Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer

Cookies on FT Sites

We use cookies and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.

Accept cookies
Manage cookies
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign InmyFT
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • Australia & NZ
    Most Read
    • Donald Trump committed ‘repeated’ fraud by inflating real estate value, New York judge rules
    • Chinese TV presenter linked to missing foreign minister had surrogate child in US
    • German far-right party surges on immigrant ‘dystopia’
    • Nikki Haley seeks breakout moment in second Republican debate
    • North Korea returns detained US soldier Travis King
  • US
    Sections
    • US Home
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
    Most Read
    • Companies
      Sections
      • Companies Home
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
      Most Read
      • Meta pays £149mn to break London office lease
      • McKinsey pays out another $230mn to settle opioid cases
      • PwC Australia’s culture attacked in tax leak scandal report
      • Jailed oligarch accuses TPG of colluding with Kremlin to seize $14bn assets
      • Australian vineyards struggle to stay afloat amid wine glut
    • Tech
    • Markets
      Sections
      • Markets Home
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
      Most Read
      • UK regulator to launch review of private market valuations
      • Live news: Bank of America chief predicts a soft landing for US economy
      • The debt-fuelled bet on US Treasuries that’s scaring regulators
      • What ‘peak oil’ will mean for China
      • Crude climbs above $96 a barrel on US stockpiles concern
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      Sections
      • Opinion Home
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
      Most Read
      • What the world should expect from a second Trump term
      • How China can avoid the Japan trap
      • Rishi Sunak’s new strategy exposes 13 years of Tory failure
      • JPMorgan’s decision to settle over Epstein was a long time coming
      • High-speed trains and the crashing of Britain’s credibility
    • Work & Careers
      Sections
      • Work & Careers Home
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
      Most Read
      • Success is more complicated than one exceptional individual
      • Paternity leave in finance: ‘The more men do it, the less of a big deal it becomes’
      • The activist sued by Elon Musk: ‘We have to show we will not be cowed’
      • What Burberry taught me about the marketed mind
    • Life & Arts
      Sections
      • Life & Arts Home
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
      Most Read
      • Why Linda Yaccarino took on the wildest job in Silicon Valley
      • Horizon 22 trumps the Shard to become London’s highest viewpoint (and it’s free)
      • On the ranch with Ralph Lauren
      • Wine’s war on terroir
      • When an auction hunter becomes an auction seller
    • HTSI
    MenuSearch
    • Home
    • World
    • US
    • Companies
    • Tech
    • Markets
    • Climate
    • Opinion
    • Work & Careers
    • Life & Arts
    • HTSI
    Financial Times
    SubscribeSign In

    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 Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

    Add to myFT Digest

    Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox

    • Thursday, 21 September, 2023
      US-China trade dispute
      Tech remains central in ‘hot peace’ between China and US

      Despite the shouty rhetoric, economic symbiosis remains strong, benefiting consumers on both sides

      Joe Biden meets Xi Jinping at a G20 Summit in Bali
    • Tuesday, 19 September, 2023
      Technology
      Can AI help us speak to animals?

      Microphones and machine learning are being deployed to understand the non-human world

    • Saturday, 16 September, 2023
      ObituaryKaren Bakker
      Karen Bakker, scientist and author, 1971-2023

      Her boundary-pushing work on how animals communicate was just one part of her considerable legacy

      Karen Bakker
    • Thursday, 14 September, 2023
      Technology
      Clean data must be as much of a right as clean water

      Buried deep in the privacy policies of car companies is their practice of collection, using and selling your very personal information

      A Nissan Leaf recharges in Denver, Colorado
    • Thursday, 14 September, 2023
      ReviewFT Books Essay
      AI and the next great tech shift

      From technology containment to political power and digital regulation, three books about the artificial intelligence revolution

    • Thursday, 7 September, 2023
      Education
      ‘Edtech’ offers no escape from reality

      Experiments in virtual teaching could turn a digital divide into an educational one

      A boy wears a virtual reality headset in a classroom
    • Thursday, 31 August, 2023
      Virtual and Augmented Reality
      What happens when AI passes through the ‘uncanny valley’?

      Robots are close to being so convincing that we can’t tell them apart from humans — and that could be a problem

      A realistic AI-generated photo of a human eye
    • Friday, 25 August, 2023
      Technology sector
      High hopes over Arm’s relisting may clash with reality

      The languishing IPO market awaits the outcome of the British chip designer’s flotation

    • Thursday, 17 August, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      The sceptical case on generative AI

      Hype is huge around the technology, but some uncomfortable truths are also being raised

      Efi Chalikopoulou illustration of a white unicorn with a drooping horn, which is comprised of fifty pound banknotes.
    • Thursday, 10 August, 2023
      Technology
      How ‘creative insecurity’ is stimulating Ukrainian innovation

      Russia’s target has had to rapidly develop its own defence capabilities, often by adapting civilian technologies for military use

      Efi Chalikopoulou illustration of a blue plastic soldier throwing a military drone on a yellow background.
    • Thursday, 3 August, 2023
      UK business
      You don’t become a science superpower without taking care of the basics

      Britain’s ambition to lead technological transformation is hobbled by inertia in both the public and private sectors

      View of the Millenium Bridge in London silhouetted against a stormy sky with sunlight falling on the City of London in the background
    • Tuesday, 18 July, 2023
      ReviewBiography and memoir
      Osip Mandelstam — a Russian poet who could not be silent

      Ralph Dutli’s rounded biography of the Soviet-era writer murdered by Stalin deftly examines his literary legacy

    • Thursday, 13 July, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      Should the AI doctor see you now?

