“Help me make sense of this nonsense, please!”

You’re not alone. Right now, AI feels like the wild west, and nobody’s actually asking the right question. It’s not “should I use this or not.” It’s “am I still the one in control, or has the hype quietly taken over.”

Everyone’s using AI, nobody’s quite sure what the rules are, and the people selling it loudest are the ones with the most to gain. You’ve dabbled. Your competitors are bragging it’s doing e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Your industry body hasn’t updated its guidance since 2024. The tools move weekly. The advice is contradictory. The hype is deafening.

The AI Boomers say it’s going to end all jobs, so start hoarding cardboard boxes now (or maybe we all just turn into cheap gruel if you bagsie a railway arch as a home). The AI Doomers say it’s already too late, and we should be bracing for the rise of the Terminators, never mind worrying about day-to-day existence. Neither camp is going to help you figure out what to actually do to stop feeling at the mercy of this global madness. Making sense of it is not their schtick. What is feasible? What is ethical? These are the questions that matter.

If you feel exhausted by all of it, that’s not a personal failing. There’s plenty of jargon bandied about (of course there is, it’s IT, right?). Cognitive load. Technostress. Continuous partial attention. Decision fatigue. Information overload. Learned helplessness. Surveillance capitalism. Job displacement. Alienation. Cognitive dissonance. All big problems for humans that never go away because the tools never stop moving. None of this is you being bad at adapting, or being gloomy. It’s a known, predictable response to losing a sense of control over something that now seems to be everywhere.

And underneath all of that noise, the law is quietly catching up. It might not feel like it, but it is. THE UK Information Commissioner and the EU AI ACT are regulating how AI can be used right now. (See my shop for some tools).

WE NEED HUMAN-CENTRED AI

Human-centred AI is not a vibe. It’s an actual framework: you don’t have to trade human control for the benefit of automation. You can have both. Most advice treats it as one or the other. I don’t.

That idea runs through everything here:

• Commentary: 150+ appearances in national press, on what AI is actually doing versus what it’s sold as.
• Tools : AI disclosure templates, one per industry, that teach you how to use AI ethically in your business. Some of it does help and it’s important to tell customers responsibly and honestly, and tell them where you won’t screw them over with AI shizzle.
• Beyond the Bandwagon — my substack (and podcast launching soon), going deeper into what AI is doing to minds, skills, trust, productivity, and power.

WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

The EU AI Act’s transparency obligations become enforceable on 2 August 2026. The UK’s Data (Use and Access) Act got Royal Assent on 19 June 2026, with the ICO now building a statutory code of practice for AI. Both say the same thing in different legal languages: if you use AI, you need to be transparent about how.

Most businesses aren’t ready. Not because they’re negligent, but because nobody’s explained what this actually means for a 12-person agency, a sole trader, or a coach running their practice from a kitchen table. The guidance is written for corporate legal departments. The deadlines apply to everyone.

That’s where I come in. I research, write, and build practical tools that help real businesses handle AI honestly, and I cover the wider story of what AI is doing to work, trust, and society for national media.

See the disclosure templates