Tech
UK government backtracks on plans for mandatory digital ID | Computer Weekly
The digital identity sector has welcomed the UK government’s decision to backtrack on plans to make its national digital ID scheme mandatory for right-to-work checks – in effect, removing any compulsory aspect of the proposed scheme.
Less than a week after the Cabinet Office promoted MP Josh Simons to become minister for digital government, in charge of the digital ID policy, it has now removed the most controversial aspect of the proposals announced by prime minister Keir Starmer in September last year.
Starmer launched the national digital ID scheme by pitching it as a means to control undocumented immigration, through making use of a government app mandatory when employers conduct right-to-work checks.
The plan brought an instant backlash from civil rights groups and privacy campaigners, as well as widespread criticism from the tech sector, where digital identity providers have been encouraged for many years to go through a rigorous compliance process to achieve accreditation on a government-approved register of digital verification services. Startups and investors feared the impact of an official government digital ID app on their prospects for developing and growing the market in the UK.
Since then, the government has gradually changed its rhetoric, moving away from the contentious focus on undocumented immigration and attempting to present its plans as a way to make digital public services more modern and efficient.
An online petition calling for government to halt plans for the online identity programme received more than three million signatures, prompting a debate in Parliament where MPs from all parties laid out their concerns.
As a result, the government has now removed the compulsory element of the proposed scheme in advance of a consultation on national digital ID, which is due to commence soon. Use of some form of digital proof of identity will still be mandatory for right-to-work checks, but the government digital ID app will only be one option for doing so.
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to mandatory digital right-to-work checks. Currently right-to-work checks include a hodge-podge of paper-based systems with no record of checks ever taking place. This is open to fraud and abuse.
“We have always been clear that details on the digital ID scheme will be set out following a full public consultation which will launch shortly. Digital ID will make everyday life easier for people, ensuring public services are more personal, joined-up and effective, while also remaining inclusive.”
Private sector leaders in the digital ID sector hope the move will allow the wider market to flourish and bring more choice for citizens in how and where they use such technology.
“Sanity has prevailed. This is a necessary reset. Let’s hope we can now shift the narrative and focus on the social, economic and practical benefits that voluntary digital ID will bring to UK citizens and residents,” said Richard Oliphant, an independent legal consultant and expert on digital identity.
Robin Tombs, CEO of Yoti, which has more than seven million users of its digital ID app, said: “The mandatory messaging provoked a strong backlash from many opponents and has increasingly risked sabotaging the value of the upcoming public consultation.
“The government team now has the opportunity to engage in a more productive, less contentious discussion focusing on improving access to public services for citizens who want to use a government, or certified private sector, digital ID.”
David Crack, chair of the Association of Digital Verification Professionals, added: “A warm welcome for this news which was always going to come. Congratulations to the government in making this known early. Now we can get on to discussing what type of digital ID the country needs and how we can all gain control of our data.”
According to figures from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, the government scheme was expected to cost £1.8bn over the next three years – although Emran Mian, permanent secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, told MPs in December that was “not a figure [the government] recognises”.
Private sector concerns about the government proposals led to a showdown meeting in December between industry representatives and the prime minister’s chief secretary, Darren Jones, who was given overall policy responsibility for digital ID, in an attempt to ease fears. Jones stressed that no firm decisions had been made and that government wanted to use the consultation process to determine the best approach to take.
Further concerns over the scheme came from its reliance on the existing One Login single sign-on system used for logging in to many online public services. Computer Weekly last year revealed a series of serious security and data protection concerns around the One Login system.
Tech
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Tech
MPs launch inquiry into use of tech in education | Computer Weekly
MPs have launched an inquiry into the use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in education.
The cross-party Education Select Committee will look at how technology can both help and hinder the UK’s education sector, not just in schools, but also colleges, universities and early years services.
“AI and EdTech are already reshaping education, from the early years and secondary school right through to college and university,” said Helen Hayes, chair of the committee.
“These tools could represent an extraordinary opportunity to elevate learning and streamline teachers’ busy workloads. At the same time, there are risks in deploying rapidly developing technology without any clear values-based decision-making or evaluation framework, and without a full understanding of the consequences, and there is a potential risk of widening inequality between students.”
