Appointing Matt Brittin, a former Google executive, as BBC director general is smarter than critics admit. Although he was on the board of the Guardian’s publisher, Brittin is no journalist. He does understand platforms, scale and digital audiences.
Director generals come under scrutiny when crises hit, like last week’s sacking of Scott Mills over his “personal conduct.” It then emerged that police previously questioned the Radio 2 DJ over separate allegations of serious sexual offenses, closing the case due to lack of evidence. However, the role’s underlying challenge is facing future threats to the corporation’s audience.
On one measure, YouTube reaches more Britons than the BBC’s channels combined. However, hovering into view is AI, which facilitates misinformation, error and ignorance. It is already beginning to mediate the news and how it is understood. The UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) says about 30 percent of searches display AI summaries, seen regularly by more than half of adults. The BBC has tried, for good reasons, to stop its journalism being extracted by AI without payment. However, it risks excluding itself from a technology where many now get information. The Reuters Insititute for the Study of Journalism found that only about 6 percent of users turn to AI for news. However, as summaries embed in search, journalism becomes raw material, not the finished product.
A paper by Kai-Cheng Yang of Binghamton University last year showed that AI-generated answers draw on a narrow band of sources: OpenAI models rest on wire services; Google’s on search-driven global media; Perplexity on respected brands such as the BBC. The same question produces a different response depending on the system used. Despite the BBC being the UK’s most trusted news source, only two of four AI tools drew on its content, said a study from the Brthe UK’s Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The UK’s most popular AI tool — OpenAI’s ChatGPT — cited GB News more often. ChatGPT’s top citations often align with OpenAI’s publisher deals, including the Guardian’s. The lack of transparency around how AI’s sources are selected and weighted is problematic.
Audiences once chose between narratives. Social media made them navigate or trapped them in filter bubbles. Now, AI distills a single response. Nuance and plurality are at risk. Journalists traditionally judged what information to use and which sources to prioritize. Their mental models were built through reporting. AI systems perform those functions through hidden algorithms, privileging what is most common, not what is most true.
Control lies not just in owning information, but in structuring, modeling and understnading it. The IPPR rightly argues that the UK must combine transparency over how AI answers are generated, fair licensing frameworks to ensure publishers are paid and intervention to curb platform dominance over information. Public service media, especially the BBC, should anchor this strategy. Impartial, accurate news is essential for democratic stability.
The BBC’s charter review must secure funding and end the cycle of “existential” resets with a permanent settlement protecting its independence. The BBC has the scale, data and mandate to underpin a trustworthy “orchestration” layer for news. Its journalism must be machine-readable, queryable and interpretable on its own terms. Letting companies like Palantir, co-founded by the Trump-backing billionaire Peter Thiel, do this would be a mistake. The BBC has traditionally fused innovation with public purpose. It must do so again and ensure news stays contestable, transparent and accountable.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is leading a delegation to China through Sunday. She is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing tomorrow. That date coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which marked a cornerstone of Taiwan-US relations. Staging their meeting on this date makes it clear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intends to challenge the US and demonstrate its “authority” over Taiwan. Since the US severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, it has relied on the TRA as a legal basis for all
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
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