Hello ODI Supporter,
The UK government struck a deal this week for access to Ukraine’s battlefield data. Millions of objects, including tanks, drones and air defence systems, have been captured by cameras and sensors during four years of conflict, and fed into Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs to train models that can spot and strike Russian targets. The UK is the first country to gain access to the dataset. What’s actually being built with it, though, is a little closer to home than “battlefield AI” suggests. Pilot projects with three UK startups (Sintela, Mind Foundry and Skyral) are turning buried fibre-optic cables into AI-enabled sensors to detect “protesters and hostile actors” at UK defence sites, with prisons, railways and energy plants pencilled in to follow. The UK government calls this “AI sovereignty in practice”, while one University College London computer scientist remarked that the Ukrainian data doesn’t add much that the decades-old fibre-optic sensors don’t already know. Still, four years of war data and we get better fences.
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims across 48 US states, curtailing a trial after four days in California that had been expected to last several weeks. The settlement is the largest child-safety payout in the company’s history, and part of a suit that accused Meta of deliberately designing addictive products to hook young people, leading to mental health issues including anxiety, depression and suicide. The states also claimed that the social media company regularly collected data on children under the age of 13 without parental consent in violation of federal and state laws. Meta will now implement new safety features, to be assessed by an independent auditor. These include a default two-hour time limit, hidden like-counts, muted notifications during school hours, and the removal of extreme make-up filters. But child safety campaigners and ex-Meta employees have said for a while that these features are merely cosmetic fixes. As whistleblower Arturo Béjar, whose testimony helped force the deal, said: “The agreement has a big problem in that it allows Meta to define harm.”
Ordnance Survey (OS) is using drone, aircraft and satellite imagery to map and predict wildfire risk across Britain. The mapping service, which manages the national geographic database, now has a drone team of 21 pilots, working alongside aeroplane pilots and 200 field surveyors, and can map to an accuracy of 2cm. The service is also mapping other climate risks, such as flooding, subsidence and coastal erosion. Analysis of the OS data has revealed that more than 1.8 million homes are located within 100m of urban boundaries, the zones most prone to fires, and is already providing data for government, emergency services and businesses to mitigate risks. In the recent New Forest wildfire, firefighters used OS data to plan routes to tackle the blaze, even down to checking whether gates were wide enough for fire engines to pass through.
ODI webinar announcement break! We are delighted to announce a new webinar Building municipal data capability: Lessons from the Urban Resilience Programme (23 Sep), looking at digital transformation in local government in South Africa! Don’t forget to join us on Tuesday 15 September, 16:00-17:00 for Solid World, where the team will present their new support programme designed to help social impact projects build with Solid. On Thursday 24 September, 14:00-15:00, we’ll explore the long‑standing question of how doctors and nurses approach decisions about sharing confidential patient information in the public interest. And if you’re interested in becoming a Data Ethics Professional, the next course starts on Tuesday 15 September, so book your place now!
And finally… Australia has banned wholly AI-generated songs from its music charts, with a Brisbane DJ’s cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”, which racked up 48 million Spotify streams, set to become one of the first casualties. Under the new rules, the Australian Recording Industry Association can strip songs of their No 1 status if they fall foul of the “substantially human made” rule. If it wasn’t for that pesky rival producer…
Until next time.
David and Jo
PS: Don’t forget, the Open UK Awards 2026 are now open for nomination, recognising UK leadership and global collaboration. The awards take place at the House of Commons on 5th November, and nominations close at midnight on 6th September. So get nominating!
