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; the marking transition for certain systems marketed before that date ends on 2 December 2026. Digital Omnibus timeline
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.
Background to this story: Digital Omnibus explained
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
Or start at the beginning
Follow one question from the first piece
Most of what we publish answers the week. A series answers a question — the same analysis, put back in the order the argument was built.
European Sovereignty vs Performance
Brussels keeps choosing between control and capability, and keeps discovering it cannot have both at once. Read in order, these pieces trace one argument from the first transatlantic fracture to the money that cannot close the gap.
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
Explore your exposure with four free tools. When you need the result interpreted or the analysis applied to your organisation, commission the relevant advisory work directly.
“The board asks about an AI system. Start with its likely classification and evidence gaps.”
Compliance Checker
Create a first-pass AI system record with likely obligations and questions for your vendor.
Use the free toolUnderstand your Checker resultAdvisory Briefing · £450“A foundry reports delays. Where could the dependencies reach your industry?”
Supply Chain Mapper
Visualise semiconductor chokepoints and trace upstream dependency in real time.
Use the free toolMap your actual supplier dependenciesManufacturing Exposure Module · Fee agreed after scoping“The CFO wants three futures modelled by Thursday. You have them by lunch.”
Scenario Modeler
Compare strategic outcomes under competing geopolitical scenarios.
Use the free toolQuantify the impact on your businessScenario Impact Analysis · Fee agreed after scoping“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.
Use the free toolResolve friction across your operationsRegulatory Friction Assessment · Fee agreed after scopingTake it further — practical products
Practical tools for your team, with a live implementation review included in Toolkit Professional.
When self-serve isn't enough — work with us
Strategic advisory for the technopolitical age, built on the same 3×2 method.
Specialist projects for a defined question
Commission directly after a free scoping conversation. No tool, earlier purchase or retainer is required.
- Manufacturing Exposure Module
- Scenario Impact Analysis
- Regulatory Friction Assessment
- European Procurement Readiness
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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