M3gan review: A Black Mirror-esque take on the classic murder puppet January 11, 2023 ★★★★☆ There is a proud cinematic tradition of haunted doll movies. You can trace the lineage back from Annabelle (first appearing in The Conjuring in 2013), through to Chucky (Child’s Play, 1988), all the way back to Hugo the ventriloquist’s dummy from 1945 horror anthology Dead of Night. Glossy new sci-fi horror M3gan picks up [...]
London AI startup InstaDeep bought by BionTech in half-a-billion deal January 11, 2023 London based AI startup InstaDeep has been bought out by biotechnology giant BioNTech in a half-a-billion pound deal. InstaDeep focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has raised nearly £100m across four seed rounds. The deal will allow BioNTech to use InstaDeep’s machine learning to “improve its drug discovery process, including developing personalised treatments tailored [...]
Darktrace shares down over 10 per cent after firm cuts revenue forecast January 11, 2023 British cyber-security company Darktrace cut its full-year revenue forecast on Wednesday after prospective customers turned more reluctant to run product trials due to the worsening economic environment. The company, which listed in April 2021, said it now expected its constant currency annual recurring revenue (ARR) to increase by between 29.0 per cent and 31.5 per [...]
The Notebook: Jimmy McLoughlin on data, the honours list and the jobs of the future January 11, 2023 The notebook is a place for interesting people to say interesting things. Today’s author is Jimmy McLoughlin, a former No.10 business adviser and now the host of Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future, one of the world’s fastest growing business podcasts I STARTED Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future as a lockdown project whilst I was a [...]
Microsoft considering £8bn investment in Chat GPT owner, says Semafor January 10, 2023 Microsoft is in talks to invest $10bn (£8.2bn) into ChatGPT-owner Open AI, according to reports by Semafor earlier today, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Microsoft’s investment would take OpenAI’s valuation up to $29bn. The deal would initially be based on a revenue share, which will see Microsoft take 75 per [...]
Virgin Orbit shares crash back to earth after failed Cornwall space launch January 10, 2023 Virgin Orbit shares have come plummeting back to earth after its much-anticipated UK space launch failed last night. Shares for the Richard Branson-headed company dropped by 23 per cent on NASDAQ pre-trading and were trading down around 16 per cent this afternoon. It comes after the Virgin Orbit rocket, the first launch from UK soil, [...]
The M3gan dance – what is it and does it live up to the hype? January 10, 2023 New horror-comedy M3gan is out this week, and while it’s an excellent cautionary tale in its own right about the dangers of technology, the thing that has driven the internet into meltdown is a five second dance routine by the film’s robotic psychopath M3gan. The titular robot is an AI housed in the body of [...]
EXCL – Tech investments increasingly casualty of recession and skills shortage January 10, 2023 More than half of UK business leaders believe their companies’ digital platforms – such as websites, apps and customer-facing tech – fail to stand out against competitors, with almost half ready to invest in making improvements in 2023. However, according to the data that was shared exclusively with City A.M. today, significant hurdles and concerns [...]
Up-up but not away: Branson’s historic Virgin Orbit UK rocket launch ends in failure after anomaly forces return to earth January 10, 2023 An attempt to make British space history by launching a rocket into orbit from UK soil has ended in failure after suffering an “anomaly” during the flight. After taking off from Cornwall, the Virgin Orbit plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean where it jettisoned the rocket containing nine small satellites towards space. Organisers [...]
Sunak’s move to sweet talk Arm into London listing cheered by tech chief January 9, 2023 Rishi Sunak’s move to restart efforts to woo Arm into a London listing have been cheered by a top tech chief today, who said winning the chipmaker’s listing would be “significant vote of confidence in the UK market”. Sunak reportedly met with Arm’s chief Rene Haas last month in a bid to secure London a [...]