Andreessen Horowitz leads $19m injection into London ‘voice AI’ firm June 20, 2023 Heavyweight Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has led a $19m funding injection into London-based AI firm ElevenLabs to help accelerate a new wave of “voice AI research”, the firm announced today.
UK must balance innovation with safety to help firms adopt AI, tech bosses say June 19, 2023 The UK must not let safety concerns about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) fall by the wayside as it pushes for a pro-innovation model for regulating the technology, tech bosses have warned. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has reportedly told ministers to speed up the adoption of AI across the private and public sector, including the [...]
IMF working on global platform for exchange of CBDCs to avoid economic fragmentation June 19, 2023 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working on a platform to enable countries to transfer transactions between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) from different countries. According to Reuters, managing director Kristalina Georgiva said “CBDCs should not be fragmented national propositions…To have more efficient and fairer transactions we need systems that connect countries: we need interoperability.” [...]
Online ad spend at favoured platform Google to hit £653bn by 2026 June 19, 2023 Google is the most popular search engine among advertisers and generates the highest revenues out of all major internet companies, a study on global digital marketing has found. According to the research, conducted by linkdaddyseo.com, Google held a majority 58 per cent share in the search advertising market in 2022, beating major competitors such as [...]
Digital stores predicted to appear on the high street as automation threatens retail jobs June 19, 2023 Large e-commerce stores are likely to crop up as physical stores across the UK high street in the next five to ten years, according to predictions aided by AI. Money saving website Savoo used AI to visualise the future of the British high street and it suggested more than 11,000 chain stores would disappear by [...]
UK businesses face regulatory minefield as EU votes in new Artificial Intelligence Act June 18, 2023 UK businesses must brace themselves to adhere to new EU artificial intelligence (AI) standards if they plan to trade in the bloc, lawyers and industry experts have said. It comes as members of the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly last week to adopt the Artificial Intelligence Act, which aims to encourage “human-centric and trustworthy” AI. Tamara [...]
Sunak defence deal takes off as UK and US launch space rocket June 15, 2023 A new space rocket is catalysing a defence deal struck by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and president Joe Biden between the UK and the US last week. Oxford-based startup Pulsar Fusion and aerospace company Princeton Satellite Systems are joining forces to build a “hyper-fast” rocket which can travel from Earth to Saturn’s moons in under [...]
UK safety tech sector to grow to £1bn by mid-2020s June 15, 2023 Safety tech – technology designed to promote a safer online environment – is experiencing rapid growth in the UK. The UK’s safety tech sector has achieved an annual revenue of £456m, shooting up 20 per cent from this time last year, a new government analysis reveals today. It bottles this success down to greater investment, [...]
Vodafone and Three UK ‘transformative’ merger sparks speculation over CMA approval June 15, 2023 Britain’s competition regulator is set to scrutinise the long-awaited tie-up of Vodafone and Three, announced yesterday. The deal will create the largest mobile network in the UK. Vodafone boss Margherita Della Valle said the merger is “great for customers, great for the country and great for competition”, but commentators warned last night the CMA was [...]
TSB calls on Meta to make ‘urgent’ interventions on fraud or consumers risk losing up to £250m June 14, 2023 TSB Bank has called on Meta to make urgent interventions to protect consumers from spiralling levels of fraud with customers at risk of losing hundreds of millions of pounds. According to current industry projects, consumers could lose up to £250m from Meta platforms in 2023 without action from the tech giant. Earlier this year, TSB [...]