You've deployed AI. Have you governed it?
Independent, decision-grade intelligence and advisory on AI governance, the technology supply chain, and the geopolitics of dependency — for leaders at mid-size UK and European companies who have to act without a Big-Four budget. Insights from thirty years inside the industry.
In Europe, your supply chain is your liability. The model you embed, the API you call, the training data you never saw — under the AI Act and the Cyber Resilience Act, your buyer's regulator treats them as yours. We map that dependency graph before it becomes a liability.
Two briefings a week · Tuesday Stone Briefing · Friday Practical Move
Four ways to use Silicon & Stone
Four ways to use Silicon & Stone — from a free read to a standing advisory relationship. Most people start at the top and move down as the stakes rise.
The Orchestration Battleground.
The AI race is not being decided at the model layer.
Most coverage of the AI race fixates on the model layer — which lab leads the benchmarks, which model dropped this week, whose hardware is faster. The actual structural battle is one layer up: how organisations decide which models to use, when, for what, and how to swap them out. The divide between organisations that own that decision layer and those that don't is widening — and it will define industrial position over the next five years.
Model-Dependent
Vendor-bound · capability is rented
“Our AI is whatever our vendor decides we can do this quarter.”
- The vendor's roadmap defines the capability ceiling. Strategic scope tracks product release cadence.
- No visibility into how models are trained, updated, or deprecated. Compliance posture is inherited from the contract.
- Vendor changes — pricing, terms, geographic availability, model family deprecation — register as strategic events.
- Internal capability plateaus at the prompt-engineering layer. No leverage above the model.
- Functionally indistinguishable from any competitor on the same stack. The substitution cost is a subscription change.
Orchestration-Side
Architecture-bound · capability is owned
“Our AI is whatever we architect across the providers we audit.”
- Tasks routed across multiple models. The decision layer — what runs where, when — is held in-house.
- Providers audited, swapped, and benchmarked without operational disruption.
- Data sovereignty and compliance designed into the architecture, not appended after procurement.
- Capability compounds across vendor cycles. Each model swap leaves institutional learning intact.
- Architecture sets the strategy. Strategy doesn't follow whichever model is currently leading the benchmarks.
Determine which side of the orchestration divide your industry sits on. The 2030 league table is being set there — not at the model layer where everyone else is looking. The same divide runs through individual careers. AI fluency is sliding from differentiator to baseline — written into the job spec, not the bonus column. The way spreadsheets quietly became, a generation ago.
The timetable is phased. The evidence work is not.
Catalogue your systems. Clarify your role. Capture vendor evidence. Set review triggers. Article 50 transparency obligations have applied since 2 August 2026; watermarking for systems already on the market follows on 2 December 2026.
Assess readinessIntelligence at Your Pace
Three tiers. From a 30-second signal to a forensic deep dive.
The shortest read on what just shifted
Essential signals on AI policy, semiconductors, supply chains, and sovereignty. Read in 30 seconds; act on it before the news cycle catches up.
Browse PulseOperational intelligence for managers and directors
Tuesday Stone Briefing on what just shifted. Friday Practical Move on what to do about it. Calibrated, decision-grade — never glib, never breathless.
Browse BriefingsForensic deep-dives into structural friction
Quarterly long-form analyses applying the full 3×2 Forensic Technopolitics matrix to a single high-stakes question. For decision-makers who need the analysis their industry is missing.
The Same Money, Counted Three Times: AI's Circular Financing Loop Explained
Find Your Perspective
Intelligence tailored to your seat at the table. Every briefing is tagged for the roles its analysis serves most.
Compliance Clara
Legal/Compliance OfficerNavigating regulatory obligations with tight deadlines.
Industrial Ian
Operations/Supply Chain ManagerManaging operational risk in complex supply chains.
Sovereign Sofia
Policy/Strategy AnalystTracking regulatory divergence and digital sovereignty trends.
Global Citizen
Informed ObserverSeeking accessible understanding of complex tech-policy issues.
Transatlantic Troy
Founder / CEODecoding European compliance standards to compete across the Atlantic.
From Analysis to Action
Four tools that solve high-stakes problems — calibrated against the same intelligence the briefings draw from.
“A TSMC facility reports delays. You already know which products are exposed.”
Supply Chain Mapper
Visualise semiconductor chokepoints and trace upstream dependency in real time.
Launch toolTake it further → Manufacturing Exposure Module“Monday, 9:14am. The board asks: "Are we compliant?" You answer in 60 seconds.”
Compliance Checker
Classify your AI systems against the EU AI Act — before your auditor does.
Launch toolTake it further → AI Act Compliance Toolkit (£79)“The CFO wants three futures modelled by Thursday. You have them by lunch.”
Scenario Modeler
Compare strategic outcomes under competing geopolitical scenarios.
Launch toolTake it further → Scenario Impact Analysis“New US export controls drop. You score the friction against EU operations in minutes.”
Policy Stress-Test
Measure regulatory divergence between US and EU policy positions.
Launch toolTake it further → Regulatory Friction AssessmentTake it further — practical products
Packaged digital deliverables you download and run yourself.
When self-serve isn't enough — work with us
Strategic advisory for the technopolitical age, built on the same 3×2 method.
Tuesday: the Stone Briefing — structural analysis of the AI power shift.
Friday: the Practical Move — what to do about it.
The view from the edge is structurally clearer than the view from any centre.
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