For many, August has been all about getting away on holiday – stepping back from your desk, and putting on your email out of office. But others have spent the past month focused on how to ensure workers work longer hours and physically turn up to do their 9-5 on company soil.

Eric Schmidt, former CEO at Google, has got into hot water over his claims that companies should ditch remote work schedules if they want to succeed. Schmidt even suggested that his former company was lagging in the generative AI race as a result of its focus on work-life balance.

Also this month, companies competing in that very race have been closely watching the brewing California AI Bill, which seeks to improve the safety of publicly available AI models. How might these companies fare in the wake of the new laws?

In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to explore the past month’s developments.