Educators are already dipping their toes into the tech sphere, for example, at Bett Show 2025, it was announced the government had plans to help teachers use AI for lesson planning and marking, and Ofsted found many schools are experimenting with the use of AI for personalised learning, translation of resources, and turning lessons and other resources into podcasts.
The government has already started looking into the potential uses of AI in schools and other education establishments, including the development of AI tools for 1:1 tutoring, but AI is causing a number of concerns among students and parents alike, with parents changing their career advice to children as a result of widespread AI adoption.
As pointed out by education secretary Bridget Phillipson in early 2026, the government has to “get this right” for the technology to meet its potential as the “biggest boost for education in the last 500 years”.
The Education Select Committee will look into several areas of tech and AI adoption in education, including how it will affect skills, safeguarding issues and how teachers will cope with tech deployment.
Access to technology, AI and digital tech has the potential to widen the diversity divide in the UK, and the committee will consider whether introducing AI risks making this issue worse.
When it comes to tech’s impact on skills, the committee will look into how AI specifically will affect critical thinking, problem solving and speech development.
Teachers have a longstanding issue with tech deployment and teaching tech skills, so how they are supported in implementing tech during teaching, as well as ensuring they can properly use it, will need to be considered. The committee will also explore how tech and AI may change the way assessments are undertaken.
How AI and tech is integrated into each level of education in the UK has the potential to either massively help or catastrophically hinder the UK’s education delivery and skills development.
“Our inquiry will take a hard look at the evidence, and separate AI fact from fiction,” said Hayes. “We will explore how AI and EdTech are already being used and consider how the government can balance its benefits with safeguards against the risks it poses.
“The committee wants to understand how technology is shaping children and young people’s lives and learning, and what more the government needs to do to ensure that every child and young person is able to thrive,” she said. “I encourage anyone with experience in this area to submit evidence to our inquiry.”
Tech
What Is That Mysterious Metallic Device US Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia Is Using?
Joe Gebbia, cofounder of Airbnb and the US Chief Design Officer appointed by Trump, was spotted in San Francisco today using a mysterious metallic device. In a social media post on X viewed over 500,000 times, a man who looks like Gebbia sits with an espresso at a coffee shop. He’s wearing metallic buds that bisect his ears, with a matching clamshell-shaped disc in front of him on the counter.
After the video was posted Monday morning, social media users were quick to suggest that this could be some kind of prototype from OpenAI’s upcoming line of hardware devices designed in partnership with famed Apple designer Jony Ive. An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on the potential Gebbia video after WIRED reached out. Gebbia also did not respond to a request for comment.
The device Gebbia appears to be wearing looks quite similar to the hardware seen in a fake OpenAI ad that was widely circulated on Reddit and social media in February. That video from last month seemingly showed Pillion actor Alexander Skarsgård interacting with an AI device that had a similar-looking pair of earbuds and a circular disc. At the time, OpenAI denounced the widely seen video as not real. “Fake news,” wrote OpenAI President Greg Brockman at the time, responding to a social media post.
The earbuds seen in the video of Gebbia also look quite similar in shape to the Huawei FreeClip 2, a pair of open earbuds released earlier this year. However, the clamshell seen on the coffee counter next to Gebbia is different from Huawei’s most recent headphone case. It would also be quite surprising if a government official were seen using Huawei tech, considering the Chinese company is effectively banned from selling its phones in the US due to security concerns.
WIRED’s audio experts say he’s most likely wearing open earbuds, as Gebbia’s pair share some similarities with Soundcore’s AeroClips or Sony’s LinkBuds Clip, though the cases for those buds don’t match what’s on the table in front of Gebbia. WIRED also ran the photo and video through software that attempts to identify AI-generated outputs and other deepfakes. The detection software, from a company called Hive, says the odds are low that this imagery of Gebbia was generated by AI. Still, AI detectors are not always reliable and can include false outputs. It’s possible that the entire post could be a synthetic hoax.
Could this be some kind of soft launch teaser for OpenAI’s hardware? The timing of this trickle out would make sense, since the company may ship devices to consumers sometime early in 2027. Still, OpenAI denied any involvement with the previous pseudo-ad for the metallic AI hardware, with its shiny earbuds and matching disc.
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