This was a lot of fun to do, more to come.

Here’s a little Halloween horror, made with AI. It’s superficially impressive but the characters performance leaves a lot to be desired. Spooky doo indeed.

SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)

Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he hiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.

We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.

America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.

His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.

Ian McKellen 29 October 2026

Photo: University of Huddersfield

Could AI make giant data centres obsolete? As tech giants pour billions into infrastructure, Meta and Apple are betting on AI that runs on your own computer. BBC AI Decoded presented by yours truly.

youtu.be/2Q1UG9wYgc0?si…

Could AI make giant data centres obsolete? As tech giants pour billions into infrastructure, Meta and Apple are betting on AI that runs on your own computer. BBC AI Decoded presented by yours truly. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…

The UK's AI minister warns it's "likely, if not inevitable" that the country's cyber defences will be breached at some point. After recent global incidents he set out the government's plans. My report for the 6 and 10 O'Clock News on BBC One.

Can a machine feel pain? If not, why does it behave as if it does?
AI Decoded investigates the controversial ‘pain axis’ found in AI models and an experiment dubbed an AI torture chamber.
Is AI simply imitating suffering, or is something deeper going on? youtu.be/cfS-Lc2xaqo?si…

Can a machine feel pain? If not, why does it behave as if it does?
AI Decoded investigates the controversial ‘pain axis’ found in AI models and an experiment dubbed an AI torture chamber.
Is AI simply imitating suffering, or is something deeper going on? youtu.be/cfS-Lc2xaqo?si…

Lanterns was a superb piece of television from start to finish. That is all.

Bond, Games Bond. Before I was the BBC's AI guy, I was the games guy in News. With 007 First Light up for a bunch of Golden Joystick Awards, it's a golden chance to revisit a double-oh story from earlier this year.

Would Patrick Gibson make a good big screen Bond? Does it even matter? Games and movies can cross over or enjoy individual success. The boundaries have blurred to the point that it’s all art.

Meta has introduced a camera free version of its smart glasses, making a fresh bet on AI powered specs. But can removing the camera escape the privacy backlash surrounding the originals, dubbed “pervert glasses” after reports of people being filmed without consent?

Would you wear AI glasses with a camera, or is that a privacy line you wouldn’t cross?

As the BBC’s AI Correspondent, I get plenty of questions about AI, from the basics of how it works to what it can actually do.

So I collaborated with the BBC Ideas & the Open University on this film, exploring some of those questions and cutting through the hype.

The documentary “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” is terrific and tremendously sad in equal measure.

As the BBC’s AI Correspondent, I get plenty of questions about AI, from the basics of how it works to what it can actually do.

So I collaborated with the BBC Ideas & the Open University on this film, exploring some of those questions and cutting through the hype.

Meta’s new VR glasses are interesting, but at £1,299, they’re asking consumers to pay a premium for a product with very few compelling use cases.

The tech may be impressive. The question is whether consumers will stump up. VR hasn’t exactly captured the public’s imagination.

If Google, OpenAI and Anthropic are writing the rules, funding the body and potentially doing the testing, who exactly is marking the homework?

I remember working with people who daisy chained every PC in a production company to render the graphics for a title sequence over an entire weekend.

Can Meta’s next gen smart glasses shake the “pervert glasses” label?

With a camera free version joining the line up, Meta is making another bet on smart specs. But can they escape the growing debate over privacy?

youtu.be/zFFsVTvFbNw?si…

Has the AI industry finally recognised the dangers of the technology it is building? AI Decoded examines AI safety, regulation, “kill switches” and whether governments can control increasingly powerful systems. Watch:
youtu.be/tJr8RA2FK6g?si…