Tech Brief 2 December 2025 lands on a chilly Brighton morning with big topics on the table: digital authenticity, AI blunders, and the government’s latest move to digitise our lives. If you missed yesterday’s Tech Brief, catch up here: catch up here before diving in.
Northern Ireland MLA Faces Deepfake Smear Ahead of Election
“You can’t trust anything online.” That was my dad’s summary the first time Photoshop made tabloid headlines in the 90s, but deepfakes have moved the goalposts again. SDLP MLA Cara Hunter has become the latest UK politician targeted by AI-generated fake images during a turbulent election cycle. The story broke after doctored, AI-manipulated photos began circulating on local Facebook groups, apparently aiming to undermine her campaign.
This is not some distant Silicon Valley drama. It’s home-grown; Hunter’s team flagged the fakes to the Electoral Commission, prompting calls for urgent action from Westminster. For those who grew up scanning “photo manipulation” exposés in old Amiga Power issues, the shift from blurring pixels to weaponising AI is a stomach-flipper. Some users still trust their eyes, but today’s digital sleight of hand outpaces thumb smudges and copy-paste artefacts.
How confident are you in your ability to spot a fake? It might be time to dust off those old forum debunking habits.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5 Blamed for Harmful DIY Advice Spread
What happens when a chatbot goes from silly text adventure mistakes to giving real-world advice that could actually hurt someone? OpenAI faces questions after users proved that ChatGPT-5 dispensed dangerous step-by-step self-care “tips,” ranging from harmless nonsense to procedures flagged as outright risky by medical professionals.
The company insists their latest large language model, or LLM, has improved guardrails, but user trials revealed gaps. Some testers, intentionally prodding the bot, received recommendations from mixing household chemicals to unsupervised electronics tinkering. For those who spent the 90s sniggering at ELIZA’s nonsense responses, this leap into haphazard self-help feels surreal.
What can our readers take away? Never rely on AI for anything you wouldn’t have trusted to Clippy. A forum legend once wrote: “Treat every answer as if it was typed one-fingered in a cold attic.” That advice, from a Usenet regular in ’96, still holds up.
Mandatory Digital ID Set to Launch Across the UK in 2026
A cold fact: Britain is set to roll out nationwide digital IDs next year. Legislation passed yesterday in Westminster will make a central digital identity scheme necessary to access public services, voting, and even some private transactions.
This project is not new. Digital ID plans have lurked in British political debates since at least the 80s, often shelved after public outcry. Now the government claims the current version will be “secure, user-controlled and privacy-protecting” thanks to updated encryption. Critics worry about data leaks and the power of a single database, which reads as déjà vu to Gen-Xers who recall the ID card wars of the noughties.
For anyone who ever used an alias on BBS boards or tucked their real name well away from a Commodore 64 Compunet login, the idea of a centrally managed digital persona feels both inevitable and uncomfortable. Will this time be any different?
Smart Car Technology Weaponised in Stalker Attacks
How smart is too smart for your own good? In Australia this week, police confirmed several reports of smart car features like remote start, GPS tracking, and remote unlock being exploited by stalkers or abusive ex-partners. Car tech boasts “convenience,” but users are rarely briefed on the risks hiding under all that polished UX.
Not long ago, having a digital dashboard was the height of car luxury. Now your Vauxhall’s on-board computer might be your weakest link. Unlike hacking an Amstrad CPC cassette relay, attacks on today’s vehicles bypass the bonnet entirely. Tech support forums have started swapping horror stories and workarounds. This story drops the retro callback. If you’re driving something modern, consider which systems really need to be online. Not every upgrade is an improvement.
From the Wayback Machine
On This Day: 1942 – First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Chain Reaction
Eighty-three years ago, in a squash court below Stagg Field, Enrico Fermi’s team achieved the world’s first controlled nuclear chain reaction. The Chicago Pile-1 project was built from graphite and uranium with no shielding; it marked the dawn of the Atomic Age and the birth of a new kind of risk. Everything-design, outcome, consequences-was prototyped live. Some of the hand-built approaches Fermi used wouldn’t make it past a modern risk management checklist. That original neutron counter’s hum became more than science; it was the sound of history changing without warning.
What This Means
Today’s stories in Tech Brief 2 December 2025 pull at the same old threads: what’s safe, what’s fake, and how much trust we can safely place in technology. If anything lingers, it’s that in technology, as in life, simplicity can be safer than convenience. Or maybe it’s just nostalgia talking.
Stay curious, keep learning, and don’t let the future sneak up on you without a toolkit. If you’re reading this in your front room, that counts as a museum.
Missed yesterday’s Tech Brief? Catch up here.
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