slow, with readers finding what they need in the abridged versions presented by Google and other generative AI providers.
As numbers fall, so do advertising revenues, leaving many news organisations and other publishers in a sticky situation. It is hoped that the CMA’s new measures will more equitably reward the creators of content.
Deepfakes in deep trouble
Finally, Dame Chi Onwurah, Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, has written to Ofcom and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in the UK seeking action to address intimate deepfakes generated by AI tools like Grok.
This follows reports that Grok has produced sexualised images of women and children without consent in response to requests from users on X. Ofcom has confirmed it has made “urgent contact” with xAI, the company behind Grok.
Dame Chi wrote to Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom, to raise her concerns about gaps in regulation. A provision in the Data Act that would make it an offence to create non-consensual intimate images using AI is not yet in force, despite the Act being passed into law in July 2025. Elsewhere, the government’s planned ban on ‘nudification’ tools has no clear timeline.
The letter asks why Ofcom has not opened an investigation or taken enforcement action; whether it has the necessary powers to tackle this issue; and asks about its understanding of current and future legislation in this space.
Grok itself said it would implement “technical measures” to stop the @Grok account on X from allowing the editing of images of real people so that they appear to be in revealing clothing. X said this restriction would apply to all users, including paid subscribers. There are about 300 million monthly users of X and up to 2.6 million subscribers. The platform also said the ability to create and edit any images at all via the @Grok account would be limited to subscribers.
However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, with hundreds of other apps available. Last week the government said it would support Ofcom if it decided to use the full suite of its powers under the UK’s online safety laws.
Watch this space for more.
