Priti Patel pushes Big Tech to have a proactive role in axing ‘legal but harmful’ online content February 16, 2022 Tech firms may be required to proactively monitor “legal but harmful” user content in a Home Office push on the new Online Safety Bill. As reported by the Financial Times, Home Secretary Priti Patel has been looking to widen the scope of the bill, with a particular focus on fraud, terrorism and other illegal activities [...]
Former Google boss launches $125m philanthropic fund to tackle AI issues February 16, 2022 Former Google boss Erich Schmidt has launched a $125m philanthropic fund to tackle so-called 'hard problems' in artificial intelligence including bias, harm and misuse and conflict.
Elon Musk’s brain chip company accused of torturing monkeys February 16, 2022 Elon Musk’s brain chip company has denied claims that it is torturing monkeys for the futuristic technology – which the billionaire claims will enable quadriplegics to walk again. Neuralink aims to connect human brains to computers, and is hoping to begin human trials later this year. However, a US doctors’ group which partners which the [...]
Ad world enters the metaverse: Havas snaps up plot of virtual land to build brand legitimacy February 16, 2022 The world of advertising and public relations finally meets the world of the metaverse, with the French ad firm Havas snapping up its own plot of virtual land in The Sandbox video game with plans to make its first virtual Village (the 69th Havas Village).
Government earmarks £200m to fight zoonotic diseases like Covid-19 February 16, 2022 The government has earmarked £200m to fight zoonotic diseases – viruses that pass from animals to humans – after Covid-19 launched the issue onto the global stage. The funding will be pumped into the UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratories, which will focus on tackling high-risk animal diseases such as avian flue and [...]
London luxury travel firm Plum Guide gets £23m injection to tap into ‘revenge travel’ February 16, 2022 London-based luxury holiday platform Plum Guide has bagged a £23m funding injection as it looks to tap into a surge of pent-up ‘revenge travel’ as global covid restrictions ease.
Moderna scouts for 3,000 British volunteers for new Omicron-specific jab February 16, 2022 Moderna is scouting for around 3,000 British volunteers as part of its new Omicron booster vaccine study. The jab will be the world’s first variant-specific vaccine and is set to be trialled at various sites across the UK in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research. The study, led by a team based at [...]
EU set to launch internet satellite system moving away from Chinese dependency February 15, 2022 The EU is gearing up to launch its own satellite internet system to keep up with the likes of Amazon and Elon Musk owned SpaceX, removing European reliance on Chinese-built infrastructure.
Elon Musk makes £4.2bn in charitable donations in 2021 amid Tesla uncertainty February 15, 2022 Eccentric entrepreneur Elon Musk donated $5.7bn (£4.2bn) worth of Tesla shares last year, making him the second-biggest philanthropic of the year according to a new security filing. According to this document, the Tesla boss donated 5,044,000 shares to an unnamed charity. If this filing is correct, this puts the South African-born businessman just behind Bill [...]
EU to probe public sector cloud services following pandemic boom February 15, 2022 European privacy watchdog said today that it will launch joint investigations with 22 national regulators into the use of cloud-based services by the public sector to check if they comply with its privacy safeguards following the digital transformation pandemic boom.