A new mobile app called Wove is aiming to bring ingredient-style transparency to clothing, allowing shoppers to check garments for potential PFAS chemicals, microplastic risks and other hidden concerns before making a purchase.

Why Wove Has Been Created

Consumers have become increasingly accustomed to checking ingredients in food, cosmetics and household products. Clothing, however, remains one of the least transparent consumer categories despite spending most of the day in direct contact with the body.

Wove, a North Carolina-based consumer technology startup focused on clothing transparency, allows users to upload a product photo, screenshot, clothing label, shopping URL or product description. The Wove app then analyses the garment and produces a score based on factors including fibre composition, microplastic shedding potential, PFAS concerns and overall sustainability. According to the company, its goal is to reveal “the information brands don’t put on the label” and provide “transparency you can trust”.

The company is also keen to stress its independence, stating: “No manufacturer or brand can influence the scores or recommendations Wove provides. Every grade is earned, never purchased.” That positioning reflects growing consumer scepticism around sustainability claims and greenwashing across the fashion industry.

The Growing Concern Around Synthetic Fabrics

Growing awareness of microplastics and chemical exposure is helping to drive interest in tools such as Wove. According to figures cited by the company, synthetic fibres represented around 73 per cent of global fibre production in 2023, up from approximately 45 per cent in 1996. Polyester alone now accounts for more than half of all fibre production worldwide.

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles released as synthetic fabrics wear and are washed. These particles can enter waterways, oceans and ecosystems, contributing to a growing environmental challenge. PFAS chemicals, often used to provide water and stain resistance, have attracted increasing regulatory attention because they persist in the environment for extremely long periods and have been linked by researchers to a range of potential health concerns.

Despite growing awareness of microplastic pollution, research cited by Wove suggests many consumers still do not associate their clothing with the issue. A 2025 survey found that only 42 per cent of consumers who were aware of microplastics connected them directly to clothing, highlighting the knowledge gap the app is designed to address.

Regulation Is Adding Momentum

The launch also comes at a time when regulators are paying closer attention to chemicals used in textiles.

France introduced a ban on PFAS in textiles from January 2026, California already restricts intentionally added PFAS in clothing, and the European Union is tightening controls on related substances under its REACH chemicals framework. At the same time, public awareness has increased following documentaries such as Netflix’s The Plastic Detox, which highlighted concerns around microplastics, synthetic materials and chemical exposure.

Wove founder Emily Hemphill says the platform was inspired by the fact that many people have already made changes to areas such as food, drinking water and skincare products, while “clothing is often the last blind spot”.

Similar Services

Wove is not the only company attempting to improve transparency within the fashion industry, although its focus on chemical and microplastic exposure appears relatively distinctive.

Apps such as Good On You allow consumers to assess fashion brands based on environmental, labour and animal welfare criteria, helping shoppers compare thousands of brands using independent sustainability ratings. Other platforms such as Renoon focus on helping consumers discover products with stronger sustainability credentials, while services such as Save Your Wardrobe aim to extend garment life through repair, care and circular economy initiatives.

What sets Wove apart is its focus on the composition of individual garments rather than the sustainability performance of brands as a whole. By analysing specific products, it attempts to provide consumers with a more detailed understanding of what they are actually wearing and what environmental or health concerns may be associated with those materials.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

The emergence of tools such as Wove reflects growing demand for transparency across supply chains. Consumers, regulators and investors increasingly want clearer information about the materials used in products and their environmental impact, and technology is making it easier than ever for people to access that information for themselves.

For clothing brands, retailers and manufacturers, this trend could increase pressure to provide more detailed information about fibre composition, chemical treatments and sustainability performance. Products that once relied on broad claims such as “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” may increasingly face scrutiny from consumers who expect more specific evidence about what materials are being used and how those materials affect health and the environment.

UK businesses should also view developments such as Wove in the context of wider sustainability and regulatory trends. As governments continue to tighten rules around chemicals, environmental reporting and product transparency, organisations that can clearly explain the contents and environmental impact of their products are likely to be better placed than those that cannot. Whether Wove itself becomes widely adopted remains to be seen, but the direction of travel is becoming increasingly clear: consumers are beginning to expect the same level of transparency from clothing that they already expect from food, cosmetics and other everyday products.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Search can find information across your emails, documents, chats, meetings and apps from a single search box, helping you locate answers faster, reduce time spent searching, and stay productive without constantly switching between different Microsoft 365 tools.

