By Peter Lewis
Publication Date: 2025-12-10 01:55:00
II blame Santa Claus. As 2025 reaches its inevitable end, I can’t help but think that we have all become gullible children, fascinated by the promises of the technological cornucopia and refusing to see the wrinkles in our logic because deep down we don’t want to break the magic.
As the federal government prepares to take away children’s toys with its world-first social media ban, it is keeping stockings ready for those same tech overlords to fill with new goodies with its loose National AI Plan.
These inherently contradictory policies characterize a year in which, despite a focus on one-sided domestic political competition, key political challenges have shifted to a virtual arena built and controlled by the most powerful corporations the world has ever seen.
While the Albanian government has emerged victorious on the home front, its perception of the national interest in the rapid advance of technology has been less than glorious.
As our final Guardian Essential report of the year…