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John Thornhill

Innovation Editor

John Thornhill is the Innovation Editor at the Financial Times writing a weekly column on the impact of technology. He is also the founder and editorial director of Sifted, the FT-backed site for European startups, and founder of FT Forums, which hosts monthly meetings for senior executives.

John was previously deputy editor and news editor of the FT in London. He has also been Europe editor, Paris bureau chief, Asia editor, Moscow correspondent and Lex columnist.

Email John Thornhill @johnthornhillft  on X.com (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Thursday, 8 January, 2026
    Driverless vehicles
    For now, autonomous vehicles still need humans

    AI must learn to reckon with a world much messier than any computer simulation

    A Waymo Chrysler Pacifica autonomous minivan is parked with its sliding door open, showing the empty passenger seat.
  • Saturday, 20 December, 2025
    Political espionage
    SpyGPT will shake James Bond’s world

    Open-source data and machine learning tools mean the challenge is not information scarcity but information overload

    Iain Glen as Richard Sorge in the film Spy Sorge
  • Thursday, 11 December, 2025
    Quantum technologies
    The mind-bending complexities of quantum investing

    There’s a lot of enthusiasm over what is increasingly seen as the next big frontier in computing

    Professor Richard Feynman gestures while giving a lecture in front of a blackboard filled with complex mathematical equations.
  • Wednesday, 10 December, 2025
    Venture capital investment
    Nick Clegg takes on venture capital role alongside Meta AI scientist Yann LeCun

    Former lobbyist and UK deputy prime minister joins London-based Hiro Capital

    Nick Clegg gestures while speaking on stage against a red curtain backdrop.
  • Saturday, 6 December, 2025
    Driverless vehicles
    Can Wayve make London a self-driving city?

    John Thornhill takes an autonomous spin through the city’s tangled streets with the British start-up’s chief Alex Kendall

  • Thursday, 4 December, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    The US may be running the wrong AI race

    China’s favouring of small and cheap models such as DeepSeek could prove to be the better bet

    Logos for Deepseek, ChatGPT, and Qwen are displayed in a repeating pattern on a mobile phone screen.
  • Wednesday, 3 December, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    Generative AI’s rapid journey through the ‘hype cycle’

    Realising the tech’s potential to boost productivity requires a shift in corporate culture and working practices

    A hand holding an iPhone showing the ChatGPT app with GPT-5 enabled; computer screens and office equipment are visible in the background.
  • Thursday, 27 November, 2025
    Social Media
    Taming the four horsemen of the infocalypse

    Imposter accounts, lax moderation, extremism and synthetic content could destroy trust in everything we read online

    An illustration showing a robotic hand controlling a puppet-like robot with strings, surrounded by social media icons such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Spotify, and X (formerly Twitter).
  • Thursday, 20 November, 2025
    EU tech regulation
    Europe’s tech sector is evolving fast. Is it fast enough?

    Despite record expansion and growing ambition in the continent, the US is surging ahead again

    An illustration showing a digital globe overlaid with binary code, with numbers appearing to fly off the surface.
  • Tuesday, 18 November, 2025
    The best books of the year 2025
    The best environment, science and technology books to read this year

    Pilita Clark, Clive Cookson and John Thornhill select their must-read titles

  • Friday, 14 November, 2025
    HTSI
    John Thornhill – my love letter to Burgundy

    The FT innovation editor on the quiet charms of the French heartland he calls his home from home

  • Thursday, 13 November, 2025
    Q&AAsk an Expert
    Will China win the AI race? You asked, we answered

    The FT’s John Thornhill and Eleanor Olcott replied to reader questions

  • Thursday, 13 November, 2025
    Rachman Review podcast31 min listen
    The battle for AI supremacy

    Who will win the high-stakes competition between China and the US?

  • Wednesday, 12 November, 2025
    Social Media
    Tackling social media’s ‘monster’ problem

    Banning addictive apps for children is not about restricting free speech, but defending free will

    Illustration of a mobile phone clutched by three different monsters’ claws
  • Thursday, 6 November, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    Who’s right about AI: economists or technologists?

    Forecasting the impact of artificial intelligence has become fraught, with evangelists pitched against sceptics

    Sam Altman speaks on stage with part of the OpenAI logo visible behind him.
  • Wednesday, 5 November, 2025
    ReviewNon-Fiction
    Is the essence of life computational?

    AI researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas offers a thought-provoking investigation into the nature of evolution and intelligence

    Close-up of an octopus's tentacles underwater, showing detailed suckers and textured skin.
  • Monday, 3 November, 2025
    The State of AI
    Is China about to win the race?

    The world is focused on America’s lead but Beijing has the means, motive and opportunity to pull ahead

    John Thornhill and Caiwei Chen
  • Thursday, 30 October, 2025
    Technology sector
    It’s time to build the intention economy online

    Tim Berners-Lee believes AI offers a chance to reset to a system that serves individuals’ needs and privacy

    Portrait of Tim Berners-Lee in blue shirt and navy blazer
  • Thursday, 16 October, 2025
    Technology sector
    AI’s double bubble trouble

    There is a distinction between good investment and bad speculation — the likelihood is we are experiencing both

    Illustration of a robot hand holding a needle and about to pop a bubble
  • Thursday, 9 October, 2025
    Technology sector
    The flawed Silicon Valley consensus on AI

    Serious questions remain about what will happen if we do — and don’t — replicate human intelligence

    Carl Godfrey illustration of a brain as a dot of a question mark
  • Thursday, 2 October, 2025
    Aerospace & Defence
    Drone attacks threaten us all

    Emergency investment in the technology does not amount to a long-term defence strategy

    Thick black smoke billows into the sky behind a red tram and residential buildings in Kyiv following a Russian strike.
  • Thursday, 25 September, 2025
    Technology sector
    Miracle capitalism: where next?

    The US innovation model may be universally admired but its foundations are being undermined

    Dame Emma Walmsley smiles and gestures toward Jensen Huang as they stand in front of British and US flags
  • Saturday, 20 September, 2025
    ReviewNon-Fiction
    This is for Everyone — Tim Berners-Lee’s manifesto for a better online world

    The World Wide Web inventor criticises the ‘rage bait’ of algorithms and social media — and advocates tighter user control of personal data

    Kofi Annan and Tim Berners-Lee stand with a group of schoolchildren as Berners-Lee speaks into a microphone.
  • Thursday, 18 September, 2025
    Artificial intelligence
    AI models must adapt or die

    The technology has already consumed almost all high-quality data — experience is now the dominant medium of improvement

    Construction work continues on Microsoft’s data centre in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
  • Saturday, 13 September, 2025
    The Weekend Essay
    How chatbots are changing the internet

    As artificial and human intelligence becomes harder to tell apart, do we need new rules of engagement?

    An illustration of a couple on a sofa looking at a laptop and a boy siting at a desk reading a book. There are two robots in the background and a girl sitting on the floor playing with a teddy bear with a robot head.
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