Welcome back to TheBriefing.ie, your favourite newsletter on technology and politics through an Irish lens. Two nuggets for you today; a new term for your least favourite AI-noyance; and the questions emerging around insuring robots. And if you stumbled across this post online - sign up below. AI Clog
And what does it cost our regulators and courts?
I gave a keynote today at an event on “AI and Accountability” hosted by the Children’s Rights Alliance, and I used it to untangle two ideas; that we can love tech while also being deeply enraged by the industry that has made every app we love an extractive hellhole;
Political mobilisation does not scale "spontaneously", and, once that fire is lit, there is no controlling what it burns.
Google appears to have deleted its political ad archive for the EU; so the last 7 years of ads, of political spending, of messaging, of targeting - on YouTube, on Search and for display ads - for countless elections across 27 countries - is all gone. We had been told that Google would
It is late and I am at my kitchen table, over-caffeinated again. This weekend I got to be part of the general election coverage, which is my Carnegie Hall / Champions League Final. I imagine it might be for some people who read this, so some thoughts: It really is
Revealing "shadow campaigns" and how AI-driven “deepfake” tools are reshaping political messaging and authenticity.
In amongst the giveaways, was a opening for the Apple Tax windfall to be siphoned into state subsidies for data centres.
Tax and tech are entering their accountability era. The Irish State, which has both enabled and benefited from the previous Wild West era, faces the prospect of not just an economic but also a political crisis if it doesn’t adjust.
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FOMO is not an economic strategy
There were three interesting tech adjacent stories during the campaign; betting via (relatively) new predictive markets, Generative AI answers missing the mark, and new spending data transparency.
What happens when you design a law around Meta's architecture, and then apply it to leafletting Connemara?
Friend of the newsletter Sam Jeffers from WhoTargetsMe has, for his sins, been monitoring the online campaign ahead of today's local elections in Britain. Reform has taken a fundamentally different approach to this election, working hard to make itself the main character. As Sam summarises: In 2024, Reform’
Companies reach Unicorn size due to sheer ruthlessness; of their business practices and of the US idea of capitalism.
Sharing some incomplete thoughts on the narrative battle around the fuel protests, which feel like they are realigning Irish politics as we speak.
Political mobilisation does not scale "spontaneously", and, once that fire is lit, there is no controlling what it burns.
I will be on Virgin Media later this evening for the Tonight Show’s end of year review, and I thought I would share some of my speaking notes with you here. We’ve been asked to prep our “of the year”s; moment, story, villain and person. I only
The results are in; Catherine Connolly won the Irish Presidential election of 2025, gathering 914,143 - or 63% - of the vote. There is a lot of talk of spoiled ballots (including from me) - but - this win is historically comprehensive. Catherine Connolly has garnered the highest percentage of votes in the
Over the last few months I have tried to dig out and get on the record some of the hidden and more ephemeral aspects of this election. Here is a recap of what we covered.
This video is worrying; it shows a combination of both intent and skill in building out very deceptive content, in a way that resonates with Irish audiences.
Aoife Dunne's "Sorry now" video is one of the most subtle yet devastating pieces of political content I have ever seen.