      Healthcare needs a productivity revolution but not at the expense of patient privacy and safety

      A patient awaits a Proximie surgery, with a doctor in Beirut guiding a Palestinian surgeon,  at Al Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip
    • Thursday, 6 July, 2023
      Tech start-ups
      European tech investors need to up their ambitions

      It is currently safer and cheaper for fund managers wanting tech exposure to buy publicly traded companies on Nasdaq

      A middle-aged man in a dark suit sits on a chair with a report in his hand
    • Tuesday, 4 July, 2023
      ReviewHistory books
      France on Trial by Julian Jackson — Marshal Pétain in the dock

      A masterful account of the 1945 treason case that forced a reckoning with four years of Nazi collaboration

    • Thursday, 22 June, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      Why we should worry about the technological pessimists

      Futurists tend to overemphasise the speed of adoption and underemphasise the scope for adaptation

      A man window shopping at a hi-fi store in 1974
    • Monday, 19 June, 2023
      Summer Books 2023
      Best summer books of 2023: Technology

      John Thornhill selects his best mid-year reads

    • Thursday, 15 June, 2023
      Technology sector
      Generative AI is disrupting its own investment case

      The very pace of transformative technology makes it tougher for start-ups — and for existing investment portfolios

      Mistral AI’s co-founders, Guillaume Lample, left, Arthur Mensch and Timothée Lacroix
    • Thursday, 8 June, 2023
      Cyber Security
      A global satellite blackout is a real threat — can hackers help?

      Lines between military, civilian and commercial communications have blurred, creating vulnerabilities

      Onlookers on a beach watch a recent SpaceX rocket launch
    • Tuesday, 6 June, 2023
      ReviewNon-Fiction
      The Everything Blueprint — how British chip company Arm became a global powerhouse

      James Ashton’s corporate drama of the extraordinary impact of the ‘Switzerland of semiconductors’ that’s more valued by foreign investors

      Microchips in a grid formatation
    • Thursday, 1 June, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      Beware ‘death by GPT syndrome’

      Generative AI has uses for the legal and health professions but is also a trap for the unwary

      Death Valley, California: we have a tendency to over-trust the computer, sometimes with fatal results
    • Thursday, 25 May, 2023
      Technology sector
      Regulating artificial intelligence is a 4D challenge

      Experts warn of existential threats that require a global competition for good ideas

      Writers Guild of America members and supporters carry banners on a picket line in New York
    • Thursday, 18 May, 2023
      Entrepreneurship
      Europe needs to ‘Frankenstein’ its start-up sector

      Germany is an example of a country with entrepreneurial potential, but it lacks domestic funding

      A green Flix train in Berlin
    • Thursday, 11 May, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      The likely winners of the generative AI gold rush

      Small, specialist models that are cheap to train and fast to run may win out over the broader Big Tech offerings

      Gold miners in California in 1852. Today’s ‘picks and shovels’ companies that provide the tools for established companies to exploit AI will be certain to thrive
    • Thursday, 4 May, 2023
      Technology
      How technology reinvented chess as a global social network

      The sport has become more accessible in the internet age

      Chess enthusiasts in 1997 watch the world champion Garry Kasparov’s match against IBM’s Deep Blue
    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

    Useful links

    Support

    View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

    Legal & Privacy

    Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

    Services

    Share News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsProfessional SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on XFT ChannelsFT Schools

    Tools

    PortfolioToday’s Newspaper (FT Digital Edition)Alerts HubBusiness School RankingsEnterprise ToolsNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

    Community & Events

    FT CommunityFT Live EventsFT ForumsFT Board DirectorBoard Director Programme

    More from the FT Group

    Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2023. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
    The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
    Financial Times

    International Edition

    Subscribe for full access
    • Switch to UK Edition

    Top sections

    • Home
    • World
      • Global Economy
      • UK
      • US
      • China
      • Africa
      • Asia Pacific
      • Emerging Markets
      • Europe
      • War in Ukraine
      • Americas
      • Middle East & North Africa
      • Australia & NZ
    • US
      • US Economy
      • US Companies
      • US Politics & Policy
    • Companies
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
    • Tech
    • Markets
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
    • Work & Careers
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
    • Life & Arts
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
    • Personal Finance
      • Property & Mortgages
      • Investments
      • Pensions
      • Tax
      • Banking & Savings
      • Advice & Comment
      • Next Act
    • HTSI
    • Special Reports

    FT recommends

    • Lex
    • Alphaville
    • Lunch with the FT
    • FT Globetrotter
    • #techAsia
    • Moral Money
    • Visual and data journalism
    • Newsletters
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • News feed
    • FT Live Events
    • FT Forums
    • Board Director Programme
    • myFT
    • Portfolio
    • Today’s Newspaper (FT Digital Edition)
    • Crossword
    • Our Apps
    • Help Centre
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In