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Temporary Chat gives you a private, one-off conversation space in ChatGPT that isn’t saved to your chat history or Memory, making it ideal for discussing sensitive projects, client matters, HR issues, business planning, or other topics that you don’t want appearing in your regular chat history.

Why It Works

Most people use ChatGPT in the same chat environment all the time. Temporary Chat creates a separate space for conversations that you don’t want appearing in your normal chat history and don’t want influencing future conversations through Memory.

It’s particularly useful when you need help thinking through a sensitive business issue, drafting a confidential document, reviewing a commercial situation, or brainstorming ideas that are only relevant to a specific project.

How To Use It

1. Open ChatGPT.
2. Click the Temporary Chat icon, the dotted or broken speech bubble, near the top right of the screen.
3. A new Temporary Chat window will open.
4. Start your conversation as normal.
5. When you have finished, simply close the chat.
6. Return to your normal chats whenever you want to continue using your saved chat history and Memory.

What To Look For

You’ll see a Temporary Chat indicator within the conversation, confirming that the chat won’t appear in your history and won’t be used to update Memory.

The Business Benefit

Temporary Chat helps keep sensitive discussions separate from your everyday work, reduces clutter in your chat history, and provides a convenient way to discuss one-off projects, client matters, HR issues, and other sensitive topics without them becoming part of your ongoing ChatGPT record.

HMRC is handing a British AI company £175 million to help it spot tax fraud, uncover hidden financial networks, reduce costly mistakes, and improve customer service, as pressure mounts over rising complaints, growing complexity, and a £46.8 billion tax gap.

Deal With Quantexa

The decade-long deal with London-based AI and analytics firm Quantexa marks one of the largest AI deployments ever seen inside the UK public sector. It also signals a major strategic change in how the government wants critical public systems to use artificial intelligence.

Rather than relying on a US technology giant, HMRC is betting heavily on a British-developed “Decision Intelligence” platform designed to connect fragmented data, identify suspicious patterns, and support human investigators and customer service teams.

Why HMRC Wants AI Help

HMRC has been under mounting criticism for years over long waits, processing delays, incorrect tax notices, and declining service standards.

According to figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the Contentious Tax Group, complaints against HMRC climbed to more than 93,000 in 2024/25, up sharply from around 70,000 five years earlier.

Also, compensation payments linked to HMRC errors and distress have also risen significantly.

At the same time, the tax authority is handling growing volumes of digital data as initiatives like Making Tax Digital expand across the UK economy.

It seems the problem for HMRC is not a lack of information, but that the information often sits in disconnected systems that can’t easily “see” relationships between people, companies, transactions, and behaviours.

Quantexa specialises in connecting fragmented datasets and using graph analytics and machine learning to identify patterns, relationships, and anomalies that would be extremely difficult for human investigators to spot manually across millions of disconnected records and transactions.

Its technology was originally developed for anti-money laundering work inside banks. Customers already include HSBC and Vodafone.

Now HMRC wants to apply similar techniques to tax compliance, fraud detection, and operational efficiency.

Connecting The Dots

One of the most significant parts of the project involves what Quantexa calls “entity resolution”. In simple terms, the system attempts to identify when multiple records, companies, transactions, or identities may actually be connected.

That matters because complex fraud networks often hide behind layers of shell companies, false references, mismatched addresses, or disconnected records spread across multiple databases.

The technology is designed to create what Quantexa describes as “a clearer, connected view of its data to improve performance, help identify tax at risk, and strengthen control.”

Positive Points

One positive point about the new system is that it should be able to help HMRC track legitimate payments that have been incorrectly referenced, which could potentially reduce some of the administrative headaches faced by businesses and taxpayers.

Also, importantly, Quantexa says the platform is not intended to replace human decision-making. As Quantexa CEO Vishal Marria says: “In government environments, AI cannot operate as a black box,” and that “Decisions need to be transparent, auditable, and explainable, particularly in areas affecting citizens directly.”

In fact, this point matters politically as much as technically. For example, governments worldwide are increasingly nervous about allowing opaque AI systems to make decisions affecting taxes, benefits, healthcare, or policing without clear accountability.

The Digital Sovereignty Angle

There is another layer to this story that goes well beyond tax collection. The Quantexa deal is being viewed inside government as part of a wider push towards so-called “digital sovereignty”.

In recent years, the UK government has awarded huge contracts to American data firms including Palantir Technologies, the US data analytics company co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, whose NHS data platform deal generated considerable political controversy.

This time, ministers appear keen to emphasise that the supplier is British, the systems are governed, and the data stays under HMRC control.

Also, Quantexa’s online announcement about the deal with HMRC strongly emphasised sovereignty and governance concerns, with Quantexa highlighting how “Public sector organisations are accelerating digital transformation while needing to maintain sovereignty, auditability and control.”

It added that the platform creates “a trusted, governed foundation for advanced analytics and the safe deployment of AI at scale.”

The language used around the project is deliberate because governments are no longer debating simply whether AI can improve public services, they are increasingly focused on who controls the systems, where sensitive national data is stored, and whether automated decisions can be properly explained, audited, and challenged when citizens are affected.

A Major Test For Government AI

The contract could become a defining test case for how AI is used across British government departments. If successful, similar approaches could spread rapidly into compliance, policing, border control, welfare systems, and other high-data public services.

However, the pressure to deliver will be intense because HMRC’s tax gap currently stands at £46.8 billion, representing money theoretically owed but not collected, and the government is clearly placing significant faith in AI and Quantexa’s ability to help recover far more of it. Quantexa founder and CEO Vishal Marria says governments worldwide are struggling with “how to turn complex, fragmented data into confident, timely decisions”, which goes directly to the heart of HMRC’s long-running problems with disconnected systems, slow processes, and rising operational complexity. The company believes that by “creating context from data and embedding trusted, governed AI”, HMRC will be able to make “confident, informed decisions” more quickly, while improving fraud detection, strengthening oversight, and reducing the kinds of administrative errors that have increasingly damaged public confidence in the tax authority.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, accountants, and taxpayers, this signals a future where HMRC becomes far more data-driven, interconnected, and AI-assisted. That could mean faster identification of fraud and errors, quicker handling of customer queries, and improved detection of suspicious tax activity.

It could also mean increased scrutiny. As AI systems become better at linking records and spotting inconsistencies across datasets, businesses may find it harder to hide mistakes, discrepancies, or unusual financial behaviour inside disconnected systems.

At the same time, the project highlights something much bigger happening across the UK economy. Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving beyond chatbots and productivity tools into core national infrastructure, including taxation, compliance, and public administration.

It now seems that businesses that maintain accurate records, consistent reporting, and well-organised financial systems are likely to face far fewer problems in an environment where AI is increasingly being used to connect data, identify anomalies, and scrutinise tax activity far more efficiently than before.

Google has unveiled a radical new laptop strategy that replaces the Chromebook concept with AI-first “Googlebooks”, devices where Gemini AI is embedded directly into the operating system and even the cursor itself becomes an intelligent assistant.

AI As The Core Layer

The move represents one of the clearest signs yet that major technology companies no longer see AI as simply another app or feature, but increasingly as the core layer through which users interact with computers altogether.

A Big Change For Google’s Laptop Strategy

For more than 15 years, Google’s Chromebook strategy focused on lightweight, low-cost laptops built around the Chrome browser and cloud services.

Now Google says the industry is moving “from an operating system to an intelligence system”, and believes laptops need to be redesigned around AI itself.

The result is Googlebook, a new category of premium laptops built on Android rather than ChromeOS, with Gemini deeply integrated into the entire experience.

According to Google, the devices are “the first laptops designed from the ground up for Gemini Intelligence, to deliver personal and proactive help when and where you need it.”

That wording matters because Google is no longer positioning AI as a separate assistant sitting beside applications. Instead, AI is becoming the interface itself.

The Cursor Becomes The AI

Perhaps the most striking feature is something called “Magic Pointer”, developed with Google DeepMind.

Google says the feature “brings Gemini’s helpfulness right to your fingertips” by turning the cursor into a context-aware AI agent capable of understanding what is on screen and proactively suggesting actions.

For example, hovering over a date inside an email could trigger an option to create a meeting automatically. Pointing at two images could allow Gemini to combine them instantly, and highlighting text could trigger summarisation, rewriting, or translation suggestions.

Importantly, the system is designed to work proactively rather than waiting for typed prompts.

Google says users can “wiggle your cursor and watch it come alive with Gemini, offering quick, contextual suggestions every time you point at something on your screen.”

That may sound like a relatively small interface change, but strategically it is extremely significant.

For decades, the cursor has simply been a pointing mechanism, but now it seems Google is effectively turning it into an AI interaction layer that constantly interprets context and anticipates actions.

Strategically Different To Competitors

This also represents a noticeably different strategy from rivals like Microsoft and Apple. For example, Microsoft largely places Copilot alongside applications, while Apple has focused heavily on embedding intelligence into individual apps and workflows. Google, by contrast, appears to be positioning Gemini as the layer sitting between the user and the entire operating system.

Unifying Android And AI

The launch also attempts to solve a long-running Google problem. Traditional Chromebooks could run Android apps, but often through compatibility layers and container systems that created limitations around multitasking, file access, and desktop integration.

Googlebook removes that separation entirely because the laptops themselves now run Android-based software natively.

Google says this allows users to move more seamlessly between phones and laptops while sharing apps, files, AI services, and workflows across devices.

Features such as “Quick Access” will reportedly allow users to browse and use phone files directly from their laptop without transfers, while “Cast my Apps” will let Android phone apps appear directly on the laptop screen.

Google describes the overall goal as “keeping you in the flow”, especially as people increasingly move between multiple connected devices throughout the day.

The company is also introducing “Create your Widget”, where users describe a dashboard or widget in natural language and Gemini builds it automatically using information pulled from services like Gmail, Calendar, and web search.

In practical terms, users are increasingly being asked not to choose software from menus, but instead describe what they want AI to create for them dynamically.

A Premium AI Device

One of the most surprising aspects of the announcement is Google’s decision to move away from the Chromebook market’s traditional low-cost positioning.

Googlebook devices are being described as premium products with “premium craftsmanship and materials”, launching through partners including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. This could create important questions for education markets where Chromebooks became dominant largely because they were cheap, simple, and easy to manage.

Chromebooks currently hold a huge share of the global education laptop market, particularly in the US, and Google says existing devices will continue receiving support for now.

However, the long-term direction does seem to be becoming clearer, with Google now appearing to see Gemini itself as the core product, with the laptop becoming just the delivery mechanism for AI-powered experiences across Google’s wider ecosystem.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, Googlebook is another strong signal that the next phase of computing may revolve less around applications and more around AI-mediated workflows and interfaces.

The bigger story here is not simply a new laptop category. It is that major technology firms are redesigning operating systems, interfaces, and entire ecosystems around context-aware AI systems that attempt to anticipate user intent in real time.

That could eventually change how employees interact with software altogether, particularly in areas like administration, scheduling, document handling, collaboration, and workflow automation.

This also raises important questions around privacy, regulation, AI dependency, cloud processing costs, and how much contextual access businesses are comfortable giving AI systems embedded deeply inside everyday devices.

Google’s original Chromebook strategy argued that the browser was becoming the operating system. Googlebook now suggests the company believes AI itself may become the operating system instead.

Fresh controversy has erupted around the NHS Federated Data Platform after reports claimed Palantir contractors and other external staff could be granted much broader access to identifiable patient data inside one of the NHS’s most sensitive systems.

What’s Happening To Our Health Data?

According to a recent report in the Financial Times, NHS England has approved the creation of a new administrative access role inside its National Data Integration Tenant, or NDIT, which sits at the heart of the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP).

The NDIT is effectively a controlled environment where identifiable patient data is held before information is pseudonymised and distributed into other operational systems connected to the FDP.

Until now, external personnel working on the platform reportedly had to apply for access to specific datasets individually through what NHS England calls Controlled Data Access requests.

However, it’s been reported that leaked internal briefing documents argued that the process had become operationally difficult and time-consuming, particularly given the scale and complexity of the FDP programme.

As a result, NHS England has reportedly approved a broader “admin” role allowing a small number of approved non-NHS personnel to access data inside the NDIT without repeated case-by-case approvals.

Some critics are even describing the arrangement as effectively creating “unlimited access” for contractors inside part of the NHS’s flagship data infrastructure project.

NHS England has strongly pushed back against suggestions that controls are being weakened, saying the organisation maintains “strict policies in place for managing access to patient data” and carries out “regular audits to ensure compliance”, while also stressing that any external access requires government security clearance and director-level approval.

What Is The Federated Data Platform?

The FDP is one of the NHS’s largest digital transformation projects. The £330 million contract was awarded in 2023 to a consortium led by Palantir Technologies, a US data analytics company best known for its work in defence, intelligence, security, and large-scale data integration.

The platform is designed to connect fragmented NHS operational datasets into a unified system intended to improve waiting list management, resource allocation, planning, and operational efficiency.

NHS England argues the FDP will help modernise healthcare operations and improve patient outcomes by allowing NHS organisations to use data more effectively across trusts and services.

The NHS also insists that patient data remains under NHS control at all times, with Palantir legally acting only as a “data processor” operating under NHS instructions.

Who Are Palantir And Peter Thiel?

Much of the controversy surrounding the FDP stems not simply from the technology itself, but from Palantir’s wider reputation and affiliations.

Palantir Technologies was co-founded in 2003 by billionaire investor Peter Thiel alongside executives linked to PayPal and US intelligence circles.

Thiel is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential and controversial figures. He was an early Facebook investor, co-founder of PayPal, and has longstanding links to conservative US political movements and defence technology investment.

Palantir itself originally built software for US intelligence and military agencies following the September 11 attacks and has since expanded heavily into defence, immigration enforcement, policing, and government analytics worldwide.

The company has worked with organisations including the CIA, FBI, Pentagon, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), NATO, and multiple Western defence agencies.

Critics argue that background makes Palantir an uncomfortable fit for handling sensitive NHS infrastructure and patient data, particularly given growing public concern about AI, surveillance, and data concentration inside critical public services.

Supporters, however, argue that Palantir specialises precisely in the kind of large-scale data integration and operational analytics the NHS badly needs.

Why This Matters Politically

The latest reports have reignited long-running concerns from privacy campaigners, MPs, and patient rights groups who argue the NHS risks eroding public confidence if governance boundaries become unclear.

The leaked NHS briefing itself reportedly acknowledged “considerable public interest and concern” around how much access Palantir staff may have to NHS patient data.

Labour MP Rachael Maskell has described the latest development as “dangerous”, while patient advocacy groups questioned why patients had not been more directly consulted.

At the centre of the debate is a broader tension facing governments worldwide.

Modern AI systems and advanced analytics often work best when large datasets can be integrated, connected, and analysed centrally. However, the more powerful and interconnected those systems become, the greater the concerns around access control, oversight, accountability, and misuse.

The NHS insists safeguards remain in place, including role-based access controls, UK-only data storage, security clearances, auditing, and contractual restrictions preventing Palantir from commercialising NHS data or training AI models on it. However, critics argue the issue is increasingly about trust as much as technical controls.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses and organisations, the controversy highlights how rapidly debates around AI, analytics, and data governance are moving from technical discussions into questions of trust, transparency, and public legitimacy.

The NHS FDP project also demonstrates how AI and large-scale analytics are increasingly becoming embedded inside critical national infrastructure rather than remaining standalone software tools.

Many organisations are now facing similar tensions themselves, i.e., balancing operational efficiency, automation, and AI capability against privacy concerns, governance expectations, supplier concentration risks, and reputational exposure.

The Palantir row may ultimately become less about one NHS contract and more about how comfortable people are with huge global technology corporations having access to highly sensitive personal health information, particularly as AI-driven systems become more deeply embedded inside essential public services and everyday decision-making.